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Alfred has released two new songbooks in their The Complete Idiot’s Guide series. These books are designed to get novice guitarists playing immediately, and playing the songs that inspired them to pick up a guitar in the first place.

Peavey won Best In Show honors at Summer NAMM for PeaveyCustomShop.com, the exclusive new online portal where musicians can design their own one-of-a-kind musical instruments.

Alfred’s Greatest Rock Guitar series provides an abundance of music spanning multiple decades and multiple genres for guitarists looking to expand their repertoire or just brush up on the classics.

PRS Guitars, the third largest electric guitar manufacturer in the U.S., has announced that Paul Reed Smith, Managing General Partner, received the Ernst and Young Entrepreneur Of The Year 2007 Award in the Retail and Consumer Products category in Maryland.

Washburn Guitars is celebrating 125 years of stringed instrument innovations.

Australian company, Easy Being Green, is on the look out for musicians and event managers to speak out and take a stand on climate change. Formed by Nic Frances and Paul Gilding, both business activists on climate change, Easy Being Green uses energy saving projects to cut the greenhouse gas pollution created by musicians.

TrueFire has released two new interactive video courses for guitarists. Total Modal examines the theory, harmony and application of 19 essential modes and scales, while Vamps, Jams, and Improvisation illustrates approaches for developing melodic and rhythmic ideas for soloing and comping over vamps. Both courses are available on CD-ROM or as a streaming video course on TrueFire's All Access TV.

Mercury Magnetics is giving away a new Fender ’57 Deluxe

Brooklyn Institute of Guitar (BIG NY) is a new, independent boutique music school in Brooklyn that focuses on teaching modern methods of guitar playing and encouraging students to be creative with the guitar rather than just simply learning an instrument.

Fender has launched an all-new consumer-friendly web site to better serve the community of music and instrument enthusiasts. The site features all new design and content elements, and a host of new features designed to reflect the spirit of rock-n-roll. Key features of the new online destination include: deeper, richer information and imagery on gear and artists; enhanced audio and video elements; gear demos; community forums and more. Check it out at www.fender.com

This Monkees toy guitar is part of Mattel's Gee-Tar line made in 1968.

Another website already stole the obvious headline of Really Cool Guitars

I received an email from classical guitarist and author Glenn Kurtz last week. His book, Practicing - A Musician's Return to Music, is now available and no doubt many of you will be interested in checking it out. Details below.

Musicnotes has announced it has reached licensing agreements with several thousand music publishers and administrators, including BMG Music Publishing, peermusic, Famous Music and Bug Music who have agreed to license guitar and drum tablature for their song catalogs to be made available on http://www.MXTabs.net.

Because they believe that girls rock and that women everywhere should have access to music, Daisy Rock Guitars and Berkleemusic, the continuing education division of Berklee College of Music, have announced the creation of the first-ever Mother/Daughter Online Guitar Course, set to begin on July 2nd, 2007.

The Institute of Contemporary Music Performance (London) has announced the launch of over ₤30,000 worth of scholarships for deserving students to study on the renowned Institute Diploma in Popular Music Performance from October 2007. The scholarship categories are as follows:

The Total Jazz Bassist is a complete jazz method, giving equal treatment to both electric and double bass. Covering styles like bebop, Latin, funk and fusion, this book provides examples and lessons that will help you become a well-rounded bassist.

Plenty of you had a lot to say on last weeks Miracle Guitar story, most of which wasn't good. Here's a couple of the comments from readers:

Line 6 is giving those of you in the United States the chance to win signed Spider III prototypes. Spider III features sounds that were dialed in by some of today's most relevant artists.

TrueFire.com is now shipping Marc Schonbrun's Geek Guitar, an interactive video course designed to bring the latest technology to guitarists for recording and performing.

This is a round up of odd, weird, funny and sometimes really impressive music videos, sites and stories we have picked up while scouring the web. If you see any outrageous or intriguing music related stuff out there, lets us know about it.

During the past few months, BOSS recently added two new podcasts to the bossus.com website and plans to add 15 more by year end. Hosted by Paul Hanson, BOSS Specialist and author of the best-selling book-and-CD set Shred Guitarfrom Warner Brothers, the informative and educational shows are gaining international popularity.

I never knew that Rolling Stonesman Bill Wyman was into metal detecting, let alone an authority on the matter. Heck, I didn't even know being 'into metal detecting' existed! I was terribly wrong. It's a huge scene with possibly more metal detecting enthusiasts than there are metal guitar players. Wild.

Carl Verheyen's best-selling video Intervallic Rock Guitar is now available on DVD.

The Chicago School of Guitar Making plans to open a couple new classes this fall, one being Advanced Guitar Repair. According to the school's newsletter, "this course will be the ideal next step for alumni who wish to continue their studies."