Guitar Blog
Our new guitar blog will be showcasing guitars, guitar and equipment reviews, offering lessons and playing tips, plus loads of other guitar stuff, so watch this space….
“The guitar has a kind of grit and excitement possessed by nothing else” Brian May
Rickenbacker 381 V69
Hollowbody / Production from 1987 to 1997. The Rickenbacker 381 V69, was originally called the V68, V69 was a reissue of a 1969 model, which was a reissue of the originally 381 made from 1958 - 1963. Confused?The 381 had a full depth body that...
Valley Arts Custom Pro
Solidbody / Production is late 1970's to current day. A Custom Pro guitar that does what it says on the tin (or wood in this case) its a pro guitarist guitar built for the professionals.Valley Arts started in the 1970,s as a music/guitar store...
Shergold Custom Masquerader
Solidbody / Production from 1977 to 1981. Norman Houlder and Jack Golder departed from the Burns when it was purchased by Baldwin in the mid 1960's. The got together and started Shergold in 1967 and did contract work for Burns London, among...
Gibson Byrdland
Hollowbody / Production from 1955 to current day. The name Byrdland used on the 1955 Gibson guitar was a little confusing at the time to the buyers who knew of the famous New York Jazz club with the same name. The guitar was a signature model...
Morsite Model 88
Solidbody / Production 1988. The Mosrite company and Semie Moseley had a somewhat nomadic history as shown in the Model 88 from 1988, which was made in the mountains of North Carolina. Moseley was born in Oklahoma and established Mosrite in...
Epiphone Noel Gallagher Super Nova
Hollowbody / Production 1997 - 2005. Noel Gallagher was the lead guitarist and primary song writer for the group Oasis and was a massive influence on many late 1990’s Britpop bands.Oasis’s rise coincided with the in the rise in quality of...
Fender Jaguar
Solidbody / Production 1962 - 1975. Fender introduced another model four years after the Jassmaster called the Jaguar, which was aimed a Jazz players, and the result would be much the same as the Jassmaster - it sold well to everyone but...
Zemaitis Metal Front
Solidbody / Production 1970 - Current Day. The most familiar part of a guitar made b Tony Zemaitis is the metal front. In the 1960's he was already a well known respected maker of acoustic guitars, when in 1970 he was shielding a couple of...
Melobar Skreemr
Solidbody / Production 1967 - Current Day. Walt Smith of Idaho, USA, invented the Melobar in the 1960's for the purpose of steel guitarists, who were normally confined to chair, could look cool on stage as the fellow lead, rhythm and bass...
Gretsch Country Classic G6122-1962
Hollowbody / Production 1990 - Current day. Although Chet Atkins’s influence of design and style continued to be as strong through the 1970’s as it was in earlier periods, Gretsch’s quality was falling short of the competition, and one of the...
Rickenbacker 362/12
Hollowbody / Production 1975 - 1992 Rickenbacker's sweeping crescent shape of its Capri models took a rather, what was termed as a "turn for the worst" when it stretched out to accommodate two necks.The earliest double necked Rickenbacker's...
Gordon Smith Gypsy SS 60
Hollowbody / Production 1990's. in 1975 John Smith and Gordon Whittam built their first guitars.producing solidbody designs inspired mainly by Gibson's double cutaway Les Paul Junior and special of the late 1950's. Never Flash or pretentious,...
Fender Jassmaster
Solidbody / Production 1958 - 1979. The Fender Stratocaster of 1954 to the opinion of many guitarists, is the benchmark of the electric solidbody guitars. Leo Fender continued to design and refine his ideas and came up with what Fender...
Gibson Les Paul Custom
Solidbody / Production 1957 - 1960 / 1968 - current day. In 1957, Gibson gave its Les Paul Custom a big upgrade and added a third pickup and replaced the single coil pickups with double coil pickups "Humbuckers". The gold plated metal pickup...
Framus Melodie 9 String
Solidbody / Production 1960's. Since the very start of blues and folk music, twelve string guitars have been part of and a major influence and they mirgrated to rock & pop music in the 60's thanks to the tracks like Mr Tambourine Man by The...
Egmond Model 3
Solidbody / Production 1960's. In the 1950's and 1960's the typical Edmond electric guitar was the Model 3, unoriginal, cheap to buy and nothing special. The Rosetti 3, Rosetti was the importer, has a beautiful pearloid and unusual textured...
Alembic Series 1
Solidbody / Production 1970's. Alembic guitars are less seen than the Alembic basses, but like the guitars they are easy to spot with their Hippy sandwich strip going through the multi piece thru body construction and along the handcrafted...
Futurama 3
Solidbody / Production 1957 - 1965. The three rocker switches on the Futurama provide on/off options for each pickup, which them provides more pickup selection combinations than the Fender Stratocaster could provide. This according to the British distributor Selmer,...
Micro-Frets Orbiter
Hollowbody / Production 1967 - 1969. The 1967 Micro-Frets Orbiter was a showcase and benchmark of unconventional design and innovation, from the calibrated vibrato to its contemporary out of control body shape and most important of all. its wireless transmitter. Ralph...
Hofner Galaxie
Solidbody / Production 1960's. Hofner guitars were founded in the 1880's in Germany by Karl Holfner, who was a maker of bowed instruments. The company after world War II in the UK had a good market, more so because of the absence of American...
Gibson SG
Solidbody / Production 1961 to current day. The sales of Gibson Les Paul with its newly introduced cherry sunburst finish started to slow up in 1960, Gibson decided to change the body style of this particular model. The effect on sales was...
Klein BF
Solidbody / Production 1990's to current. Based in the Vineburg, California, Steve Klein has designed acoustic and electric guitars for musicians like the great Joni Mitchell and Joe Welsh. Hi Klein BF is a combination of many years experience...
Barker 7 String
Hollowbody / Production 1968 - 1988. William Barker started his guitar making career working for Carl Albanus Johnson, who made archtops that rivaled D'Andelicos and Strombergs in the 1950's and and 1960's. Barker and his brother went into...
D’Angelico Electric
Hollowbody / Production 1950's - early 1960's. D'Angelico's Legendary acoustic archtops along with his laminated body electric guitars were typically built to order for individual clients, so there are many different specifications out there....
Vox Phantom XII
Solidbody / Production 1966 - 1968. Vox Guitars were among the most modern looking guitars of the early 1960's and fitted the musical attitude of the era perfectly. The Angular body of the Phantom series made it near impossible to play in a...
ESP Slayer
Solidbody / Production: 2013. Body & Neck: Alder body, Maple NeckFingerboard: EbonyPickups: Two EMG Humbuckers 2001 was the anniversary of the benchmark 1980's metal by Slayer "Reign In Blood" (1986) The artwork on the guitar featuring a...
Kramer American Sustainer
Solidbody / Production 1989 - 1990. Kramer's American Sustainer of 1989 featured like most of the Kramer range a Floyd Rose Vibrato bridge, along with a Floyd Rose distortion generating humbucker in the bridge position. The Floyd Rose...
Burns Hank Marvin
Solidbody / Production 1964 - 1965. The Shadows lead guitarist had dual fame in the instrumental group and with pop star Sir Cliff Richard's band. Hank Marvin was the UK's most famous and influential rock guitarist and household name of the...
Music Man Albert Lee
Solidbody / Production 1993 - Current. With a generation influenced and inspired by the country guitarist Albert Lee, with his lightning fast licks, its amazing to think that he has never had a hit record. Appropriately, The Music Man Albert...
Gibson Flying V
Solidbody / Production 1958 - 1959. By the 1950's Gibson was at the top of its game and well established as Fenders main competitor, but while Fender took solidboded guitars to a new level with the Telecaster and Stratocaster, Gibson was only...
Guild Brian May Signature
Solidbody / Production 1993 Guild's BHM-1 of 1984 was the company's first of several attempts to re-create the homemade guitar played by Brian May of the rock Queen. In the workshop at home a young Brian May with his Father created what Brian...
Tokai Humming Bird
Solidbody / Production Late 1960's. The 1968 Tokai Humming Bird with its pointed horns was inspired by Gibson's SG models, but the rest of the body was copied directly from Mosrite Ventures signature model.It was only available to the Japaneses...
Vaccaro Stingray (X-Ray)
Solidbody / Production 1999 - Current. Henry Vaccaro gave the financial backing into a partnership that created Kramer guitars in 1976, but sadly the Kramer guitars finished in 1990, but Henry could not get guitars out of his system. He...
Parker Fly Nitefly
Solidbody / Production 1992 - Current. Ken Parker began developing ideas for the Fly guitar while working at the New York City guitar shop. The Parker Fly represents a redesign of every element of the electric solidbody guitar. Ken's goal of...
G&L Comanche
Solidbody / Production 1989 - 1991, 1998 - Current. G&L was founded by George Fullerton and Leo Fender in 1979 and fender's input continued to refine, design and develop the G&L models that had defined Fender Guitars in the 1950's. The...
Heritage H-535
Hollowbody / Production 1987 - Current. This beautiful Heritage guitar looks very much like the Gibson ES-335, as well it should. Heritage was formed in Kalamazoo, Michigan, by Gibson employees who refused to relocate to Nashville when Gibson...
Fender Telecaster
Solidbody / Production 1952. In 1955 a white pickguard appeared on the Fender Telecaster, to help hide wear and tear, unlike the previous Bakelite black guard. With the white guard, the butterscotch look of the early Telecaster's changed to a...
Fender Broadcaster
Solidbody / Production 1950 - 1951. The Fender Broadcaster is a popular choice throughout the guitar world, but of course Known as the Fender Telecaster. The Broadcaster revolutionised the guitar world as the first commercially successful...
PRS Swamp Ash Special
Solidbody / Production 1996 - Current. Since 1985 Paul Reed Smith guitars have been described as having evolved from the best features of Gibson and Fender guitars. The CE models of 1988, with Alder bodies and bolt on necks became of great...
Music Man Silhouette
Solidbody / Production 1986 - Current. The Music Man company was left without a production arm when Leo Fender left in 1978, as originally Fender's CFL had been contacted to supply instruments to Music Man. The great Grover Jackson stepped in...
Gretsch White Falcon G6136CST
Hollowbody / Production 2004 - Current. Gretsch's standard 1990's line of Japanese made guitars had already cashed in on the vintage appeal of its original 1950's models. When Gretsch came to Fender's control in 2003, Fender decided to created...
Fender Squier Stratocaster
Solidbody / Production 1982 - Current. The 1980's were a ruff time for Fender in the patchy guitar market of the USA. Demand for Fenders in Japan grew to the point that in 1982 Fender set up the Fender Japan company. Despite many improvements...
Veleno The Original
Solidbody / Production 1970 - 1975, 2003 to Current In 1970 John Veleno started making guitars out of Aluminium. Not being a new idea as Rickenbacker made its infamous electric "Frying Pan" model in 1932 of cast Aluminium. Veleno chose...
Cort Larry Coryell
Hollowbody / Production 1998 to Current The Chicago based Cort guitar company benefited massively and pulled themselves above being a typical guitar importer when they put together the Jazz fusion guitarists Larry Coryell's signature model....
Ibanez Universe
Solidbody / Production 1990 - 1994 / 1996 - Current The Ibanez Universe is a 7 string version of the Steve Vai designed JEM model, without the "monkey grip" hole in the body. It was Vai who opened up the world of seven strings to guitarists...