New Online Guitar Publication; CRASH Stratocasters; 2005 Winter NAMM

Modern Guitars Magazine (www.modernguitars.com) has recently launched its online publication. It offers current news briefs and in-depth feature articles. Expect to see an interesting interview with John 5 within the next few days.

Another feature of the site are blogs by people in and around the guitar world. The magazine bloggers, to-date, include artist CRASH, Billy Morrison (of Doheny Music and Camp Freddy), and Paul Olsen (the artist known for his Robin Trower album covers and who will soon be painting a limited edition of Strats featuring that art work). Many more are on the way (including Pamelina H).

Speaking of CRASH, anyone interested in the limited edition CRASH Stratocasters should keep an eye on CRASH's blog on Modern Guitars. He's documenting the process of painting the 50 instruments. Below is a photo from CRASH of the first completed body of the series.

While most of our NAMM coverage (we will have a journalist and photographer there) this year will appear on the Modern Guitars Magazine site, we will provide a close look at the Fender booth on Strat Collector News. Expect a good number of incredible new instruments from Fender this year - and some exciting pieces from the folks at the Custom Shop.

Senior Master Builder Todd Krause, in addition to his work on the CRASH Stratocasters and many other instruments, is planning something special to display at the show. He won't supply details yet, but did tell me that inlay artist Ron Thorn is involved, so we can expect another spectacular one-off Strat at NAMM.

An image of Todd Krause's "mystery NAMM Strat" before it was sent to Ron Thorn.