Rose Augustine, developer of nylon guitar string, dies at 93
Rose Augustine, a classical guitar enthusiast who helped develop the first nylon guitar strings and ran a thriving business selling them, died April 21. Full story>>>

Brian Eastwood Guitars - Brian Eastwood is one of the UK's top luthiers with over 30 years experience. He also has a warped sense of humour when it comes to some of his guitar designs, such as the Bender Distortocaster seen here!

Duane Eddy, 65 years old today.

I reckon I might go along to this next month: The London Guitar Show, Wembley Exhibition Centre, 10-11 May.

Sotheby's are auctioning off what's left of John Entwistle's guitar collection plus his gold discs, drawings,etc, so if you fancy an Alembic Flying V bass or a smashed Warwick Buzzard bass then it's time to raid your piggy banks!

The Plastic Jumping Flea or The $12 Uke!

Further to my piece about sustain devices here's a little something I found about an bizarre little electronic device that bows the strings of the guitar, namely The Gizmo as developed by Godley and Creme.

Thru-neck bass guitar for sale on eBayOne of my earlier projects... a little rough round the edges, but a good instrument nonetheless. Starting price £50, no reserve.

Update, 27 April: Sold for £99.

I've just found another one: the Alpeter Double Harp Ukelele.

Harp Ukulele - I just love this, it's so witty.

Latest arrival

Danelectro Convertible
Is it acoustic or is it electric? I still can't decide.


My two Danos: 56-U2 and Convertible

Jazz Guitar Blog

Guitar Bizarre - a guitar blog in Portuguese.

Rhinehart Guitars - some crazy designs - fish, birds, zodiac designs, people, etc - on these carved and painted instruments.

ProjectGuitar.com - Where the internet goes to work on Guitars. Wow! This website has just about everything the budding guitar builder could want to know. Bookmark it now!

Buying and Selling

I've just bought another guitar on eBay and at a very good price. This is one that I've been on the lookout for - a Danelectro Convertible.

My house is getting over-run with guitars now. I suppose I ought to start selling those that I no longer use.

So, with that in mind, these guitars will be up for grabs soon:


Aria Elecord FET Deluxe

• Aria Elecord FET Deluxe - This is a nice electro-acoustic with active electronics, volume and 3-band EQ mounted on side of guitar and powered by a PP3 battery. The guitar is in very good condition with hardly a mark on it. Plays very nicely, and is excellent for recording. The neck has quite an "electric" feel to it and would suit guitarists not used to the feel of acoustic instruments. This is a quality instrument and when new would have costed over £500. I'm looking for offers in the region of £200-£250. Hardcase included.

1970s Telecaster copy

• 1970s Telecaster copy - This is a rather retro-looking Telecaster copy dating from - I think - the 1970s. The name badge was removed long before the guitar came into my possession so I don't know what make it is, although I have a suspicion that it may be a Shergold. It is not a very accurate Telecaster copy but don't let that put you off, because it is a good solid guitar that plays well and feels good. Both pickups have metal covers and the sound is quite retro - would be very good for blues playing, or perhaps slide if you raised the action. Despite having a thinner than usual body, the guitar is solid wood (I know, I had a look inside) and not made of MDF or plywood or something nasty like many modern-day cheapo Telecasters. The jack output is, rather unusually, mounted on the control plate on the front of the guitar, but this is no problem to non-purists. The machine heads are of the enclosed back variety and all work efficiently. I would like to sell this guitar for about £70 or thereabouts.

I am also considering selling the Frankenstrat (see below) if anyone is interested in a Stratocaster that has been built from bits and pieces as opposed to buying a new Squier or Stagg (or whatever) copy. At least mine has a solid wooden body!

Scott Stenten - Double Guitar

Guitar Project: Frankenstrat

Here's a guitar I built from parts from out of my spare parts box one day last week when I was ill off work and bored out of my mind. It was not the most taxing of jobs as it was simply a case of drill a few holes here and there, use a dab of wood filler in various places, screw and bolt it all together, and solder the connections to the jack plug socket (the scratch plate was complete with pickups and controls already in place).

The body is from quite an elderly Japanese Stratocaster copy. It's not the most accurate Strat outline that I have seen, and the body contouring is interesting, but it's a nice sturdy body - solid wood with veneered front and back - and with individual routing for each of the three pickup cavities, rather than the single "swimming pool" you find on modern Strats and Strat copies.

The trem does seem a bit stiff. I don't know if I have set it up brilliantly well, but then I never was a fan of Stratocaster style tremoloes, and never used the one I used to have on my paisley Fender Strat. I tried the trem with two, four and five springs, and finally settled on three because I decided there was too much tension on it. Also it was reducing the action too much thus creating lots of string buzz on the neck. (Yes, I know I could have re-set the height of the saddles on the bridge, but after doing this initially with the trem set up with only two springs, I very cleverly lost my allen key... I suspect it may have been vacuumed up!)

The real question is, How does it sound? Well, actually it sounds pretty damn hot, and - dare I say it - even better than the real Strat that I used to own (and that was a really nice quality guitar). Actually, I was quite surprised at the output from the pickups - just when I'd all but given up on single coil pickups in guitars. I don't know what brand they are; as I said, all the parts came from bits and pieces I've been collecting over the last year or so; the pickups came with the scratchplate and look like regular Strat pickups with the staggered pole pieces. Perhaps those help. Also, I noted that the pots for the volume and tone controls were all of the 500k variety. I've heard that it's common to use 500k pots for humbucking pickups and 250k pots for single coils. Could the pots used here have any bearing on the output, I wonder? (Sorry guys, but I don't know enough about electronics).