Fender have introduced the Kurt Cobain Mustang:

When Kurt Cobain hit the stage, it was very often with a Mustang® guitar—an enigmatic anti-hero figure with an esoteric anti-hero instrument. It’s with great pride then that Fender introduces the Kurt Cobain Mustang, which evokes the man, the band, the sound and the times, and gives an authentically crafted nod to one of the most unlikely guitars to ever find itself at the center of a musical maelstrom.

Cobain liked Mustangs a lot. For one, he preferred offbeat guitars that didn’t cost zillions of dollars, and the Mustang certainly fit those two criteria. Also, being somewhat physically diminutive himself, he liked to perform live with slightly more diminutive guitars, like Fender Mustang and Jaguar® guitars, which better fit his hands and his reach.

See for yourself—go back and watch the famous 1991 video for “Smells Like Teen Spirit,” and there he is and there it is slung over his shoulder. Or think back to when you saw them on the ’93-’94 In Utero tour, when he seldom went onstage with anything but a Mustang. Quite often and especially later on, Mustang guitars were a big part of what Kurt Cobain was all about, musically.

Inspired by his arsenal of modded guitars, the new Fender Kurt Cobain Mustang takes you back there, with highly distinctive features including an angled single-coil Mustang neck pickup and ferocious Seymour Duncan® JB humbucking bridge pickup mounted directly to the body, dual on-off/phase in-out switches for each pickup, a polyester-finished alder body and an Adjusto-Matic™ bridge with dynamic vibrato tailpiece.

Other features include the classic 24” Mustang scale length, C-shaped maple neck with urethane finish, 7.25”-radius rosewood fingerboard with 22 vintage-style frets and vintage-style ivory dot inlays, four-ply pickguard (Aged White Pearl on Fiesta Red and Dark Lake Placid Blue with stripe models; Tortoiseshell on Sonic Blue model), master volume and tone controls, vintage-style tuners, and chrome hardware. Finish options include Fiesta red, Sonic Blue and Dark Lake Placid Blue with stripe. Available in right- and left-handed models. For more information, go to www.fender.com.

I haven’t seen much information about it, but it seems that Gibson has recently produced a limited number of Derek Trucks Signature SG guitars. The guitar is spec’d similarly to Gibson’s ’61 Reissue SG with a few special appointments. For example, the Trucks Signature SG includes a Lyre tailpiece like that seem on Trucks’ own guitar. The pickguard has also been removed to match the guitar that Trucks is most known for. The headstock includes a 50th anniversary graphic to mark the 50th anniversary of the ’61 SG.

The full specs of the guitar are:

• Mahogany Body
• Heritage Cherry finish
• Mahogany Neck
• Rosewood Fretboard
• 22 frets
• 2 Gibson ’57 Classic Humbucker
• 2 Volume, 2 Tone controls
• Chrome Hardware
• Includes Gibson Case

The guitar has a street price of $1699 and is available at Musicians Friend, Guitar Center, and Music 123.

Kenny Wayne Shepherd recently gave Music Radar a tour of his guitar gear. In the first video below, Shepherd talks about his collection of Strats:

In this next video, Shepherd gives us a tour of his effects:

(via fellow guitar blogger Jim)

Dylan Higginbotham, who along with his wife Leah creates videos for inthegarage.tv, recently e-mailed me in response to my post about cigar-box guitar builder Dr. Kirk Withrow. Higginbotham let me know that one of their recent videos featured Sean Kochel, who creates guitars using antique woods and cigar boxes. Kochel’s guitars are unique in that he uses reclaimed wood from old barns and other antique buildings, and he also incorporates other antique touches, such as an antique key as a bridge or old bullet heads as fret markers. These touches create a cigar-box style guitar unlike any others I’ve seen before.

Check out the profile of Sean Kochel by inthegarage.tv below:

Fender have introduced a new line of guitars and basses called the Modern Player Series. There are five guitars and three basses in the new lineup. These guitars are targeted towards entry-level players with an aggressive price point (starting at $399) and modern appointments.

The guitars in the Modern Player Series include the Modern Player Stratocaster HSS, the Modern Player Telecaster Plus HSS, the Modern Player Telecaster Thinline Deluxe, the Modern Player Jaguar, and the Modern Player Marauder. I find the Thinline and the Marauder to be to most interesting of the new models. The Thinline Telecaster Deluxe departs from other Fender Thinline Telecaster guitars in that it features a mahogany body and Modern Player MP-90 pickups. The Marauder (pictured above) features a new body style, a Modern Player Jazzmaster neck pickup, and a three-coil Fender Triplebucker bridge pickup.

The bass guitars in the Modern Player Series include the Modern Player Telecaster Bass, the Modern Player Jazz Bass and the Modern Player Jaguar Bass. The Modern Player Telecaster Bass is the most interesting of the bass models to me with its two Wide-Range humbucking Precision Bass pickups.

This looks like a nice addition to the low-end of Fender’s product line. Find out more details about the Modern Player Series on Fender’s site.

Which of the new models looks the most interesting to you?

In addition to the PRS SE Angelus guitar that PRS have announced at the Experience PRS event, PRS have announced three other new guitars: the Stripped 58, the Swamp Ash Studio, and the Experience PRS 2011 Custom 24.

The Stripped 58 is a single-cut guitar that features a maple top and mahogany back, a 24.5″ scale length, 22 fret mahogany neck with rosewood fretboard and bird inlays, PRS Guitars’ new 2-piece bridge, 57/08 pickups, and their Pattern neck. PRS will be taking orders for the Stripped 58 from September 22, 2011 to October 14, 2011.

The Swamp Ash Studio is a variation of PRS Guitars’ Studio model featuring a swamp ash body and two 57/07 Narrowfield pickups and a 57/08 humbucking bridge pickup. Like the Stripped 58, the Swamp Ash Studio will be available between September 22, 2011 and October 14, 2011.

The Experience PRS 2011 Custom 24 is a limited edition guitar that features an artist grade top and matching headstock, black and white mother of pearl bird inlays, and 59/09 pickups. Only 200 Experience PRS 2011 Custom 24 guitars will be made and will be available in four colors: Burnt Almond, Faded Abalone, Gold Burst, and Orange Tiger. Only 50 guitars in each color will be made.

The Experience PRS event is going on this weekend at the PRS facility in Maryland. It is at this event that PRS Guitars announce new models, host guitar clinics and shows, and basically just geek out on PRS equipment. Sounds like my kind of weekend!

One of the new models that they announced is the PRS SE Angelus acoustic guitar. This is the first acoustic model in their SE line, which are more affordable versions of their Maryland-made guitars. There are two versions of the SE Angelus: Standard and Custom. The Standard model will feature a spruce top, solid mahogany back and mahogany sides, and a rosewood fretboard. The Custom model will feature a spruce top, solid rosewood back and rosewood sides, and an ebony fretboard. Both models will feature hybrid X bracing for the top, which PRS also uses for their high-end line of acoustics. The SE Angelus will be introduced in limited quantities later this year, with more SE acoustic models coming next year. Neither the Standard nor the Custom coming later this year will be available with electronics, but some of next year’s models will include built-in pickup systems.

Below is a demo of the SE Angelus models by J Hayes followed by a video of guitarist Todd Bauchspies performing his song “Hedge Hawk Clearing” on a PRS SE Angelus guitar:

Fender has commemorated the 10th anniversary of the heroic acts of the first responders during the 9/11 attacks by creating three Custom Shop Stratocasters: the New York Fire Department Stratocaster, the New York Police Department Stratocaster, and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey Stratocaster:

The guitars will be on display during a Fender event this month. Then, Eric Clapton will play the guitars during his Fall tour, after which the guitars will be donated to September 11 first responder organizations.

Gibson have announced a new semi-hollow guitar model: the Midtown Standard with Bigsby. The Midtown model appears to be sized similarly to the ES-339 model, which is smaller than an ES-335 but slightly larger than a Les Paul.

The Midtown Standard features a chambered mahogany body and a maple top. Unlike some of Gibson’s other semi-hollow guitars, the Midtown features all solid woods rather than laminated woods. The guitar also features two ’57 Classic pickups, which are some of my favorite pickups in Gibson semi-hollow body guitars. The neck is bound and has a thinner ’60s carve. A Bigsby vibrato tailpiece rounds out the features.

The USA-made Midtown Standard with Bigsby has a street price of about $1399 with a case. According to the online retail sites, the guitar will start shipping in September. It is available in Faded Red or Ebony.

Line 6 co-founder Marcus Ryle gave a presentation at TEDxConejo earlier this year about the science of sound, in which he talked about the history of the guitar as well as some of Line 6′s innovations:

(via GuitarNoize.com)