Taylor have announced a, specially designed, Serj Tankian signature model of their T5 electro/acoustic hybrid.
Based on the T5-C, the STSM-T5 has been tweaked using Tankian’s input to this sleek beast.
It features a thinline body of sapele with a maple top.  the top features two, fancy-looking f-holes (which are unbound).  The body is finished in a (very) gloss black and is bound in (very) bright red.
The same red binding edges the fingerboard and the headstock.  The red theme is also carried into the inlays which feature a red ‘energy wheel’ design …

Epiphone have announced a series of clinics, for January, in the UK and Ireland. There, you can see (ahem) Doctor Epiphone, and he’ll tell you a number of interesting things about Epiphone.
More importantly though, you might get some free swag – T-shirts, baseball caps and whatnot.  You might also win a guitar.
The dates and venues are below.  Maybe there’s a store near you…

January 19th – Hard Rock Cafe – Edinburgh, Scotland
January 20th – Dawson’s Music – Liverpool, England
January 21st – GigGear Ltd. – Harlow, England
January 22nd – Digital Village – …

Gretsch are doing a, very limited, run of fifty instruments based on Eddie Cochran’s guitar.
The famous, modified Gretsch 6120 played by Cochran and now residing in the Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall Of Fame was the template for some seriously intricate measuring by Gretsch Custom Shop master luthier Stephen Stern.  Stern checked everything that could be checked on Cochran’s guitar and then set about building an exact replica.
The result is the Gretsch Custom Shop G6160EC.
This instrument’s features include a bound laminated maple body and arched top, a specially shaped three-piece maple/walnut/maple …

Squier have announced the introduction of two new versions of classic Telecaster guitars.
Say hello to the Squier Classic Vibe Telecaster Custom and the Classic Vibe Telecaster Thinline guitars.  Both are based on classic Tele designs from the ’60’s.
The Classic Vibe Thinline has a semi-hollow body, as you’d expect, but it’s made from mahogany .  The tinted lacuqer finish looks great and we’ve always loved the thinline pickguard – looks cool as far as we’re concerned – and this one is a snazzy mint green.
The Thinline has a maple neck with …

We all know Trussart Guitars, right?
The crazy ones made out of steel?
Sure you do.  And, if you’re like us, you’ll probably think they’re pretty, frickin’ cool.
For this week’s field trip, we’re off to visit Jame’s Trussart’s workshop to get a look at some of these guitars coming together.  It’s a photo tour this time (no video, sorry).
The tour is hosted over at wired.com – not necessarily the first place that springs to mind when you think of rusty, steel, guitars but you can’t argue with the images they’ve got.
Off you …

When it comes to rocking the bottom end on stage, there are few basses that look as good as a Thunderbird.  Sling one low and thud away for high-times.
Epiphone have introduced their ‘professional series’ basses, the Thunderbird PRO to bring the distinctive Thunderbird coolness to you at a price that the working bassist can afford.
As we probably all know, the Thunderbird is a neck-through-body bass for excellent coupling and great tone.  The neck section on these Epiphones are seven-piece sandwiches of walnut and maple and they look great.  The multi-ply …

Jimmy Page has helped the Royal Mail launch a new range of postage stamps.
The ten stamps depict classic album covers spanning the last forty years.
Royal Mail’s head of special stamps Julietta Edgar said: “For decades the album sleeve has been the canvas for some of the most imaginative graphic artists in the world, and this issue celebrates this unique art form and some of its greatest examples. We hope customers will enjoy the opportunity to send or collect these classic album designs in their smallest format yet – as miniature …

They can put a man on the moon but you still need to tune your guitar one string at a time. What’s with that?  What is this, the middle-ages?
Polyphonic tuning, or sounding each string simultaneously so you can easily identify if a particular string – or strings – is out of tune would make life much easier than having to check each, one at a time.
It’s not that easy though.  Isolating each string amongst the harmonic overtones of the others isn’t easy to do.  Until now… Possibly.
This Danish software engineer …

Again with the Klinghoffer?
‘Fraid so.  I bring news.
OK.  Before going on, it should be said that there’s an excellent chance any new and unusual happening related the Klnghoffer and his place in the Chili Peppers is actually down to confirmation bias. What I mean is that it’s entirely possible that the events – in and of themselves – aren’t that unusual and, because we’re all looking for weird conspiracies, that’s what we’re finding.  With that in mind, we should all take new information with a small pinch of salt.
That said, I’m …

Fender have announced details of the 2010 American Special series of instruments.  Fender claim these are built ‘by the people, for the people’ and that they are ‘guitars for the times’.
US-built, the series, so far, includes the American Special Telecaster, Stratocaster and Stratocaster HSS.  They are touted as highly-affordable guitars within the reach of an entire spectrum of players that share many features with the Highway One and American Standard instruments.
All American Specials have alder bodies finished in urethane and buffed to a gloss.  All share a 9.5″-radius, maple neck …