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.

Private equity firms are big news in the U.K. at the moment, by offsetting any profits with overseas debts they are getting away with paying little or no taxes. A house of commons committee put it to one private equity boss that he was pay less tax than his office cleaning lady!

Big hair, diveboming tremolos and ferocious finger tapping: it all began with 80's guitar master Eddie Van Halen. At the recent NAMM 2007 show Eddie announced a new licensing deal with Fender.

As an introduction to a line of upcoming Van Halen products. The Fender custom show reproduced 300 copies of Eddie's legendary Frankenstrat red and white. The replicas feature every scratch and dent of the original, according to Fender. All sold out within 15 minutes, even with a price tag of $25000!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JT0exTVXIHI

It’s that time of year again – when we get the box of Christmas decorations out of the attic and see if the lights still work. It’s also a time when guitar heroes climb into the attic of rock, and rummage in the dusty box of Christmas tunes for a seasonal hit.

When it comes to festive guitar albums, Merry Axemas (released in 1997) and Merry Axemas 2 (from 2005) are the shiniest baubles on the Christmas tree of rock. Merry Axemas was conceived by Steve Vai and features eleven ninties guitar heros. Vai said at the time,