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Epiphone 1962 Wilshire Re-issue in White

The Epiphone 1962 Re-issue in White is the second in Epiphone's Custom Historic USA guitars, following the cherry red Wilshire 1962 Re-issue launched in January. Like that model, the white version will be very difficult to get hold of, only 100 are being made. The cherry red Wilshire Re-issue sold out immediately, so you really will have to be quick.

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Fantastic Blues Guitar Solo Lesson

This lesson on how to play a blues guitar solo comes form Dan Denley, author of several courses of guitar lessons. Dan's a great teacher and communicator and makes it easy to play along with him. You can find out more about his Blues Guitar Secrets course here.

Asides

• From Guitarist: BB King Exclusive: "We recently caught up with a full-on legend; BB King. We’ll be featuring our interview in a future issue of the mag but if, like us, you just can’t wait, there’s a decent chunk of it up on Music Radar." (Via Guitarist.) #
• Chris and Danny both have posts on a claim made by James "Tappy" Wright, a former roadie for Jimi Hendrix, that Hendrix was murdered by his manager, Michael Jeffrey. According to Wright's claims, made in a new book, Wright had an insurance policy on Hendrix's life and killed him to cash in. Wright says Jeffrey confessed to him afterwards. Three things strike me about this claim: 1. Wright has a book to sell and nothing sells books like a controversial claim about a well-known and much-loved figure, particularly when it involves a conspiracy theory about that person's death. 2. Jeffrey is dead and therefore can't defend himself or be libelled. 3. Hendrix's death has, despite the official verdict that he choked on his own vomit after consuming alcohol and barbituates, long been shrouded in mystery. Seems to me that if this were true, Wright would have mentioned it before now. He could have made a fortune by writing on it and appearing on TV shows to talk about it, yet he chose to wait nearly 40 years before telling anyone. It may be true, but I have my doubts. #
• Epiphone 1956 Gold top, originally uploaded by Wouter Duijndam. According to Epiphone's website, the 1956 Gold Top has been discontinued, which is a great shame as by all accounts it's a lovely guitar. It's certainly on my list of Epi's I'd buy - although, I don't really need a another Les Paul. So, to mark the passing of a great guitar, I thought I'd post some pics of the Les Paul 1956 gold Top from Flickr. #
• This post on the Epiphone blog paves the way for what looks like a new Wilshire in white. No details at the moment, I'll post more as soon as I have it. #
• I've said it many times before on Fretboard, but BB King is one of my favourite guitar players. In fact, if I was forced to choose my No. 1, I reckon BB would get the nod. There's just something about that lovely warm tone from his Lucille, the way he strips it right down to just the clean note and uses vibrato to wring everything he can from the strings. I've seen him live a couple of times, and he's sensational. There's no song which better illustrates his playing, and his wonderful singing voice, than his signature tune, Thrill is Gone, so as a fan I figured it was about time I learned it, start to finish, every note. Now, there are numerous ways to learn a new song, from the way we used to do it by putting on a record or tape listening, moving the needle back or rewinding the tape and listening again, and again, before practising it painstaking phrase by painstaking phrase, to books, and even DVDs. But to my mind, the single greatest tool for learning any well-known song is YouTube, and here's the proof. BB King's Thrill is Gone from the guys at GuitarJamz. Enjoy and give it a go. I will. #