5 years ago, Fender applied to trademark the Stratocaster, Telecaster, and Precision Bass body shapes. They targeted several knock-off companies as infringing on this trademark.  Today, Fender lost. “Fender refers to the ‘iconic’ status of these [instrument] outlines in American popular culture. However, we must resolve a narrow issue: Do consumers associate these two-dimensional outlines, [...]

Paul from PositivelyCleveland.com dropped me a note to point me towards a cool interactive Adobe Flash website named Rock Immortal, built by the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame to honor the 2009 inductees. Upload your own vids, pics, and stories in honor of your favorite inductee by clicking the ghostly guitar pick. To read what others [...]

The Seattle Times reports that Jimi Hendrix’s childhood home has been torn town, despite the best efforts of real-estate investor Pete Sikov. He did battle with the city for 8 years trying to save the house. But all is not lost. He did manage to save the good bits: Sikov doesn’t refer to the house [...]

MusicRadar.com has a world-exclusive interview with Chickenfoot in “podcast” form (i.e. downloadable mp3s): Hagar and Anthony are happy to have found new life after Van Halen, and Satriani has realized his lifelong dream of being in a “big time, vocal-oriented rock band.” Formed last year after a series of jams at Hagar’s Cabo Wabo Cantina, [...]

I couldn’t agree more with Ian McPhail over at thebatt.com, who ponders why popular music is so bad and offers a simple suggestion for new generations of artists: you gotta pay your dues and learn the fundamentals. Unlike bands of the past, modern musicians take the easy way out when it comes to learning instruments. The [...]

Cool public program at the Grammy Museum in Los Angeles tonight at 7:30: Enjoy a rare glimpse inside of the world-renowned Fender Custom Shop, where many of the most sought-after electric guitars are born. Through this educational program, guests will discover how the Fender Custom Shop has combined Fender’s rich legacy and unique R&D capabilities to [...]

Did you know that every year B. B. King does a Mississippi tour to honor slain civil rights leader, Medgar Evers? Or that he and his band once played 342 one-night stands in one year? Or that B. B. toured with the Stones in 1969? Me either. Check out Dave Howell’s Fun Facts About B. [...]

Not many people think of Prince as a guitar player, but he is. And a damn good one. Here he is playing Dreamer, Hendrix-style: Great performance. But did you catch what happened at the very end? The last 1 second or so? A guy cuts in front of the camera taking back the guitar Prince [...]

I love books like this. Dave Hunter has a new book out, The Guitar Pick-Up Handbook, about one of the most important parts of our electric guitars. From Gibson.com, which today posted a lengthy excerpt: As the electric movement began to show some legs, established guitar manufacturers — those who naturally approached the challenge from [...]

The New York Times music section has an article  posted about classical guitarist John Williams contributions to the otherwise stagnant repertory of guitar pieces: Guitarists seem to be navigating a minor repertory crisis these days. The transcriptions and neo-Romantic Spanish and Latin American works that Andrés Segovia built his career on remain the guitar’s core [...]

Speaking of Rick Nielsen, the guitarist will contribute tracks to High Voltage Software’s new first person shooter, The Conduit. Here’s “Chief Creative Officer” Eric Nofsinger on Rick: We were very excited to get the chance to work with Rick on The Conduit. Even though he’s known for driving rock guitar, he was able to provide [...]

A Força da Rua (Force of the Street) is a street art project co-founded by Led Zeppelin’s Jimmy Page and supported by Gibson that aims to help Brazil’s poorest kids. They’ve brought together 12 artists from Brazil and the UK to paint some Gibson SG’s and Les Pauls. Here’s my favorite: PURE EVIL: From spray [...]

The Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, MI will be displaying some classic guitars, rock memorabilia, and, of course, cars from the personal collections of some big names in rock like Kiss, Pink Floyd and the Who (wouldn’t mind seeing Keith Moon’s old Bentley, but something tells me that car won’t be there) during the 2009 [...]

Lately, it seems like I’ve been focusing too heavily on extreme guitar gymnastics, so I thought I’d bring things back into the world of anti-shred. Steve Kimock screams anti-shred to me. He’s a super melodic rock player with definite jazz and Jerry Garcia overtones (in fact, Steve has toured with various Grateful Dead members over [...]

Wow, great fun over at the 2008 Dean Shredder Search Winners page. Watching these videos makes you realize how far developing technique has come since Eddie Van Halen invented the concept on rock guitar. The bar is set so incredibly high right now that you have to resort to costumes  to distinguish yourself. Here’s a [...]