The 2005 Epiphone Calendar is here: A tribute to the women who play Epiphone.

Paul McCartney's fake nails help him play guitar

Beatles' guitar sold for £294,000

The Hot Seat: these guitarists' seats from Overkill Design are disguised as Fender amps and have plenty of room inside for loads of guitar accessories. Mind, for that kind of price, I'd want it to be a functioning amp too!

The ‘Team Squier’ Garage To Glory Casting Call: For 2005, Squier has opted to forgo the usual ‘established artist’ photos in the Fender Frontline 2005 catalog...

Classic sound of Boston is still Tom Scholz, still recording on tape

Beatles guitar up for grabs: The Gibson SG as played by both George Harrison and John Lennon is expected to fetch more than half a million dollars when it goes under the hammer at Christie's later today.

Johnson Introduces Delta Blues Resonator: the wood-body JR-410 Delta Blues, available in roundneck or squareneck designs with hand-spun cone and chrome-plated bell brass coverplate/tailpiece.

Clapton Re-unites Cream

Dick Dale - King of the Surf Guitar: a nice little article I found on the H2G2 website.

best. guitar. ever. According to A Small Victory, that is.

Despite shooting, Dean Guitars to proceed with 'Dimebag' model

One-woman guitar storm: Fife-born and forthright, singer KT Tunstall tells Neil McCormick why she's more than just another Katie Melua or Joss Stone (from The Electronic Telegraph). I saw her perform on Jools Holland's Later show on TV recently and she played an amazing solo number building up a whole accompaniment using delays.

Randy Bachman's first guitar on the auction block

Beatles' "jinxed" guitar set to beat auction record: but is the guitar really cursed?

Dimebag Darrell, Four Others Killed In Ohio Concert Shooting: Shocking news, the Pantera/Damageplan guitarist has been shot and killed on stage. See also the BBC News.

Fender and the Sound of the Seventies

Motley Crue are back!

Nirvana Bassist Puts Himself Up For Auction: see also the follow-up story, Nirvana Fan Pays £4000 For Plane Ride

Manic Street Preachers employ a second guitarist

Obituary: Frank Haggerty, jazz guitarist, played with Sinatra, host of others

Late Slim Dusty nominated for Golden Guitars: the late country music star, Slim Dusty, has received a number of nominations for next year's Golden Guitar Awards.

Pickin' and a grinnin': Johnny Cash's Grammer guitar nets $131,000 at auction

New SE Soapbar II Model from Paul Reed Smith: more yawnworthy guitars from PRS. Zzzzzzz...

Paul Reed Smith Intros Billy Martin SE Model: The lead guitarist for Good Charlotte now has his own Paul Reed Smith SE model guitar, featuring a mahogany neck and body with a matte black finish and black hardware. Well, good for him.

Cat's-Eye ESP Introduces the Hybrid Fuzz Pedal

Zion offers their take on the Telecaster

www.harpguitars.net: I may have linked to this site before, but what the hell, these are fascinating instruments!

Guitar Man Acoustic Guitar Care and Playing Tips: well worth a look.

New Experimental Effects Pedal from ElectroKraft: Is it a fuzzbox or is it a theremin?

Breedlove Guitar Company Introduces Revival Series: dreadnought and orchestral model guitars due to be unveiled at the upcoming Winter NAMM show in Anaheim, CA.

AmpliTube Live Available Now for Both Windows and OS X: turn your computer into a virtual guitar amp!

Son to play tribute to late guitarist: Jackson Smith plays a tribute gig to his dad, Fred 'Sonic' Smith of the MC5 and Sonic's Rendezvous.

The guitarist is metal. No, not heavy metal. See also: GuitarBot

Deep Purple's is best guitar riff ever: I don't need to tell you which song, do I?

Headstrong Amps Introduces Princeton Reverb Replica

Imperfect Harmony: Santa Cruz and Paracho, Mexico, share tradition of guitar-making, but are still worlds apart

Seymour Duncan Makes Pickup Matching Easy

Beautiful Creatures bassist Kenny Kweens reveals Spinal Tap moments

New Retrofit Stoptail Bridge for Vintage Tremolo Strats: I agree with the sentiment, but I can't say that I like the flame design.

Epiphone Kat Series: Hey, these rockin' semis look quite cool. Nice to see some new Epiphone designs that aren't simply Gibson copies.

Guitar aficionados anxiously await the Epiphone Paul McCartney Texans

Beatle guitar goes up for auction: A guitar played by George Harrison and John Lennon is expected to fetch up to £270,000 at auction. The Gibson SG guitar was used by Harrison from 1966-1969 and by Lennon during the White Album sessions.

Zakk Wylde joins the guitar hero sculpture series: KnuckleBonz, Inc. is producing a Zakk Wylde figure as the latest in the Guitar Hero™ Limited Edition Sculpture Series.

Damageplan guitarist Dimebag Darrell returns to Dean Guitars

Black Sabbath guitar: Tony Iommi Signature Model from Epiphone. For further details see the Epiphone website.

Trade Secrets: new books collect Stew-Mac's repair articles in one place.

ElectroKraft Announces Axe*Synth Synthesizer/Theremin Guitar: it's a theremin, in guitar format!

TheAirtightGarage Introduces the Betsy Guitar Amplifier, a 5F6A-based combo guitar amplifier and recreation of the classic Fender Bassman design.

Guitar Dreamz: here's another Guitar Blog. It's early days yet, but this might be one to watch.

The under-rated guitar gods: I'm not sure what this guy is on about. Since when was Brian May an under-rated guitarist?

Poison Singer Bret Michaels guitar stolen

Traveler Guitar Introduces Travel-Sized Bass and if it's anything like my Traveler guitar it'll be a quality instrument, you can be sure of that!

Duesenberg Guitars: I recently saw Bill Nelson using one of these babies - it looked cool and sounded mighty impressive.

Electrosonic Adds Neptune to Guitar Head Lineup: it sure looks cool too!

Aerosmith Guitarist Hits Hot Sauce Market

James Hollihan and the Symphony of Guitars "The Nutcracker Suite"

60 firms paying to put 10-foot guitars on Arizona streets

Acoustic Avalon: Britain's biggest acoustic guitar show, Acoustic Avalon, takes place on November 20 and 21, at Leicester racecourse conference centre.

'Acoustic': just Lennon and a guitar

Hard Rock's guitar sign will be the largest one yet

Reverend Releases the Goblin Tube Combo

Hard Rock Cafe selects Panalpina to move rare Jimi Hendrix, Ace Frehley guitars

James Burton - A true guitar legend

McAllen music shop lays claim to world’s largest electric guitar

Waukesha native Les Paul lives up to guitar legend status at 89

Return of the triple-necked guitar!

Paul McCartney's $50,000 Guitar

Justin Hawkins unable to play guitar: The Darkness have a sold-out tour ahead of them, but Justin Hawkins may well be unable to play guitar due to injuries sustained from a stained-glass window.

Limited edition Uli Jon Roth "Sky Guitar" available for order

Palace date for guitarist Clapton: Guitarist and songwriter Eric Clapton is to receive a CBE at a ceremony at Buckingham Palace.

Close Encounters of the Rock Kind: did aliens make contact with John Lennon, Jimi Hendrix, Ace Frehley and others?

Fender Stratocaster, Limited edition Antigua re-issue, 2004

OK, OK... I know I made a bit of a song and a dance a while back about Strats being "the most boring guitar" on the planet (or something). Perhaps I was in denial? Perhaps I just wanted a change? Perhaps I was just a bit pissed off because a couple of years ago I needed the cash and had to sell my japanese 70s style paisley pink Stratocaster.

This new Antigua finish 70s style Strat is lovely, and I think I like the finish more than I liked my paisley Strat. Once again, it's a japanese Strat and it plays and feels just like my old paisley jobbie. Playing this guitar feels like resuming a relationship with an old friend, and I'm beginning to understand now just why the Stratocaster this year celebrated its 50th Anniversary. The guitar is so popular simply because it is a classic piece of design work. I mean, I love my Gibson Flying V but it's not exactly comfortable or convenient to play in a sitting position. The Stratocaster's curves and contours are ergonomically designed to fit to the player's body. It is a superb piece of design.

For me it had to be a 70s style Strat, no other Strat would do. This is partially because I wanted a replacment for my old paisley Strat (the recent paisley reissues are not 70s style), and partly because I like the big headstock and the neck profile. Don't ask me why, it's just what I'm comfortable with, both visually and in use.

These limited edition Antigua re-issues (there's also a Telecaster and a very limited Jaguar available) have been created exclusively for the European market. I got mine for a very nice price all the way from Germany. For more info see www.fendereurope.com.

JDX Direct Box for Guitar: works with any guitar amp head.

South Park creators team up with Epiphone to launch new action film... and wasn't South Park itself sponsored by Fender?

Dare you store your guitar away in a Coffin Case?

Minarik Guitars: makers of the Inferno guitar with a somewhat firey bodyshape.

Blur guitarist Graham Coxon to rejoin the band

Singer in appeal for antique guitar's return: Willy Mason is offering a reward for the return of his 70s Gibson Hummingbird, which was recently stolen at a gig in Newcastle.

Building A Good Relationship With Your Guitar

Police on the track of £3,000 guitar: thief walks out of Coventry music shop wih the most expensive guitar in stock.

Swineshead offers hand-made pickups with custom looks

Swineshead offers hand-made pickups with custom looks

Optek Launches FG-400 Series Fretlight Guitars: See songs light up underneath your fingertips!

Line 6 announce the Variax Bass, the world's first modelling bass.

John Lennon Honored with signature Gibsons and Epiphones in Tokyo museum

Spanish guitars made from banned wood: Police in Spain have uncovered an illegal network engaged in smuggling protected wood from Brazilian rain forests to be fashioned into high-quality guitars.

Jim Hall gets Sadowsky signature archtop guitar

G&L introduces Tribute Series Invader XL guitar

Deep Purple bassist Roger Glover's Russian tour report

Michael Schenker inks endorsement deal with dean guitars

Blogcritics.org diss the Epiphone "Bob Marley" guitar

Paul Stanley donates guitar to benefit kids research hospital

Slash selects tracks for his ultimate guitar compilation

Win the NEW Fender Cyber-Twin SE!! US entrants only.

Michael Schenker and Dean Guitars - legendary forces collide

Rare Jimmy Page Danelectro 12-string guitar up for auction

Springfield Bassist Bruce Palmer dies At 58

Another Guitar Blog! And there's this one too which appears to be a photo blog of sorts.

A Conversation With Doug Fieger Of The Knack from the Epiphone Musical Instruments website.

Fender Acquires Tacoma Guitar Company Assets

All Things Guitar: It used to be All Things Strat but it looks like they've branched out!

Scotty Moore: The Official Website. There's a nice section on the guitars used by Scotty and Elvis.

1953 Fender "Telecaster" - The Building of an Historic Replica

Motley Crue Guitarist Undergoes Hip-Replacement Surgery

A guitar player for guitar players: Eric Johnson

McCartney guitar auctioned: A replica of the guitar Paul McCartney wrote "Yesterday" on is being auctioned.

The Return of the 12-string Stratocaster: back (in Europe, at least) by popular demand!

Fender's Antigua finish makes a rare return

Famous Guitarists Perform at Fender Show: celebrating the 50th Anniversary of the Fender Stratocaster at Wembley Arena.

New Guns N' Roses Guitarist?: Does anyone care any more?

Radiohead Donates Guitar to Homeless Charity: I wish they'd donate ALL their instruments to charity and stop making such hideous dirge-like music.

GAS - guitar acquisition syndrome - gives guys string fever

Six String Arts, the art of the guitar in stunning miniature reproductions: check out these ultra-detailed models of guitars as owned by Jimi Hendrix, Stevie Ray Vaughan, the Beatles, Jimmy Page, Eric Clapton, Kurt Cobain and many others.

Fender Jazzmaster and Jaguar - the higher evolution of off-set waist guitars: A tribute to Fender's Jazzmaster and Jaguar guitars.

The Firebird Guitar Tribute: celebrating another legedary Gibson guitar.

EverythingSG.com: devoted to "the greatest guitar ever made", the Gibson SG.

Martin Guitars: article from Ad Week.

Former Punk Star makes guitar plea: Nig from The Exploited searches for his first guitar.

'Deer Hunter' theme might stump beginning guitarists: I thought everyone knew it was called "Cavatina". Funny how it gets referred to as the "Deer Hunter" theme. To me it'll always be the music they played for the "Gallery" section on the kids' TV programme "Vision On" featuring Tony Hart.

OK, so Segovia was a pioneer, but he doesn't top today's guitarists

Gibson was "Brilliant" during Fashion Week in NYC: Model Elena Humphreys takes to the catwalk complete with a crystal-encrusted Gibson Les Paul Junior.

Photographer Ross Halfin's favorite rock stars and rock guitars: be sure to click on the hyperlinks in the text.

New Golden Age Pickups from Stewart-MacDonald

'Lost' Hendrix concert uncovered

Leo Gregory to star as guitarist Brian Jones

Patented Kaua‘i-built guitars are lightweights: Tucker Guitars build instruments from light-weight albizzia wood. See www.tuckerguitars.com

Ike Turner's Hendrix guitar stolen

Guitar string legend Ernie Ball dies, aged 74

Johnny Cash’s guitar sells for $131,200 (£73,200) at auction

Sting's prized guitar gift for school funds

Vintage guitar plucked from floodwaters only thing he has left: Hellertown man's prize possession saved by passer-by.

Johnny Ramone, RIP

OK, I'm off to France on my holidays for two weeks now, so there won't be any updates until later in the month when I return. I will be taking my Traveler Pro Series guitar with me (see www.travelerguitar.com), although the unique stethoscope headset is a little uncomfortable, so I'm also packing a very small Danelectro headphone amp which fits nicely into the front pocket of the Traveler's gig bag.

Guild Creates Limited Edition Johnny Smith Award Model

Two New Models from Chafin Custom Guitars

Zion Guitars Debuts Bent T Model

Austin Introduces New J-Style Bass

Jimmy Page comes clean

I went to see DKT/MC5 last night, featuring three of the now legendary rock'n'roll revolutionaries the MC5 from Detroit. Absolutely fantastic show, and Wow! that Wayne Kramer can't half play the guitar! It almost makes me want to get a Fender Stratocaster again. (By the way, I noticed he was playing a hardtail, i.e. non-tremolo, Strat, which conversely had the legend "with Synchronized Tremolo" on the headstock. A mis-matched neck and body, perhaps?). Anyway, catch them if you can!

Mother Maybelle's Guitar in Hall of Fame

Eagles guitar expected to be highlight of Swampy auction

John 5 Releases Debut Solo CD, "Vertigo!" The ex-Marilyn Manson guitarist is back.

Epiphone News: Ozzy And Tony Iommi Helping With Cancer Research

Annihilator - guitars for sale

BOOTSY EXCLUSIVE BABY BUBBA - Bassist keeps the funk alive and skates around politics with new album. Or so it says here. It's about Bootsy Collins, in case you hadn't worked it out already.

Body Count Guitarist Dead: D-Roc is the third member of the pioneering rock 'n' rap group to pass away.

Jimmy Page to open London Walk of Fame

James Brown Band bass guitarist dies at 72: Bertrand Odom, RIP.

Guitar Auction to Aid Charley's Victims: loads of signed guitars to go under the hammer to benefit those hit by the hurricane.

Mercurio Electric Guitars Offers Interchangeable Pickups: Mercurio Guitars has launched a new line of guitars that feature an interchangeable pickup system so you can change the sound of the guitar in seconds, and works with all standard pickups. For more information, visit www.mercurioguitars.com.

Yamaha Pacifica 112 Guitar Project, Part 3

Having finished sanding the guitar body, I was ready to proceed with applying the wood stain. I decided against using just a single colour and making the guitar look like it would have originally. I decided instead to try to create my own more interesting finish through the use of masking tape and three different colour stains!

Masking the body with tape	The first stain has been applied and the tape removed
Taped up again and the second stain is applied	Tape removed again: the first two colours
A view around the back	The third colour having been applied

The neck, scratchplate and bridge positioned to show what the guitar will look like

Redneck And Here To Stay - An Interview With Gretchen Wilson courtesy of Epiphone Musical Instruments

Sadowsky Introduces New String Line: After several decades of making instruments, Sadowsky now has their own line of strings for electric bass, electric guitar, and acoustic guitar.

Jazz Guitarist George Benson Goes Hip-Hop

Stratocaster tradition: a blessing and a curse: The 1980-83 Fender "STRAT".

Anyone can play guitar: the UK Air Guitar Championships. Very very sad.

Blink-182's DeLonge Expects 'Always' To Change Life As We Know It: kiddie-band guitar player talks total bollocks.

Tony Mottola, Guitarist, Dies At 86: Tony Mottola, a guitarist who played with Frank Sinatra and on NBC's "The Tonight Show" over the course of a 50-year career, has died.

Former Eagles bassist Randy Meisner hospitalized

Fans of Martin guitars play a happy tune: 100 Martin guitar enthusiasts celebrate their favourite instrument maker.

Guitars fighting cancer

Townshend's Guitar May Fetch £35,000 at Christie's Sale

New York Dolls play on: The New York Dolls say they will honour their commitments following the death of bassist Arthur Kane.

Hendrix memorabilia set for biggest rock auction in London

Kinks founder treated for stroke: Kinks guitarist Dave Davies is recovering from a stroke having collapsed on 30th June.

Win an Epiphone Bob Marley Les Paul and some other stuff.

Pilot creates cockpit-friendly folding guitar: A Swedish pilot and amateur musician has created a folding guitar that fits into his cramped cockpit. It is similar in size and style to a Fender Telecaster, with a neck that folds back into the body and the strings being pulled onto a roller.

Yamaha Pacifica 112 Guitar Project, Part 2

Today I spent quite a while sorting out the bad sanding job that someone had done when they stripped the body of the guitar. I don't think they even took the neckplate or perhaps even the scratchplate off the guitar as there was evidence of the guitar's finish underneath both of these!

I did the donkey work with an electric orbital sander and then switched to sanding by hand - you always get the smoothest finish that way. There was also some of the original finish lurking inside the cutaways so I applied Nitro Mors to these areas to dissolve it away, before cleaning it up and re-sanding.

I also checked my box of guitar spares to make sure I have everything I need for re-assembly. I have a loaded Pacifica scratchplate, a tremolo bridge (although with no arm and no springs), and various knobs. Pieces I still need to find (or rather, buy) in that case are tremolo springs, tremolo arm, jack socket and plate for side-mounting, pickup selector cap... and that's it!

Here's what the guitar might look like when I re-assemble it:

Bear in mind that it won't be that colour though. I've not decided on the colour yet, other than it'll be a natural finish, but my inclination is to go for a darker stain, perhaps even mahogany-ish.

Here's a couple of options that I'm considering:

Chrome dome knobs for the volume and tone, rather than the ordinary Strat type knobs, and replacement black pickup covers for the single coils (they look a bit weird here in the photo because I simply placed them on top of the existing pickups for the picture). I'm not decided yet which would look the best (the existing white pickup covers are very dirty), I think we'll have to try it and see when I put the guitar together again.

Bass Ukulele utilizing Ashbory strings: Crossbreed a Ukulele with an Ashbory and you get a Bass Ukulele!

DR Introduces Dimebag Darrell Signature Hi-Voltage String

Parker Guitars Introduces Two New Models: Parker is adding two new, more affordable models to their P Series guitars, the Telecaster-ish P-36 with ash body and maple neck, and the P-42 with mahogany body and neck.

Pink Floyd's "The Wall" to be staged on Broadway: Pink Floyd founder and bassist Roger Waters will write the book for the show and orchestrate the music. "Now I can write in some laughs, notable by their absence in the movie," he said.

The Bone by Triff of Switzerland. It's another of those neat little travel guitars - yet another option for a guitar on the move, which can't be a bad thing!

Yamaha Pacifica 112 Guitar Project

I have a new guitar project to get working on, namely a second-hand Yamaha Pacifica 112 body and neck. It does have a scratchplate but there are no electrics and no bridge/tremolo. The neck, however, does have all its tuners intact, and it just so happens that in my box of guitar spares I already have a Pacifica 112 scratchplate loaded with a humbucker and two single coils - all wired up and ready to go. I think I may have a suitable bridge/tremolo for it too.

On the guitar body itself, someone has had a go at stripping it down to the bare wood, but they have hardly made a brilliant job of it. The first job to do will be to get it sanded properly, nice and smooth, and then I think I'll re-apply a finish - I will most likely use my tried and trusted remedy of Ronseal All In One - it's very easy to apply and gives a superb natural finish.

As for the neck, well, at the moment it appears to be slightly bowed, but we'll have to see what it's like once the instrument is finished and strung up. Hopefully, it'll not need much more than a truss-rod adjustment.

More on this project later.

Multi-Effects for Guitar and Bass: three new multi-FX units from Korg Toneworks

The Lego Guitar!

The Top 50 Worst Guitar Solos of the Millennium: I assume he means the last millennium. Dunno why he didn't say the last century, as there weren't too many electric guitars around before then.

Obituary - Sacha Distel, singer and guitarist

Blair turns down guitar from U2's Bono

NAMM: How many pickups?!? PRS launch new 513 model with 5 single coil pickups

NAMM: Beatles guitars from Gretsch: Gretsch launch new versions of George Harrison guitars

NAMM: Gibson Launch Digital Guitar: Les Paul with separate outputs for each string

Epiphone ROCKS The 2004 Summer NAMM Show In Nashville! Apparently.

"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

...and loads more stuff - check out the Summer NAMM 2004 Complete Coverage.

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.

De Lacugo Guitars: Extreme shape, extreme curvature, and extreme finishes!

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...

Guitar distortion has come a long way over the years: the art of noise!

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.

Hagstrom Guitars to Make Return at Summer NAMM Show

Stewart-MacDonald Offers Acoustic Guitar Kits

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.

Kerrang! TV is looking for an Air Guitar champ! Oh dear.

Van Halen bassist AWOL on new tracks

Morrissey Pays Tribute to New York Dolls Bassist

Jazz Legend Wes Montgomery's Guitar to be Displayed at Indiana State Museum

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.

Not all music fans think Eric Clapton's a 'guitar god'

Who's got the best 'guitar face'? and win a Les Paul Black Beauty!

Guide lights make this guitar an easy instrument to play: The Yamaha EZ-AG

The Top 20 Fender Females - Part One and Part Two

Win the PROTOTYPE for Fender's New Custom Shop '66 Stratocaster: It's another "only open to U.S. residents" job. Unfair!

New York Dolls bassist dies: Arthur "Killer" Kane has passed away at 55.

EVH and Charvel Team Up for Limited Edition Art Guitars

Michael Moore is a bully, says Who guitarist: "But he'll have to work very, very hard to convince me that a man with a camera is going to change the world more effectively than a man with a guitar." Pete Townshend.

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!

Keith Richards Leads Tribute to Old Pal Parsons

Legendary guitarist lives in obscurity: Hank "Sugarfoot" Garland.

Steve Vai waxes lyrical about King Crimson's Robert Fripp

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.

Birdsong Guitars Debuts the Short Scale Cortobass - see also www.birdsongguitars.com

L.R. Baggs Introduces iMix System for Acoustic Guitar

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).

Damage Control Announces Demonizer Tube Preamp with Distortion

Limited Edition Hotshot Junior Guitar from Reverend

Bass desires: John Entwistle's guitar collection catalogued in new book.

Clapton Guitars Fetch Large Coin: the Top 10!

Judge trades robe for guitar: The retired jurist finds a new career playing with a rock band.

Native Instruments Guitar Rig Updated

Elvis fans mark rock n' roll debut

Roxy Music all but reunite... on guitarist Phil Manzanera's solo album - but without Bryan Ferry.

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.

Brian Jones: Like a Rollin' Stone: today is the anniversary of the Rolling Stones' guitarist and founder's death in 1969.

Lost Frank Zappa Unearthed: "Joe's Corsage" begins a deluge of previously unreleased recordings.

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?

24 hour party people: Is the rock documentary making a comeback?

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.

Gibson and Epiphone Make It Home From Bonnaroo 2004

The Knutsen Archives: an online repository of the unique and fascinating stringed instruments of Chris J Knutsen.

New Limited Edition Music Man Instruments Offered in Envy Green

Gibson Creates Jimmy Page Signature Models: Gibson has created several new lines of signature models for Jimmy Page, starting with 25 signed replicas of the guitar great's "Number One", a 1959 Gibson Les Paul Standard. One model has already sold for the record price of $55,000!

New Metro Series Instruments from Sadowsky: New York luthier creates Sadowsky Tokyo Facility and new hand-crafted basses.

Happy Birthday to guitar-slingers Chris Issak, who is 48 today, and to Mick Jones, formerly of The Clash and Big Audio Dynamite, who is 49.

For those of you with high speed connections, here's a great
wmv file of Dick Dale, king of surf guitar!