And - before someone comments - yes, I am aware of the other Pacman guitar that has appeared on just about every internet guitar forum devoted to "weird" guitars.

The above guitar is currently listed on eBay UK with an oprimistic But It Now price of £330.

G L Wilson

© 2011, Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 10th year!

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This is cool....

AC/DC have teamed up with Australian vintner Warburn Estate and jumped on the celebrity bandwagon of having your name on a wine bottle. They’ll sell varieties with names inspired by their hits. Highway to Hell cabernet sauvignon, You Shook Me All Night Long muscat and Hells Bells sauvignon blanc. Unfortunately they missed what must have been the biggest opportunity by not including a Whole Lotta Rosé in the range.

Kiss, Madonna, The Rolling Stones, Iron Maiden and Whitesnake have all launched their own wines. The AC/DC wines will be on sale across Australia.

Source: BBC

A few of us Haworth's got to meet Jim Daddario in NYC last year. Top bloke, well done mate!

“D’Addario & Company, the world’s top manufacturer of guitar strings and musical accessories, today announced that Jim D’Addario, CEO, received the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur Of The Year® 2011 New York Award in the Distribution, Manufacturing and Construction category. According to Ernst & Young LLP, the award recognizes outstanding entrepreneurs who demonstrate excellence and extraordinary success in such areas as innovation, financial performance and personal commitment to their businesses and communities. Mr. D’Addario was selected by an independent panel of judges, and the award was presented at a gala event at the Marriott Marquis on June 8, 2011.

“It’s an honor to be selected as a winner of this esteemed award,” says Jim D’Addario, CEO of D’Addario & Company, Inc. “It is a testament to the hard work of everyone at D’Addario & Company, and we are grateful for the recognition from such a prestigious organization.”

The D’Addario family art of string-making dates back to 1680 when Donato D’Addario was born to a string-making family in the tiny village of Salle, Italy. After immigrating to the U.S.A. in 1905, Charles D’Addario began first importing strings from his family in Italy and eventually began manufacturing in a home workshop in Astoria, Queens, NY. The present company was founded in 1973 and began manufacturing guitar strings. Through a series of acquisitions the company expanded to become the world’s largest manufacturer of musical instrument accessories. D’Addario’s broad line of innovative, high-quality musical instrument accessories includes proprietary brand names D’Addario (strings), Planet Waves (musical instrument accessories and custom installation cabling solutions), Evans Drumheads, Pro-Mark (drumsticks), Rico (reeds), and Pure Sound (snare wires).

Headquartered in Farmingdale, N.Y., D’Addario products are sold in over 120 countries. They are the preferred choice of professional and serious amateur musicians worldwide including Dave Matthews, Daryl Jones (The Rolling Stones), Lenny Kravitz, Ricky Skaggs, Kenny Davis (Herbie Hancock), Peter Erskine, Candy Dulfer (Prince), Mark Nuccio (NY Philharmonic), Michel Arrignon (Paris Conservatory), and Jessica Phillips (Metropolitan Opera), among numerous others. Today, there are more than 1,000 D’Addario employees worldwide and thirteen D’Addario family members still work at D’Addario which proudly manufactures 92% of its products in America.”

Source: Press Release

Epiphone announce limited edition 50th anniversary 1961 Casino

via Guitar News Daily by Dave Mac on 7/20/11

Excepts from the press release:

In honor of the 50th anniversary of the first 1961 Casino, Epiphone is proud to announce the new, limited-edition 1961 Anniversary Casino, which has many features that were discontinued after the original Casino’s first year of production. Epiphone has produced a total of only 1,961 Anniversary Casinos, each with a numbered Certificate of Authenticity – a quality that enhances the guitar’s appeal and collectability. The exclusive Epiphone 1961 Anniversary Casino is available beginning in July 2011 at authorized Epiphone retailers worldwide for the U.S. MSRP of $1,332 (trapeze tailpiece) and $1,415 (Tremotone™), while supplies last.

Introduced in 1961, the original Casino had a combination of unique features that ultimately were never offered beyond that first year. These include the triangle metal logo badge on the headstock, “Dot” fingerboard inlays, a blank two-ply “bullet” trussrod cover, a tortoise-colored pickguard with foil “E”, and black dog-ear P-90 pickups. Epiphone has faithfully reproduced these features for a one-of-a-kind retro look not found on Casinos produced after 1961. Other features include the correct “burst” patterns on front and back, a neck joint at the 16th fret (instead of the 17th), Wilkinson™ vintage-style tuners with small plastic buttons, and the historically accurate rectangle “blue label” inside the sound hole.

No detail of the original 1961 Casino has been missed. Epiphone has recreated the original U.S.A. made black P90s, which offer a stellar combination of high output and biting treble response. They also feature vintage two-conductor, braided, shielded wiring and black plastic covers. Other electronics faithful to the original Casino include a Switchcraft™ 3-way toggle and 1/4″ output jack.

The Casino is completely hollow, which contributes to its unique, signature sound made most famous by The Beatles. The body is made of five-layer Maple/Birch with a solid Mahogany SlimTaper™ neck, attached using the traditional mortise and tenon neck joint, hand-fitted and glued to the body. Hardware includes a tune-o-matic bridge and the choice of either a Trapeze tailpiece or Epiphone’s new reissue of the original Tremotone™ vibrato. Each 1961 Casino also features an original-style hard case with gray exterior and blue plush interior.

Source: Press Release

You're on the money Angelina....

Actress Angelina Jolie says she would encourage her six children to learn guitar than to go to school.

“I do think we live in a different age and the education system hasn’t caught up with our children and our way of life,” dailystar.co.uk quoted Jolie as saying.

“I’d encourage them go to a museum and learn to play guitar and read,” she added.

Source: Times Of India

An album signed by John Lennon, just hours before he was shot dead, has fetched $38,700 at auction.

The “Double Fantasy” album was one of number of items of pop memorabilia which fetched almost £500,000 at an auction in London on June 14th.

A pair of Jimi Hendrix’s leather boots fetched over $15,000.

Source: The Independent