GrumpyRocker

Line 6 has announced a forthcoming update to the POD HD range of guitar modelling systems. The update adds a new Marshall guitar model and finally adds bass and vocal amp support.

Other features include enhanced functionality for use with Variax modelling guitars.

At this rate Line 6 might actually have a finished product deserving of release a couple of years after the POD HD was actually released.

Click through for the full POD HD firmware 2.0 press release.

Budget guitar pickup company Irongear has added an active pickup to its range - the Volt humbucker. Previously the company's excellent range of pickups were all regular passive pickups.

I've just completed a list of all the guitar gear I've owned over the years. Some of which I still own. What strikes me is the number of cheap and nasty multi-effects units I've wasted my money on.

And how many lovely electro-acoustic guitars I've had to sell because I was so brassic I couldn't afford to eat. This actually happened to me twice - thanks to two separate period of poverty.

Of course among all the junk there's still some very good gear in there. My Vintage VS6 is one of the least expensive guitars I've owned but one of the best. The PRS SE is ridiculously good for the price and my LP Traditional is very special.

And what of the amps? A pretty terrible solid state effort followed by some rubbish modelling amps. However things got tubey later on and I've got a couple of good amps now. No not expensive boutique nonsense but I'm not a great believer in hand-wired snake oil.

Anyway should you be interested in seeing how much junk I've owned over the years check out the list after the jump.

One could argue - if I was a bit more flush I might have a go - that you can have too many guitars. I certainly have a few - but by no means a ridiculous collection. The current count is six if I ignore wifey's bass guitars.

The six are an Epiphone 435i, Epiphone Les Paul Standard, Fender Squire Bullet Strat, Aria 12-string semi acoustic, PRS SE Custom 22 Trem and finally a Gibson Les Paul Traditional.

So the question is how many of them do I actually play and therefore actually need?

Gibson famously hasn't a clue what it's doing. In 1960 it stopped making the Les Paul - yes only the most iconic guitar in rock - and it was only the likes of Page, Clapton and Green using it that made the company bring it back. Since then it hasn't shown any great common sense and has just announced the hideous monstrosity you see above - the Gibson Firebird X.

My darling wifey decided she was going to buy me my guitar of my dreams. How could I say no to that? Not only that, but the plan was I'd get a Saturday off from family duties to go and enjoy the whole guitar buying experience. West Dorset isn't exactly packed with good guitar stores - so eventually I decided I was going to head to Manson's in Exeter. The store has a great reputation and actually makes the guitar used by the bloke with the stupid wheezy voice in Muse.

The aimed to get up early (not hard as I was on baby duty) and be out of the door at 8am to drive from Dorchester to Exeter. Baby wakes me up at 5.30am and the day doesn't get much better. He's in an unusually crabby mood by 9am. And why haven't I left by then? My three year old daughter is seeming faking being ill but then gets herself in so much of a tiz that she vomits all over our sofa.

Looks like my trip is over before it's begun. But wifey shoves me out of the door at 10am and says she'll cope, "go have fun", she says.

I've just completed my little Squier Bullet project. I've used this cheapo Strat to learn the basics of guitar modification as it's not something I've really done before. I'm quite happy with the resulting cheap yet good sounding guitar.

It was a regular SSS guitar when I bought it. I replaced with the pickguard with one that's cut for a humbucker and the bridge. The pickups are all from IronGear - two single coil Pig Iron models with a Rolling Mill humbucker.

The trem is a Wilkinson model with the solid steel block - this along with the addition of a graphite nut have worked wonders for tone and tuning.

So that's that done. No really major work - I've not had to modify the wood as thankfully Squier had already routed the body for a HSS pickup layout already. I'm not going to go further with a new neck or tuners of anything like that. But I'm very happy with the result.

Reflected Floyd, originally uploaded by Cartmel Veteran.

Twenty years ago my late mother bought me an electric guitar - a relatively cheap Epiphone HSS Strat. I was always rubbish at keeping up hobbies, but I really took to the guitar rather late and I've played ever since.

I've owned other (and better) guitars but I've always treasured this one that mum bought for me. Alas time hasn't been kind to it - it was used hard before and during my university years and it hasn't really been playable for the last few years.

The Floyd Rose bridge was rusted and had a screw missing. The locking nut was threaded and had a lock missing. The tone pot doesn't work. The volume pot hardly works. The bridge pickup is falling apart and out of its mounting.