Acoustic, Featured »

Continuing their trend of releasing guitars with slightly unusual numbers of strings, Taylor have introduced the Baritone 8-String.
With Taylor’s GS (Grand Symphony) body shape and a long scale length of 27 inches, the addition of two octave strings on the third and forth strings provides a smattering of upper-register sparkle without straying too far into all-out, 12-string jingle-jangle territory.
The Baritone 8-String has Taylor’s Expression system built in for amplification duties.  The body top is sitka spruce and the back and sides are solid, Indian rosewood.  A Venetian cutaway is standard.
Pearl …

Featured, News »

Look closely.
See that?  That’s a rosewood bridge with an acoustic saddle on there.  But it looks like a Tele bridge.  If you’re going to make a hybrid-type guitar from a Tele, that’s a nice touch.
And that’s what this is.  The Acoustasonic Tele is fitted with a Fishman Aurasystem to allow realistic, acoustic tones from a Tele.  It’s also got a regular, magnetic neck pickup to give more traditional (electric) Tele sounds.
Cool, eh?

The magnetic pickup is a Custom Shop Twisted Tele single-coil.  Its controls are on the front plate as per …

Workshop »

This is a bit special.  It’s a lovely, pre-war Martin.  Actually, it’s pre-1934 if you want to get a little more precise (but only a little) – it’s fitted with bar frets.
It’s been through the wars a little and has, at some stage in the past had a long side-crack repaired. That repair has lasted some time from the look of it and doesn’t overly concern me.
What is a concern, however, is the bridge.  The leading edge has cracked and broken off under string-tension.  The owner saved the piece that …

Guitar 101, Headline »

While there is a massive chunk of the this site’s audience already very familiar with what each bit of a guitar is, this article is really aimed at those who might be just starting their guitar journey (or even just thinking about it).
This first article in Guitar 101 is a primer (or a refresher if you want to do a little revision) to ensure we all know the basics before we start moving on to look, in more detail, at all of the bits of a guitar.  For that reason, …

Featured, Music »

Featured video time.  This week(ish) is Jimi Hendrix who is, lets face it, the guitarist who needs very little introduction.
Something just a little different though.  This is an acoustic rendition of Hear My Train A Comin’ on a 12-string guitar.  I think this video is from the film, See My Music Talking.
A similar, acoustic 12-string version can be heard on the Blues album, which is a compilation released in 1994.  It contains versions of Hendrix playing, as you might expect, blues songs – originals and covers.  Despite the cynical nature …

Accessories, Featured »

Holy crap!
Are you so damn, bat-shit, guitar-crazy that you even think about guitars when you answer the call of nature?  If so, these might be just the thing for you.
Jon over at GuitarNoize found these and I can’t decide if they’re an interesting curiosity or the product of a deranged mind.  They’re from Jammin’ John’s and, as you can see, they’re toilet seats in the shape of guitars (he also does piano-shaped seats – bet Elton John as one in each of his nineteen bathrooms).  
If you’re a folkie, you …

Accessories, Bass, Featured »

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 …

Accessories, Amps, Bass, Featured »

You’ve probably seen the Vox amPlug before.   It’s a plug-in headphone amp for late night jamming or those other times when cranking your Marshall stack just isn’t feasible (oh, the horror).  Well, Vox have recently added a number of options to the range.  You can now have amPlug convenience in a number of additional sound-styles.
As well as the AC30, Classic Rock and Metal styles, you can now get the amPlug in Lead, Bass or Acoustic versions.
Lead is modelled on a US high-gain boutique amplifier.  This amPlug has a digital delay …

Acoustic, Featured »

Well, not really, but this is quite cool in a ‘basic guitar anatomy’ sort of way.
You can step through, at a (very) basic level, the making of a Martin Guitar (or pretty much any acoustic guitar really).  You get a wireframe diagram that is built up with extra bits as you move through each step in the process.  At every stage, there are some photos and some information about what’s happening and why.
It’s interesting for those of you who wonder how many pounds of pressure an average acoustic guitar bridge …