Here’s a bit of guitar tech for you. A University of Maryland professor and a couple of students have formed a guitar company, Coil Guitars, based around their innovations in guitar switches and electronics. In a nutshell, they’ve created a way to increase the number of tones from a set of humbuckers well beyond what [...]

The Wall Street Journal has an article posted today about Martin’s honorable approach to avoiding layoffs at their factory and managing to sell some guitars in this troubled economy. Workers at C.F Martin & Co. are putting finishing touches on the solid-wood 1 Series model, so named for its simplicity. It lacks inlay, as did [...]

This nice looking Hofner Senator hollowbody once owned by John Lennon sold at a Christie’s auction July 1st for a cool £205,250 ($335,214 currently). A letter from George Harrison was included with the guitar (seems auctionable in its own right, no?) proving its pedigree. (via examiner.com)

For the Americans: Happy Independence Day! For everyone else? Happy random Saturday!

A Minnesota jury has found Minnesota mother of four, Jammie Thomas, guilty of copyright infringement. She’s on the hook for $1.92 MILLION dollars for illegally downloading and sharing 24 songs, available on iTunes and Amazon for $.99. The verdict, coming after two days of testimony and about five hours of deliberations, was a mixed victory [...]

Speaking of Steve Vai… He offered a tribute of sorts to the late-great Michael Jackson on June 27 at the Meinl Guitar Festival in Germany. Here is Steve Vai  with Andy Timmons covering Beat It: (via musicradar.com)