Private equity firm Bain Capital has just bought out Guitar Center (including the online retailer Musicians Friend) for $2.1 billion. Guitar Center is one of the leading retailers of musical instruments in the U.S. Stockholders will get $63.00 in cash for each share of Guitar Center common stock they own.

How far is your nearest guitar shop? Is the lack of local shops driving you to buy over the internet, or to make trips to the big city to get your guitar gear? We have generated a map of the US guitar shops in the guitar-list database, to show how the guitar shops are distributed among states.

OLGA (On-line Guitar Archive) a venerable library of guitar and bass tablature has been shut down. It has been around for years, used by a generation of learner guitar players. OLGA has been taken down by legal action twice before, in 1996 and 1998, but recovered. This time it looks serious, the site has been down for a few months already.

Ever wondered why so many heavy metal guitarists in the 1980s had long hair? By growing your hair long (and thereby saving the cost of haircuts), you can save enough money to finance your next guitar.

If the average price of a haircut is around £10 ($20) and you have a monthly haircut , by letting your hair grow in 3 years you could raise £360 ($720). Enough to get a new guitar!