20 Years of guitarguitar: A Year-Long Anniversary
Published on 06 December 2024
Wow. 20 years?
Indeed. Now that we’ve hit December, leapt through Black Friday and having Christmas firmly in our focus, it seems like as good a time as any to cast a look back over our shoulders at the year that was.
And what a year! As you may have noticed by our subtle mentions across the last 12 months, 2024 has marked our 20th year in business. We decided to have a party to celebrate, and we felt like it should last all year long, too! We ended up organising absolutely loads of events, doing special deals, talking to some wonderful people, co-designing very limited edition guitars from some of the world’s greatest makers and a lot more!
We need a lie down, frankly, but before that, let me share a selection of the highlights with you now. There is actually too much to include in a reasonably-sized blog, so this is just a snapshot of 2024’s Anniversary celebrations. Thank you for being a part of it all! Have a read now, and see which bits you were a part of!
Contents
20th Anniversary Hall of Fame: The Painted Fenders
Special Steve Vai 20th Anniversary Interview
20th Anniversary Hall of Fame: The Painted Fenders
Back in March, we ran a poll online about who your favourite guitarists were from the last 20 years. We were thinking along the lines of who were the most influential players of guitarguitar’s lifetime.
We had some excellent results, and felt like taking it a little further. Collaborating with Fender, we whittled that list down to 5 of the top Fender-toting players, and received 5 white Player Strats with hand-made art painted on each guitar, one per artist! The choices were the following:
- John Frusciante
- H.E.R.
- Sam Fender
- Alex Turner
- John Mayer
The guitars then went on tour around our stores, allowing everyone to not only see these one-off pieces of art, but to plug them in and have a blast! Read more about it all in our 20th Anniversary Hall of Fame Guitars blog. Big thanks to Fender for jumping onboard with our ideas and being game for an adventure!
Shout-Outs from Friends
If a person can be judged by the calibre of their friends then we consider ourselves were blessed. Some of our great friends in the industry took a second to say congratulations to us, which was both lovely and humbling.
Paul Reed Smith - owner of a certain guitar company - took the time to send us this video:
What a guy! We’ve had a long relationship with Paul, who is one of the greatest guitar makers in the world.
Two of our favourite Ibanez artists - Nili Brosh and Paul GIlbert - recorded special video messages for us, to help celebrate. Lovely human beings and phenomenal players they both are, and here’s our Instagram posts featuring them. First, here’s Nili:
And here is Mr Gilbert, in inimitable form…
Again, our humble thanks to one and all who took the time to send us their well-wishes. We are grateful and slightly blushing over here! One artist whom I’ve been lucky to chat with over the years included his good vibes in an altogether more expansive video…
Special Steve Vai 20th Anniversary Interview
One of guitar’s most legendary figures, and the greatest Ibanez artist of them all also happens to be an exceptional human being. Steve Vai kindly agreed to chat about 20 years of guitar with me, right before a gig in Florida! As always, Steve was a very cool, kind and funny guy to talk to. Check out the full conversation right here:
A few months later, I had the notion - during Ibanez month - of compiling the ultimate story of the JEM. Who better to ask than the man himself, right? I reached out again and to my everlasting delight, Steve was up for connecting again, this time to get the entire tale of the JEM from the horse’s mouth, as it were! Two chats with Steve in one year? That’s a lucky and rare thing for sure, and I didn’t squander my opportunity. If you want to know the entire story of one of the coolest, most eccentric guitars in history, then you need to click through to The Definitive Story of the Ibanez JEM blog.
Peter Hook in Birmingham
Living legend Peter Hook of Joy Division & New Order fame paid us a visit in Birmingham for a Q&A ahead of his gig. One of life’s great raconteurs, Hooky is always a delight to talk to, and made time for fans at our event at the Brum guitarguitar store.
Who went to the Peter Hook & The Light show afterwards? Are they not one of the best live bands out at the moment? Amazing stuff. Cheers Hooky, we’ll hopefully see you again!
Pete Thorn Shares Stories, Gives Away Suhr Guitar
Classic Rock guitarist and sideman to the stars Pete Thorn delighted fans this year by holding a series of Q&A events before performances by the Classic Rock Show in various cities this year.
A fascinating guy and a brilliant storyteller as well as a top-gun player, Thorn was a popular draw at every event! Better still, one lucky attendee won a brand spanking new Suhr Pete Thorn Signature guitar! Lucky man!
Battle of the Bands
There was an intense barrage of molten rock n roll in the Epsom area this year, thanks to our guitarguitar 20th Anniversary Battle of the Bands! As expected, the quality of entries was particularly high, so everyone who made the heats can heartily pat themselves on the back for their skills!
In the end, though, there can be only one winner and for us, it was Change Persona, who won a whole band’s worth of equipment courtesy of Yamaha. Good effort, and well won!
YUNGBLUD in Glasgow
YUNGBLUD impressed everyone at gg by buying a fantastically decent guy who was friendly to all and excellent to his fans.
An enormous queue of excited people (reports suggest SEVEN HUNDRED) snaked out along the Trongate as they awaited YUNGBLUD, who was on a whistle-stop signing tour to celebrate the release of his limited edition Epiphone guitar. He was a gent, signing everything asked of him and taking plenty of time to big up each of his fans, proving to all that he’s very much the real deal. Good chap!
Taylor Get Their Party Shoes On
We decided to dedicate several months to special brands whom we’ve worked closely with before. One brand who really kicked things up for us was Taylor, who not only organised a double Anniversary (our 20th, their 50th) showcase in both Birmingham & Edinburgh, but also performed a Taylor Takeover Day in Glasgow (where you could win a GS Mini!), helped us bring a Home Recording Masterclass in Camden and collaborated on a special ‘Secrets of a Session Guitarist’ event with us in our Camden store! Hat’s off, guys: you went above and beyond for us.
Yamaha Bring It
Yamaha were another brand who really got behind our celebrations. They put us in touch with Hooky, got Chris Buck to sign a Revstar for a competition prize, and helped out in loads of other ways.
Big grateful thanks to Yamaha for their great support throughout our anniversary celebrations.
Chris Martin Hangs With us in Camden!
Very recently, we had the pleasure of welcoming Chris Martin (the good Chris Martin, not the Coldplay guy), the Executive Chairman of Martin guitars, to our Camden store! In this free-to-attend event, Chris talked about the history and heritage of this most illustrious of brands, and there was even a signed guitar given away on the night! We are not worthy!
Masterclasses and Clinics
Throughout the year, we were humbled to have loads of incredible musicians visit us to hold clinics, Q&As and Masterclasses, all as part of our 20th Anniversary.
These events were all free, and were part of our general year of ‘thank yous’ to you, the customers, for buying with us and being a part of the community. Thank you for coming along to these events! Here’s some of what went down:
- Jared James Nichols Clinic in Birmingham with Blackstar
- 49 Winchester Glasgow in-store clinic with Fender
- Martin Miller & Tom Quayle clinics in Edinburgh, Glasgow, Newcastle & Epsom with Laney
- Folk Masterclass with Jenn Butterworth & Laura-Beth Salter in Glasgow with Martin Guitars
- Twin Atlantic acoustic performance at Epsom with Gretsch
- Doug Aldrich clinic at Glasgow in association with Blackstar
- Ola Strandberg & Richard Henshall in Camden with Strandberg guitars
These are only some of the great events that took place throughout all of the guitarguitar stores this year. Thank you to everybody who came along to enjoy these special nights, and a debt of thanks to all involved in making the magic happen, from the talent on stage to those behind the scenes.
Exclusive guitarguitar 20th Anniversary Guitars
Gibson and PRS unveiled some incredible treats for us this year…
Our friends at PRS came up with a doozy this year: a couple of quite exquisite, very limited edition guitars to mark our anniversary. What an honour! One was a wonderful PRS guitarguitar Anniversary Custom 24-08, which was available in four finishes, each of which was made with exceptional figured tops and TCI pickups. The other was a splendid PRS guitarguitar 20th Anniversary Modern Eagle V model, which added a third pickup for a total of 17 different pickup selections from the one guitar!
As for the Gibsons, we received some highly limited edition Gibson Custom Shop Les Paul Customs with eye-poppingly spectacular tops. Curly Maple or Koa were the choices, both with suitably burnished-looking burst tops and all of the ‘tuxedo’ trimmings we expect form this most beautiful of Les Paul models.
They all sold pretty quickly, so congratulations to everybody who got in fast! Those are superb guitars, with a little extra sprinkling of commemoration.
Speaking of Gibson, we also took delivery of some stunningly beautiful Murphy Lab Les Paul Standards, and felt like they deserved to be seen and played by as many people as possible. This, they embarked on a tour of the stores, and I have to say, whomever ended up with the one in my left hand here (far right of pic) is exceedingly lucky because it was one of the best guitars I've ever put my hands on...
Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror
Those with a penchant for darker entertainment were served a ghoulish delight this Halloween at our Glasgow store: Count Orlock himself was raised from the dead via the medium of film and music!
Or, to put it another way, we put on a showing of the 1922 silent horror classic Nosferatu, accompanied by a live movie score performance by Gladstone’s Bag! The Trongate area of Glasgow is already home to plenty of ghosts and vampires but this one was particularly hair-raising! A very unique night for us and a massive success too, so three shrieks for all involved here!
Anniversary Parties
In amongst this full year of festivities, we didn’t forget to host our own anniversary parties too! It was cake and bubbles all round for our customers in June, with all of our stores hosting their own anniversary parties. With special deals on the day, snacks available and more, our stores were even more of a ‘destination’ than usual.
No cake showed up at the HQ though! What was up with that? Was it nice? Hmph!
Special Merch
We also decided to create some special commemorative merchandise for our anniversary. Our specially designed 20th Anniversary logo (thanks Neal!) found its way onto a pin badge, tote bag, coaster, key ring and no less than 5 different t-shirt designs, all of which were made available to buy!
We didn’t make loads of these either, so when they’re gone they are gone!
Thank You
It’s been a fun 20 years, and we are not planning on going anywhere! It has been our pleasure and privilege to create these spaces - both online and in the physical world - for guitarists to meet and enjoy their passion. Personally as somebody who has been around for 17 of those 20 years, I’d like to say a big thank you to customers new and old: I have very fond memories of a great deal of you, and I appreciate you continuing to use guitarguitar for your guitar desires.
The world is a different place from what it was in 2004, but as long as people want to pick up a guitar and follow their joy, guitarguitar will be there, helping you every step of the way. We’ll be there for you, and we thank you for being there for us.
