Alas, the world record for largest guitar ensemble was not broken yesterday afternoon at Hirsch Memorial Coliseum in Shreveport.

Click here for a video of the event.

We would like to thank everybody for their hard work in putting this together and for everybody that participated. It was a wonderful afternoon and a rare experience, nonetheless.

Pre-registration for the World Record attempt is now closed. Tomorrow, August 22, there will be two separate lines for all participants that have registered on this website.

Everybody can still join!!! Everybody will have to register in person to receive a bracelet that will allow you to join in the record breaking attempt. This includes people that have registered before hand, but their registration process will be shorter.

We hope to see you all tomorrow!

With just 3 more days to go before we will break the record, here is some useful information about the registration.

Everybody needs to register at one of the following locations

21st: 6pm-midnight at the Festival Plaza, downtown

22nd: 9am-1.30pm Hirsch Coliseum

As of noon Friday Aug 21 online pre-registration will be closed. Anyone that has registered will have a form ready for them at one of the mentioned locations.

We would still love to have more guitarists, so we know for sure we will break the record and keep it for a long time to come!

Any guitarist that wants to play on an electric guitar doesn't have to bring an amp, since there will be no place to plug it in, but battery charged amps are welcome.

Online sign ups for the World Record Attempt are still open!

Sign up now and let us know you're coming! Note: Everybody still has to sign up IN PERSON in Shreveport. This is according to Guinness World Records regulations!

In person sign-ups will be open on the 21st from 6pm-midnight and on the 22nd from 9am-1pm. Be sure to get there in time, because the attempt will start at 2pm sharp!!

We've also received many emails about the use of amps during the attempt. Amps cannot be used. Electric guitars still count towards the record, even if they are not plugged in.

We've been getting a lot of questions about why people are encouraged to sign up here, when they also have to sign up on the day of the event.

The reason we set up this website was to inform everybody about the world record attempt and all that it entails. The reason we asked everybody to sign up here was to get a generalized headcount of the participants, since it's important for us to know how many people we can expect.

The Guinness Book of World Records has their own rules and one of those rules is that there needs to be an on-site registration, where they can tell exactly how many people will be joining us on the date in question.

We apologize for the confusion.

Matt Warnock: How did you come up with the idea for the James Burton International Guitar Festival and when did it begin?

James Burton: I've always wanted to do a show called James and Friends. After being able to work with so many great artists over the years, I though it would be great to put on a show and invite a bunch of my friends to come play. This is how the idea came about and the first year we were able to put it together was back in 2005.

Matt: Is the concert connected to your charitable foundation and the work you do there as well?

James: Yes. I also wanted to use the concert as a way of giving back to the kids, as they're going to be our future more sooner than later. I wanted to try and combine the two ideas, the concert and the kids, to put on a great event. They've been taking music out of the schools a lot more lately, especially guitar, so with my foundation I've been able to work with school boards to get guitars back into the hands of these kids who would otherwise not have had that opportunity. Since that first year the foundation has now been able to give out over 4,000 guitars to kids and schools, and we're still growing. We've also given guitars to kids at the St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, the Shriners and even been able to get guitars into the hands of some veterans, which was a really great thing for us to be able to do.

Matt: Was there a particular moment in your life that inspired you to take up this great charitable cause or was it something that you had always wanted to do and recently had the opportunity to act on?

James: I just think it's such a wonderful thing to be able to help out the children. It gives them great discipline, learning the guitar, and a fun reason to go to school everyday. It's also a good reason to not be on the streets and keeps them away from drug and alcohol situations, which can be really detrimental to many young peoples' lives. I wanted to give them something that they could work on as an investment in their future and being able to play an instrument was the perfect choice for this.

Continue reading.

On-site registration will begin on Friday night August 21st at the Festival Plaza located at 101 Crockett Street from 6:00pm-midnight during the James Burton Birthday Bash and will continue on Saturday morning  at the Hirsch Memorial Coliseum located at 3701 Hudson Avenue in Shreveport from 9:00am - 2:00pm.  The Guinness World Record attempt will then take place at 2:00pm at the Hirsch Memorial Coliseum (which is the last place Elvis performed in Shreveport).

ON SITE REGISTRATION IS A REQUIREMENT TO PARTICIPATE AND IS COMPLETELY FREE.

Be sure to keep checking back or sign up for our RSS feed to stay updated with the latest news!

James has chosen 2 songs to be performed by all guitarists for the record breaking attempt on August 22: "That’s All Right Mama" in the key of A and "Hound Dog" in the key of E.

All attempts so far have used Smoke on the Water as the record breaking song.

Please come join us in an attempt to break the Guinness Worlds Record™ for the Largest Guitar Ensemble. This year legendary guitarist James Burton and The James Burton International Guitar Festival will attempt to break the record and we need YOUR help. We will be playing the same song – an Elvis song – at the same time iin Shreveport Louisiana.

You don’t have to be a pro. Just bring your guitar, your guitar playing friends, a love for music and come be a part of music history!!!

Electric and acoustic 6 and 12 stringed guitars only please as bass guitars do NOT count toward the record... sorry but that is their rules!

Guitarists are coming from all over the U.S. and from all over the world to take part in this great event!

You can be in the photograph, in the video, in the Guinness Book of World Records™, on YouTube and featured on the James Burton websites as YOU help make music history!

James Burton and many of the Festival's many guests will be joining you for the attempt so you will be in great company!

The international press will be covering this very special event! So mark your calendars and plan to be there and please register on this website so that we can start getting an idea of how many of you will be coming.

Location:
The Hirsch Memprial Coliseum
3701 Hudson Avenue
Shreveport, LA 71107
(318) – 424-5000

Date/Time: Saturday August 22^nd, 2009 at 2:00pm – Rain or Shine! More Details to come!