Friday 31 March 2006

The Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain
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I went to see them on Wednesday night. Absolute GENIUS! Mind you, they come with a health warning - their version of "Wuthering Heights" has to be heard to be believed, and I laughed so much that it was painful. All in all, a great mix of music and comedy. Go see them if you can, but be quick - their shows regularly sell out fast.

Thursday 30 March 2006

USB-Guitar iAXE393 from Behringer: "The ultimate electric guitar with built-in USB port to connect straight to your computer. Jam and record with killer modelling amps and stomp boxes." Apparently it's going to be nice 'n' affordable. The excellent MusicThing blog has mentioned a price of just £93, which is alarmingly cheap.

Wednesday 29 March 2006

iCoustic Guitars - "Making the Best Even Better": This is a curious idea. It's a marriage between the acoustic guitar and portable digital devices such as the iPod. The multitrack function sounds useful, but the "MP3 mode" in which the guitar acts as a portable speaker for the songs in your iPod, is one of the silliest ideas I have ever heard.

Tuesday 28 March 2006

All-time guitar solo favourite: Any guesses? C'mon, you know what it is already.
Allparts Introduces The Tremol-No: The Tremol-No is the new user-friendly device that can be added to most tremolo equipped guitars, giving the player the ability to turn their tremolo system 'on' or 'off' in seconds. There is no drilling, no routing, and no permanent modifications to the guitar. Players can now switch between Hardtail, Dive-Only, or Full Floating modes on their favorite guitar, all within seconds of each other.

Friday 24 March 2006

Lenny Kravitz To Play Jimi Hendrix?: another bio-pic is mooted. The cynic in me thinks it could all go horribly wrong. I just don't trust Hollywood to do an honest portrayal.
Ukulelia: Your Passport to Four Stringed Paradise: "The World's Greatest Ukulele Weblog!", it says, and who am I to argue?

Thursday 23 March 2006

Image hosting by PhotobucketMermaid hand-crafted guitar is a work of art: Luthier Andy Manson has decided to put this instrument up for sale. It has taken more than three years to create, is made of 15 types of wood and has one of the most unique appearances of any musical instrument in existence. But is is a sculpture or a musical instrument? See the gallery and decide for yourself!

Wednesday 22 March 2006

Monday 20 March 2006

Self-Tuning Guitar: Synthax Tronical Powertune: most cunning, but it means a lot more metalwork on your headstock.
Reverend Expands Stage King Series With the Club King HB Electric Guitar: Excellent sustain and attack are coupled with substantial resonance, for a thick tone that's suitable for blues, jazz and rock.
Making music out of menace: A Colombian musician has fashioned guitars out of rifles to help spread a message of peace. (via Music Thing)

Saturday 11 March 2006

Feline "Holy Panther" Strat

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Check out my latest guitar, courtesy of Feline Guitars. It features an American ash body from a 1970s Fender Stratocaster - the holes are there partly to decrease the weight (its still very heavy though) and partly because they look cool. Other features are Seymour Duncan pickups (2xSSL1, 1xCustom5), Gotoh bridge and machine heads. It sounds fantastic, and has a versatile and very useable range of sounds all available via the 5-way selector switch.

I should also add that the neck was built by Feline and is attached to the 70s-era Fender body using four bolts rather than the three that the body would have originally been drilled for. You can't see it in the photos here, but looking very very closely at the area surrouding the bridge, I think I can detect an area where routing for a Kahler-style trem system has been filled in with timber before re-spraying.

The guitar is currently set-up with the vintage-style trem locked down, seeing as I do not like or use trems on Strats.

G L Wilson
Bono's Guitar Gift Strikes Sour Note: Bolivians upset after Bono is presented with a Charango in Chile.

Tuesday 7 March 2006

Reverend Introduces Chrome Elite Series For 2006: These American made guitars feature vintage-influenced body art, sandblasted onto smoked chrome aluminum.

Friday 3 March 2006

Retro-King Introduces The Plexi 18 Guitar Amp: A class AB cathode biased amp and replica of the hard to find 1966 Marshall™ 18 watt lead combo amplifier, but in a head version with two channels (4 inputs) with a tremolo unit operating on channel two.

Thursday 2 March 2006

Ex-Beatle still owes £20 on guitar he bought in 1961: seeing as the Beatle in question is George, I don't think the debt's going to get paid, somehow.