Category Archives: Newswire

Bassist Trevor Bolder, who played with Uriah Heep for decades, died May 21. He was 62 and had been battling cancer. After playing on the local R&B scene in the ’60s near his hometown in East Yorkshire, England, bolder scored a gig with The Rats, which included guitarist Mick Ronson. In 1971, re replaced Tony Visconti on bass in [...]

Levy’s Leathers Jimi Hendrix lyrics guitar straps are inspired by the style of the legendary guitarist and use his images and handwritten song lyrics exclusively licensed from Authentic Hendrix. Each sublimation-printed polyester strap has an original design, song title, and handwritten lyric excerpt on the front, with the full song lyrics printed on the back. [...]

Ray Manzarek, keyboardist and founding member of The Doors, passed away May 20. He was 74 and had been battling cancer. Manzarek  and singer/front man Jim Morrison formed The Doors in 1965 and it became one of the most successful rock acts to emerge from the decade. In 1993, the band was inducted to the Rock and Roll [...]

Classical guitarist Scott Tennant will stage a performance using seven guitars owned and played by the Romero family, June 1 at showroom of Guitar Salon, Santa Monica, California. The guitars – an 1886 Torres, 1970 Miguel Rodriguez reverse-fan, 1919 Santos Hernandez, 1958 Miguel Rodriguez flamenco, 1969 Hermann Hauser, the 1973 Miguel Rodriguez churchdoor known as [...]

An event dubbed The Jeff Hanneman Memorial Celebration will take place May 23 at the Hollywood Palladium, in Los Angeles. It will be free and open to the public. Hanneman, who passed away May 2 at the age of 49, co-founded Slayer with fellow guitarist Kerry King, bassist Tom Araya, and drummer Dave Lombardo in [...]

The Seymour Duncan Nazgûl pickup was designed for high-output, chug-heavy distortion. The company calls its tone “heavy and aggressive” but says it retains articulation and provides precise pick attack. “The Nazgûl gives chords heavy saturation and produces a lightning-fast response… Perfect for all high-output metal needs in which sonic obliteration needs to be accomplished.” The Nazgûl [...]

Dunlop’s MXR Prime Distortion pedal is designed to provide a hard-clipping signal that is highly responsive to player attack and with an articulate sound that is easy to dial in. It has controls for Output, Tone, and Distortion, and an all-analog circuit that uses low-noise op amps. It will be available exclusively at Guitar Center [...]

The Les Paul Foundation supports Guitars For Vets, a program headquartered in Milwaukee, by providing funding so Guitars for Vets can purchase guitars requested by veterans who graduate from the program. Throughout his life, Les Paul was interested in music education, engineering, and medical research. For more, visit guitars4vets.org and lespaulfoundation.org.

J.C. Harper’s 40th Anniversary Buck Dharma signature guitar has an alder body with a forearm bevel and “tummy cut.” It has a maple neck, walnut fingerboard, mother-of-pearl dot inlays, a 25½” scale length, 24 stainless-steel frets, 16″ fingerboard radius, 1 11/16″ bone nut, a custom BOC Kronos inlay on the headstock, and Dharma’s signature on [...]

A team of engineering students at Rice University has designed a new capo for guitar they say allows players to more easily make certain chords without cramping their fingers. The attempt was inspired by John Jaggers, a Rice alumnus who plays in an acoustic duo. “I thought, ‘This is a mechanical-design challenge,’” Jaggers said. “So I [...]