C.F. Martin & Co. has introduced another Jimmy Buffett guitar, this one a “beach guitar.” The Martin LX Jimmy Buffett guitar fills a niche that Jimmy says was missing:

Jimmy Buffett has played Martin guitars for decades – and it’s been some party. C.F. Martin & Co. has acknowledged his loyalty twice: in 1998 with the Martin HD-18JB Jimmy Buffett Signature Edition, a classic stage/studio guitar offered in an edition of 424 that sold out immediately, and in 2003 with the Martin 000-JBS Jimmy Buffett Shellback and 000-JBP Jimmy Buffett Pollywog Signature Editions, “off-shore” (as in sailboat-ready) guitars that totaled 168 and 305, respectively.

As Buffett recently pointed out, the one namesake guitar Martin hadn’t yet built for him was a “beach” guitar; a small, sturdy guitar to play at beach with friends and one that would bring that fun, carefree “beach” spirit wherever it went. So under Jimmy’s guidance – Martin Guitar is pleased to introduce the LX Jimmy Buffett.

The Martin LX Jimmy Buffett guitar features the same “go everywhere” design and materials as the popular and fine sounding LXM “Little Martin;” a modified 0 14-fret shape and short 23-inch scale, with an HPL body matched to Sitka spruce top bracing, a modified low oval Stratabond neck, tropical hardwood fingerboard, and Micarta belly bridge.

Delivered in a fitted gig bag, each Martin LX Jimmy Buffett guitar bears an interior label with Jimmy Buffett’s facsimile signature. A left-handed version of the LX Jimmy Buffett is available at no additional charge.

The LX Jimmy Buffett lists for $649 but is available for pre-order at Musicians Friend for $499 with free shipping.

Read more at Music Radar.

In November, Jimmy Buffett played a show at Le Select to celebrate their 60th anniversary. While there, Jimmy was thrilled to see himself on the wall next to one of his musical idols:

No award will beat the honour a St Barts bar gave Jimmy Buffett – the owners placed his album poster next to one advertising Bob Marley’s masterpiece Catch A Fire on their wall.

The Margaritaville hitmaker visited Le Select bar during a trip to the Caribbean years ago and was staggered to find his Son of a Son of a Sailor album on the place’s hitlist.

Buffett says, “On the wall there were two posters next to each other – one for Marley’s Catch a Fire, and the other was of my album. They’re still up there.

“I don’t win many awards, and I don’t care, but I take a lot of pride in that spot on the wall.”

Not only does Jimmy Buffett personally try to improve the lives of soldiers by performing for them and raising money for the wounded, he also does so in a way he may not even be aware of.

A Fox News article published on Monday describes slang terms used by soldiers in Iraq to try to take the edge off:

The Department of Veterans Affairs has published a list detailing the vocabulary of Operation Iraqi Freedom — a list that contains such entries as “death blossom,” a term originating in the 1984 science-fiction film “The Last Starfighter.” It is used by servicemen to describe fire sprayed indiscriminately in all directions. The list also includes the terms “Mortaritaville” and “Bombaconda,” both referring to LSA Anaconda, a base near Balad, Iraq, that is frequently the target of mortar attacks.

“Soldiers use these terms because they try to make the best they can of their situation and give things kind of a humorous angle,” said Lt. Col. Charles Kohler of the Maryland National Guard.

The term “Mortaritaville,” a reference to the Jimmy Buffett song “Margaritaville,” is only one of many terms soldiers use to take the edge off an environment that is potentially frightening and often beyond their control, said Indiana University linguist Michael Adams.

“It’s making a really terrifying experience manageable by attempting to make it familiar,” Adams said.

Read the full article here.

(hat tip to Tim for passing this along)

Jimmy Buffett is in the latest issue of Premier Guitar, a magazine geared towards the serious, accomplished guitar player.

On page 22, there is a shot of Jimmy from this year’s Alpine Valley show in East Troy, WI. The accompanying blurb tells what kind of guitar equipment Buffett uses.

View the free, digital copy of Premier Guitar here.

PHBalanced on Geocaching.com has created a Jimmy Buffett / Margaritaville themed geocache that leads you to “Margaritaville.”

What is geocaching? Here’s how Wikipedia describes it:

Geocaching is an outdoor activity in which the participants use a Global Positioning System (GPS) receiver or other navigational techniques to hide and seek containers (called “geocaches” or “caches”) anywhere in the world. A typical cache is a small waterproof container (usually a tupperware or ammo box) containing a logbook. Larger containers can also contain items for trading, usually toys or trinkets of little value. Geocaching is most often described as a “game of high-tech hide and seek”, sharing many aspects with orienteering, treasure-hunting, and waymarking.

Geocaches are currently placed in over 100 countries around the world and on all seven continents, including Antarctica.[1] As of September 07 2009, there are over 893,500 active geocaches over the world.

If you are a geocacher, check this one out here.