News 2011

DECEMBER, 2011. Christmas!

Merry Christmas from everyone here at Gaskell Guitars! We hope you got our December newsletter - lots of pics, not much text this time! We will be closed from Dec 25 - Dec 31 and reopening 3 January 2012. Be safe! Regards Kevin (Australia) Peter (USA) Alan (England) Theo (Brazil.)

NOVEMBER, 2011. European distributor of Gaskell guitars and basses

Hello to all European and UK Gaskell players and other lefty players in Europe. Our new European distribuor has just put up a Facebook for Europe. You won't be hearing about "kangaroos" and "Holden utes" on that one! We invite you to hook up! http://www.facebook.com/pages/Gaskell-Guitars-Europe/272396679462149

NOVEMBER, 2011. Christmas, etc.

Just a quick update. The Limited Edition Firestarters due in a few weeks are ALL SOLD. If you did not preorder for the December run, your soonest availability for Firestarter Limited Edition will be January 2012. Australian and Asia-Pacific lefties please contact PKs Music and/or River Music for current stock availability; USA and Canadian lefties please contact our USA distributor for current availability; European and UK lefties please contact our new European distributor. Be in quick for Christmas!

NOVEMBER, 2011 - new UK distributor of Gaskell guitars and basses

Can you believe 2011 is almost over? Christmas is coming up, folks. Start thinking about it! We have some very exciting news for lefties living in the UK. Gaskell Guitars now has a UK distributor! This is a new venture and we invite you to contact Alan in England with any questions regarding purchasing a Gaskell guitar or bass - details on our DEALERS page. Please note, that these are Australian imports into the UK and there are local charges and costs applicable including shipping from Australia. However, UK and European customers you automatically save 10% on the price due to not being chargable for the Australian sales tax due in Australia (overseas purchases are exempt from Australian sales tax.) You will be able to see, touch and try guitars too. Try a Gaskell guitar in the UK!

OCTOBER, 2011. Out of Office.

From 15 Oct till 25 Oct our Sydney office will be shut for a break. Emails and phone calls will be returned after 25th. Any urgent questions or matters needed before then can be directed to our US office by email or for product enquiries please contact one of our retailers. See our "Dealers" page.

OCTOBER, 2011. The USA Special is finished.

The special we were running exclusively on our USA stock is over. There will be no more specials from now on. Well done to all of you that picked up a Gaskell guitar or bass at a ridiculous, never to be repeated price! Go lefties!  

SEPTEMBER, 2011. Good news for Americans

Our Australian dollar has finally fallen off it's perch. After nearly a year of riding well about the US Dollar (making our guitars more expensive for Americans) it has crashed just this week and is sitting UNDER the US dollar for the first time in what seems a lifetime! Americans NOW is definitely the time to buy a Gaskell guitar or bass. You save 12% just on exchange rate alone right now. And our special clearance on current stock ENDS THIS MONTH. Don't miss out!  

AUGUST, 2011 Sale on for current USA stock!

Attention all USA and Canadian left handed guitarists and bassists! Due to the continous decline of the US dollar, all Gaskell pricing has been consolidated. There is now ONE international price list. As a result, our USA distributor is having a massive sale on current USA stock of all Gaskell guitars and basses. Save up to 40% if you buy now. (New USA stock is scheduled for Christmas 2011. If something is not in stock now then PRE ORDER TODAY. Pre orders for Christmas are open from now until October 30, 2011.) Contact our USA office direct on: gaskellguitars-usa@mail.com NOTE: This sale ends September 30 and will be the last ever Sale on USA guitars. There will be NO MORE DISCOUNTS after this. We will NOT be doing this again. Get in now, or miss out forever. No extentions.

AUGUST, 2011. Deliveries to Europe.

Due to a dispute with TNT Australia, deliveries to Europe are suspended temporarily. We are sorting this out as fast as we can. For the people currently awaiting deliveries to Spain, Portugal, Germany, France and UK this affects you.

JULY, 2011. Guitars have arrived

After 2 weeks of expensive and time-consuming chaos and red tape from hell (Australian government is making it harder and harder for us!) we have guitars! Finally! From Monday 1 August we will be starting on setups for pre orders. If you have a pre order in this shipment then you are only 1-2 weeks away from seeing your guitar. Please be expecting balance invoices in this next week. With this shipment we have new stock also. Now is the time to get a Gaskell guitar or bass!

JULY, 2011 Gaskell Ice Axe

Please note: Ice-Axe will be back in stock at Christmas, 2011. Currently IceAxe is fully sold out. We apologize for any inconvenience. As with all models, Custom Shop option is available. Price from $3500.00. Fully made in Australia. (Note Custom Shop turnaround time is 5-6 months due to current work load.)

June, 2011. PRO SERIES and HUNTSMAN.

In case you are wondering where the Huntsman has gone ... it hasn't really gone anywhere. It is now incorporated as one option under the expanded Gaskell PRO SERIES which us where you can get a Custom Shop paint job on a factory-made body blank (same as used for the Huntsman) and some options on hardware or pickups without going full Custom Shop. If you want a guitar in a special colour or with artwork then you can get this through the PRO SERIES which is the level between full Custom Shop and our production models. See our product pages for more information.  

June, 2011. Update on production run.

We have just finished our Quality control actions and our new run of guitars are leaving the factory this week. A typical journey by Sea is 4 weeks and then it takes 2 weeks to clear through our Australian government before we get them. Then we do the setups and then we send you your guitar after that! For those who have pre orders please start thinking about your balance to pay. It's all good! 

June, 2011. Updated FAQs.

Our FAQs page has been updated with focus on how to buy Gaskell guitars wherever you may live in the world. Please consult our FAQ if you are considering buying a Gaskell guitar and do not live in Australia.

June, 2011. NEWS.

The June e-newsletter has gone out. If you are not on the mailing and want to be click the link at the bottom of our Home Page. We have just completed the current run of guitars and are getting through the Quality Control processes now. We expect to have the current run leave the factory in the next week and then it is a 4-5 week journey and clearance. For those of you with pre-orders, the wait is nearly over!  .... Just discovered our Asia-Pacific/World Price List was down! Not sure for how long. Fixed now. Prices are available again. The Asia-Pacific price list applies to Australasia, Europe, Middle East, Africa and South America.

May, 2011. Newsletter.

The May e-newsletter has gone out. We sent it twice as the first time the attachment was too big! If you were expecting it and did not receive it please let us know and we will resend. The May newsletter includes some info on the new Limited Edition Firestarter model.

April, 2011. Easter Delivery schedule.

Due to national delivery services not running on Monday 25 and Tuesday 26 April, all deliveries originating from our Australian office due to go out in that week will be moved to the following week: Monday 2nd and Tuesday 3rd May. This does not affect our USA office. Happy Easter everyone!   

April, 2011. Pictures.

At last we have some product pictures up on the website for the AllRounder, Hybrid, Hybrid Deluxe and Rockit. Thanks to Jess for contacting us and offering to shoot the guitars for us. Jess is an Australian model with an exotic mix of Vietnamese, Russian, and Greek backgrounds - that's Australia for you! Nice!

April, 2011. Updates.

Our current production run for restock and pre orders is scheduled to be ready by June 2011. Those with pre orders please take note. Any new pre orders made now for out of stock guitars will be ready Christmas 2011. Kevin has a new cell phone number, due to the old one being hacked earlier leading to further problems, Australian customers who have been in touch with Kevin about their custom guitar please email Kevin direct to update the phone number.

March, 2011. ROCKIT new specs.

Until now we were only offering the Gaskell Rockit, our LP/ESP Eclipse style, single cut guitar through custom shop, but due to the popularity of this model internationally, and lack of availability of good left handed alternatives, we have decided to offer this model as a factory-made guitar, now with a price tag of only $1000 standard, or $1250 with optional EMGs! We hear you, lefty guitarists. That is why we are here - to provide left handed guitars that are not available elsewhere. For those who don't want to spend $4000 on a top-of-the-line custom guitar, here is the best alternative in the world for you: the new Gaskell ROCKIT! The Gaskell Rockit puts the ESP Eclipse and Epiphone/Gibson Les Pauls to shame!

March, 2011. NEW SPECS FOR CLASSIC SERIES!

"Purist" fans of Explorer guitars will delight over the fact that from 2011 the bodies of our Classic and Classic II models will hereafter be made from mahogany with no increase to the price (thanks to the Australian and US dollar parity.) We will retain the maple necks. This has come about due to increased availability of American mahogany, thanks to the plantations that were started 10 years ago in several Asian countries. American mahogany from America is still commercially unavailable, and it is these Asian plantations that are the only legal sources for genuine mahogany today, and probably forever. 

March, 2011. Quick comment.

Over the years I have had the extreme privilege of hearing many fascinating and incredible stories from lefty guitarists and bassists from all over the world. Some of these stories could be turned into Hollywood blockbuster movies or bestselling novels. Lefties generally have had to endure a lot in their lives as a lefty musician, and you can imagine all the emotions that go with that and what intense determination is needed to get good left handed instruments. I am ALWAYS extremely interested to hear these incredible stories and by all means, write to us and tell us about yourself and your journey. And why not? We all have something in common! Kevin

March, 2011.

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February, 2011. Updates.

While Australia might be a bit of a disaster zone at the moment with Mother Nature dealing out what seems to be never ending hell on us here, there are many exciting things happening here at Gaskell Guitars, and that means exciting things for lefty guitarists and lefty bassists! 1) We will be emailing out a monthly newsletter soon which will go to the many thousands of lefty guitarists around the world who are either Gaskell customers or have made an enquiry at some time. We will try and make this very "newsy" and informative. 2) Custom Shop is busy with custom guitar orders and we have decided to take one that we are making for a customer and offer it to the world too. We are calling it the "Leftfield." This is a left handed 84 Explorer , the one made famous by James Hetfield. Gibson only every made 400 of these and in right handed only (of course!) Ours is exactly the same, down to the shape of the backing plate and location of the battery box for the 9 volt battery that runs the EMGs! 3) Production run update. We have gotten very busy these first two months of 2011 and were slow off the mark this year organizing our next production run. Our current run of factory made guitars will be completed in May. 4) Our good friends at Leftyfretz (www.leftyfretz.com) have taken the trouble to find out that Gibson is offering 5 lefty models in 2011. This is an improvement on recent habits. 5) I had the rarest of opportunities very recently to play one of the limited edition PRS Custom 22 lefty guitars that were released to the UK and Canadian market only at the end of last year. For us using dollars, these work out to be around $5,600.00 a piece! They made only 50 of the Custom 22's. Very, very nice guitar... their reputation is deserved, but to be honest... we can make them better! Gaskell Custom Shop guitars are the best left handed guitars in the world. We only make lefties. Would you expect less? ... We have lots more news, but we will save some for the email newsletter that we'll be sending out soon! If you want to be on our email list for the newsletter please click here.

February, 2011. Revised Hours (Australia)

This year, our Sydney head office and workshop will be closed to the public on Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays. Deliveries will take place on Mondays and Tuesdays only. Visits to our workshop are to be pre-booked for Monday, Tuesday, Saturday or Sunday only.  Note, this has no relevance to our USA office and customers.

February, 2011 Sydney heat wave

Due to the record breaking heat wave that is happening in Sydney at the moment (3 Feb), the heat and humidity is making it impossible to work on guitars. Gaskell Guitars will not be carrying out any guitar or case construction activities in this time. Email communications will continue but production is temporarily delayed for a week until temperatures drop back to safe levels to be able to work again. Update Feb 7. The Sydney heatwave was the the most severe and longest on record since records began in 1858! Now we are back to "normal." We are busy, busy, busy! With all the disasters happening in Australia right now, i.e the heatwave in Sydney, flooding in Queensland and Northern Victoria, the devastating Cyclone in Northern Queensland, the raging bush fires in Perth, Australia is the new "hell on earth."

January, 2011. NEW GASKELL CLASSIC PRO!

From 2011, the Classic PRO (left handed Explorer) will no longer be factory-made, and will instead be entirely made in Australia in the Gaskell Custom Shop. If you want a left handed Explorer guitar you now have 3 options: our sub-$1000 factory made range, our Australian-made Huntsman which uses a factory made unpainted body blank, and now the new Classic PRO - 100% made in Australia using the highest quality materials and components. That means Grover tuners, Gotoh bridges, Switchcraft controls, EMG, Seymour Duncan or other pickups, etc. The Classic PRO will be priced upon request, and starts from $3000.00. Lifetime warranty. Your order will be dealt with directly by Gaskell Guitars Australia.

JANUARY, 2011. Happy New Year left handed guitarists!

We at Gaskell Guitars would like to extend our best wishes to all left handed guitarists and left handed bassists in the world for 2011. There is a lot of subject matter to be writing about in 2011. This is a great opportunity for artists and musicians. Write music. Get out there and play. Get your message out there. Don't expect "governments" to fix the mess the world is in. Get out there and spread your message through your music. Make people wake up and think! And play Gaskell guitars!