Guitars

George Murdock Character actor often played the 'heavy' George Murdock, 81, a veteran character actor who had a recurring role as Lt. Scanlon on the television sitcom "Barney Miller" and played God in the 1989 film "Star Trek V: The Final Frontier," died Monday at Providence St. Joseph Medical Center in Burbank, said his close friend and fellow actor Jennifer Rhodes. He had cancer. Murdock's craggy facial features and booming bass voice helped him land a steady stream of "heavy" parts in theater, film and television productions.

Bert Weedon was a legendary British guitar player who influenced a generation of budding rock stars with his popular "Play in a Day" instructional book. Eric Clapton, Brian May, Pete Townshend, Paul McCartney, John Lennon and George Harrison are among those who received help in learning to play the guitar from Weedon's book, which was first published in 1957 and has sold more than 2 million copies. "I wouldn't have felt the urge to press on without the tips and encouragement Bert's book gives you," Clapton once said.

Don't be fooled by the lush orchestrations and friendly acoustic guitars of Lost in the Trees. There's high drama in the band's self-described campfire arrangements, with tales of heroes and villains and biblical-like imagery of raging fires. Or, to put it in more blunt terms, it's about fighting with your parents. The brainchild of Ari Picker, Lost in the Trees found a home with Silver Lake's Anti- Records, the adventurous offshoot of Epitaph, and their new album, "A Church That Fits Our Needs," expands on their grand palette.

Fender Musical Instruments Corp., the iconic company that has been making guitars in California since its inception in 1946, is seeking to raise $200 million in an initial public stock offering. In a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Thursday, Fender said it intends to use the money to help pay down $246.2 million in debt and to acquire other businesses. Although its corporate headquarters are now in Scottsdale, Ariz., the company was founded in Fullerton and makes its American Standard Stratocaster and Telecaster guitars at a 3-acre manufacturing plant in Corona.

Just for a moment, as Carlos Santana was outlining the philosophy underlying his latest business venture, it started to sound as if he might be branching out into the food service industry. "What we do is focus on making everything fresh," the veteran musician and bandleader said. "I remind people: 'Ooh — don't bring last night's leftovers! Make it fresh and new and people will feel it.'" He's not launching a new Subway sandwich franchise but a two-year residency at the House of Blues in Las Vegas, where beginning May 2 he'll be holding court for 80 nights a year with a reimagined show he's calling "Greatest Hits Live: Santana — Yesterday, Today & Tomorrow.

Spending countless hours playing the video game Guitar Hero has fostered an illusion among many middle-age guys. It's not too late to be a guitar god. Then they discover something: There's a big difference between the colored plastic buttons on the guitar-shaped game control and the six strings of an actual guitar. But is the difference insurmountable? Gary Marcus set out to answer that question in "Guitar Zero: The New Musician and the Science of Learning. " "I had a sabbatical coming up," says Marcus, a psychology professor at New York University.

Rodrigo Sanchez and Gabriela Quintero came to this beach resort seeking a fresh start after realizing that their Mexico City metal band was a dismal failure. More than a decade later, Ixtapa is again a haven for them - this time from the rigors of soaring success. The couple, known as Rodrigo y Gabriela, have lived a story that could have sprouted in Hollywood: The pair swap electric guitars for acoustic ones, move to Ireland to play street corners and develop a distinctive style.

Veteran guitar repairman Bob Wirtz faced a wall of pricey custom-built electric guitars, and he had the ear of Gibson Guitar Corp.'s resident expert on the instruments. But what Wirtz wanted to talk about was international law. Like many who attended the National Assn. of Music Merchants convention in Anaheim last weekend, Wirtz was tapping into a discordant tone among the makers, purveyors and purchasers of guitars that often are made from exotic woods protected by the federal Lacey Act. A raid on Gibson's Nashville factory last summer, the second at company workshops in as many years, vaulted the once obscure law into the national spotlight when Chief Executive Henry E. Juszkiewicz accused the federal government of "bullying" and "persecution.

Guitar aficionados can buy, sell, trade, ogle and get appraisals of all manner of instruments, accessories, books and memorabilia at the SoCal World Guitar Show. Prepare your finger-tapping solo in advance. OC Fair & Event Center, 88 Fair Drive, Costa Mesa. 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Sat. 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Sun. $15. (918) 288-2222. http://www.calshows.tv.

The members of the folk group the Highwaymen were freshmen in the same fraternity at Wesleyan University in Connecticut when they came together to perform at a campus party in 1958. By their senior year, the quintet had a No. 1 single with their haunting version of the African American spiritual "Michael, Row the Boat Ashore," which was a hit on both sides of the Atlantic in 1961. Although the group had a significant impact on the folk scene in the early 1960s — turning "Big Rock Candy Mountain" and "All My Trials" into folk standards — the Highwaymen disbanded in 1964 when Bob Burnett and two other members decided to attend graduate school.