Washburn are now shipping two production models with a cracked-mirror top.
Previously only available on the super-expensive Paul Stanley signature PS2000, you can now get this finish on the V-style WV1800CM and the Idol-style WI1800CM (the CM is, we assume for Cracked Mirror).
Both guitars have a mahogany body and glue-in neck.  The Idol has a rosewood board while the V has ebony.  Both feature split pearl/abalone inlays.
Randall pickups feature in both.  These were designed with Randall Amplifiers specifically for contemporary rock/metal sounds.
Lastly, and this is a nice touch, both have been …

What’s better than six?  Seven, right?  That’s one better.  And what’s better than a Gibson Explorer?  Well, what about a Gibson Explorer with seven strings instead of a paltry, miserly, six?
That should do it.
The Gibson 7-String Explorer has been unleashed.  And it’s available in None-More-Black (sorry, I can’t help it – the Tapisms keep coming).
Effectively this is a regular Explorer in high-gloss ebony nitrocellulose with the addition of a low-B for low-down, doomy riffage.  As you’d expect, body and neck are mahogany and are coupled with the usual glue-in, set-neck …

The Taylor Swift Taylor.  This stuff writes itself.
Whatever your feelings on Ms. Swift, you can’t deny that she’s frickin’ massive.  Ten million album sales and twenty million paid downloads add up to more than any other artist in country music history).
Taylor and Taylor (see, it just rolls off) have had a relationship for a while.  She’s got quite a collection, including one that’s so blinged out it’s been scientifically proven to be brighter than the sun.  This one however, is inspired by her own, first, Baby Taylor and is, if …

You know those Christmas stocking things you can get for your pets with a squeaky bone and some doggie nibbles and whatnot in them?
Well you can get one for the guitarist in your life too.
This is the JHS Christmas Stocking.
The solution to the question: what do you buy the guitarist who has everything?
Not really, but it is a reasonable gift for someone starting out down to road to guitar-based superstardom.  Or, indeed, a reasonable gift if you can’t afford that 1958 Les Paul that your guitarist-significant-other has been pining after. …

Rotosound launch their British Steel guitar strings and provide a, rather splendid, picture of Hendrix and chums too.  Click on it for the big image.  No doubt it’s cool.
The British Steel strings are based on Rotosound’s original, Stainless Steel Electric Guitar Strings from the 60’s but are manufactured with modern, improved processes and better materials.  The new British Steels are designed to give brilliant tone, sustain and volume.  Rotosound use stainless steel with the highest possible iron content to provide better magnetic properties.
The originals were used by Hendrix (hence …

The bass player and singer from Blue Cheer, Dickie Peterson has died.
He passed away on 12th October in Erkelenz, Germany after a long fight with cancer.  He was sixty-three.
If you’re not familiar with Blue Cheer, you should be.  They are frequently cited as being the band that invented heavy metal and certainly their style of heavy blues is in a very similar vein to the other bands often heralded with the same accolade.
Formed in 1966, the original(ish) line-up comprised Peterson on bass and vocals, Leigh Stephens on guitar and Eric Albronda …

Been thinking about getting yourself some shiny (or, in the case of software, virtually shiny), new AmpliTube kit? Now’s the time to do it.
Until the end of October, IK MultiMedia (the modelling boffins that give us AmpliTube) are offering a 3 for 1 deal on selected products.
All you need to do is to buy one AmpliTube product from the list below and register it.

StealthPedal
StealthPedal Deluxe
AmpliTube 2
AmpliTube 2 Crossgrade
AmpliTube Fender™
Ampeg® SVX
AmpliTube Jimi Hendrix™
AmpliTube Metal

Once you do, you can download – completely free – any two of the following:

AmpliTube 2 Crossgrade
Ampeg® SVX
AmpliTube …

Weird, eh?  This is the 3rd Power HD100 amplifier head sitting atop three separate HLH 312 speaker cabinets.
The HD100 is a US-made, 100W, all-valve amplifier head.  It’s built with point-to-point construction and has two, foot-switchable channels.  A ‘voicing’ switch can toggle from ‘smooth’ (classic, vintage tones) to ‘bold’, which we’re told provides a more lyrical quality.
Each of the HLH312 speaker cabinets (and remember, there are three in this image) contains three Celestion Vintage 30 speakers.  3rd Power claim that the design of the cabinets eliminates the beaming and comb-filtering associated …

Jim Dunlop – purveyor of many cool things such as the MXR range of pedals, the wonderful Crybaby wah and my regular brand of picks – also make strings.
There are a number of gauges and styles of acoustic, electric and bass strings.  There’s even banjo strings if some pickin’s yer thang.
Acoustic gauges are available in phosphor-bronze and brass.  Electrics run the range from extra light (8 top) to extra heavy (13 top).  Four and five string bass sets are available.
In addition, Dunlop have got their heads together with some pretty …

OK, so this is an interesting one to follow on from yesterday’s Yamaha tour.  Today’s tour is to Taylor Guitars.
Just like you did in school, I want you to compare and contrast Taylor’s approach and what you see in their factory to what you saw in yesterday’s video from the Yamaha factory.  I think it’s interesting to see these two tours and the approaches outlined in each.
Now go and write an essay on what you’ve learned.  Or not, I don’t care.  What am I, your mother?