Blutone's Boutique Baby!

When I visited the Guitar Show UK , I had a list of guitars that I wanted to try out, most of which were mid range and up in price but I did have an outlier that I wanted to check out. Jet Guitars. Jet Guitars are a budget guitar company that claims to do the following: "JET guitars offer a premium playing experience at an affordable price." So there must be hundreds of brands doing something similar such as Squire, Cort, Harley Benton and many more, so how is Jet going to stand out? The Jet Guitars JS-400 in Sea Foam Green Relic So I have to say that I was setting a low expectation.  I knew how cheap these guitars retailed for and surely any profit they make would be based on many unit sales rather than per unit at these prices, especially as they work through the distributor Hal Leonard , who would need to have some kind of margin. My expectation with Jet Guitars was that I was going to be trying out something that was probably going to be well built but not something that ...

Long story short... My family got me an Epiphone Emperor Swingster for my birthday from GAK , it arrived and was fine until I noticed some issues with the binding on the neck coming off.  Not good!   So I arranged for a return and this is what happened....   Key links: Find out about the Epiphone Emperor Swingster using the link below: https://www.gak.co.uk/en/epiphone-emperor-swingster-delta-blue-metallic/943595

  Blutone & The Druid at Chill#2, Cambridge On Saturday 15th April 2023, my old friend, Drew Keen joined me for delivering the Blutone & The Druid set at Chill#2 in Cambridge.   I have been in the fortunate position to be able to take a list of songs and deliver the same list in different formats as a soloist,  a duet and with The Blutone Band ( next gig the 27th May at The Carpenters ).  The process is interesting as each song of course sounds different when delivered in each of the different formats. The Blutone & The Druid format has been particularly interesting in that having already done a few gigs, we both realised that two guitarists together whilst technically sounds ok, the sounds are so similar and a lot gets lost in the 'mix'.  Whatever it was both of us were not that happy with the sound in that format.  In discussing this, Drew came up with a ingenious solution, what if Drew had a crack at playing bass guitar instead? It was a...

  I have been profoundly challenged by the nice guys at Chapman Guitars.   At the recent UK Guitar Show I met Rob Chapman and also Dan Orchard, International Sales and Marketing Manager. In chatting with Dan, I said something like "I have never bought a Chapman Guitar because I am not a 'shredder' like Rob Chapman'. I definitely had a perception in mind that Chapman Guitars would not have a guitar that would appeal to my style of playing which is more akin to Blues and Rock n Roll. Dan agreed that this can be a perception but with the recent signing of Danish Pete as a signature artist and the announcement of the development of the DPT  , Chapman Guitars were looking to broaden their appeal to players who's style doesn't fit that perception. Then came the challenge...  Chapman Guitars have only gone and sent me an ML 1X to review!  I have one month to thoroughly get to know this guitar and I will be sharing a proper review towards the end of April 2023, bu...

  Can I share a secret with you?  I have never tried a Gibson Les Paul!  I love the look of them and some of my favourite artists use them but I simply haven't really felt inspired enough to do the Gibson thing at all having opted in the past for Fender or Squire products. Well the closest I got to one was this week was when I made a cheeky visit to GuitarGuitar in Camden on the way to a conference I was attending. With doors opening at 10am I thought that I would have just enough time to have a play and then go onto the meeting. To be honest with you I was really hoping to have another play on the Epiphone Emperor Swingster as it looks like I am getting one from my family for my birthday, but there wasn't one in stock but there was an Epiphone Les Paul Modern in Pelham Blue !  I simply couldn't help myself! The video below shows some tones: Specifications of the Les Paul Modern. Body Body Shape: Les Paul Modern Figured Body Material: Mahogany Binding: Single Ply Whi...

 On Friday 17th March 2023, The Blutone Band performed their first gig together... Last Friday I did something successfully that I have dreamed about doing for about 30 years.  I fronted a Blues band with the first outing of The Blutone Band. Consisting of myself (Vox/Guitar), Jon Hassell (Bass), Alice Marsh (Drums) and Jonathan Chaplin (Keys) we delivered our own mix of Blues and Rock n Roll. Songs that we love and so it would seem everyone in the White Horse in Oakington loved too. As someone who has mostly been a bass player and rarely a vocalist, I decided about four years ago to work towards my dream of putting a band together that I would play lead guitar and sing with.  Having not had a lot of experience of being a vocalist along with about 15 years of playing lead guitar, this was always going to be a stretch and I know that I need to work on my vocal talent but what I learnt on Friday night is that it is more important to give the audience a good time, show them ...

The Gold Top PRS SE DGT  Just over a week ago I had the opportunity to try out the Gold Top PRS SE DGT and it surprised me! For those who read my articles, you would know that I have a weird relationship with PRS guitars.  They make some of the most amazing sounding and beautiful looking guitars in the world but it appears that the ones that set my world on fire are their unusual ones! My first EVER experience of playing a PRS was the PRS SE Starla which has literally changed my guitaring life.  I have been playing for thirty plus years and the Starla has unlocked something in me that I didn't know that I had.  Therefore the logic should dictate that I would become more and more in love with PRS guitars the more expensive the guitars are, right? Well it would appear not.  The most expensive I have tried was the CE24 and it was lovely, but I didn't feel it, I just didn't get excited.  I have also tried lots of SE's such as the Custom 24-08 , the Zach Myers...