World record breaking Aum Mani Padme Hum guitar listed on eBay

guitarz.blogspot.com:

This uniquely decorated acoustic guitar was played at the world's highest gig, 6500 metres in the Himalaya on 16 May 2012.

From the eBay listing:

Specially designed and hand painted by Eamon Nawal from Amen Design:

"A 3/4 size acoustic inspired by the Nepalese mountains and Buddhist culture that it will hopefully see as it takes part in a world record attempt to play the highest gig in the world on Mt. Mera (6476m) in Nepal this year. The sides have the mantra 'Aum Mani Padme Hum' detailed on them five times and the back of the guitar features a Mandala inspired icon over a representation of Mt. Mera itself... The Guitar has been given a vintaged, 'relic' effect and feels like an artefact from a mountain monastery. Signature dulled gloss finish with a transducer pick-up fitted."

This guitar is currently being auctioned on eBay with a starting bid of £700.

The lowest gig, by the way, was played 20 November 2007 by The Queens of the Stone age over 2300 feet underground in a disused salt mine. I'm not quite sure how this differs from the world record for the deepest gig, which is held by Katie Melua who with her band played a 35 minute set 303 metres below sea level on the Statoil Troll A gas rig in the North Sea on 2 October 2006.

G L Wilson

© 2012, Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 10th year!

13-foot tall playable giant Fender Strat offered for sale on eBay

guitarz.blogspot.com:

I believe I linked through to the (now defunct) website for these giant guitars in the very early days of this blog. I had wondered what had become of these giant guitars (there was a Strat and a Tele) and now it seems that the Strat has turned up on eBay.

I'm not sure of the builder's name (he's Ujaxman on Mice Pace and YouTube) but he hand-built the giant Tele and Strat and has been lugging them to festivals and special events all over the USA for over 10 years now. Fender even granted permission for the Fender name to be used on the headstocks - and let's face it, these guitars were made in the USA unlike so many Fender guitars these days.

The giant guitars aren't to be confused with guitar sculptures or giant guitars on roadside signs - they are fully functional electric guitars and are playable - and if you don't believe it, check the video. Anyway, claiming he can always build another one, Ujaxman has listed the giant Stratocaster on eBay. It's yours for $72,999!  

G L Wilson © 2012, Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 10th year!

Ukulele Playing World Record Set in London

Before anyone complains (and a couple of you commenters are a bit grouchy, aren't you?), I absolutely refuse to make apologies for a post about ukuleles. Ukes are fantastic little instruments, can be played by virtually anyone who puts their mind to it, and generally are totally without any pretensions.

Anyway, to get to the point, yesterday - Saturday 20th June 2009 - in London's Devonshire Square, a gathering of 851 ukulele players set the new world record for the most ukuleles playing the same song at the same time, with a 5-minute rendition of "Sloop John B".

I was there with my baritone ukulele, and have to say that it was a fantastic and very entertaining day out. I met and spoke to lots of people and even swapped uke with a few people. It's unusual in London to be able to converse with strangers as people are usually very unfriendly and will rarely give you the time of day, but you could say that everyone at this event was united by the common bond of the ukulele.

Kudos to the organisers for putting this event together, and to all the attendees who together raised funds for Cancer Research UK.

Some YouTube videos HERE.

GLWilson
(I'll hand you back to Bertram following this post, as I'm supposed to be busy writing a book at the moment...)

Now it's India's turn: Over 2,000 guitarists will gather at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium in Shillong, the capital of Meghalaya, for The World Record Guitar Ensemble during the autumn festival on October 26. For this attempt at the record, the song they will be playing is Bob Dylan's "Knocking On Heaven's Door". The existing Guinness Book of World Records' guitar ensemble stands at 1,721 guitarists from Kansas City, US performing the rock classic "Smoke On The Water" on June 4, 2007.

Guitarists smoke the world record: Here's a story I missed from earlier this month. The world record for the greatest number of guitarists playing "Smoke on the Water" together has been broken AGAIN. Blimey, how many times is that now? (Or has it been broken again in the last week). I reckon it'll almost certainly be out of date again by the time The Guinness Book of Records publish the feat in their annual book.

Deepest Purple: 1,800 Guitarists Set World Record Playing 'Smoke on the Water': Blimey! The record's been broken again already. It was only earlier this month that the previous record was set in Kansas, but now it's the Germans who are in the lead. So, where next? I'll be up for participating in a record attempt here in the UK. How does that riff go again?

Guitar Record Set to Smoke On The Water: More than 1,680 guitarists broke a world record by playing DEEP PURPLE classic SMOKE ON THE WATER simultaneously yesterday (03Jun07).