Four years ago, I had a job editing laddish lifestyle magazines funded by the National Health Service. It was a great job, great people, and not very time-consuming. So, at work and at home I started writing Music Thing. To my surprise and delight, people started reading it. It was fun and all-consuming. Every day you - the readers - sent me great stories which I had time to research and post.

The things I learned doing Music Thing (the internet stuff more than the guitars shaped like guns) have now helped me get a job where I'm in charge of the online output of The Times newspaper, managing 40+ people and a history going back to 1785.
I spend all day on the web, talking and thinking about traffic, developers, links and readers. It's no longer what I want to do at home, so this will be the last Music Thing post.
That's right, I've used this blog to get what I want, now I'm spitting it out like stale gum. Sorry about that.

Thank you to everyone who has ever sent me an idea, particularly if I never got round to using it. Thanks to my fellow gear geek bloggers who have given so much help, friendship and inspiration. Special shouts out to Peters Kirn, Rojas and Taylor, Joel Johnson, Chris Randall, Matrix, Neil S and Michael M. (Image via Keith)

J chot writes: HEY GUESS WHAT!!! I spent the entire day at work searching the words "made guitar" and "built guitar"!

Here are the most interesting ones I found:

1. Dude built a guitar from legshield of a vespa scooter
2. Nicest cigarbox guitar I've ever
   seen
3. Hardcore homemade (Africa)
4. Another African homemade guitar
5. Croissant-a-caster?
6. Skate-a-caster?
7. Dear Jesus, my eyes.
8. THE MOST UN-SAFE FOR WORK GUITAR KNOWN TO
   MAN

Of lesser note, but still interesting:


9. Umm....ok.....what?
10. DOES Anyone know what that
    is?

Thanks, J chot!

So I have a new job. And I've been worse than ever for updates in the last month. There's a two month old post on the homepage. It's embarrassing. Sorry.

Here's a plan. You send me a post (include a pic, put HTML tags around the links). I'll put it up. Let's see how it goes for a week.

Also, if any CSS/HTML guru can help me get the headlines lined up with the date boxes, that would be awesome (I broke it when I put H1 tags round the headlines) Thanks, Anonymous.

1. My new favourite Wikipedia page is Unusual types of gramophone records. (Thanks, Steve)
2. Bleep Labs BitBlob is the only thing to buy this Christmas. A patchable synth encased in a pyrex glass jar complete with glowing monsters. $216, limited edition of 30...
3. Another xmas essential is Benge's Twenty Systems album - a lovely booklet/CD package with twenty tracks recorded on twenty different systems, from Moog Modular to NED Synclavier. (More pics here at Hardformat)
4. New synth #1: Dave Smith Mopho, tiny yellow all-analog synth for $399 (from Analog Haven). Like the button marked 'push it', don't like the lack of knobs.
5. The Trons are a robot band from New Zealand (MySpace) (Thanks, Louis)
6. Totally Wired is an interesting-looking obsessive documentary about the Berlin synth store Schneiders Buero. Trailer. (Thanks, Luka)
7. Wonderful podcast #1: Welcome to Mars, the series about sci-fi and the cold war is now a book and CD (and Simon James, who did the music, has an album on the way)
8. MT Reader (and MPC1000 JJOS guru) Nym got ADSR tattooed on his stomach.
9. Where's the party at is a great-looking sampler module kit on a single PCB, complete with dozens of breakout points for circuit bending.
10. New synth #2: Moog are re-releasing their Taurus bass pedals, in a limited edition of 1,000. $1,695, all analog, based on the original circuitry but with midi and proper memory. People have been asking for this in forums for years, but I'm amazed they've actually done it.
11. David Dewaele from Soulwax (another MT reader) explains their extremely fun-sounding live setup to Future Music mag - a mix of Ableton and analog gear. Unfortunately, it's an audio slideshow, so rather than scanning through the article you have to listen for 8 minutes...
12. Most people in Scandinavia now hate Goodiepal, apparently.
13. Goldbaby just released a nice set of drum samples sampled through an EMU SP1200
14. Yamaha released a bunch of stupid music-themed concept phones (thanks, Matt)
15. Wonderful podcast #2: Us and Them is a genuinely mind-blowing collection of Cold War propaganda music - you can download all seven episodes from the sidebar of the Clerkenwell Kid blog
16. New synth #3: Korg Microkorg XL - very long awaited follow up to the absurdly successful Microkorg (if they'd only sold the actual synths that appear in music videos, they'd still be rich). Gone are the wooden end cheeks and light up buttons, replaced by an interesting-but-ugly look slightly reminiscent of the Micromoog.
17. Steim is now safe. The Dutch Council for Culture has agreed to help fund the Amsterdam home of strange clicky music and gestural interfaces. The blog-inspired letter writing campaign apparently helped. (Previously...)
18. The Indamixx Laptop is a $499 netbook loaded with Linux music apps
19. Such a shame this live audio to sewing machine interface is nothing more than a concept and a mockup. (Thanks, Fab)
20. In the not-awesome-but-understandable camp, the Chimera BC16 is currently off-sale as they catch up with back orders (finally). Shortly before that was announced, they put up the price of the wonderful BC16 to £280.00. Still a good price, but not the astonishing bargain it was at £116, when it was first announced. (Previously)
21. Korg Nano controllers are now also available in black. Not sure if that's an improvement or not.
22. During brain surgery, "Banjo player Eddie Adcock was kept awake to perform while surgeons poked and prodded different areas of his brain." (With picture) (thanks, Samuel)
23. In October, someone claiming to represent the New Yorker got in touch, wanting to buy paid links...
24. Great clip of the Monkees and a big Moog Modular
25. Eric Archer's 'sound cameras', hacked from old 8mm movie cameras, seem certain to become 2009's essential hipster accessory.

If you're a MT reader who has watched UK television in the last week, you've probably already been traumatised by a certain disinfectant advertisement: "The advertisement depicted two children seated at a piano. When one of them sneezed, a concerned mother reached for her can of Dettol and sprayed the keys."