In cooperation with the Gibson Custom Shop, Epiphone is proud to announce the second in the series of “Epiphone Custom Historic USA” guitars — the 1962 Wilshire Reissue in White. Made in Nashville, Tenn., and limited to only 100 instruments worldwide, it combines impeccable attention to detail and historic accuracy.

Erroneously referred to over the years as “budget models’ and “poor-man’s Gibsons,” the Epiphone electric guitars manufactured at the Gibson factory in Kalamazoo, Mich., between 1959 and the early 1970s have long represented some of the greatest values around in quality American-made vintage instruments. That is, until the world discovered what a clever few guitarists had long understood – that these Epiphone electrics were not only a bargain, but also great playing and sounding guitars as well. That’s when the values of these early Epiphones started to escalate on the vintage market.

First released in 1960 the Wilshire featured two P90 pickups, a 3 on a side headstock and a solid mahogany body and one piece neck. It was designed to compete with the popular Fender Stratocaster in terms of upper fret access, light-weight and playability. It is little surprise given its Kalamazoo origins that this guitar would share many features with its Gibson cousin the Les Paul Jr. However unlike the Les Paul Jr. the 62 Epiphone Wilshire provided two P90 pickups and an intonatable bridge. This arrangement offered an extremely functional and versatile alternative.

Specifications:
Made In: Nashville, TN USA
U.S. MSRP: $4,832
Body Wood: 1-pc; Peruvian Mahogany
Neck Wood: 1-pc; Peruvian Mahogany
Headstock: 17 degree; 3-on-a-side tuner configuration
Neck Joint: Set; Glued-in
Fingerboard: Madagascar Rosewood
Scale Length: 24-3/4″
Nut Width: 1-11/16″
Fingerboard Radius: 12″
Frets: 22; medium/jumbo
Neck Profile: Original 1960’s Rounded Neck Profile
Fingerboard Inlay: Pearloid Dots
Machine Heads: Vintage Kluson with plastic buttons
Hardware: Nickel
Pickups: Two “soapbar” P-90’s with adjustable pole pieces; Authentic unit base with 1960’s construction
Controls: 2-Volume; 2-Tone; 1 Three-way Selector Switch; CTS potentiometers; Switchcraft Toggle switch and output jack
Bridge: ABR-1
Tailpiece: Aluminum Tune-o-matic
Pickguard: Imitation Tortoise with foil “E” logo
Color: White
Strings: Gibson Vintage Reissue (10’s)
Includes: Hard Case; Numbered Certificate of Authenticity; Reissue Owners Manual; Commemorative T-Shirt; Commemorative Picks; Vintage Coiled Cord; Vintage Thin Leather Strap

This guitar is no longer available at some shops.

More info about this site you can see the official site.

With his scorching riffs and remarkable stage presence, Zakk Wylde has earned a reputation as one of heavy metal’s premier lead guitarists. The Custom Shop teamed up with Zakk to create a guitar featuring Zakk’s trademark black and antique white bullseye graphics, powerful EMG humbucking pickups, and raw, unfinished necks.

The Zakk Wylde Les Paul BFG embodies the mammoth tone and over-the-top rock attitude of its name sake, and offers all the equipment necessary to undertake your own scorched-earth attack on your local music scene: from its rough-hewn bookmatched maple top, to its rounded ’50s-spec neck with ebony fingerboard, to its sizzling EMG 81 and 85 humbucking pickups — all approved by the Wylde man himself — the Zakk Wylde Les Paul BFG is primed to deliver the message, in a big way.

Price: about $4,700 [Click here to check latest price]

Body:
Top wood: Carved maple
Back wood: Solid mahogany
Binding: Multi-ply white/black on top and back

Neck:
Neck construction: 3-piece maple, no finish
Fingerboard wood: 22 fret ebony
Inlays: Pearl block
Binding: Multi-ply white/black
Profile: Rounded
Scale length/Nut width: 24 3/4 in.; 1 11/16 in.
Strings: Brite Wires .010-.046
Electronics & Hardware:
Pickups: EMG-81 and EMG-85
Controls: 2 volume, 2 tone, 3-way switch
Hardware color: Gold
Bridge/Tailpiece: Nashville TOM/Stopbar
Tuner style: Kidney bean

Reviews:

A customer says that the 6100 frets are the balls for ripping it up the first thing u do when u buy this guitar is string it up with a set of zakk wylde signature GHS boomers they make this thing roarrrrrr and scream harmonics used with a boss SD 1 overdrive and a ce5 chorus ensemble and the overdrive on the amp this really kicks ass.

About the price of this guitar, other customer says that it isn’t cheap but for what you getting its worth every penny. It’s a good guitar that you can play for heavy metal music.

[Click here for more reviews!]

Eddie Van Halen launches the all-new EVH® Wolfgang™ electric guitar, available worldwide beginning Jan. 2009. The EVH Wolfgang guitar represents Eddie’s 35 years of experimenting with guitars, over two years of intense research and development, and a full year of brutal road testing during the top-grossing Van Halen 2007-2008 tour.

From Eddie Van Halen comes a guitar representing over 35 years of cumulative EVH experience and expertise in guitar design, the EVH Eddie Van Halen Wolfgang Electric Guitar. Built to Eddie Van Halen’s exact specs and using every single feature of the Wolfgang guitars he himself plays onstage and in the studio, the Wolfgang is a bulletproof and beautiful tonal giant of a guitar that takes whatever you can dish out and then asks for more.

The process undertaken to develop the Wolfgang took over two years of intense trial-and-error research. The formidable task yielded a series of prototypes that endured a full year of brutal in-concert road testing by Eddie on Van Halen’s triumphant 2007-2008 world tour. To prove that it was battle-worthy and could survive the road, performance data was collected from every gig for months and months to establish and confirm consistency and durability.

Features

• EVH chrome Gotoh tuners with pearl buttons built exclusively for the Wolfgang
• AA birdseye maple fingerboard
• Quartersawn maple neck reinforced with 2 graphite rods
• Stainless steel vintage size frets that are practically indestructible and super resistant to wear spots, nicks and dings
• Hard-mounted custom designed EVH humbucking pickups
• Arched AA maple top with 5-piece binding
• EVH Floyd Rose tremolo unit with EVH D-Tuna designed exclusively for the Wolfgang
• Bourns low friction pots: Custom designed EVH volume and tone controls that are available only on the Wolfgang

From Eddie Van Halen

“Everything that I’ve built, destroyed, stumbled onto, learned and experienced is in this guitar,” Eddie Van Halen said. Every aspect and component of this guitar has been examined and upgraded to the highest standards possible–stainless steel frets, double-potted custom-wound pickups, five-piece binding on the matching body and headstock, custom-made signature tuning machines and Floyd Rose bridge, new low-friction pots, and the list keeps going. EVH left no stone unturned.

“A guitar is a very personal extension of the person playing it. You have to be emotionally and spiritually connected to your instrument. I could have just stayed at home and built this guitar for myself. I do this because a lot of people ask if they can get what I use. Well, yes you can and what you get is identical to what I use,” commented Eddie. “From the basics of the guitar to painstaking aspects like the binding and everything else—we re-did everything on this guitar.”

More info

More reviews: Click here for more reviews!

Official Site: http://www.evhgear.com/wolfgangspecial/

Eddie Van Halen and Fender have joined forces to bring you EVH® brand guitars, amps and musical products, beginning with a most eagerly awaited musical event: the unveiling of a 300-instrument limited edition run of the Eddie Van Halen Frankenstein™ replica guitar.

This red, black and white ash-body guitar has been put through an astounding aging process to replicate the original down to every last scratch, ding and cigarette burn. Fender craftsmen even scoured the land for 1971 quarters — just like the original Eddie at one time stuck under the original tremolo bridge — to mount near the Floyd Rose® Original tremolo bridge. The guitar features a Seymour Duncan® Custom Shop EVH® humbucking pickup, a single master volume knob (that says “Tone”) mounted on a partial black pickguard identical to the original. Leaving no stone unturned, the guitar is complete with a non-functional three-way switch and single-coil pickup that occupy two of the three pickup routs.

It’s a phenomenally crafted piece of rock history — of guitar history, period — and it could only come from Eddie Van Halen and the talented resources of Fender. It simply must be seen, heard and felt to be believed, and it will re-evoke the awestruck wonder and sheer thrill you experienced the first time you saw, heard and felt the incredible musical power of Eddie Van Halen.

Features:

* Body: Ash
* Neck: Maple bolt-on
* Tuning Machines: Schaller
* Fingerboard: Maple w/12″—16″ compound radius
* Frets: 21 Jumbo (Dunlop® 6100)
* Bridge pickup: Seymour Duncan® Custom Shop EVH
* Middle pickup: None
* Neck pickup: Seymour Duncan® Custom Shop EVH
* Controls: Master Volume
* Bridge: Floyd Rose® Original Tremolo
* Pickup Switching: 3-way
* Hardware: Aged Chrome
* Strings: .009, .011, .016, .026, .036, .046
* Pickguard: One-ply black
* Scale Length: 25.5″ (648 mm)
* Width at Nut: 1-5/8″ (41.2 mm)

This guitar is no longer available at some shops.

If you want to buy you can check the oficial site: http://www.evhgear.com/frankenstein/

The H-1001FR, available in See-Through Black Cherry over quilted maple, includes a Floyd Rose double-locking tremolo. The thin U-shaped neck with 24 extra jumbo frets provides comfort and speed. An EMG 81 pickup at the bridge and an 85 at the neck provide plenty of power and note definition. Grover tuners and a string-thru-body bridge keep you tuned and intonated, so you’ll sound your best. Volume, tone and a 3-way toggle give you options with simplicity. Black hardware, offset abalone block inlays and white with abalone purfling finish off a great look. [Click here for more info!]

Technical Info

Specifications

Neck Construction: Set-Thru
Scale: 25.5 inch
Body Material: Mahogany
Top: Quilted Maple
Neck Material: Maple
Fingerboard: Rosewood
Nut: 42mm Locking Nut
Neck Shape: Thin U Neck Contour
Frets: 24 Extra Jumbo
Hardware: Black Nickel
Tuners: ESP Locking
Bridge: Floyd Rose 1000 Series Locking
Pickups: EMG 81 / 85 Active Pickups

Click here for more info!

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ESP is a Japanese company that is manufacturing guitars since 1976. The company is one of the biggest producers of artist signature models. ESP Guitars are most popular in rock and metal and used by major artists from all over the world. All ESP guitars are branded as ESP, LTD or Xtone.

ESP Guitars are built in Japan using premium woods and hardware and considered to be top of the line compared to the LTD and Xtone models. The LTD ESP guitars represent high quality products with an affordable price. Both the LTD and Xtone models of ESP Guitars are manufactured in Korea or Indonesia and represent the lower end models.

About ESP Guitars

1975
The first dedicated store for providing custom parts to hot-rod guitars opens in Tokyo. The shop is called Electric Sound Products, or ESP.

1976-1982
ESP gains attention as a reputable provider of high-quality replacement parts. ESP also begins crafting the first complete guitars under the ESP and Navigator brand names for the Japan market.

1983
ESP replacement parts for electric guitars and basses are introduced to the US market.

Present
The ESP and LTD-brand signature models include custom guitars played by James Hetfield of Metallica, Stephen Carpenter of Deftones, Jeff Hanneman of Slayer, Alexi Laiho of Children of Bodom, Wayne Static of Static X and many others.

Price: $5,999.99

UV77 RE’s basswood body recreates the legendary multi-color motif, arriving once again from original designer Darren Johansen, the master of swirl. All UV77 RE models are handcrafted by Ibanez’s finest luthiers in Japan, just like the original UV77’s.

SPECS

Neck Material:      5pc Maple/ Bubinga
Neck Type:      UV77RE Limited
Body:      Basswood body
Frets:      Large frets
Fingerboard:      Rosewood
Inlay:      Disappearing Pyramid inlay
Bridge:      Lo-Pro Edge 7 bridge
NeckPU:      DiMarzio® Blaze™ Neck
MiddlePU:      DiMarzio® Blaze™ Middle
BridgePU:      DiMarzio® Blaze™ Bridge
HW Color:      CK
Finishes:      MC

Press Release

(Bensalem, PA) It was 20 years ago when Steve Vai joined forces with Ibanez to produce his ultimate weapon, the 7-string Universe, the first production 7-string solid-body electric guitar. The groundbreaking Universe was quickly recognized as the “Most Innovative Guitar of the Year” by music retailers at the 1990 Music and Sound Awards.

Originally designed as a virtuoso shred machine, the guitar would have a new life later in the ‘90s with its extended low-end range making possible the new breed of rhythmic metal of heavy music players such as Korn and Dino Cazares.   Ibanez is proud to recognize Steve Vai’s achievement with the release of the new UV77RE Universe 20th Anniversary edition.

Like the original, the solid body UV77RE reissue is seven strings of fire, ready-made for maximum shred and some of the meanest riffing on the planet. The multi-color swirl motif arrives once again from the original Universe artist, Darren Johansen. Because of the swirl paint process each Universe guitar is uniquely individual in appearance. As with Ibanez’s other Limited Edition Reissues such as the famous Bob Weir model, all UV77RE models are crafted in Japan by the same luthiers who created the originals.

1990 not only brought the Ibanez Universe guitar to the world, it also debuted Steve Vai’s groundbreaking, earth shattering album, “Passion and Warfare”, and each U77RE comes with a commemorative poster of this sonic masterpiece.

Only 100 UV77RE reissues will be available worldwide.

More info, click here.

Obsessed with digital guitar, misadigital.com (based in Sydney, Australia) created a unique stringless touchscreen guitar. The guitar sound is generated from the computer inside the guitar. It will be emulated using MIDI sound.

The Misa digital guitar is a MIDI controller. It must be plugged into a MIDI capable sound module. The sound of this instrument is limited only by what you connect to it.

Specifications: Linux kernel 2.6.31 (Gentoo); 24 frets; touchscreen; MIDI out; Ethernet; and SSH server.

Video

Guitar Details

The guitar itself is CNC machined out of solid ABS plastic. This is an extremely solid body, not like injection moulded plastic which is thin, lightweight and hollow.

The screen is an 8.4″ LCD 800×600 resolution. The CPU is a 500MHz x86 compatible AMD Geode which makes life easier, I guess. The operating system is Gentoo Linux which I’ve stripped down to be as lean as possible. Graphics (framebuffer access) is done with DirectFB which acts as a fast layer on top of the hardware.

The neck is 144 “keycaps” sitting on top of a special keymat that I had tooled. They are not pressure sensitive – but I made the decision early on not to include this because I don’t feel it is neccessary, it would make the instrument harder to play and less reliable.

If you want to purchase this guitar please click here.

Electric Guitars

The Electric guitar hasn’t been around nearly as long as the Acoustic and Classical guitars. In fact, the Electric guitar was created just 70 years ago (the 1930s) by Adolph Rickenbacker. Since that time, the Electric guitar has greatly evolved to the where it is today. In this article, we’ll go over the history of the Electric guitar.

The History

Guitars, or similar instruments, have been around for thousands of years. The Electric guitar was first manufactured in the 1930s by Rickenbacker. Original Electric guitars used tungsten pickups. Pickups basically convert the vibration of the strings into electrical current, which is then fed into the amplifier to produce the sound.

The very earliest Electric guitars featured smaller soundholes in the body. These guitars are known as semi-hollow body Electric guitars and still are somewhat popular today, mainly due to the fact that they are flexible guitars.

However, with the use of pickups, it was possible to create guitars without soundholes (like the Acoustic and Classical guitars have) that still had the ability to be heard, if plugged into amplifiers. These guitars are called solid body Electric guitars.

The Electric guitar’s popularity began to increase during the Big Band era of the ‘30s and 40s. Due to the loudness of the brass sections in jazz orchestras, it was necessary to have guitars that could be heard above the sections. Electric guitars, with the ability to be plugged into amplifiers, filled this void.

The Electric guitar that is most prevalent today is the solid body Electric guitar. The solid body guitar was created by musician and inventor Les Paul in 1941. It is a guitar made of solid wood with no soundholes. The original solid body guitar created by Paul was very plain—it was a simple rectangular block of wood connected to a neck with six steel strings. Les Paul’s original solid body guitar shape has, of course, changed from the original rectangular shape to the more rounded shape Les Paul guitars have today.

During the 1950s, Gibson introduced Les Paul’s invention to the world. The Gibson Les Paul, as it was and still is called, quickly became a very popular Electric guitar. It has remained the most popular guitar for 50 years.

Around the same period of time, another inventor named Leo Fender came up with a solid body Electric guitar of his own. In the late 1940s, Fender introduced the Fender Broadcaster Electric guitar. The Broadcaster, which was renamed the Stratocaster, was officially introduced to the public in 1954. The Strat, as it is now known, was a very different guitar in comparison to the Les Paul. It had a different shape, different hardware and was significantly lighter. Fender’s Stratocaster Electric guitar is the second most popular guitar in the world, second to only the Les Paul.

Over the years, other companies, such as Ibanez, Jackson, Paul Reed Smith, ESP and Yamaha have all produced solid body Electric guitars of their own. However, most Electric guitars still feature the familiar shape of a Les Paul or Strat guitar.

If your electric guitar is under your bed gasping amongst the dust bunnies, it is not too late to revive it and give the kiss of life to your electric guitar ambitions.

Do you have an electric guitar under your bed silently reminding you of a dream which is for the moment, buried? Did you fantasize about fame and female attention or was your dream about the music? Did you believe you could make a lot of progress in your musical education without much effort? Maybe you even spent a little too much money on your first electric guitar, hoping it would somehow fast track the learning process.

Well the guitar by itself isn’t really much help. The most effective input has to be from you, the aspiring guitar player.

But wait a minute! It was you who put the guitar under the bed, leaving it alone and wondering what it had done to incur your displeasure. What happened there? Why did you bury your dream? Did the fame and female attention arrive by some other route? Well obviously they weren’t what you expected or you wouldn’t be reading this. I think the issue is that you just need to look a little more closely at the process of learning the guitar.

The most obvious things to look at are firstly, did you give yourself enough time and space to practice, and were the guitar lessons you tried really suited to your needs?

If you live in a busy household you are going to have to fight for time and space. Your family or house mates may be willing to cut you some slack at first but the time will come when you pick up your guitar you will hear groaning noises from the people who a short time ago were so encouraging. You are going to need to examine your day. The hours you spend working or studying. The time you need for household chores. Are there TV programs you just can’t do without? You need to include those. If you practice in the living room you need to do it when other people aren’t using the area. You get the idea. If you end up with much less time to devote to guitar lessons than you thought you had, don’t give up. Just use the time you have available. As your guitar playing progresses you will begin to make more time for yourself.

So what kind of guitar lessons do you feel you could derive the most benefit from? The fact is learning to play the guitar will flow much more smoothly if you feel comfortable and receptive. So give some consideration to what works best for you.

So let’s look at the simplest solution – buy a guitar lesson book. Too simple? It might be all you need. Some people can’t do without the input of a face to face teacher or the experience of seeing their guitar lessons on video, but there are many people who do quite well with printed instructions and music.

If you need a more intense experience, but you have a live guitar teacher near where you live then give online electric guitar lessons a shot. With online lessons, you just sit in your room and absorb the teacher’s instructions, and then do your practice. No time wasted travelling to your teacher, and no putting up with a teacher you do not care for!

Some people do better without a teacher standing over them, encouraging them to play it until they get it right. Online electric guitar lessons are more student-friendly in this respect. You can approach any obstacles in your own individual way, in your own sweet time.

One of the most outstanding advantages of online electric guitar lessons compared to tuition with a live teacher is the expense. You can get even the very best lessons on the internet for a fraction of what you would pay your local guitar teacher!

You can also buy your guitar lessons in video format. Video lessons are available for students of all genres of guitar music whether they be beginners or advanced students. With videos you can review your lessons as many times as you want, and even if you lose your enthusiasm for learning the guitar, your video lessons will be waiting for you when your muse returns.

Design of the RGXA2 centered on developing a lightDesign of the RGXA2 centered on developing a lightweight instrument that would bring the guitar and player closer together. The focus was on providing the player with greater freedom, much like an air guitar, breaking down the boundaries between what is in the player’s head and what comes out of the amp.

The Secret of A.I.R. Technology

Alternative Internal Resonance (or A.I.R.) technology utilizes a lightweight wood core sandwiched between a harder, heavier wood on both the front and back of the guitar’s body. Special sound tubes pass through the body so that string vibrations normally resonating only the guitar’s top are transmitted through the entire body. By exciting the entire body structure and shaping the tone with the hard top and back, A.I.R. construction creates a full, powerful, and resonant tone with distinctive presence and body that are truly unique.

A. I. R. (Alternative Internal Resonance) design

Using Yamaha’s original Alternative Internal Resonance technology the RGXA2 and RBX4A2 offer players excellent lightweight characteristics without sacrificing sound quality. -The body consists of a lightweight core sandwiched between hard woods on top and back.(1) -Three metal tubes (sound tubes) installed under the bridge plate transmit string vibration to the body, and return body vibration to the bridge.(2) -The top board quickly responds to string vibration passing through the bridge. Special sound tubes passing through the body produce rich resonance in the core material. The backboard resonates, exciting the entire body structure and creating a full, powerful, and resonant tone with distinctive presence and body that are truly unique.(3)-(8)

Original Pickups

Developed with the custom shop at Yamaha Artist Services, Hollywood, the A2 pickups perfectly compliment the tonal characteristics of the A.I.R. body. Designed with the input of some of the world’s greatest guitar players, the A2’s powerful tone belies its light weight.

Original Bridge

In rethinking bridge design, Yamaha has succeeded at creating a compact, lightweight bridge that delivers outstanding function. Removing protruding screws leaves a simple design that delivers extended performance when playing close to the bridge. Special sound tubes installed under the bridge pass through the body transmitting string vibration directly to the body.

LED Pickup Indicator

The single volume control and a 3 position rotary pickup selector are joined by LEDs surrounding the volume control, providing bright visual indication of the pickup in use.

RGXA2 Neck

Fingerboard width is the same as guitars in the RGX series, like the RGX220DZ, but with a medium thickness. This design makes chords easier to hold and offers greater stability for the left hand. Greater neck mass also contributes to a richer sound.

Original Headstock

Yamaha has moved from tradition with strong design features including twotone 3-D sculpting, cylindrical aluminum machine heads (RGXA2), and perfect weight balance, all wrapped up in sleek, fresh lines.

via yamaha site

Note: This product is discontinued in the United States and may not be available at all dealer locations.