Recently, Fender has released an Eric Johnson signature series guitar. The guitar is, of course, a Stratocaster. This guitar fits in nicely with their other artist series guitars. Eric has a history of meticulous attention to detail when it comes to tone, so I suspect that a guitar with his name on it has been given the same attention to detail.

Late last Spring, Taylor Guitars started selling their first electric/acoustic hybrid guitar, named the T5. The T5 debuted at this year’s NAMM convention, which you can read about here.

DVForge has recently announced the JamPod, which allows you to plug your guitar or bass into your iPod and hear it through the iPod’s earphones. The JamPod will be shipping on April 8. DVForge also has several other products for the iPod and for guitar.

Last year, Fender released a tribute to Stevie Ray Vaughan’s famous “Number One” Stratocaster. Stevie Ray was well-known for playing Stratocasters, but the Number One guitar was his most famous Stratocaster. The tribute guitar was reproduced directly from Stevie’s Number One guitar. They sold only a very limited number of the tribute guitars, and I never did see one in any stores. It looks like Fender has removed the pages relating to this guitar from their Web site, but I recently discovered stratcollector.com, which has several articles and photos about the Stevie Ray Vaughan tribute guitar.

Robert Randolph is a pedal steel guitar master that is quickly gaining in popularity. His style is firmly rooted in the “sacred steel” tradition of the House of God church. He has been able to overcome a tough childhood in New Jersey to play music of faith and hope. Although his music is rooted in gospel and blues, it has a lot in common with the jam bands of today with a spirit of improvisation with a lot of fun mixed in. His band (Robert Randolph and the Family Band) has released one studio album, Unclassified, as well as one live album, Live at the Wetlands. He is also featured on the instrumental album The Word, which included John Medeski (of Medeski, Martin & Wood fame) and the North Mississippi Allstars, as well as numerous guest appearances. He has a style all his own, and has to be heard to be believed.

Scott Andrew has recently provided a guest post on 43Folders.com, a personal productivity site, about tips for being as productive as possible if you are a practicing musician.