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

The ESP Guitar Company began as a small custom shop started by Japanese businessman Hisatake Shibuya making replacement parts and accessories. In 1985, ESP began building entire custom guitars for special customers. By 1986, ESP’s guitars had an office in New York City making custom guitars for players in the US. Dokken’s George Lynch and Metallica’s Kirk Hammett chose ESP to build new guitars to their respective specifications, and the company quickly became the first choice for rock and metal players who wanted more than an off-the-shelf axe could deliver.

In 2010 ESP Guitars commemorate 35 years of being in business, quite a milestone, they now distribute guitars to 60 countries around the world and since 1996 have offered their Korean and Indonesian manufactured LTD models at a lower price in order to gain even more market share.

The new site is really just a re-skin of the old site but the new lick of paint is a welcome update, it’s a shame that the only new models announced are Asian made LTD’s.

Check out http://www.espguitars.com

For a small population Australia has a pretty good share of the guitar blog market and Lone Phantom seems to slipping under the radar for a lot of people which is a shame because it has some great reviews and gear talk. Also it is run by someone in a very similar situation to myself, a professional Web Developer living in Australia passionate about guitars. I want to mention something that was posted recently that particularly caught my eye which was a post about modifying pickups. Now I’m the kind of person that believes if a job is worth doing don’t let me do it or it will probably be worse than you started with, unless of course you need a new Magnetic Latch fitted to your Pool gate which somehow I managed to fluke. However, Lone Phantom bought a DiMarzio PAF Pro and installed it on his 20th Anniversary Ibanez RG550, this alone is beyond me but he then went on to replace the Alnico 5 Magnet in the pickup to a Ceramic Magnet impressive stuff. Not only that but he wrote not one post but two in-depth posts regarding the installation with nice easy to follow steps and photos.

Here is part 1 Modifying Pickups and here is part 2.

http://lonephantom.com/

Also make sure you follow LonePhantom on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/LonePhantom

I don’t mean to brag but I’m going to anyway because I’m chuffed to bits to see Guitar Noize not only get a mention but actually a review in the latest edition of Guitar Edge. Guitar Edge kindly featured me in their “Sights and Sounds” section and had some very nice things to say such as:

“This blog is a treasure trove of web information for guitarists at any playing level. You’ll find everything from guitar lessons…to information on the newest releases from gear companies all around the globe.”

Thank you to Guitar Edge I feel very honoured, Paul will also be happy that his “5 For The Weekend” got a special mention too.

Check out the latest online issue of Guitar Edge, this month features the tab to Extreme’s “Play With Me” so you better get those fingers warmed up it’s going to hurt!

Fender have just launched the latest version of their international website Fender.com. This latest version has a nice wide format with large hi-res photos of the products and more of an online store kind of navigation, including price filtering options and pricing. When you click buy online you are taken to a list of online stores that stock the product you wish to buy which is a good idea. The news and blog have had a facelift too but and there is a video section which is a little lean at the moment. Overall it is a lot easier now to find the Fender products you are interested in and for a company with such a large inventory of products I think it is a great idea to take on this shop style format.

Guitar Noize is now an authorised dealer in Australia and will also deliver to New Zealand for Suhr Effects and Pickups and Mad Professor Effects and Amps through my new section Gear Factory. I have only listed effects for now as I think these will be the most popular request but if you are interested in Suhr Pickups or Mad Professor Amps just send me an email and I can give you prices.

Gear Factory will evolve with more video demos as and when I get a chance to record them, I have the Koko Boost and Shiba Drive on order from Suhr so I will record a demo for those soon. I will also be getting a few Mad Professor pedals to record some demos too so keep an eye on my YouTube channel, Twitter and the Gear Factory page for updates.

So if you live in Australia or New Zealand and you are interested in buying either Suhr Effects & Pickups or Mad Professor Effects head over to the Gear Factory! I am offering Free shipping anywhere in Australia and only $10 to New Zealand.

If you are serious about boutique guitars and amps, check out Tradarama an online store that has everything from vintage guitars like a 1956 Fender Strat costing $120,000 to brand new Ruokangas, Callaham and D’Pergo guitars and I hear most recently Grosh guitars too. Tradarama also stock amps from Bruno, Divided By 13 and Suhr as well as some vintage models like this 1966 Fender Super Reverb. Finally Tradarama sell effects such as this original 1977 ADA Flanger and a whole range from Dirty Boy.

Check out www.tradarama.com for more info.