Articles in the News Category
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Christie’s AuctionHouse is having a Country Music sale. On December 3rd, they’ll be auctioning off a ton of stuff associated with a ton of country music stars.
Among the fringed shirts and other memorabilia that you might expect, are lots of guitars.
And some of them are pretty cool. To name but a few items:
There is a 1940 S-200 Gibson archtop that used to belong to Roy Rogers. There’s a 1947 Martin D-18 that used to belong to Hank Williams. Buddy Holly’s leather covered Gibson J-45 from around 1942 or 43 also …
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It seems the only news lately is sales, sales, sales.
For their Thanksgiving celebration, Fender are offering 10% off the price of all Fender gear over the holiday weekend (27th to 30th November).
This isn’t a sale, however, it’s actually called Fender Fan Appreciation Days. Fair enough – doesn’t matter what it’s called when there are bargains to be had.
This is in participating Fender dealers only (and US only).
To see if there’s a participating dealer near you, check Fender.
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It seems IK are overcome with good cheer this festive season. I wrote a while back about some of the deals on offer from them and, while they’re still available, IK have even more bargains the these penny-pinching times.
There are quite a few offers, so I’m not going in to great detail on each. IK’s site will have all the info your recession-hit pocket requires.
I’ll include links to each of the various offers as we go. Bear in mind when purchasing that prices are listed exclusive of VAT or taxes.
SampleMoog, …
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If you’re one of the few who are unfamiliar with the beginning of the ‘Gibson raided by the Feds for alleged issues with their sourcing tonewoods’ story can read about it here and here.
Gibson’s CEO, Henry E. Juszkiewicz, has been serving on the board of the Rainforest Alliance (who aren’t exactly keen on non-sustainable forestry) and, until this issue is resolved, he has stepped down from his position with the RFA.
The Rainforest Alliance has released the following statement:
Statement in Response to the United States Fish & Wildlife Service’s Investigation of …
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Another cool competition. From Fender this time.
Everyone loves a Jazzmaster, right? ‘Course you do. Well, so does J Mascis of Dinosaur Jr.
Fender are doing a Dinosaur Jr. tie-in with this competition. You can win a, very handsome, custom-built, sparkle-finish Jazzmaster – with a gold anodised pickguard (none more cool) – that’s been signed by J Mascis.
If you win, Fender will even give you a copy of the latest Dino Jr. album. Probably, the Jazzmaster is a bigger draw though – it is pretty stunning.
Pop off to Fender and sign up …
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The last in our look at a few of the travel guitars available to the discerning, jet-setting axe-man/axe-lady.
Simultaneously the most traditional and most unusual guitar of our series, the Voyage-Air range of travel guitars feature a ‘foldable neck’.
As you can see, the neck is hinged. You unscrew a knurled bolt to loosen it (the bolt doubles as a strap-button) and fold the neck down to the body, effectively halving the length of the instrument. When you want to play, reverse the process and tighten up the bolt.
Easy. And pretty clever.
There is …
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To continue our look at a few of the, slightly more unusual, travel guitars available, we’re now considering the Emerald Guitars X5-Life.
As you can probably see, the X5, in common with the Blackbird Rider mentioned previously, is another carbon fibre guitar. Why, it’s like the wonder material of the future.
Clocking in at 3 lbs, the X5 looks a little more ‘guitar-like’ although it certainly has some Emerald eccentricity about it. It has a scale length of 25.5 (longer than the Blackbird) which is the same as most Fender-type guitars and …
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The image opposite is the Blackbird Guitars ‘Ferrari-branded’ version of their Rider Travel Guitar.
Now, if you’re like me, you’ll may be scoffing cynically on reading that. “Pffhh!” you’ll say, “a Ferarri guitar? And it’s made from carbon-fibre. Pffhh, pffhh and, thrice, pffhh.”
However, there are a couple of things to consider. The Ferarri thing isn’t just a cynical cash-in, tenuous thread of an excuse to sell more guitars. Blackbird’s founder and designer, Joe Luttwak actually worked for Ferarri in Maranello. He tells us, “many ideas for Blackbird Guitar’s models were inspired …
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As noted in the last post, Gibson have had a brush with the law resulting in Federal agents seizing wood and instruments from Gibson Guitars’ Nashville plant.
It seems that they have also seized computers and records.
Musical Merchandise Review have some additional information on this and apparently, Gibson is under investigation for violating the Lacey Act for the importation of particular, endangered species of rosewood from Madagascar. After a coup in January, the new president of Madagascar legalised the export of rosewood and ebony from his country. The president’s opinion on …
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Rather an odd piece of news this. Seems that federal agents raided Gibson’s guitar manufacturing plant in Nashville and seized guitars, wood and other items as evidence in a possible case of illegal use of restricted woods.
The use of some woods that are used in guitar-making is restricted and tightly controlled. For instance, it is almost impossible to properly source Brazilian rosewood (generally considered to be the most desirable) in any quantity. Restrictions exist on other tropical hardwoods and instrument-manufature tonewoods too. It looks like the Feds …
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