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Books and Reference Material General

The New Guitar Collecting Amazon Store

icontexto-webdev-social-bookmark-09tipdrop logofacebook481Time for a little shameless self-promotion.

We have set up our own store within Amazon, for all the guitar related stuff we can think of.

The thinking behind it is that we hope to create a starting point for anybody searching for books about guitar collecting, tab books and sheet music, CDs and DVDs by relevent and maybe hard to find guitarists, such as Steve Vai, Joe Satriani, and Michael Landau.

We will be adding to the shop very regularly, but you can also use it as a starting point to search within Amazon for anything else.

We aren’t trying to hide the fact that we also earn a commission on anything that gets bought through the shop links, so by earning a little  cash this way it allows us to keep running the website and keep the rest of our advertising as low key as possible. I hope our readers can appreciate this point, we will never engage in spam or “in your face” promotional techniques.

We hope you like the shop, and please feel free to give us any suggestions on how it could be improved.

Visit the Guitar Collecting Amazon Store

Categories
New Guitars

Paul Smith And Vintage Collaborate on Designer Guitar


icontexto-webdev-social-bookmark-09tipdrop logofacebook481Not Paul Reed Smith!

Paul Smith, the well known British clothing designer, has collaborated with Vintage Guitars in order to produce the Paul Smith acoustic guitar.

It’s a 3/4-sized acoustic that Paul Smith is refers to in most of his marketing as a ‘children’s guitar’ but could really serve as a travel guitar for the fashionistas who wants to strum as cooly as they dress.

paul smith guitar

The guitar has a spruce top and mahogany body with a maple neck and rosewood fingerboard. Specifications list a mahogany bridge but the image makes it look rosewood (which would be more usual) – I suppose it may be dyed.

Finish is black gloss only and it has a blue binding. The soundhole rosette features the Paul Smith ’signature stripes’ and the headstock bears the Paul Smith signature.

It comes with a gig back sporting a small Paul Smith tag and another ’signature stripe’ on another small tag.

It is for sale at Paul Smith website (or in his stores) for £180 or $330.

amazon banner ad

Categories
New Guitars

First Chanel, now the Ferrari Guitar


icontexto-webdev-social-bookmark-09tipdrop logofacebook481This is interesting. The Blackbird Rider travel guitar is now available in a special Ferrari version. The body is a one piece carbon fibre monocoque, just like an F1 car and the design is unique to say the least. I have never seen or heard of these guitars before but they seem pretty good, (watch the video below) and Felipe Massa certainly looks pleased!

Blackbird Rider Ferrari Guitar

The Blackbird Rider Ferrari Guitar costs $1,500 and has a red A string and a  Maranello red interior, which is cute.

For further information their website is here

Categories
General

Gibson Guitars may face prosecution under revised Lacey Act

icontexto-webdev-social-bookmark-09tipdrop logofacebook4811958 Gibson Les Paul StandardGibson Guitars, long lauded by environmental groups as a pioneer in the use of sustainable wood products, is the first U.S. company to face prosecution under a new federal law banning trade in illegal wood.

“This is the first enforcement action that we are aware of, and we are extremely encouraged that the government is taking this new tool so seriously,” said Alexander von Bismarck, executive director of Environmental Investigation Agency, a nonprofit group that investigates international environmental crime.

That “new tool” is an amendment to a century-old law called the Lacey Act, which combats trafficking in illegal wildlife, fish and plants.

Congress expanded Lacey in May 2008 to include timber and wood products, making the United States the first in the world to regulate trade in plants and plant products. Declaration requirements went into effect in May of this year.

According to the EIA, which fought for more than a decade to get the amendment passed, Gibson is the first in the country and, by default, the world, to be investigated under the new provisions.

Penalties for violations of the Lacey Act range from a simple forfeiture of goods to fines of up to $500,000 and prison time if the company or individual is found to have knowingly engaged in the trade of illegally sourced wood.

Agents with the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service executed a search warrant at Gibson’s Nashville guitar plant on Tuesday. According to unconfirmed media reports, agents seized various items, including an endangered type of rosewood from Madagascar.

Andrew Ames, spokesman for the U.S. Department of Justice, confirmed the raid but declined further comment.

Gibson posted a statement on its Web site stating that it is “fully cooperating” with Fish & Wildlife officials.

Late Wednesday, Gibson updated the statement to include a statement from Allen Hershkowitz, senior scientist with the National Resource Defense Council.

“NRDC knows firsthand that the leadership at Gibson is committed to and informed about environmental issues, and we look forward to continuing our collaborations with this good and upstanding organization for many years to come,” Hershkowitz said.

But an NRDC spokeswoman said the statement is from the past and is not in response to Tuesday’s raid.

Nashville Biz Journals

Categories
General

Iowa music store will restring guitars for food

icontexto-webdev-social-bookmark-09tipdrop logofacebook481This is a great story, why don’t other string manufacturers follow D’addarios lead?

Clinton, Iowa — Local music store, Tegeler Music, in cooperation with the D’Addario String Company and the Independent Music Store Owners coalition will take part in the national Restring for Food event collecting non-perishable food items in exchange for restringing guitars. All food collected will be turned over to Pantries United and distributed to three Clinton area food banks — Benevolent Society, Salvation Army and Community Action.

The Restring for Food event will take place from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday at Tegeler Music, 101 S. Second St. Tegeler Music will be stringing donors’ electric and/or acoustic 6-string guitars for free with a brand new set of D’Addario strings.

In return Tegeler Music asks that people donate at least two non-perishable food items per guitar. The D’Addario string company donated all the strings for this event and Tegeler Music staff will install the strings, polishing and evaluating each guitar present.

This national food drive was originally organized by a group known as iMSO (Independent Music Store Owners) which has a current membership of almost 400 independent music stores, a large portion of which are involved in this year’s food drive.

“I have been a member of iMSO for about three years and it is one of the best things I’ve done to help focus my business in a positive direction, especially when we have an opportunity to take part in an important event like this national food drive,” Don Tegeler, owner of Tegeler Music, said.

Along with the food drive, there will be drawings, giveaways, special sale pricing and in-store promotions of musical instruments and other gear.

Donors and other customers can enter to win a free iPod shuffle to be given away Saturday, Dec. 19.

Clinton herald.com

Categories
Collectable Guitars

Charvel Spectrum Epidemic!


icontexto-webdev-social-bookmark-09tipdrop logofacebook481I thought you may be interested to see this. A high end guitar collecting friend of mine has a guilty pleasure. Collecting Charvel Spectrums! His addiction has been satisfied for the time being, with the arrival of a black model from Australia, although he is making noises about the lack of maple necked models. He has also persuaded a few collecting friends of his to indulge too, and between them the Spectrum collection is now in double figures. So what's all the fuss about? The reason is, these are great guitars... versatile, with an extra tone eq pot and great for gigging with. They have an 80's vibe about them (don't get too near that pointy headstock!), and the quality of the construction is undeniable.

Seven Charvel Spectrum Guitars

The sparkle finish model (top left) is a special order, but the rest are all original.

These are still pretty cheap guitars, in the £300-500 price range, but prices are steadily climbing, probably due to my mates hoovering them up at a rate of knots!

If this style of guitar is of interest to you I'd start looking soon. As always, I'd recommend going for originality and  good condition to help safeguard future values, but I'd be quick, because as soon as funds allow I'll be out there looking for an orange one too!

In the meantime, here's a little bit more information about Charvel Spectrums.

Categories
General

Relic your guitar parts

tipdrop logoI found this interesting video yesterday. I’d never considered doing this myself. but it’s given me a few ideas..