B.B. King - I made a mistake a couple of weeks ago when on the 16th September I reported that it was B.B. King's 68th birthday. It was actually his 76th birthday!

Carved Flame and Carved Diamond limited edition Gibson Les Pauls

Guitar legend and rock and roll pioneer Paul Burlison dies in Horn Lake
See also: Flock of musicians tried to imitate guitarist's style

I've just joined this new Yahoo!group called Guitar Gallery. Their introductory paragraph says:

Guitars! They're as much fun to look at as they are to listen to! Please post any guitar pics you find interesting. Weirdo pawnshop finds are particularly welcome! Enjoy!

As one member put it, it looks like quite a few of us have G.A.S. (Guitar Acquisition Syndrome). Should be a good fun group. Go on - boost the numbers and join up yourself!



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Iron Maiden Guitarist Gives You 30 Seconds of Guitar Tips

Bruce Springsteen celebrates his 54th birthday today (according to my sources, that is, but just now on Top Of The Pops 2 they said he was 58... Hmmmmm...)

754 Guitarists Not Enough for World Record
(see also original story which we listed last month)

Happy Birthday wishes to Joan Jett who's looking punkier than ever, and who is celebrating her 43rd.

B.B. King: 3rd 'Greatest Guitarist in History'
Interview from the Clarion Ledger, Mississippi

Rare guitar - with Buddy Holly link - retrieved

Rick Nielson's five-necked guitar - just because I know that you guys are always searching for a picture of it! Check out the other cool articles at Flying Vintage - Home of Guitar Collector Magazine.

Today is also the 26th anniversary of Marc Bolan's death. He was a fine songwriter and a brilliant tasteful guitarist despite the fact he claimed only to know eight chords.

Happy Birthday to da big guy, Mr B B King, 76 years old today!

Forget your paisley and blue flower finishes... Fender announce the Splatter Stratocaster!

Fender finds hot guitars and cars a cool mix

Well, the George Harrison Rosewood Fender Telecaster did sell at auction, although the different news reports give different figures. £301,000 say Reuters. £273,000 say The Daily Record. £289,000 say BreakingNews.ie. Etc, etc... Let's just say it went for a lot of money, OK?

Johnny Cash, R.I.P.
Singer Johnny Cash, one of country music's most enduring stars, has died in the US aged 71.

Cash died in hospital in Nashville, Tennessee, his manager said. He had recently suffered a stomach complaint and spent time in hospital.

He become as famous for his image as an outlaw figure, famous for playing prisons and creating the myth of the Man in Black, his semi-official nickname.  More...

Bradford Reed and his Amazing Pencilina - Bradford fights and tames the idiosyncrasies of the pencilina, an original instrument of his own design and construction. The pencilina is an electric ten stringed collision of the hammer dulcimer, slide guitar, koto and fretless bass with six pickups of varied types. It is struck with sticks, plucked and bowed, giving Reed and incredibly wide sonic palette.

This seems like an opportune time to re-list this link: Fab Guitars of The Beatles - a superb website.

George Harrison's legendary rosewood Telecaster for sale
A guitar played by George Harrison at the final Beatles gig is expected to fetch $250,000 (£156,900) at auction. The instrument was also used by the late musician during the filming of the Beatles' movie Let it Be. The custom-made Fender Rosewood Telecaster is being sold in Los Angeles during a pop memorabilia sale on Saturday and Sunday. It previously went on sale in London in 1999 but failed to meet the asking price and was withdrawn.  More...

Meet GTRBOT the scary-looking robot guitarist / bassist of Captured By Robots. They may be robots, but Kraftwerk they ain't!

These Reverend guitars from Canada look quite tasty (and are supposed to have a secret weapon in the sustain department too). The design puts me in mind of Danelectro crossed with Fender.

More...

Captain Sensible's Hohner Electric 12-string up for grabs! Make him an offer... Or do you have a short scale bass (e.g. Fender Mustang) you'd like to swap?

Today's Birthday Greetings go out to Chrissie Hynde.

I realise that it's not considered to be polite to dwell on the subject of a lady's age, but she's still looking good at 52.

Happy 34th Birthday to Dweezil Zappa. How soon before he tries selling that ex-Hendrix Strat again, I wonder?

At PRS Guitars, a Second Golden Age
I thought I'd include this link for all of you who like that sort of thing. Personally I think PRS guitars are vile.

This guitar, built for Rudolf Schenker of the Scorpions, claims to be the World's first acoustic Flying V.

But what of the Takamine Flying A which dates back to the early 1980s?

Today I got myself a Danelectro e-15 eStudio, which is a neat little headphone amplifier with built-in echo and distortion. It's quite an impressive little device: powered by a single PP3 battery (which is included, by the way) it delivers an enormous sound into the phones. It also has a line-out for recording purposes or for driving a larger amp. Check it out.

John Birch guitars proudly present the Superyob, a reissue of the now legendary guitar played by Dave Hill of Slade. This new version incorporates LED dot markers in the fingerboard and also features a laser built into the headstock which no doubt enhances the sci-fi laser-gun appearance of the guitar.

By the way, I believe that the original Superyob guitar is now owned by Marco Pirroni (ex Adam & the Ants).

Clearport guitars - featuring "Thurman Multi-dimensional Sound Ports" these acoustic guitars offer "unsurpassed acoustical and ergonomic performance ... with greater sustain, a faster attack and a broad dynamic range". (See also Augustino Loprinzi Guitars whose Nova Futura model classical guitar also features Thurman Multi-dimensional Sound Ports in their design).

I'm reminded of the FUNNELBody guitars that I mentioned last month on this blog.

Guitar recycling hits a chord with musicians
A GUITAR engineer is hoping to bring new life to old instruments by setting up a recycling workshop. Jon Dickinson, 34, who has been an engineer for eight years, has set up his own workshop in Crystal Palace to customise stringed instruments and renovate old guitars.  More...

Manchester Guitar Tech - Now here's a useful site, very clearly laid out and with lots of helpful photographs. The section on Building from a kit looks particularly good.