To celebrate Nelson Mandela’s 90th birthday, Gibson Guitar will be presenting the world leader and icon with an icon of its own – a custom made Gibson Les Paul Studio.  The guitar will be presented as part of the Nelson Mandela 90th Birthday Celebration concert at London’s Hyde Park on June 27.  The guitar itself will bear artwork of Mandela’s prison number – 46664 – as well as signatures of the performing artists. Artists performing at the concert will include…

An Italian company, Manne Guitars, has taken an unusual bent on special guitar making project – this time making a limited run of 3 guitars made from old oak malt whiskey casks!  These casks come from the Lagavulin distillery in Scotland, which manufactures single malt whiskey. So, one of these beautiful old casks arrived in our shop disassembled, and as soon as we open the package the unmistakely Lagavulin fragrance, mixed in with our usual wood fragrances, filled the whole…

The Variax 700 by Line 6 is a modelling guitar, which basically means that it is able to emulate the tone of 25 other guitars, including Fender, Gibson and many others.  The user is also able to “virtually” and instantly change parameters such as guitar types, number of strings, string types, positions, number of pickups and tuning. It would stand to say that therefore, that the quality of the sound is down to how well Line 6 have managed to…

Looking through the guitar auctions on eBay recently, I was astounded by the number of cheap guitars on offer. Most of these are copies of the most popular models out there, made as cheaply as possible (and some in the most garish of colours!), made mostly in China and at sold at prices too good to believe. I have never had the courage to buy one of these, being of the firm belief that you get what you pay for….

Most electric guitars come with a variety of knobs and switches. At the bare minimum, there will be a volume knob, and a tone knob. When I first started to play electric guitar, I had no idea how to use these basic controls effectively, and like anyone picking up the electric for the first time, I just left everything on full and played. If I wanted a different sound, I would either use an effects pedal, or experiment with various…

With the Gibson Les Paul Push Tone, no longer will changing pickups be a major project – this new system from Gibson allows pickups to be changed by simply pushing them out from the body, and disconnecting wire clips and plugging in a new set – all achievable in a matter of minutes. The new Gibson Les Paul Push Tone comes with two sets of Gibson pickups – a set of vintage Burstbucker Pros humbuckers and a set of single-coil…

Just in case you haven’t been keeping track, here is a roundup of some new guitars announced recently: Gibson Custom Shop Alex Lifeson ES-355 Signature Guitar: Canadian-born guitarist’s career is being honored with Gibson Custom Shop’s recent introduction of the Alex Lifeson ES-355 Electric Guitar.  This is a semi-hollowbody electric guitar painstaking re-creation of Lifeson’s favored instrument, a 1976 Gibson ES-355.  The Alex Lifeson ES-355 guitar has a maple body and three-piece maple neck. It features a special Maestro Long Vibrola tremolo tailpiece and individual volume…

Fender has added a couple more to the ranks of artists bearing signature guitar endorsements – joining names such as Eric Clapton, John Mayer, Jeff Beck, Mark Knopfler, Buddy Guy and Stevie Ray Vaughan. A Terri Clark signature acoustic guitar has been introduced featuring a traditional design with her initials inlayed in abalone and pearl on the headstock. The renowned country music star says her guitar playing has helped sustain her throughout her career. “I truly believe I may not have achieved what…

Sure, you can carry around a tuner to help you get your strings back into musical zen, but why have a separate item to lose when you can have it built into your guitar?  I’ve seen guitars that have built-in tuners from the factory, but these tend to be acoustics, where they can afford to hide extra electronics inside the hollow body itself. Well, for $70,  you can purchase a DIY kit called the N-Tune, which is a tuner with…

The Gibson ES-335 was the world’s first commercial semi-hollowbody electric guitar, released by Gibson Guitar Corporation in 1958, and Gibson are celebrating the 50th anniversary of this landmark instrument with a bang.  The ES-355 was widely used by blues musician B. B. King, who has been featured in Gibson publicity for the model from the 1960s onwards. Many other guitarists have also used the model.  In celebration of the guitar’s rich history a special one-night performance and filming will take place at Cleveland’s…