Blert Wheedown

Blert Wheedown is a well-known luthier, guitarist and teacher in Ankh-Morpork. At the time of the Music With Rocks In craze, he was briefly swamped with business but soon realised that most of his new customers only needed the appearance of a guitar. Sound, action and tuning machines that turned were not necessary features. Wheedown's made a lot of money for a week or so, utilising planks and fencing wire rather than prime treated wood and real strings, until the sudden crash of "Rocks" and the following amnesia.

He got fed up within the first hour of hearing people attempt the chord sequence from Pathway to Paradise, much as workers in guitar shops across Roundworld would love to be able to enforce a shoot-on-sight policy for anyone beginning Stairway to Heaven.

Wheedown is also famous for his primer for beginning guitar students. He employs a promising apprentice named Gibbsson.

Annotation

Based on Bert Weedon. According to the ever-accurate WP, "Herbert Maurice William 'Bert' Weedon OBE (May 10, 1920 – April 20, 2012) was an English guitarist and composer whose style of guitar playing was popular and influential during the 1950s and 1960s. He was the first British guitarist to have a hit record on the UK Singles Chart, in 1959, and his best-selling tutorial guides, Play in a Day, were a major influence on many leading musicians".

Eric Clapton, Paul McCartney and Brian May are among the stars who learned to play guitar from his books. He died on 20th April 2012 at the age of 91.

As for the apprentice, Gibbsson, on Roundworld, a Les Paul Gibson guitar is a little bit special.