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 ...

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 ...

Even though my favourite body shape is still the Strat or S-Style Doublecut format, I do still quite like most variations on that theme - including the sharp pointed ’devil’s horns’ of the Gibson SG shape - as most famously rocked by AC/DC’s Angus Young.

These are classically all-Mahogany sort of PAF humbucker affairs with typically Set-Neck 24 and three-quarter inch scale length, and classically Rosewood or Ebony Fretboards. Preferred control layout here also ...

So the world’s least secret surprise is finally revealed - the long awaited John Mayer PRS S-Type which has already been seen out in the wild at various gigs. I must say that I am both pleasantly surprised and bemused at the same time, while the £2,300 ticket price is not unreasonable really compared to other pro USA-made ’strats’ by the likes of Suhr etc. It’s called the ’Silver Sky’, while its model designation is 635JM which comes from the source ...

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 ...

Note - follow up article [here]

Many a owner of a vintage guitar has experienced the difficulty of keeping the guitar in tune. There are a couple of factors here that are critical to tuning fidelity. Firstly, get over the hangup of having to use the original tuners - you really need locking tuners for any reasonable peace of mind. Locking tuners are available in a vast variety of shapes and types, including various vintage-inspired ones, so it should not prove to be problematic to find a ...