Obituary - Sacha Distel, singer and guitarist
Thursday, 29 July 2004
"What the f*** is that?!?" The Williams V-1 keyboard guitar makes its debut at NAMM. (It does look bloody silly, though).
There's loads of new gear stories over at Harmony Central, including:
- Left-Handed Ibanez Artcore Guitars Announced
- New Generation USA Custom Added to Peavey's Guitar Lineup
- Schecter Debuts Twin Tribal Double Neck at Summer NAMM
- Schecter Adds 007 BlackJack to Diamond Series
- Third Model Joins Schecter's Aviation Family
- New USA Exotic Hardtails from Dean Guitars
- Vox Unveils Their Next Generation Hybrid Amps
- Five New DigiTech Overdrive/Distortion Pedals
- Dean Goes Upright with New Pace Basses
- Dean Zen Acoustic Guitar
- PM-10 and PM-20 from Parker Offer New Body Styles
- S.O.B. Offers Looks of BC Rich Beast Model in Smaller Size
- Burns Shows New Guitars and Basses for Summer NAMM
- The Gretsch Duo Jet Special Guitar Returns
- Gretsch Introduces G6122SP Country Classic Special at NAMM
- New Resonator Guitars from Hohner
Wednesday, 28 July 2004
Killer Guitars from Japan. They've got some strange model names. Personally, I wouldn't have thought naming a guitar "Fascist" would be such a good move.
Tuesday, 27 July 2004
Squier by Fender have a couple of cool new models out for 2004 too! Check out the re-designed Jagmaster and the Squier '51 which appears to be a retro-styled Tele/Strat hybrid.
Fender's new products for 2004: Gold 50th Anniverasry Strat, Baritone Jaguar, John 5 Telecaster, Tie-dye Strats, and more...
Thursday, 22 July 2004
Star Amps by Mark Sampson Now Shipping: Star Amplifiers, a new line of all-tube, class A, hand-wired amps from Marc Sampson have been released, consisting of three different models in 15 and 30 Watt versions.
Wednesday, 21 July 2004
Gibson Offers Summer NAMM Sneak Peak: Initial production offering of Gibson Digital Guitar and new designs from Ned Steinberger to be displayed.
Weller's covers album: Paul Weller's first studio album on Richard Branson's V2 record label will be a collection of cover versions.
Judge axes PRS guitar sales: A federal judge in Nashville has barred sales of a popular electric guitar model by Paul Reed Smith Guitars, although at least two stores in Nashville still offer them for sale.
Thursday, 15 July 2004
Win the PROTOTYPE for Fender's New Custom Shop '66 Stratocaster: It's another "only open to U.S. residents" job. Unfair!
Wednesday, 14 July 2004
Tuesday, 13 July 2004
Whatever happened to Slade?
- Dave Hill's guitars: John Birchs, "Dad's Gibson", and The Superyob!
- Jim Lea's basses: plus the story of his trusy John Birch bass
- Noddy Holder's guitars: and how could we forget the man in the hat!
Monday, 12 July 2004
Paul Stanley guitar lesson pulls big money: KISS vocalist/guitarist Paul Stanley recently auctioned off a guitar lesson for charity. The lucky bidder ended paying US $7,100. for the lesson.
Cobain's festival guitar on show: A guitar used by Kurt Cobain during Nirvana's famed performance at the 1992 Reading Festival will be displayed at a show marking the event's history.
Thursday, 8 July 2004
Auction of Eric Clapton's Guitars Rakes in Over $7M: "Guitar Center buys several of the top lots which will go on public display around the country" (or, so it say here. I think when they say "the country" they are talking about the United States. I think the writer of this piece forgot that it's the WORLD wide web and not the American wide web. Sorry, rant over, but it does piss me off).
Tuesday, 6 July 2004
Sunday, 4 July 2004
Mystery "Silvertone" acoustic guitar
Here's another eBay find. It's an old - possibly 1950s - archtop guitar, and is supposedly a Silvertone. However, at some point in its life someone has refinished the guitar in dark green, and removed all logos, serial numbers, etc, in the process. The Silvertone logo on the headstock has been painted on by hand so possibly it isn't a Silvertone. But then again, why fake a Silvertone?
To complicate matters even further, the name Silvertone was a brandname used for guitars sold by Sears and Roebuck, and were often re-badged guitars from other brands. So, who knows what this guitar really is?
The back of the guitar suffered a split at one point, and this has been repaired. The splints can be seen quite clearly through the upper f-hole.
Soundwise, it's very sweet. It has quite a pleasing tone, and playability isn't bad as the action is quite reasonable given the age of the instrument. The string spacing leaves a lot to be desired due to some pretty random slots cut into the bridge. Possibly this is something I could repair. The machine heads are old but work perfectly well, and the guitar impressively stays in tune very nicely.
The red "scratchplate" is actually a glued on piece of felt; I assume this was done by the person who painted the guitar green - possibly someone called "John B" because the intials "JB" have been added to the top of the guitar on the lower bout, and also the incredibly sturdy case also sports the name "John B".
I would love to know the history of this guitar, but chances are it'll remain the mystery Silvertone acoustic.
Friday, 2 July 2004
Brian Jones: Like a Rollin' Stone: today is the anniversary of the Rolling Stones' guitarist and founder's death in 1969.
Relatives of Jimi Hendrix resume court battle over guitarist's estate: Bloody disgraceful I call it. They all want a bigger slice of Jimi's legacy, but why don't they get off their arses and actually DO something themselves?
Gibson Guitar Announces 'Gibson A Go Go: L.A. Rock Show' on Tuesday August 24th at The Whisky A Go Go in Los Angeles Featuring Atlantic Records Artists, Shinedown
Nelson won't play guitar at picnic due to hand pain: Country star Willie Nelson said Thursday that he will still sing but won't be able to play guitar during his annual Fourth of July picnic, scheduled to be held in Fort Worth for the first time.