The C.F. Martin guitar company in Nazareth, PA is a small guitar manufacturer of acoustic guitars. Perhaps you've heard of them?
This year they celebrate their 175th year of building guitars. To say the company is still going strong might be understating it just a little bit. Martin has been known as the choice manufacturer of acoustic guitars practically since they incorporated back in the 1830s.

Police in Lewiston Maine are looking for a shoplifter who (along with two accomplices) stole a Fender Stratocaster from the Music Maniac store at the Lewiston Mall in a well.. unusual way.

Cops say the guy shoved the Strat down his pants and pulled a sweatshirt over it before walking (quite stiffly we imagine!) out of the store.

Apparently this has happened before. In 2006 a man did the same thing but was apprehended, still with the guitar in his pants.

Canadian guitarist Jeff Healey died on March 2nd at the age of 41 after a life long battle with cancer. Blind since the age of 1 from a rare form of retinal cancer known as Retinoblastoma, Jeff taught himself to play with an unusual style of laying the guitar across his lap.

Van Halen has postponed four dates of their reunion tour until next month after it was announced that Eddie Van Halen is entering the hospital for a series of "comprehensive medical tests."

Looking for an excuse to buy an iPhone? This might be it.

No, it's not ready for prime time yet, but it might impress your low-tech guitar playing buddies. Video after the jump...

It was announced Friday that Gibson Guitar Corp. plans to merge with TC Group, a Danish company well known for it's high-end audio electronics.

Henry Juszkiewicz, chairman and chief executive of Gibson, said the company would be based in Nashville, Tennessee and that the deal would give both companies an "enormous advantage" in the always competitive business of music.

The companies announced the deal at the annual NAMM convention in Anaheim California.

Part one of our interview with Andy McKee is up.
In case you've just emerged from a Siberian cave, you should know that Andy's playing has taken YouTube by storm over the last year or so. We caught up with him to find out what makes him tick, and discover that he's a really nice guy as well as a phenomenal player.
Read part one of the interview here.

Well, it didn't take long... The record for the world's largest guitar ensemble has been eclipsed again, with 1,802 players performing Deep Purple's Smoke on the Water at an event in Leinfelden, Germany. The previous record which we reported earlier involved 1,730 players and was set only three weeks previously.

Check out the video: