Besides not having buckets of money, there is another reason I like Epiphones (in fact I own two). I, like many other people, suffer from a back injury, or in my case two back injuries. You every tried playing four sets with a Les Paul and a bad back. Not going to happen. So when you get a good Epi LP it's like winning the lottery. These days more and more of them fall into the good category.

Like this one, the Slash signature series. This LP came out a while ago and now it has a little brother. Sure it's not as high end as the Gibson but what do you expect. It comes with Alnico Classic humbuckers, rosewood fingerboard on a mahogany neck, a beautiful tobacco burst finish on flame maple, and just screams ROCK.

I want one so very, very badly.

Looks like Cary at EGR hit the nail on the head with his comments about the new Fender re-issues shooting from their Mexican factory. After all, who wouldn't want one (or both) of these shoved in a stocking this year. The build quality out of the factory has improved dramatically and these guitars were great first time round.

Featuring an alder body, the Deluxe Roadhouse Stratocaster has a C shaped maple neck, medium jumbo frets and three Texas Special single coils. The Lonestar, on the other hand comes packing a Seymour Duncan Pearly Gates Plus in the bridge with the same Tex Specs filling the other slots.

Me, I'm more of a Telecaster type of guy, but I wouldn't say no to one of these. What do you think?