Guitar Noize - guitar news, crazy guitar designs and cool guitar videos

I spotted an article about Daemoness Guitars on Music Radar and had to feature one of these custom metal machines, especially as Daemoness luthier and designer Dylan Humphries resides in Bristol, UK which after living there for a couple of years I have a particular soft spot for!

The guitar to the left is called the “Hadian Antichrist”. The hand painted images are from 15th and 16th century woodcuts, depicting witchcraft, medieval torture and the conception of the antichrist. The guitar has a mahogany body with maple caps, combined with a single EMG pickup and string through construction ensuring massive tone and sustain. If you prefer your flying V to be more plain looking there is also a Hadian V Skull Series spotted in the gallery which so far have been created in White or Black and feature a Floyd Rose Trem and various pickup configurations. Dylan also makes 7 string guitars including the Atlantean which features some pretty cool inlay work!

My guitars are more than simple tools, I give each one its own identity. I have been playing guitar since I was a child, and have seen how the metal guitar has evolved over the years. I create instruments that encapsulate the concepts within metal that have proved over time to be of worth. That is to say; my guitars represent the classic and yet the evolution of the instrument.

I take a lot of inspiration for my guitars from medieval and classical art, literature and philosophy, as well as ancient Nordic mythology and craftsmanship. I am fascinated by medieval art because it was during this time that it first entered (into western thought) the possibility that the world could end. I detect in this a correspondence with the ideas that have inspired metal into being.

For more info check out the Daemoness Guitars website.

Here is a video clip of the Anti Christ Flying V - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=05F111FQk4Q

I spotted this news over at Guitar Site, Lace Music, yes the same company that makes Lace pickups, have released the Helix Guitar available in 3 different flavours. The photo above is the MAYA HG01 which features Lace’s very cool Alumitone pickups, to be specific 2 Alumitone Single coil pickups and 1 Alumitone Humbucker Low-Boy-style split coil pickup. The fretboard is 12” radius Ebony with a Graphite nut with Jumbo frets on a set Maple neck. The hardware is Chrome including the Grover Chrome Mini-Rotomatics Tuners and the bridge and volume knob.

The HG02 is a matte black version of the guitar with 2 Drop N Gain humbuckers and the HG03 features 3 Lace Sensor Hot Gold S/C Pickups, 2 @ 6k, 1 @ 13K.

These guitars have a retail price of $999.99 so expect the street price to be very competitive. I look forward to seeing someone road test these guitars and see if they sound as good as they look!

It has been a long time since I have featured a Crazy Guitar Design here on Guitar Noize so I thought it was about time I did. This particular guitar from Roger’s Guitars is a custom build which, judging by the photos was an early one as it has “No.2” written on the headstock!

The Cobra has a Basswood body and Sucupira neck and fingerboard. I’d never heard of Sucupira so I dug up some info. Sucupira is native to South America, primarily in Brazil and Venezuela, but also is found in Guyana, Surinam and French Guiana. In its natural setting, the wood is popular for a variety of uses, especially structural purposes and flooring. It is hard to dry and difficult to work with but it has great strength and outstanding durability. The inlays in the Sucupira are a mixture of gold leaf and transparent colours to create the Cobra design, the trem looks like an Original Floyd Rose in gold and the 3 single coils seem to have plenty of switching options!

Make sure you check out Roger’s Guitars production model guitars too which are based on a Les Paul with some nice touches.

The announcements are coming in thick and fast in the lead up to NAMM 2009 and Epiphone just got in on the action with news of the Wilshire re-release.

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.

Well it certainly doesn’t compete with the Fender Stratocaster in terms of looks, I think this looks a little a bit ugly with that wide pickguard and the jack being on the top of the guitar.

With an original MSRP of $210, production of the 1962 Wilshire SB-432 was limited to only 180 guitars. Today, owners of original 1962 Wilshires are not only blessed with an outstanding instrument, but also a wise investment and a very collectible guitar. Original Wilshires now sell regularly for $5,000 to $12,000 or more depending upon their year and condition.

I imagine the reissue’s will be a little cheaper to purchase than that

I have to admit I’d never heard of Gigliotti guitars until the other day when I was reading Guitar Lifestyle’s post about news of Joe Bonamassa’s latest release due out next month called “The ballad of John Henry” which I can’t wait to hear, I think he is an incredible guitarist and one of the most exciting blues guitarists since SRV. Check out this video of Joe Bonamassa performing “The Ballad Of John Henry” live and pay particular attention to the incredible guitar Joe is playing.

The moment I saw it shimmering in the light I had to know what it was, luckily for me it didn’t take long to find out due to someone posting the answer in the YouTube comments, it is a Gigliotti GT Custom Telecaster shaped guitar which has a Brass or Aluminium top which is siliconed to the center block and fixed in place by the bridge for extra sustain. The top of the guitars look amazing and Gigliotti offer over 60 different finishes to make that metal pattern really stand out, they actually look 3D from the photos. I know these guitars are nothing particularly new, I Bonamassa playing a Gigliotti showing Joe playing one of these guitars dating back to October 2006 and a review of a Bonamassa signature model over on review of Gigliotti Bonamassa signature model, which by the way came with a very nice looking carved leather hard case. I did notice however a countdown to NAMM on a few of the videos on the site which seemed to hint to the launch of a new guitar? Well we don’t have long to wait to see if that is the case.

My brother inadvertently gave me the idea for this post after commenting on the photo of my new Weber Load Dump (full review to come) and I suddenly realised I had never featured this guitar before. Now you’ve all seen Back To The Future part 1 right? The bit right at the start where Marty McFly goes over to the Doc’s house and plugs into the gigantic Amplifier turns everything up to 10 and then using a shiny metal pick strikes the strings of a small gold guitar plugged in with a n 80’s curly lead only to be propelled backwards across the room. Well have you ever wondered what that guitar was and where to get one? Well I give you the Erlewine Chiquita travel guitar! This 28” long guitar has a 19” scale length weighs in at 4.5 lbs, has a single humbucker and volume control, a Schaller bridge and is made from Honduras Mahogany with a 23 fret Rosewood fingerboard.

Not only do Erlewine make this guitar, but they also make the Lazer too! I remember seeing some session guitarist interviewed years ago (late 80’s) in a guitar mag who used a red Lazer and I haven’t seen one since. Well it turns out Johnny Winter is a fan! Erlewine also make custom guitars which look a bit more traditional just in case you were wondering. Personally I want a Gold top Chiquita!