Justin Bieber 'fires' guitarist

Justin Bieber has played a prank on his guitarist - by telling fans on Twitter.com the musician had quit after a "horrible" bust-up between the pair.

Followers of Dan Kanter's page on the microblogging website were stunned to see a tweet on Monday reading, "Hey guys just wanted to inform all of the fans first that I have resigned from working with Justin and I will be deleting my twitter soon."

An hour later, Bieber himself tweeted, "You will be missed @dankanter... but what you did was horrible. You will never be forgiven."

The messages sparked rumours the two had fallen out during the Baby hitmaker's current world tour - but Kanter eventually revealed Bieber had sneakily used his phone to post the fake resignation.

He adds, "Got pranked by JB. Guess I should cancel those auditions for @davematthewsbnd @phish @metallica and @bobdylan... and get REVENGE."