Dean B. Zelinsky is a name you may know.  He started Dean Guitars many years ago and has come and gone from that company a couple of times since.  He’s currently ‘gone’ and is running a new company DBZ (or Dean B. Zelinsky) Guitars.  Three-letter acronyms seem the order of the day for guitar companies lately.
After a strong performance in the US, DBZ are now shipping their guitars to more of the world and has distrubtion in Canada, Australia, South America and most of Europe (including the UK).
As you’d expect …

Further to yesterday’s news that Guns N’ Roses were being sued by two record companies for allegedly using samples of songs by, German electronic musician Ulrich Schnauss, G N’ R manager, Irving Azoff has released the following statement:
“The band believed when the record came out and still believes that there are no unauthorized samples on the track. The snippets of ‘ambient noise’ in question were provided by a member of the album’s production team who has assured us that these few seconds of sound were obtained legitimately. Artists these days …

Point your browsers to jskguitars.com, the home of startup company JSK Guitars, and the baby of Joe Knaggs.  Joe was formerly Director of R&D and Private Stock for PRS Guitars.  He left in the summer to blaze his own trail in the guitar world.  JSK, or Joseph S. Knaggs Guitars, has only got a holding page at the moment.  There’s no real information bar the tantalising glimpse of things to come (i.e. the image that I’ve swiped from their site and placed below – If Joe or any of his …

Independiente, a UK-based record label and Domino Records in the US, are seeking damages against Guns N’ Roses for copyright infringement.  They allege that G N’ R copied parts of two songs by Ulrich Schnauss, a German electronic musician.  The labels feel that Schnauss’ songs, Wherever You Are and A Strangely Isolated Place, were used, without permission, on Guns N’ Roses last album, Chinese Democracy – specifically on the track Riad N’ The Bedouins.
The lawsuit is looking for a cool one-million clams in damages.

News is beginning to make the rounds of the internet concerning the release of Kats Karavan a 4-CD box set of music from the legendary John Peel’s radio shows. Readers outside of the UK and Ireland may be unaware of Peel but he was a household name for forty-odd years, renowned for playing a massively eclectic mix of music from new and upcoming artists and bands. It’s no exaggeration to say that he provided the first radio broadcasts for many hundreds of artists.
Spanning the years from 1968 to his death …

A couple of notable anniversaries for October.
The Big Two of guitar makers both have something worth celebrating this month:

Although officially announced in April (and included on the cover of Fender’s April price list), full-scale production of the Fender Stratocaster really only began in October 1954.  Initial production – from April until October – was really quite slow, consisting mainly of marketing models.  These were used to demonstrate the radically new instrument to dealers and players (and at that summer’s NAMM).  Only after the dealers had gotten sufficiently used to …

The massive-foreheaded boffins in Line 6 have been busy of late and have announced and shipped two new rock-toys.
First off is the M9 Stompbox Modeler. This is a multi-effect pedal that houses a huge collection of splendid stompbox-type effects. Included are loads of distortions and drives, compressors and reverbs. There are filters, modulators and pitch-shifters. It’s also got a number of effects lifted from Line 6’s DL4 delay modeler and includes a 28-second looper with plenty of control over your loops.
You can run three effects simultaneously and can tweak the …

This is the Graveyard Disciple, a collaboration between Epiphone and Zakk Wylde. And it’s, erm, a coffin.
It’s a limited edition coffin, however, comprising a mahogany body and a maple neck all decked out in funereal black. An ebony fingerboard and none-more-black hardware complete the look.
It’s loaded with EMG-HZ pickups. These are passive pickups and are probably a concession to the price bracket. It does come with a proper Floyd Rose trem though.
The Graveyard Disciple is certainly not going to be everyone’s cup of tea. Those that will be attracted by …

It’s an AC/DC box set.  It’s got CDs, DVDs, an LP, book and a bunch of badges ‘n’ stuff.
That’s not all.  See the image over there?  That’s the box it comes in (and it’s a biggie – 12 inches on a side).  The top bit is an actual, working amp.  You can plug in and rock out while listening to the tracks.  Ok, of course it’ll sound terrible, but that’s not really the point – it’s still cool and very fun.
You get three CD’s.  The first contains a bundle of …

Taylor are offering something a little unusual as part of their 35th Anniversary instruments. Take a look at that headstock. Yep, it’s a nine-string guitar.
Well, while it’s odd, and I’m at a loss to think of any other purpose-made nine-string acoustics, Taylor inform us (and it’s true) that the country scene have sometimes, down Nashville way, used a nine-string format (though generally utilising a 12-string instrument).
The idea is to get some of that 12-string vibe into the midrange without sending the instrument over the top into utter jangle. The D …