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 for [...]

Steve Vai has picked his favorite Guitar Idol finalist–and it’s not the winner, Jack Thammarat. I actually like this one better as well. The composition is more interesting and his guitar playing is a bit quirky and angular, a quality I love. Here’s Daniele Gottardo playing Cardiology:

Sorry to hear about Michael Jackson–one of the best Eddie Van Halen best solos was on Beat It. Regardless of the controversies, you gotta give the guy his due. He was a monster musical figure. Godspeed, Michael.
Here’s a link to that great tune (embedding is disabled).

The new Musical Instrument Museum in Phoenix, AZ, scheduled to open next spring, just purchased a $35,000 Gibson Les Paul Goldtop, similar to the one pictured to the left. The guitar is likely one of the first 60 Les Pauls ever made. The Musical Instrument Museum bought the rare Les Paul from Lynn Wheelwright, an [...]

Eddie Van Halen thinks Nike Dunks stole the copyrighted “Frankenstein” design he made famous, so he’s suing them. What do you think?

Ed’s

Nike’s
(via business.transworld.net)

The Harmony Stratotone pictured to the left, once owned by Rolling Stone Brian Jones, is expected to fetch about $80,000 at auction.
Brian Jones played it on stage, and it can also be heard on the Rolling Stone’s first single, Come On/I Want to Be Loved. Richard Hattrell, a close friend of Jones’, gave him the [...]

Not sure I entirely agree with Steve Lucas on this one. In this day age, when you can’t even carry certain size bottles of shampoo with you on a plane, you might want to rethink a guitar strap with bullets all over it:
The problem was that his Epiphone electric guitar, which is cased in a [...]

According to the Daily Express, Yusuf Islam, formerly known as Cat Stevens, has decided that he won’t sue Coldplay for possible plagiarism:
“I stand by what I said. They did copy my song but I don’t think they did it on purpose. I have even copied myself without even knowing I have done it. I’ll write [...]

I’m sad to report that Bob Bogle, lead guitarist for The Ventures, passed over the weekend. He was 75. Bob was a hugely influential guitarist who inspired countless guitarists, Eddie Van Halen among them. I once read that The Ventures’ Walk, Don’t Run is what got Eddie thinking about the guitar. Godspeed, Mr. Bogle.
(via [...]

Jack Thammarat of Bangkok, Thailand has won the 2009 Guitar Idol competition (how those guys avoid lawsuits from Fox, I’ll never understand). Born in 1979, Jack began playing at 13. He says his style is a combination of rock, blues, jazz and progressive. He works as a guitarist, composer, studio musician, and guitar teacher.

I like [...]

Last Saturday, June 6, 2009, Kyle Busch won the Nationwide series race at the Nashville Speedway. After being presented with a Gibson Les Paul hand-painted by Sam Bass, Kyle smashed it (or tried to–Les Pauls are pretty damn strong), Pete Townshend style.
I’ll be honest with you, I’m one of those people who doesn’t really get [...]

80’s metal queen Lita Ford has hooked up with Bumblefoot guitarist Ron Thal and drummer Dennis Leeflang for a short summer world tour with plenty of dates in the States. Bumblefoot will open. She’s also scheduled to play a select number of festivals and motorcycle rallies.
Jun. 12 - Redwood Run - Piercy, CA
Jun. 13 - [...]

Les Paul turned 94 yesterday, June 9. Les Paul is credited with innovating many recording techniques we think of as commonplace today, such as multi-track recording and overdubbing. He also built and owned one of the first electric guitars, the first of which was named The Log. In addition to his technology innovations, Les Paul [...]