Although Leo Fender was the first to mass produce the electric bass guitar in the 1950s, Seattle musician Paul Tutmarc could be considered its true inventor.

H. Homer Simpson filed this patent for an adjustable guitar bridge and neck attachment system in 1935. Homer designed the neck joint to have a minimal amount of contact between neck and body, as he thought this would increase the tonal value of the instrument and increase the overall volume.

After more than two months research and development, Acme Musical Instrument Company have released three new Guitar EQs:

The F- 5T: is  a new equalizer with LCD tuner specially designed for roundback guitars. The E - 2T & E- 4T: are both mini equalizer with LCD tuners.

To meet the demands of acoustic guitar enthusiasts, ACME recently released two tunes for acoustic guitar: the AM-T95 & AM-T98.

Early in June 2009, Acme Musical Instrument Company released a new tuner AM-T30 to widespread attention.

  

The AM T30 has novel design, guitar and bass tuning modes, three color options: black, argent and ivory.

British guitar string maker Rotosound has launched a range of polymer coated electric and acoustic guitar strings. Rotosound's microscopic coating process adds a flexible, protective, black or clear coating to the new Nexus range of strings. The special black polymer coating helps prevent contamination and corrosion, extending the life of the strings.

The London Guitar show is back at the  ExCeL Exhibition Centre, London Docklands June 11^th to 14^th 2009. The lineup is:

Saturday 13^th June

10 am Guitar Idol final

12.45 Jan Akkerman

A collection of twelve rare early British-made electric guitars has been found in a Cheltenham basement of a house. The Supersound guitars were made by during a short partnership between Jim Burns and Alan Wootton from 1958 and 1959.

The collection includes both single and double cutaway solid body electric guitars and basses with Gibson influenced necks and headstock shapes.

Paul Rubenstein has suceeded in making a passive hexaphonic pickup that fits into a single coil space. Paul is a guitar player and teacher as well as an inventor (of the alumitar for example). These pickups have a separate coil for each string, allowing you to process each one indidivually.

Tradtitonally the unique selling point of Orange amps has been their bright orange finish. But this unusual styling, setting them apart from other amplifiers of the 1970s, is not to the taste of some guitarists.

Guitar Idol, is the world’s biggest online talent search to find the hottest undiscovered guitarists.

Californian artist "BePicky" makes stuff out of guitar picks. I like her chandelier for $95 (I can spot some of my favourite Dunlop Tortex picks on there). She also makes baby pacifiers $10 and jewelery (from $15 to $50).

Link: BePicky stuff made out of guitar picks.

SOLIDOBODIES, The 50 YEAR GUITAR WAR focuses on the competitive influences that have made the Fender Stratocaster and the Gibson Les Paul the most popular electric guitars during the rock era. This is the story of their design & sounds, the people behind the instruments and the battle for rock 'n' roll supremacy that began more than a half-century ago. 

A guitar set on fire by Jimi Hendrix during a performance was sold for £280,000 after it was found in a garage where it had been lain for 40 years. The blazing guitar was a stunt, designed to generate publicity for Hendrix (he was then a relative unknown on the swinging sixties scene).

13 year old Calvin Prior wanted to get a £1100 Marshall Amp, so he started busking with his electric guitar on Brighton seafront in the UK. He says he is earning around £70 an hour. He has already bought a £2000 PRS with earnings from busking. I would think it is better to busk with the crappiest guitar possible, people will think you need the money.