Featured, Guitar 101 »

Continuing our Guitar 101 voyage of discovery around the guitar, we’re staying with the neck and contemplating the truss-rod.
What the hell is a truss rod anyway?
At it’s simplest, a truss rod is a device to counteract the tension of the strings. We’ll get on to looking at the different types of truss rod in a minute or two but first, lets look a little deeper into that explanation.
The strings on your guitar or bass, when tuned up to pitch, exert a lot of pressure. It’s a tall order …

Featured, Music »

John Paul Jones, as many of you may know played bass and keyboards for Led Zeppelin. This is all that many people know of him and that’s a shame.
So, for this featured video, we’ll take a look (a listen, really) at a something Jonesy has done in the more recent past. Although a bit of a multi-instrumentalist, JPJ does have a thing for the bass. This post, therefore, is a bit of a homage to our low-down bass-bretheren.
In 1999, Jones released the album, Zooma. This was an instrumental album. While …

Featured, News »

For a couple of reasons, I recently had to surgically remove the Guitarless Facebook page.  It was a long and painful operation but I’ve now successfully grafted a new page on to the side of Facebook’s torso (I considered its forehead but felt it might get too much teasing at school).  Given the changes, I thought I’d take the opportunity to let you have a round-up of the various ways and means to keep in touch with Guitarless news.
News Feed:
First and foremost is the RSS News feed.  If you’ve no …

Featured, Software »

OK, there’s no doubting that this is an interesting idea. Not just an amp in your pocket, it’s potentially a whole slew of amps, speaker cabs, microphones and stompboxes in your pocket.
That’s either a big pocket or AmpliTube’s clever new interface/app combo for iPhone.
The iRig is an external interface that plugs into the headphone socket of your iPhone.  It allows you to plug in a standard ¼ inch guitar lead and has a pass-through for your actual headphones.
You make noise on your guitar or bass, it gets processed in the …

Bass, Competition, Featured »

We mentioned the launch of the, rather handsome, Epiphone Thunderbird PRO bass a while back.
Did you see?  Did you want?
Well, if you did want one, now’s your chance to win one.
Just pop off to Epiphone’s competition site, pop your email address in the email address field and you might just win a T-Bird Pro.
Not too shabby.
Closing date is 31st of January, 2010.

Amps, Featured »

Orange have been keeping busy and have used NAMM to launch a number of new models.
First up, pictured left, is the new addition to the, very popular, Tiny Terror range.  We’ve always had a soft spot for the lunch-pail Tiny Terror.  Those of you who don’t have – or don’t want – extension cabs around the place however, can get your Tiny Terror in combo form.
This new addition to the Tiny Terror Combo range is even more tiny and comes loaded with a Celestion G10 Vintage speaker.  This unit sits …

Bass, Featured »

Fender are celebrating half a century of Jazz Bass goodness by introducing the limited edition, 50th Anniversary Jazz Bass.  The idea is that this bass incorporates design elements from several important periods in Jazz Bass history.
This baby includes features from a few different eras (even if ‘modernised’ versions of them).
From the 60’s:

Nitrocellulose finish in Candy Apple Red.
60’s style headstock logo
C-shaped neck
Chrome pickup and bridge covers
Pearloid block inlays on the fingerboard

From the 70’s:

Bridge pickup placement
Thumb rest

From today:

High-mass, vintage-style bridge
Modern tuners
Posiflex neck support rods

Personally, I’ve always liked Jazz basses with block inlays …

Bass, Featured »

It looks set to be announced properly at NAMM but information is out about Warwick’s Bootsy Collins Infinity Signature Bass.  One thing’s for sure; it’ll get you noticed.
Based on the Warwick Infinity bass, the Bootsy signature is available in two flavours – the Black Star and the Orange Star.  Obviously enough, perhaps, the differences in the models are the colours of the stars in the finish – black on the Black Star (pictured) and orange on the Orange Star. Simple.
The bass has an through-neck in maple.  The body wings (hollow) …

Bass, Featured »

Way back in the mists of time – September, 2009 to be precise – Warwick began offering a ‘bass of the month’.  What this meant was that they would release a special edition bass each month.  The special bass would be, essentially, a tweaked version of one of their standard instruments but tweaked sufficiently to make it a little more unique and exclusive.  Here’s a round-up of the Warwick’s fall line.
September – Thumb Bolt On French Flamed Ash

A mouthful to be sure.  This is a twist on the regular Thumb …

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, …