Articles in the Featured Category
Featured, The Month In Guitar »
Although there seems to be some argument over whether Gibson’s first ever electric guitar, the E-150 shipped in October or November of 1935, since this is November, I’m going to hang my hat on that month (purely for the lazy purposes of including it in this article).
Heavily influenced by Rickenbacker’s ‘Frying Pan’ which was released in 1932, the E-150 was at least somewhat guitar-shaped. Riding on the Hawaiian wave, the E-150 had a cast-aluminium body and ebony fingerboard (although that pictured is unusual with a rosewood board) with white fret …
Featured, News »
Hot on the heels of the spate of Angus Young SG models, Gibson announce this, the Buckethead Signature Les Paul.
With 28 solo albums under his KFC meal-deal hat and having played on countless other albums by countless other bands and solo artists, nobody can accuse Buckethead of being a fried chicken-eating couch-potato. He’s showed up on a crapload of ‘Superest Shredders Of All Time In The Universe Ever’ lists and now, he’s got his own signature Les Paul.
Sometimes, when Gibson do ‘contemporary’, they make a mess of it. Rumours are …
Featured, News »
If you’ve already read the previous article on the production model of the Angus Young SG, you’ll know a lot of what this revamp of the Angus signature line is all about.
This one is the Gibson Custom Shop version – the Angus Young SG Standard – and while it’s similar, it does have a few important variations that are worth considering in their own right.
First off, the finish here is not the black of the production model. Instead, Gibson tell us this is ‘Angus Cherry’. We all love a cherry …
Featured, News »
So, Gibson have seen fit to seriously tweak the Angus Young signature line. Not before time. While the previous Angus SG was a very, very fine guitar, it just wasn’t really very ‘Angusy’. We couldn’t really imagine him duck-walking around the stage with a lyre-type vibrato attached to his SG.
Well, many of the previous wrongs have been rectified with not one, not two, but three new Angus Young signature SGs. It’s like waiting for a bus.
I think we’ll look at these over two separate posts. In this first, we’ll …
Featured, News »
Something for any Hank Marvin and/or Shadows fans out there.
Celebrating The Shadows is a concert of tribute acts to raise money for the Children In Need charity. The concert is on 20th of November in Rushey Way in Reading and includes four Shadows tribute bands.
It also includes an auction for two electric guitars – a Fender 50’s Classic Stratocaster in Fiesta Red and a Burns Marquee in white.
Each has been signed by Hank and the Shadows (Bruce Welch and Brian Bennet) as well as ‘Sir’ Cliff Richard.
They’ll be auctioned off …
Effects, Featured »
Over at Effects Bay, they’re giving away a stomp-box.
Check it out. It’s the SubDecay F-Bomb fuzz pedal and you can win it. To make the offer even more tempting, its a prototype pedal you’ll get. The normal F-Bomb is in a green enclosure but this one, with a serial number of 0001, is splendidly colourful.
Want to read a bit about it? Course you do.
SubDecay say (among other things):
The F-Bomb is for dirty filthy rock tone. Gear is not furniture or artifacts meant to be kept in a glass case. So …
Accessories, Featured »
Rotosound have a new line of accessories planned for 2010.
First up will be two clip-on tuners. Each allows you to tune your instrument through the built-in microphone or through the vibration transmitted through the instrument’s headstock.
The RTU009 tuner is a chromatic tuner capable of flat tuning and with a range of B0 to B6.
The RTU007 has a built in metronome and its LCD panel is illuminated (handy on a dark stage). The 007 has a tuning range of A0 through to c8.
Both models provide for A4 calibration of 430 to …
Featured, News »
Announced ages ago as a ‘coming soon’ teaser, the Epiphone Roy Orbison 12-String has now been released.
This is a reproduction of the ’62 Epiphone Bard guitar on which he wrote and performed a crap-load of famous songs, including one about a prostitute with a heart of gold who falls in love with Richard Gere.
This has a solid spruce top and solid mahogany back. No mention of the sides, so I’m guessing they’re laminated (certainly not the end of the world). Oh, and it has twelve tuners. That’s six better than …
Featured, News »
Stack Attack. That’s what Marshall and Guitar World are calling their online game.
You might recognise the concept – differently sized and shaped things (Marshall heads, cabs and stacks) descend the screen and have to be moved and rotated in order to fit them in at the bottom with no gaps.
Yeah, it’s a Tetrisy thing. “What’s the point?”, you ask.
The point, my dear fellow, is that the top scorers win Marshall kit.
Top scorer overall will win a JVM205H – that’s a 50-watt amp head with six channels. Six frickin’ channels.
Second highest …
Featured, Software »
Year-end periods are often great times for good deals. IK Multimedia already have a couple of great offers and now they’re adding more.
Until the end of the year, you can get some of their software plugin bundles for half-price. Fifty percent off. Not to be sneezed at.
Their Total Guitar & Bass Gear Bundle includes Amplitube, Ampeg SVX, and the Jimi Hendris, Metal and X-GEAR versions of Amplitube. That’s five plugins and more than 150 gear models that you can use live or in the studio.
The offer also applies to their …