Guitarbitz Blog | Guitarbitz.com

Our New Shop Guitarbitz has moved to the city of Bath with a new look and an even bigger shop!  Find us at No.6 Quiet Street, BA1 2JS, just off of the high street. Shop Floor Our new shop has a great selection of Fenders, Supro, Ibanez, Vintage, Squier and Danelectro electric guitars for you to come and try out through a number of Orange, Fender and Supro amplifiers. We also have a huge range of strings and other accessories with one of the biggest string walls in the UK. Our friendly team are here to help you find the perfect guitar, amp, new set of strings or even to offer advice and have a chat. Acoustic Lounge   Downstairs we have an acoustic lounge which is the perfect space for you to come and try out our wide choice of Acoustics and Ukuleles in a quiet and relaxing setting. We currently have a choice of Fender, Sigma and Vintage acoustics, as well as Ukuleles. No your eyes aren't deceiving you, that really is a pink velvet sofa! ...

At Guitarbitz we're ALWAYS thinking of new things that we think you'll love and we've recently had lots of awesome new gear through the door! Check out our top 5 new products so far this year and have a little read about what they can do! These are in no particular order, we love them all the same! 1) AKG Professional Headphones We LOVE pro headphones. They're fashionable, cool, they make your music sound 10x better and they're excellent value for money. We've recently become a stockist of AKG pro headphones here at Guitarbitz and we have to say, they are incredible. Even the cheapest ones at £33.95 really kick some butt! If you've only ever used your iPhone earphones then you won't believe the clarity and quality that Pro headphones give you, it's quite amazing. If you're into recording, mixing or you're doing any sort of work with music then a good set of 'cans' is an absolute must. So, we recommend a good pair of AKGs! Cli...

Top 10 Guitars Under £300  1.   Sigma GME  -  http://www.guitarbitz.com/guitars-c48/electro-acoustic-guitars-c82/sigma-gme-electro-acoustic-natural-p2909 When you first sit down to play the Sigma GME, there are a few things you notice: 1. “Wow! I didn’t know I could play this well.” 2. "Oooo, is that a solid top?! Nice! I bet it’s expensive." 3. "How much! No way. Only £195!" This Sigma may not be flashy, but when it comes to a great playing guitar at a great price, flashy is not what you need. Somehow, this solid top electro is able to boast a sub £200 price tag while playing and sounding like something over twice the price. The top is made from solid Sitka Spruce that gives a juicy full range of tone, aided by the mahogany its back and sides. This sound can then replicated seamlessly through the built in Sigma pre-amp, so you can be guaranteed a perfect sound for any gigging or recording. 2. Yamaha Pacifica -...

We all know that Vintage make some great guitars for the small price tag but just check out this STUNNING V100PGM Lemon Drop , what an amazing looking guitar! Based on Peter Green's Gibson Les Paul, the V100PGM features a stunning flame Maple top, reverse neck pickup and the two style control knob configuration. It looks amazing but it also does the job in terms of sound, feel and playability. With punchy tones clean or driven it simply ticks all the boxes if you wan that classic Les Paul tone! If you didn't know Peter Green played in Fleetwood Mac! Check out the real Peter Green Les Paul: At just over £300 it is incredible value for money! These really are brilliant instruments for the money. And they look pretty darn similar too! You can buy these awesome guitars at Guitarbitz Guitar Shop online and in store. Click the link to view this guitar on our website: http://www.guitarbitz.com/guitars-c48/electric-guitars-c57/vintage-v100-hi-gloss-tobacco-burst-lemon-dr...

Until 29th February we're giving you the change to get a FREE Kinsman hard foam case when you buy a Squier electric or bass guitar at Guitarbitz. The case, worth £54.95, provides amazing protection for your guitar whilst being light and easy to transport. This deal applies even on our cheapest Squier models such as the Bullet Strat . Costing just £105 you're essentially getting the guitar for half price! An excellent deal not to be missed. All you have to do is place your selected new guitar in the basket and apply the discount code 'FREECASE'. Check out our Squier guitars HERE . * Deal not available with Squier guitar packages.

We've recently listed some new strings by Martin that are supposed sound how acoustic guitar strings were back in the day. The Martin Retro range of strings are made from Monel, a Nickel & Copper alloy, they look quite like electric guitar strings and have a vintage appearance. We thought that we would give them a go to see if they did what they said on the packet. Martin say these strings brings out the unique woody tone from your guitar and that they have complex harmonics . Hear your guitar like you've never heard it before! Sounds great but do they actually do what they say? Well, after a quick re-string on a Martin Dreadnought Junior, it has to be said we are pretty impressed! These strings are full, balanced, powerful with a stunning tone unlike what we're used to by using either Phosphor Bronze or 80/20 Bronze. And sure enough the harmonics are pretty awesome. Pluck the low E string and just listen to how the note develops... Complex harmonics? Yes. It...

A while back DigiTech released the ' Trio ', a guitar pedal that creates a backing track based on the chords you play into it, and we thought it was pretty darn awesome! Now though, (drum roll please), DigiTech have released a brand new version that's geared up for extra functionality and it even features a looper (something we wished the other one had!). Before you would play your chord sequence into the Trio and it would generate a drum and bass backing track. Now you can create your backing track AND loop your chord sequence as well so it becomes a fully comprehensive, extremely convincing backing track that's created in seconds! It really is AWESOME! Whether you're simply playing at home and want to jam along to your own backing music or if you're a pro, playing a show to your fans this magical device really will transform the way you play! Personally, we love it for practicing, when you're trying to write that killer guitar solo you need ...

Well, it seems that we've been waiting for Marshall to pull something out of the bag for a while now. Yes, we've had the Astoria range and other boutique / hand-wired amps but nothing in the 'amp modelling' category. Marshall tested the water a few years back with their JMD series amplifiers which allowed users to model classic Marshall sounds, but it never really took off. As technology progressed and progressed they just didn't seem to want to utilise it... Until now. So, here we have the all new, for NAMM 2016, the Marshall CODE series. And, to be fair, they look pretty darn nice! They are all modelling amplifiers... Yes, it had to happen sometime as other brands such as Fender, Blackstar or Vox are doing well with their popular modelling combos. Could the CODE be a competitor to, say, the Fender Mustang , Blackstar ID:CORE or the Vox VTX ? I think the answer could be yes. Reading up on Marshall's website certainly gives you the impre...

Have you heard of the acoustic guitar brand, Sigma ? If not then you most definitely should have! They offer some of the best acoustic guitars we've tried in a long time and what's great is they are cheap which gives you amazing value for money. Let me make this clear... they're NOT cheap in terms of quality, they just don't cost a lot to buy! Quality and attention to detail are absolutely supreme which yields an amazing end result for you, the player. They specialise in electro acoustic models too and of course they all use brilliant Fishman systems. You may recognise them to look very, very similar to another famous brand called Martin, and they do! They are allowed to produce replicas or copies of Martin guitars but as they're made in the far east rather than the Americas the prices are far, far cheaper! From dreadnoughts, to jumbos to folk shapes and '000' styles, their range is extensive and Guitarbitz now have a good range for sale both onlin...

If you haven't heard of the all new Blackstar ID:CORE BEAM yet then you're missing out as this is without doubt one of the best guitaring gadgets of the year! This Bluetooth 4-in-1 amplifier lets you use your electric guitar just like normal with all the classic features like gain voices, ISF, built in effects and USB connectivity, but on top of this you can also plug in your acoustic guitar, bass and stream music to it via Bluetooth! With specific channels for the different instruments you can get a brilliant sound for each. If you took an acoustic guitar or bass and plugged it into a regular electric guitar amp it wouldn't sound overly great, but here simply press the voice button down and you have yourself a quality little acoustic amplifier! Same goes with the bass, there's two bass voices and surprisingly these have a lot of bottom end and punch, which is amazing considering there are only two little 10w speakers! This little box of tricks is stereo, it h...

If you love something a bit whacky then listen up as you'll love this new Fender David Lozeau Art Stratocaster in the stunning Sacred Heart finish! Under the hood it's a simple, made in Mexico, Standard Strat which makes it nice and cheap but it's got one of the best paint jobs we've seen in a while, probably since the Fender 'Swirl' Telecaster! Fans of bright, cartoon, comic book style drawings will love this guitar, it's so vibrant and will certainly catch the eyes of your audience! This electric guitar sounds just as a Strat should, excellent for blues, rock, jazz or any style you want to throw at it. The neck and neck-middle positions are so punchy yet smooth and creamy, very SRV sounding! While the bridge and bridge-middle have that classic snappy, treble tone that's great for power chords and even a bit of country! We've made a tiny little video just a sneak peek because this is an instrument that needs to be seen in pers...

If you’re in need a guitar and amp to gig with but don’t have much more than £500 to spend then we have some awesome suggestions for you! You may think that a good quality set up, that can compete with a full band and drum kit, may cost a lot of money but actually it can be done fairly cheaply and still sound awesome! To ensure the amplifier can accommodate lots of different playing styles and genres, as well as keeping the cost down, we’re going to go for ones with built-in effects. With these you’ll get a huge number of sounds to suit your individual needs and most brands offer something that’s going to be loud enough to get over the volume of those loud, annoying drummers! Amp Choices - Fender Mustang III              ~ £227    - Vox Valvetronix VT80+        ~ £269 - Fender Champion 100          ~ £228 - Blackstar ID:30TVP ...

Review By: Tom M Rating: 5 Excellent Product: Fender Replacement Stratocaster Neck - Maple Board Review: well all all i can say .is top quality neck, spot on. The picture dose not do it justice ,great service, very helpful and very fast delivery, many thanks for a great service many thanks tom Date: 28th February 2015 If you found this information useful, please share it on Facebook, Twitter and Google. Tweet

Boss delay effects pedals have become somewhat of an industry standard, ‘go-to’ choice of many guitarists world-wide. The DD-3 has been used by loads of famous artists and is a great little stompbox, but does its big brother, the DD-7, provide more functionality, better sounds and a more useable interface? DD-3 With users like Slash you can tell the DD-3 means business. It provides a classic, robust digital delay effect that simply does the job well. With a few different settings and parameters you can dial in a range of sounds quickly that go from short, ‘slap-back’ Country style to long ‘swells’ that you can make last forever. It’s easy to use and there are ample sounds to accommodate a number of styles and songs. Pros: Ease of use, industry standard, robust, cheap Cons: Limited modes compared to DD7, only mono operation, no tap tempo facility DD-7 The DD7 takes the DD3 and completely ramps it up to give extra features, stereo compatibility and a handy...

Have you ever heard the difference between a Fender Jazz Bass and Fender Precision Bass ? They're quite different to listen to, to play and even to look at! Check out this short demo video so you can hear the tonal difference for yourself! To a veteran of the bass this may seem like an easy question to answer but if you’re new to it or you just can’t see much difference between them then there’s quite a few features on each that offer different sounds, feel and playability. Pickups / Electronics Let’s start by looking at the pickups and electronics as this is one major difference between these two bass guitars. The Precision has what’s called a ‘split coil’ single coil pickup.   The E and A strings have the half of the pickup which is closer to the neck and the D and G strings have the other half that’s closer to the bridge. To control the sound with the P-bass you get one master volume and one master tone and that’s it. It’s probably one of the easiest configur...

Check out this great video of J Mascis being interviewed and playing a solo of Dinosaur Jr.'s 'Get Me." on his signature Squier J Mascis Jazzmaster . Check out the tone of this awesome versatile electric guitar. Its pretty epic, you won't want to miss this one! Get this signature Squier J Mascis Jazzmaster at Guitarbitz Guitar Shop for only £373 or £27.97 a month on 0% finance.

We've seen a huge boom in Ukulele sales recently as the popular tiny, little mini guitar style instruments have taken off among children, adults, grandparents and yes, you guessed it....EVERYONE! It seems this little instrument has welcomed itself into our day to day lives to bring us a touch of Hawaii and quite simply, who couldn't be whisked away on a big smile adventure to that tropical paradise whilst playing and listening to the beautiful tone of these magnificent musical mini guitars. We heard in the news this week that sales of Ukuleles in Britain have doubled to around 250,000 over the past five years and we're pretty sure that soon it will be overtaking those recorder lessons in schools as more and more children start up fun Ukulele clubs and the adults move onto those great little local community clubs, just round the corner. They're pretty easy to learn with just four strings and the soft nylon texture means we don't blisters on our fingers. Hooray!...

Review By: Agnes C Rating: 5 Excellent Product: Squier Vintage Modified Cabronita Telecaster with Bigsby Review: First off, I would like to thank Guitar Bitz for getting the instrument to me very quickly and for their attention to detail. This guitar had obviously been checked over with a little sticker to prove so. Pretty much straight out the box it was great, very well made and unbelievable value. I will put 10's on it as it came with 9's other than that nothing needs doing. The bigsby is stable with no tuning issues, the neck = stunning playability. A very resonate guitar even when played without amplification. A very pleasant surprise considering the price point, destined to be come a classic. Thanks Agyy Date: 13th August 2014 If you found this information useful, please share it on Facebook, Twitter and Google. Tweet

Review By: Bernie R Rating: 5 Excellent Product: Fender Champion 100 Electric Guitar Amplifier Review: I live in France and did not source my Fender Champion from Guitar Bitz. This amp is fantastic value for money, I'm a jazz guitarist with 50 years of playing behind me. I've owned mountains of amps and guitars. This amp sounds like a Fender Twin and has some sweet tones at the turn of a dial. It is manufactured in Indonesia, so what!! The effects are all good and it's got everything you need, including a very good sound stage (two 12" speakers). This will put new life into problem guitars with odd string balance. Don't forget the price, incredible!!. My guitar collection is out of this world and I'm happy to put them through a 100 watt Fender Champion Date: 15th November 2014 If you found this information useful, please share it on Facebook, Twitter and Google. Tweet