Readers should know that one of my favourite form factors for guitars is the Marconilab EGO series - where I featured the EGO Thunder 2K17 back in July of 2018. I believe the EGO range had been out of continuous production for a while - possibly the occasional custom guitar was produced - while there were certainly very few in circulation for an extended period. I’m obviously a little out of touch - as we now have a range of 14 in full production (since before NAMM 2022?) - which retail at from...

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 ...

I keep saying that I’m done with NAMM for the year - while there was no way I was leaving this one out. I’ve always liked Strandberg Guitars - including their unique and proprietary EnduNeck. I was disappointed recently when they stopped engraving the brand logo into the wood - now it’s just a surface print.

My nearest Strandberg dealer is GuitarGuitar in Camden - and I’ve been so tempted on several occasions to pick one up. These were the original and are still the best headless guitars in...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

You will have seen on other guitar-related features that I’ve brought up the Boss / Strandberg collaboration a number of times om this site, and that guitar has been a somewhat long-term wishlist item, yet it like several of the others here are on the pricier side of the divide and slightly ’unobtanium’ at the moment. No doubt some of these will come down in price - and / or lower priced alternatives will be made available.

I really like the modernity of Headless ...

Around a couple of years ago, Boss - the king of pedal-makers, seemed to have lost its way a little - it had become somewhat stale and staid in a marketplace where it still had the lion’s share of the action. While Boss had kind of rested on its laurels - a number of innovative companies had risen up and were nipping at its heels in one way or another - e.g. Strymon, TC Electronic and even JHS.

And within a relatively short while of not doing very much innovating at all, Boss is ...

It should be evident by now that my preferred style of guitar is the doublecut S-type, with relatively few exceptions. My preferred pickups are humbuckers - ideally with some well-defined grunt, and I am very fussy about fretboards (Rosewood / Ebony) and headstock shape. As any guitar aficionado does, I have a rolling wishlist of guitars I desire to acquire - I’m not setting up shop, so the chance of me getting all, or even a significant number of these are slim to none. This is more of a...