Xploration • Curation • Recommendation
Highlights and High Jinks from the inaugural Norwich Fret Fest / Sweat Fest - at St Mary's Works
At one stage there was a 50/50 chance as to whether I would make the show - as there were significant disruptions on the Liverpool Street to Norwich line - which meant a bus replacement service between Colchester and Ipswich. Some of the journey times quoted were up to 4 and a 1/2 hours each way! In the end the door-to-door was closer to 3 hours in total! The journey up including the coach was actually more fun that the journey back via Cambridge. Cambridge has obviously sinned grievously as ...
The first 100 Units of Josh Scott's Signature BilT JHS Relevator Guitar are now available - actually probably sold out already!
So this has been on the cards for a long time - as Josh has been sporting this intriguing guitar for a few years now, and interest has been steadily growing. All in all - a quality South Korea import guitar for $1600 (World Musical Instruments) is actually a really decent price. The guitar has high quality components and materials. While I have some ergonomic challenges with some of the details!
I’m not a fan of Kluson style tuners - I will always favour more modern locking tuners - by ...
Inaugural Woking Boutique Guitar Show Highlights from Fiery Bird
Maybury Guitars - Jason
So here are the highlights from the very first Woking Boutique Guitar Show - which took place this past Saturday at the Fiery Bird venue - just 5 minutes walk from the train station / town centre.
The show was organised by my good friend Jason Snelling of Maybury Guitars, alongside John Smith of JAS Guitars. The venue was perfectly centrally located, and was spacious - with a lot of natural light - which did make some of the photography somewhat...
Alternative Guitar Show #2 Highlights - from Paper Dress Vintage in Hackney, London
It was quite the deliberation - deciding which image should be the cover shot for this feature - on balance I think I made there right decision by picking the very first photo of the day - where Hello Sailor Effects certainly delivers that Technicolour Rainbow which looks so appealing. Moreover I snagged a one-off pedal from that stand - a few minutes before the show was officially opened - but more of that later!
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 ...
