If you’re looking for a nice guitar to go along with your Sir Paul McCartney signed VOX Amp, keep an eye out on Ebay for this Gretsch guitar signed by all four original members of the of R.E.M., including retired drummer Bill Berry.  The proceeds will go to support AthFest, the non-profit annual music and arts festival in downtown Athens, Georgia that largely showcases the Athens area musical and artistic community. This autographed Gretsch guitar, complete with a new deluxe case,…

Is two weeks is too short a time for a complete newcomer to become proficient enough to perform as part of a band?  Simon Talbot, 41, took up this challenge using Richard Delyn’s Easy Guitar Method, involving one intensive 30 minute session a day.  His aim was to play the Snow Patrol song “You’re All I Have” alongside The Picturehouse Big Band, and after two weeks of practice, this was his impression of the show: “For the first verse I was biting…

Gibson Guitar announced the introduction of the Joan Jett Signature Melody Maker electric guitar –  a slim neck, lightweight, slab mahogany body with a White Worn finish, handcrafted to Joan Jett’s original specifications.  It has the distinction of being the first Gibson electric signature model designed in conjunction with a female artist.  Says Jett: “Gibson was successfully able to replicate my custom velvet hammer pick ups which have not been available for twenty years. It’s perfect for gigs as well as…

If you’ve got a spare six and half grand laying around, consider picking up a Moog Guitar, which is a revolutionary cross between a guitar, synthesizer and tricked out electronics that provides an unparalleled range of expression to the guitarist.  It has different modes to enable you to do the following: infinite sustain on every string, at every fret position and at any volume sustained single or polyphonic lines without muting technique removes energy from the strings, resulting in a…

Not only does this 8 year old guitar prodigy from Japan hammer out some mad riffs on his guitar – he sings too!  Props to Yuto Miyazawa – never too young to start, I say.  Gotta love the polka dot flying vee that’s bigger than the little man! via Guitar MX

New in the world of Electric Guitars:   Godin Summit CT: another one of the Godin models to feature the innovative High-Definition Revoicer syste, it revoices and augments the frequency range of each pickup, redefining their character while allowing the player to go from passive to active pickups with the simple push of a button.  The 24 ¾” scale behemoth is powered by two Seymour Duncan humbuckers, An Alnico 2 in the neck position and a ’59 in the bridge controlled via a…

Someone decided it would be cool to mod a guitar with a laptop screen, and then display a visualisation based on the tunes generated by said Franken-tar.  Check out a video of this “LCDetar” in action, plus photos of it being constructed. I’m not sure whether to be awed by its mesmerising effects, or yell at it for reminding me of the horror of Windows Media Player.

An interesting post from Jim Dalrymple of Macworld regarding his adventures in pursuit of recording the right sound for his upcoming album.  Check out the two videos too, as he goes into his method and process, and the different guitar, gear and effects combinations at his disposal. With so many options available to me to shape the tone of my Taylor GS acoustic, I actually stopped recording for a while so I could play with all of the effects at my disposal.  That…

This article on the story of stringed instruments and guitars prompted me to do some reading on wikipedia regarding the origin of guitars.  If you’ve ever wondered whether your six-stringed instrument descended directly as a gift from the gods themselves, back when man was rubbing two sticks together to produce fire, then prepare for some education. Some interesting tidbits: The word guitar probably comes from Spanish guitarra, derived from the Latin wordcithara, which in turn was derived from the earlier Greek word kithara, which perhaps derives from Persian sihtar…

The folks over at Sales to Business have published an article on maximising your guitar’s potential – a.k.a. setting it up correctly for playability and tone. What is ‘guitar setup’? Basically it means to have the specifications adjusted to the actual factory standards or your personal specs. Simply put, a set-up includes: #1. adjusting the height of the strings over the neck #2. making sure your frets are level or the same height all the way up the neck #3. intonation #4….