16 Cool Guitars from In and Around Winter NAMM 2024
These are simply the most attractive and appealing 16 Guitars that I came across through the NAMM guitar coverage.
I alas seem to mostly have expensive taste - as some of these models cost as much as $22,000, with the PRS SE Swamp Ash Special a somewhat lonely outlier @ $849. The majority here seem to be between $3,000 and $5,000.
I’m not sure I will even acquire any of these - while it’s of course nice to dream what you would do if / when your lottery numbers come through!
The ...
Another 25 Notable and Distinct Guitar Body Shapes - Part 3
Do please note that this is the 3rd roundup in the series - for those looking for more classic / vintage guitar designs - then the first part is the more pertinent for your preferences. Part 2 became a little more eclectic and avant-garde, while this Part 3 is an even mix of more classic / traditional designs and more modern and futuristic.
This part plays some fan service in covering some of the more popular omissions from the previous posts - while I don’t subscribe to the same view for ...
ESP Guitars goes slightly overboard with a £9K Signature Guitar for Japanese Virtual Holographic Pop Star Hatsune Miku
A recent YouTube video from Andertons really tickled me, and I felt compelled to share some thoughts! I’m actually a fan of the Hatsune Miku ’persona’ without being a fan of that quirky high octane Japanese pop music.
Like many I’ve scanned through a number of YouTube videos over the last few years - where I’m entirely fascinated by the concept of Hatsune Miku and quite delighted that such a quirky entity should exist. I suppose Disney Musical Shows of their most popular Animated Characters...
Boss Unleashes 2 Ingenious Bluetooth Enabled Devices - the EV-1-WL Wireless MIDI Expression Pedal, and the Revolutionary Eurus GS-1 Electronic Guitar
It’s tricky to know where to start when Boss springs this big a surprise on you! With literally last minute notice for two top secret projects that Boss has quite evidently been working on for a while.
The guitar is something rather more unusual for Boss - so perhaps I should start there. I’m not sure many of you recall Boss’s last foray into guitars back in 2017 - as a collaboration with Strandberg Guitars - for the Boss V Guitar - a heavily customised and evolved ...
Birmingham's The Guitar Show Highlights
For me, this turned out to be the best The Guitar Show yet - where I pretty much managed to round off all my pre-show goals - in terms of seeing what and whom I wanted to / needed - as per the following highlights. I caught 2 great lunchtime showcases - first by Mikey Demus of Skindred / Redbeard Effects fame and then Rabea Massaad of Andertons, Chapman, Dorje, Toska, etc. fame - and D’Addario as it turned out - albeit people were really just there to see Bea play.
I must have circled the ...
Guitar Highlights at the 2019 Birmingham Guitar Show
As posted on this site - I spent yesterday/Saturday at ’The Guitar Show’(poor SEO) which is actually the UK’s most significant guitar show - but still relatively compact and bijoux and with lots to notable absentees. No Fender or Gibson, and strangely no Chapman Guitars either - they seem to have an odd approach to their own domestic market!
In any case there was plenty to see at the show - still nothing really compared to what takes place in Germany or the USA, but enough for a day out. I ...
10 of the Best New Guitars Released in 2018
2018 has been a pretty decent year for new guitar releases - with genuinely something exceptional for near enough every variety. Fender released the really cool alternative range of Parallel Universe guitars - including the above Troublemaker Telecaster. And Gibson released the perfectly packaged Les Paul Junior Tribute.
We also saw Ibanez, Music Man and PRS further build on their quality reputations - while Music Man concentrated more on its Sterling diffusion range as it was so busy ...
UK Guitar Show at Olympia Highlights - Pedals and Guitars
So I attended the inaugural Future Publishing UK Guitar Show this past Saturday at the Olympia Exhibition Centre London - Levels 2 & 3. It was not the most auspicious day for an event in London, considering there was a strike on the Piccadilly line, and the important chunks of the Circle, District, Hammersmith & City, and Metropolitan lines were down for maintenance. I therefore ’tubed’ it to Shepherd’s Bush or Westfield essentially, and walked down from there - a ...
Best of Summer NAMM 2018 - Pedals, Guitars and Amps
I always expect to be excited by the new prospects introduced at Summer NAMM, but it can be somewhat antic-climactic, particularly compared to this year’s very formidable Winter NAMM show. Several pedals that were announced there are still alas somewhat in the ether. I was expecting to see updates of the Empress Zoia and the Keeley Stereo Tape Delay pedal - but those were not forthcoming, which most probably means some production delays - I certainly can’t imagine the Zoia is going ...
The Still Omnipresent Twin Duopoly Dominates the Electric Guitar Marketplace
If you are in the market for an electric guitar, there are actually just 3 brands which together still totally dominate and skew the entire marketplace. And while the birthplace of the modern guitar (USA) has become more open-minded towards brands from other points of origination. The UK is still very much overly skewed toward just a handful of brands. I’ve just completed watching the highlights of the BBC Big Day Out event in Hull, and the dominance of Fender, Gibson and Marshall is ...
