Free Republic

Heroic federal agents, Wednesday, Aug. 24, swooped down on the offices and factories of Gibson Guitar, an infamous maker of musical instruments based in Tennessee. They were looking for wood, the substance that is the cadavers of innocent trees and used by drug-addled "rock and roll" musicians to corrupt innocent minds. Apparently, Gibson had imported some of this dead tree substance from India and failed to properly fill out the necessary paperwork. The use of innocent dead trees to create paper for the federal government is acceptable.

Budding guitarists seek the magical powers of rock hero instruments, according to a new study in the Journal of Consumer Research. "Like people from the Middle Ages who sought saints' relics, modern consumers like the budding rock guitarist desire fetishes (objects perceived as magical and possessing extraordinary power)" write authors Karen V. Fernandez (University of Aukland, New Zealand) and John L. Lastovicka (Arizona State University). "We live in a world where anybody with a modest amount of money can buy a close copy or a replica of a desired object," the authors write. "We wanted to know why consumers who...

With today’s announcement of the Top 10 Guitar Solos of All Time, another Gibson.com Top 50 list is in the books. Below, check out the full rundown of all 50 solos that made the list. (You can get more information on each of the entries here: #50-41, #40-31, #30-21, #20-11 and #10-1.) Plus, take a look at the readers poll and the guitarists who scored multiple entries further down the page.

This exclusive interview with Dave Carroll is being published simultaneously with the release and posting of his third and final video in the “United Breaks Guitars” trilogy. The video will appear in this Interview upon its posting on Youtube Tuesday evening. With the posting of this final video of the trilogy, I thought our readers might like to get to know more about the man behind the music. Dave was kind enough to give me an exclusive interview for Grand Rants. I spoke with him following his appearance on “The View” in NYC and as he prepared for a several...

...We will feature an exclusive one-on-one interview with popular Canadian singer/songwriter Dave Carroll as he releases the third and final video in the United Breaks Guitars trilogy... “United Breaks Guitars” (song #1) ended up as one of the most viewed Youtube videos of the year garnering over one million hits in its first week. The catchy country tune chronicled the misfortune suffered by Carroll, whose guitar was broken by United Airline baggage handlers while he was on a flight from Nova Scotia to a show in Nebraska. While the first “United Breaks Guitars” video was what brought Carroll to the...

One of the top videos on YouTube last year was “United Breaks Guitars.” The catchy country tune chronicled the misfortune suffered by Carroll, whose guitar was broken by United Airline baggage handlers while he was on a flight from Nova Scotia to a show in Nebraska. The first two videos in the trilogy have been viewed nearly 10 million viewers and have made Carroll one of the fastest rising stars on the music scene today.

Ode to Orly Taitz by the Freeper, parsifal Mississippio Countrio It was late February, and the year it was twenty ten. I was surfing on line, slurping down a little lime and gin. Well I was scrolling all around when the words flashed upon the screen. And it nearly laid me out, now let me tell you what I seen. Well it was something out of Outer Limits, something off of the Deep End. Today, Orly Taitz, the Birther Queen, went seeking help at the U.N. --- Well my glasses fogged over and I nearly had a heart attack I...

Federal agents from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and local police today seized wood, guitars, computers and boxes of files from Gibson Guitar's Massman Road manufacturing facility. Sources say the Nashville-based guitar manufacturer is being investigated for violating the Lacey Act, a key piece of environmental law, for importing endangered species of rosewood from Madagascar. Rosewood is widely used in the construction of guitars and sells for $5,000 per cubic meter, more than double the price of mahogany. The island nation off Africa's east coast is a key producer of the hardwood, the export of which has links to...

Me in the Gibson trolley at Gibson Island. Me at the landing point Me playing with a guitar i got.

What could possibly add to the enormity of Jimi Hendrix’s music legacy in 2009 — 39 years after the still-ruling sonic genius of electric guitar departed the planet? How about an entirely new and unprecedented Jimi Hendrix guitar model designed by the Authentic Hendrix and Gibson? This astonishing about-to-be-unveiled guitar brand is destined to inspire a new generation of players as well as the legion of musicians already under the influence of Jimi’s magical sound and style. We recently caught up with Janie Hendrix, Jimi’s sister and the president and CEO of Authentic Hendrix — the family-owned companies entrusted with...

In 2007, 1,802 Germans played “Smoke On the Water” in unison to enter the Guinness Book of World Records as the largest recorded guitar ensemble. That record was topped Sunday afternoon at Luckenbach, when 1,859 pickers played “Luckenbach, Texas” and “This Land Is Your Land.” 1,859 guitar players in one spot- and it wasn’t an Eric Johnson concert! The “Pickin’ For the Record” event was organized by the Voices of a Grateful Nation, a support group for American soldiers and veterans, whose Welcome Home Project was the beneficiary. Pickers paid $10 each, but they received a t-shirt commemorating their participation....

If you are a musician that likes talking guitars, amps, gigs, and everything else from politics to guns without all of the liberal whine and censorship you get at other sites, please feel free to visit this new forum. http://www.fretsandfriends.com/ Freedom of speech rocks!

Les Paul, one of the most revered guitarists in history and the father of the electric guitar, passed away last night, August 12th at the age of 94. Paul’s manager confirmed to Rolling Stone that cause of death was respiratory failure, and a statement from Gibson indicates Paul was suffering from severe pneumonia and died at a hospital in White Plains, New York. An inductee of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and Grammy Hall of Fame, Paul is credited as the inventor of the electric body guitar and the pioneer of recording techniques like electronic echo and multi-tracking....

George Fullerton, a longtime associate of Leo Fender who played a crucial role in the electric-guitar innovator's extraordinary success through his broad-based skills as a musician, artist and technician, has died. He was 86. Fullerton died Saturday of congestive heart failure at St. Jude Medical Center in Fullerton, said his son Geoff. While Fender tinkered away, coming up with improvements in guitar design that led to the creation of his revolutionary Telecaster and Stratocaster electric guitars, Fullerton was charged with making those innovations practical for mass production in their Orange County factory that opened in the late 1940s. Nearly 1,000...

A rare collection of British-made Supersound guitars has been found in the basement of a house in the U.K., according to a report from the BBC. The Supersound brand of guitars resulted from a collaboration between noted British luthiers Jim Burns and Alan Wootton during the late 1950s. Burns, of course, went on to produce guitars played by such notable musicians as Queen’s Brian May, Andy Bell of Oasis, and others. The collection of 12 Supersound guitars appears to be one of the most definitive – and important – examples of a fairly undocumented period of British guitar-making history. “In...

In the past 175 years, C.F. Martin & Co. defined the shape, construction and sound of the acoustic guitar. And the company still eyes each detail. Employees sweat the big things, like dwindling supplies of rare tone woods. They sweat the small stuff, like the exact orientation of each pick guard. The company is taking the year to celebrate C.F. Martin Sr.'s arrival in New York City in 1833 where he set up his first shop on Hudson Street at what is now the mouth of the Holland Tunnel. CEO Christian F. Martin IV said the anniversary is remarkable and...

Bob Weir, Founding Member of the Grateful Dead Both my natural and adopted fathers were military men. My adopted dad attended Annapolis for seven years and came out with the military equivalent of a doctorate in Engineering. When they gave him his first commission and put him out to sea he was seasick from the time he left port to the time he got back. It was so bad they had to put him in the hospital. Then he tried it again right at the beginning of World War II. He wanted nothing more than to serve his country but...

My wife made a mistake. For my birthday in February, she bought me a calendar from the Fender Custom Shop. I hung it on the wall directly behind my desk, right in my range of vision, and I have been gazing longingly ever since at beautiful guitars. My longing stayed within reason until I turned the page to April, and saw the Engraved Thinline Telecaster in flame maple. The clumsy copy below the calendar proper says "both nice to look at and a dream to play." "A dream to play" has been ringing in my head ever since, the way...

For education and discussion only. Not for commercial use.'Least expensive' DXM to be assembled in foreign plant; no jobs cut in Nazareth. U. NAZARETH TWP. -- C.F. Martin & Co. Inc. -- more commonly known as Martin Guitar -- boasts it has been crafting its trademark instruments in the United States. That's about to change. The company plans to ship production of its DXM series to its plant in Navojoa, Mexico, later this year, CEO Chris Martin said Tuesday. "It's going to be labeled 'assembled in Mexico,'" Martin said of the guitar line. Some 50 workers at the company's facility...

The Cigar Box Guitar Written by JJ Published April 13, 2007 Music and cigars aren’t something I usually equate with each other. In fact, cigars are almost the last type of smoke I think of when I turn the dial of the radio. If I hear Ryan Adams, I imagine him on stage surrounded by a grayish cloud, a cigarette dangling from his mouth. If I hear Bing Crosby, I imagine that his "White Christmas" also involves a black pipe. And, if I hear Willie Nelson, I think of a type of smoke sure to make him hungry for some...