Vintage tuners on a Fender Mustang
I know a few guitarists who have a tech restring their guitars for them. These people are not stupid or lazy. They are quite happy to restring some of their guitars themselves. But they fear the open slot variety of tuner, worried by the technique required to bind the string to the tuning post. But it’s not difficult.
(Read more…)
Album cover for Push The Sky Away, by Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds
It’s been a long time coming, but the 15th album from Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds proves to have been well worth the wait. It is, quite simply, extraordinary. Arguably the band’s finest work.
(Read more…)
Cake’s guitarist Xan McCurdy gets incredible tone from a basic rig.
(Read more…)
Instrument – front cover
Photographer Pat Graham spent more than ten years documenting the intimate relationships between musicians and their instruments. The most fascinating of these have been brought together in this beautiful book. Accompanying the images are personal stories and reflections from, and about, artists such as Johnny Marr, Modest Mouse, Ian Curtis, Bernard Sumner, Jerry Dammers, Nick Zinner, Kurt Cobain, Ben Bridwell and many more.
(Read more…)
Johnny Marr has been announced as this year’s recipient of the NME Godlike Genius Award.
In a recent interview for NME, Johnny Marr told how he came to own his iconic cherry red 1959 Gibson ES-355. The day he got the guitar, he used it to write The Smiths’ classic “Heaven Knows I’m Miserable Now”.
(Read more…)
Recorded on the 6 Jan 2012, this jam session is pure joy. Guitar tone doesn’t get much better than this, my friends. Lose yourself in sumptuous, saturated, overdriven sounds.
(Read more…)
Gretsch G6137TCB Center Block Panther Double Cutaway – click for larger image
Gretsch is celebrating its 130th birthday with the introduction of several new models which include the new Center Block series.
Something of a departure from the standard Gretsch template, the Center Block series features a full-body-length spruce centre block – a Gretsch first – which is chambered at the lower bout to reduce weight and ensure the new series stays friendly at high volume.
(Read more…)
Guild Starfire IV
Guild’s new Newark St. Collection marks the return of eight classic electric favourites from the 1950s and ’60s, including the Starfire III and IV models.
The original Starfires were highly popular and prized by many guitarists, such as Bob Weir and Jerry Garcia of the Grateful Dead. Their distinctive design and tone make a welcome return.
Both the hollow Starfire III and semi-hollow Starfire IV are equipped with low output pickups designed to deliver a natural, warm and open sound with good clarity.
(Read more…)
Fender Custom Shop Time Machine 1952 Relic Telecaster – body close up
The Fender Custom Shop’s 2013 Custom Collection presents some of its most sophisticated and meticulously crafted product offerings to date, including eight guitars and two basses.
(Read more…)
Chris Shiflett Signature Telecaster Deluxe
When friend and bandmate, Sheila, announced that she had ordered the new Chris Shiflett Signature Telecaster Deluxe, I faced a double-edged sword. On the upside, the band will benefit from some new tonal qualities and the Ice Maiden will look even cooler than she normally does on stage with the Arctic White Shiflett hanging from her shoulders. On the downside, I can’t really get one myself now. You just doesn’t do that sort of thing. When it comes to guitar acquisition, copycat behaviour among bandmates is a no-no.
(Read more…)
