BLADE GUITARS TO LAUNCH 2 NEW GUITAR LINES IN 2008
We are proud to announce that we will be launching 2 new very exciting lines of guitars which will be shown for the very first time at the Musik Messe in Frankfurt ( March 12th-15th ). Also new and exciting, will be the new “Vintage Luster” and “Vintage Oiled” finishes that will be shown on several guitars. Reason enough for every guitar connoisseur to pay us a visit at the BLADE booth Nr. 4.0H19

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NEW BLADE CASES
The new BLADE High Impact Lightweight Cases are available as of immediately for all Blade Guitars and Basses. Designed to protect the instrument efficiently, these cases are extremely light weight and have additional shoulder straps enabling the instrument to be backpacked. All Blade Models except the TC-1 and the CA-1 models will be delivered with this new case included. It is also possible to buy the case separately for those who already own a Blade. Please contact the Blade distributor in your country for more information.

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BLADE ENDORSER NEWS

MIKE SCOTT
We were both anxious and excited when we shipped an RH-4 in Honey to Mike Scott who has just started one of the most elaborate tour shows of all times —Justin Timberlake’s massive FutureSex/LoveShow tour. He got the guitar in his hotel during the tour and eventually played it on the show a few days later!
A Washington DC native, Mike moved to Minneapolis in the early 90s. He did a lot of studio work with artists such as: Mariah Carey, Lionel Richie, Gladys Knight, Janet Jackson etc… and one day in 1996, he met PRINCE (yes, that Prince!) and became a member of his Band. Please check on Mike’s touring schedule, his playing is a wonderful groove lesson not to mention his powerfull solo work!

FAB TRANZER
Some guitarists have a tremendous ability to fill up the sonic space with just a few notes; Fab Tranzer definitely belongs to that group of rare players. We have known Fab since the very beginning of his career back in the early 90's.
Born and raised in Alsace, the eastern part of France and our company’s neighborhood, he has toured as a sideman all over Europe, working with such greats as harmonica legend Charlie McCoy or Rock'n'Roll queen Wanda Jackson. He moved to the deep south of the US in 2004, on a quest towards his musical roots. He is now based in Nashville, where he enjoys working as a producer/composer and a session guitarist. The year 2007 saw the release of his first solo album, Riviera, displaying a unique organic blend of pure guitar mojo. 
For the last 12 years, Fab has been on a mission to find a worthy 'stress free' replacement to his vintage '65 Strat. He has tried every high end Strat on the market, and never found quite the perfect package. Bringing his discriminating 'tone freak/ vintage connoisseur / zero compromise' approach to the table, he has helped us to develop our brand new line of BLADE CUSTOM SHOP instruments which will be presented at the Musik Messe in Frankfurt 2008. Fab now plays a BLADE BCS-62.
http://www.fabtranzer.com
http://www.myspace.com/fabtranzer

TONY REMY
Tony started his professional music career in 1986, although he was on the Jazz scene earlier. He released his first solo album 'BOOF' in 1993 on the American Jazz/fusion label GRP. Following an unhappy period and change of label, Tony's second album 'Metamorfollow-G' was released on Alltone Records in 1997. Tony's playing draws on many different guitar styles. Guitarists like John Scofield, Hiram Bullock, Mike Stern, George Benson, Jimi Hendrix and BB King have all contributed to shaping Tony Remy's style.
Tony has toured and recorded with a wide range of musicians which include:
Courtney Pine, Freddy Hubbard, Jean Toussaint, Lenny White, Steps Ahead, Gary Barlow, Simply Red, US3, Pee Wee Ellis, Matt Bianco…
Currently Touring with Annie Lennox, Tony has decided to play a BLADE RH-4 for his tours as he definitely needs a guitar which covers the widest possible musical styles. http://www.myspace.com/tonyremy

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NEW BLADE DISTRIBUTIONS

USA – We are proud to announce that we will have a new distributor in the USA.
As of March 1st 2008, Wes-Can Music in Surrey BC will be distributing the Blade Guitars for the US market. Joe Sallay, CEO from Wes-Can, has reported that after distributing BLADE guitars in Canada for over 2 years, it became obvious that Wes-Can would not want to miss the chance to provide these fine instruments to the USA market. A special team of trained sales people and guitar players will be taking care of the distribution of BLADE Guitars in the US territory. For dealer inquiries or any other information related to BLADE in the USA, please contact Wes-Can at: +1 604 536 2633 or E-Mail: wescan@telus.net

SWEDEN – As of March 1st 2008, BLADE Guitars will be distributed by HELLAND MUSIC in Skien/Norway. Stein HELLAND and his team have been our distributors in Norway for 3 years and we are proud to mention that the Helland people have done a tremendous work so far. They will put the same positive energy behind the new distribution of Blade Guitars in Sweden and will be ready to start their work as of March 2008. For all inquiries on BLADE in Sweden please contact HELLAND at : +47 35 52 45 65 or E-Mail: stein@hellandmusikk.no

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1987-2007 BLADE’S 20th ANNIVERSARY

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CHRIS THOMPSON SHOWCASE  AT MUSIK MESSE FRANKFURT 2007


Chris Thompson, one of the greatest voices in the history of Rock Music, has performed a unique concert at this year’s Musik Messe in Frankfurt in order to celebrate the 20th anniversary of BLADE Guitars. About 2000 people came to watch and hear the sound of the Blade guitars when played by some world class players!
In order to make it even more exciting for the musicians, we chose to put together a band of musicians from all around europe who had never played together before that! Since we are nice guys too, we allowed them to rehearse about 30 minutes before the show. What can we say except that the boys delivered a great performance!  They needed about 1 song to synchronize and then they rocked like hell!
It was amazing to hear songs like “Davy’s on the road again” or “Blinded by the light” when performed by the original vocalist who made these songs worldwide number one hits!
We would like to thank Chris Thompson (UK / Guitars & Lead Vocals), Jamie Moses (UK / Lead Guitars & Vocals), Mick Wilson (UK /  Guitars, Vocals), Mario Tardio ( F/ Keyboards), Jackson McKay (F/Bass), Bas Sluis (NL/Drums).

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NEW BLADE CATALOGUE

Available as of immediately, the 2007 Blade 20th Anniversary Catalogue features all current models as well as the new additions to the California Series: the California Classic & the California Climax. You can either downlaod a PDF version of it on the Downlaod page of this website or ask for the printed version at your music store.

NEW MODELS FOR 2007
- California Classic à Available as of September 2007
- California Climax  à Available as of September 2007
See our guitars page for description and features! >more

BLADE 20th ANNIVERSARY MODELS

Introducing the Star-Fish Custom Inlay Series
Gary Levinson, the founder of Blade, has worked as a submarine geologist on some of the most beautiful reefs in the world – from Australia’s Great Barrier Reef to the reef walls of the Red Sea. For the 20th Anniversary he has created an inlay pattern of fish and starfish that inhabit these wonderful underwater worlds. Each inlay has been hand-drawn by Gary and combined into a flowing pattern of Abalone Pearl to illustrate his passion for the reef. Inlaid in the finest polished ebony fingerboards, the Star-Fish Custom Inlays come to life to adorn several of the Blade® 20th Anniversary Models:

1. RH-4 Custom “Starfish”
2. Durango Custom “Starfish”
3. California Custom “Starfish”

These beautyful models are described on our guitars page, they are custom built and are available for this 20th anniversary only! >more

Additional 20th Anniversary Models

TEXAS CUSTOM 20
The Ultimate Workhorse – Over the years we have been asked many times for a professional working musician’s guitar with all the “Greatest Hits of Blade®” features.  For the 20th Anniversary, here it is - the Texas Custom 20. This workhorse of a guitar sports the typical Texas body shape and colors with all of the best Blade goodies - with a chrome Falcon tremolo, locking tuners, graphite nut, V-3 humcancelling pickups and the VSC-3 to make every gig a showcase event. A North American alder body resonates with the sound of the sixties – warm clear highs and thick mids. You asked for it.

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BLADE ENDORSERS NEWS

As we are at our 20th year of existence, there are 2 of our most faithful swiss Blade players we would like to feature here:

SERGE KOTTELAT - Serge started to play at age 14, very much inspired at the time by Richie Blackmore and Deep Purple’s “Live in Japan” album. From 1980 to 1992 Serge played in the hard rock bands SACRIFICE and JADE with whom he toured all over europe. In 1991 Serge started to open his musical horizons by studying Jazz and playing in a lot of fusion projects such as SEXTETT ART ENSEMBLE which later became INSIDE OUT. INSIDE OUT has played in concerts and festivals all over the world. The Blade RH-4 has remained his main guitar through all these year and we are proud to say that Serge is playing his Blade for now… 20 years!
www.myspace.com/sergekottelat

KIKI RAIS – Besides being one of Serge Kottelat’s long time friend, Kiki Rais was the other part of SACRIFICE and JADE’s guitar section. Together with Serge they developped some extraordinary twin-guitar textures. After that, Kiki moved the the Jazz and Fusion corner as well as developping his musical skills on the acoustic guitar. Nonetheless, Kiki always found a way to come back to the roots and his current project “TOUCHED BY”, is a great mix of rock and fusion songs with a lot of cool guitar sounds as well as vocals. Here again, it is great to see that Kiki went through all these muscial styles and projects without changing his guitar, a Blade R-4! www.touchedby.ch

MILTON McDONALD – We would like to welcome Milton in the Blade Brigade. Currently on the TAKE THAT Tour, Milton is also the guitar player with RAY DAVIES (The Kinks). Milton has started to get international recognition while playing with ANDERSON BRUFORD WAKEMAN HOWE (Yes)  on their 1989 tour. After that he never stopped touring and his guitar credits read like a “who’s who” LIST of the Pop Music Scene: ALL SAINTS, RICK ASTLEY, BRYAN ADAMS,  BB MAK, BEVERLY KNIGHT, BOYZONE, VICTORIA BECKHAM,  ALICE COOPER, RAY DAVIES (THE KINKS), MYLENE FARMER, EDDIE FLOYD, GERI HALLIWELL, MICK JAGGER, PATRICIA KAAS, CHAKA KHAN, RONAN KEATING, LIBERTY X,  MEL C, 911, BILLY OCEAN, ROBERT PALMER, ROACHFORD, SKIN (SKUNK ANANSIE) SPICE GIRLS, SUGABABES, TAKE THAT, TINA TURNER, 3 BLIND MICE, WESTLIFE, BILL WYMAN, WET WET WET, YES, ETC…ETC…
www.myspace.com/miltonmcdonald

GRAHAM GOULDMAN – We are proud to announce that Graham Gouldman just got himself a BLADE B-1 Bass that will be used on his current tour with his band 10CC. Most of you knew Graham’s work with 10CC but guess who is the great songwriter behind such tunes like the HOLLIES’ “Bus Stop"?or the YARDBIRDS’ “For Your Love”? or HERMAN HERMIT’s “No Milk Today”? yes, these and a lot more great number-one hits have actually been written by Graham which made him a member of The Society Of Distinguished Songwriters along with all time greats such as Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber and Don Black. More information about Graham Gouldman on John Bruinsma’s very informative website: www.johnbruinsma.nl/gouldman.html.
Check 10CC’s tour schedule under: www.the10ccfanclub.com/htm/dates.htm

JAMIE MOSES – After finishing his counselor work for the London Rock & Roll Fantasy Camp, long time friend and endorser Jamie Moses has gone back to the studio recording new songs for the next  HIDING IN PUBLIC album. We recommend to go to the band’s webpage www.hidinginpublic.com/songs and listen to Jamie’s excellent Vocal and guitar work on the song “Satellite”. Jamie is starting a tour in September with the band LOS PACAMINOS and singer Paul Young.  We would like to thank Jamie for joining the BLADE ALL STAR BAND for the 20th anniversary concert at this year’s Musik messe in Frankfurt.

FRANCK BEDEZ. Best known as “Franky-the-bass-booster”, Frank just does not stop touring all over Europe and recording albums with his BLADE B-2 and B-25 basses! After finishing the great new “El Montuno” Album with the latin band SONANDO (www.sonando.st), Frank immediately hit the road with the famous french singer LIANE FOLY. As he can hardly spend a week without touring, he also plays a few summer festivals with american singer Lisa Doby (www.lisadoby.com). Please try and find some time to rest Frank!

TIMO GROSS -  Currently on the road with his band, Timo Gross has just released his new album “Travellin’”. Timo has always mentionned his great love for the Delta Blues. “Travellin” was written and recorded in the German Rhine-Neckar “Delta”  and let us tell you that result is an absolutely awesome guitar oriented and modern Blues album. The guitar tracks were recorded in Timo’s home studio using either his BLADE Texas Vintage or his Texas Std. Pro Guitars.

WITEK CISLO –  Great polish guitar player and Producer Witek Cislo has been a Blade player for more than 10 years. Witek is well known for his guitar playing as well as his songwriting and arranging skills. His work on KRZYSZTOF KILIANSKI album “The Room” has been rewarded with a number one hit “Stay”. No doubt that Witek’s ability to create songs with some great sounding acoustic and electric guitar textures is what makes him such a unique player. We are proud to have you on board Witek!
Check out Witek’s songs on www.kiljanski.com.pl

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