The Beginning Of The Age Of The Fender Stratocaster
Apr 30, 2009 Fender Guitars
Perhaps one of the most famous and best known names in the world of electric guitars is that of Fender, and it was in 1946 that Clarence Leonidas Fender, usually referred to simply as Leo Fender, created the design for the first electric guitar to have a solid body, and a pickup that worked through the use of a single magnet. Originally a radio repairman who also created amplifiers for instruments, Fender's design was originally named the Esquire, and was a significant step away from the guitars of the time, as they were still hollow body designs, and generally used more for jazz. Fender's Esquire was immediately popular with the country and western performers, especially in California.
Originally using just a single magnetic pickup, Fender later developed a two pickup version which was originally named the Broadcaster, but when it was later discovered that a drum set manufactured by Gretsch had a name which was very similar (Broadkaster) Fender decided to change the name of his two pickup electric guitar and so the Telecaster was born. As the names of these instruments suggests, this was during the dawn of television, when the western world was waking up to a new phenomenon.
Leo Fender's Telecaster was essentially a solid body guitar made from ash, with a maple neck. The neck of the telecaster was available as either a 21 or a 22 fret version, and this was attached to the ash body using four bolts, with extra strength gained through the use of a steel neck plate. The pickups were two single coils, positioned at both the bridge and the neck of the guitar, and the Telecaster came with two adjustments for both volume and tone. Additionally, the performer could select which pickup or combination to use through the inclusion of a switch. A jack fitted onto the body of the guitar for direct output to the amplifier added to the amount of cabling and wiring embedded in the guitar, and a black pickguard, manufactured from Bakelite, was included to hide the wiring and cables from view.
Although it is sometimes believed that manufacturing a guitar with a solid body in a single piece of wood, including the neck, Leo Fender did not pursue this idea, and the Telecaster had a bolt on neck for a very good reason. It was Fender's belief that creating a guitar in this modular fashion allowed for improved consistency in manufacturing techniques, as well as providing a much easier way of mending or repairing the guitar later in its life. It is partly for this reason that today it is possible to find a very rare example of what is dubbed a 'nocaster'. This is because the creation of these modular guitars was occurring at the same time as the clash of names between the Broadcaster and Broadkaster brands. The modular parts of the guitar were made, and the Fender logo attached, but no model name - as this was in dispute. The very early examples still have Broadcaster stamped on them, and of course later models had telecaster, but a few very rare examples were caught in between, and have no model on them - and these now fetch a very high price if you can find one!
It was seven years after Fender first created his Esquire model that he developed the Stratocaster, which offered a wide range of improvements and technical advancements over the Telecaster. The body design was created from either ash or alder, with the wood very well dried beforehand, and the body shape was a double cutaway creating a very distinctive visual style, as well as providing very comfortable body contours for holding the guitar. An integrated mechanism was created to provide a vibrato effect, named a synchronized tremolo by Fender - a misnomer that has caused no end of confusion ever since, since tremolo and vibrato are quite different - one being volume, the other a rapid pitch change; unfortunately Fender chose the wrong name, but it has stuck ever since! The Stratocaster also included three single coil pickups.
Tags: Broadkaster, Fender Stratocaster, Pickguard
A Brief History of the Fender Guitar Company
Apr 30, 2009 Fender Guitars
Besides the Gibson Les Paul Guitar, there is probably no more renowned Electric Guitar than the Fender. The Fender Stratocaster and Fender Telecaster electrics are the company's two most famous models and played by "rock gods" the world over (the Telecaster is especially favored by modern Country and Blues musicians, too), although Fender also makes steel string and classical guitars as well as bass guitars.
The Fender company also produces top of the line amplifiers.
Guitar players and makers began experimenting with amplification in the 1920s because the acoustic guitar's sound in a jazz band was being totally swamped by the rest of the band. Eventually, in the 1940s, Leo Fender, an electronics expert and inventor from California, created the first instrument amplifiers to have built-in tone controls. However, Fender also understood that in order to fit in with modern music the guitar itself was going to need to be given a vastly greater range of tonal colors and sheer power. In 1951, Fender may have saved the guitar from oblivion in widely listened to music when he introduced his Fender Broadcaster, which was the forerunner to the Telecaster. In that same year Fender produced the electric Precision bass guitar.
In 1954, Fender emerged with what would become the most renowned rock 'n' roll guitar in history: the Stratocaster.
Unfortunately, in 1965 Leo Fender was in failing health and sold his company to the CBS corporation. Although CBS was able to put its giant marketing and advertising budget behind the Fender line of amps and guitars to make them the premier modern guitar music equipment, CBS also failed to actually comprehend music and musicians, and by 1973 the quality of the newly produced legendary Stratocasters was definitely sinking. Today's Fender "Strat" collectors and players covet pre-1973 Strats, and even more they prize "pre-CBS" models.
With the Strat known for its exquisite tone, range of colors, and great action, in 1977 CBS added the five-way pickup selector switch to the Strat, giving the possible combination of pickup-use and the resulting tonal coloration even more variety, in hopes of keeping the Strat commercially competitive.
By the early 1980s, CBS/Fender began producing the "Squire" Strat, which is a deliberately second-rate and much less expensive version of the Stratocaster. The Squire was made in response to pricing competition from Japanese guitar makers.
In 1981, CBS took steps to try to re-invent Fender. William Schultz was selected as the new President of Fender and he and his assistants had a five-year business designed to focus heavily on R&D and advertising to take Fender back to the heights of the guitar world. However, by 1985 CBS was getting out of all non-broadcast media industries and with the help of some investors Schultz bought Fender from the giant corporation.
Having nothing but the patent and old Fender guitars in stock, eventually Bill Schultz built two new Fender manufacturing plants in Corona, California and Ensenada, Baja California, Mexico. The idea was to keep all manufacturing close to home to control quality and keep shipping costs down to make Fender more affordable. No more would Fenders be made by cheap labor in Japan.
Fender went on to acquire legendary Sunn amplification and its Lake Oswego, Oregon manufacturing plants in 1987, and in 1991 the company moved its headquarters from Corona to Scottsdale, Arizona. In 1995 Fender bought out the renowned Guild Guitar company and acquired its massive manufacturing plant in Westerly, Rhode Island.
Today Fender is back on top in the world of electric and acoustic guitars, bass guitars, and amplifiers. The company has facilities in California, Arizona, Tennessee, New York, Rhode Island, Ensenada, Baja California, Mexico; London, England; Dusseldorf, Germany; Suresnes, France; Brussels, Japan, Korea, and China.
Tags: Blues Musicians, Fender Guitar, Fender Strat
Andy Summers from the police signs my fender guitar
Apr 29, 2009 Fender Guitars
Tags: Book Passage, San Francisco Ca, Signs
Learn to Play the Guitar on DVD
Apr 29, 2009 Fender Guitars
For many guitar students DVDs are the ideal way to learn to play guitar. DVDs make more noise and hold the attention better than books, plus they are easier to store. But in general, most people who want to learn to play the guitar would prefer a video of their teacher showing them how to play. Plus the kind of graphics available on DVDs are much more guitar newbie-friendly when it comes to learning chords or tabs. There are many DVDs out there that say they will teach you guitar but I prefer three that have actually been around for a few years, and I thought I would share them with you.
"Learning Guitar For Dummies" has been on the market since 2001. Most people approaching learning guitar for the first time would be attracted to any teaching method that is "for dummies". The title promises easy step-by-step instruction. This DVD does not disappoint. For a start you are not required to learn to read music to become a well qualified guitar player using this method. You are taken through the basic steps of setting up the physical skills like fingering chords that are needed to learn to play the guitar and then you are given the opportunity to use your own musical creativity as you learn to play some simple pieces. Anyone who already has some experience on playing the guitar might find this DVD a little slow in pace but for the raw amateur, it is ideal.
"Fender Presents: Getting Started on Acoustic Guitar - A Guide for Beginners" is more of a major work for any student who feels that he wants to take his guitar playing to the limit. The DVD is complete with backing tracks using real instruments instead of MIDI so you can get the feeling of playing along with a band, and 3D graphics are made good use of in the section that takes you through the basics of which string is which and learning to play basic chords.
Once you have moved out of the beginner stage the DVD takes you through soloing techniques, using a capo and some fingerstyle playing. The teacher, Keith Wyatt knows what he needs to do to explain how to play guitar in a clear, easily understood manner. This DVD id for the ambitious acoustic guitar student who does not want to have to buy another DVD after learning the basics.
"Fender Presents: Getting Started on Electric Guitar - A Guide for Beginners" is of the same quality as its acoustic guitar counterpart. The attention to detail and the sense that I, as a guitar learner, am important stand out as the DVD helps you learn to play guitar. The section dealing with teaching you to become an electric guitarist teaches muting, arpeggios, string bending, solo playing, the differences between country, rock and blues, plus the care of your guitar and amp.
The Fender DVDs offer the ultimate solution if you want to learn to play guitar, but "Learning Guitar For Dummies" has a lot to offer the newbie who wants to learn to play guitar on DVD but wants to do it in baby steps.
Tags: Fender, Guitar Player, Tabs
Electric Guitars And The Different Types Of Pickup Used
Apr 28, 2009 Fender Guitars
Acoustic guitars use the hollow resonating chamber of the body of the guitar to amplify and resonate the sound of the strings being plucked, but on an electric guitar, this isn't the case. The body of an electric guitar is usually entirely solid, and the sound of the strings being struck is picked up by something called a pickup, which basically measures the amount of vibration of a particular string, and transmits this frequency to an amplifier. The amplifier then magnifies this frequency to create a sound which is not only audible, but also usually modified or distorted in some way to create the distinctive sound of an electric guitar. Without a pickup or an amplifier, the sound of an electric guitar is less than impressive, and is by no means merely a quieter version of what you would hear with an amplifier.
The pickups work by detecting the amount of vibration of a string, because the amount of vibration is directly equivalent to the frequency, and it is the frequency of a string's vibration that generates the note. By holding a string down against one of the frets on the fret board or neck of the guitar, the length of the string is reduced, and as a result, the string's natural vibration of frequency is changed, and this in turn affects the note. There are different types of pickup that work in slightly different ways, but the most commonly found variety is an electromagnet. The electromagnetic pickups are bundles of copper wire wound very tightly into a small coil, and these are then positioned right underneath the strings. When the string is struck, it moves, and this generates a very small electric field measurable in volts, and this voltage is the signal which is sent to the amplifier.
Effectively such electromagnetic pickups work in the same way as an electric generator. These coils of copper wires are either found as single coils or as doubles, with the advantage being that double coil pickups are less likely to pick up noise from other nearby electric fields. In the 1950s the double coil humbucker was developed, and this used two separate copper coils, with one placed in the opposite polarity of the other, and this effectively cancelled out any problem as far as stray electrical field noise was concerned. These double coil humbuckers do create a different sound and tone to the single coil pickups, generally considered to be a much heavier sound, whereas the single coil pickups are used by those players looking for a much brighter sound, and usually with a much broader range.
Today the style of pickup is generally tailored to suit the type of sound that the player wants to try to achieve, and the general rule of thumb is that the smaller the amount of copper wire used in the coil, the brighter the sound, whereas the more coils used, and the more wire used in the pickup, the heavier the overall sound will be. There are also sometimes options to have the coil wired for extra switching, so that effects can be achieved by altering the way the coil works, and thereby changing the sound of the note dynamically. These effects usually require the guitar to have battery power to achieve the changes.
Although double coil pickups are usually the maximum, there are exceptions, and the Fender Stratocaster is one very well known example. The Fender Stratocaster actually uses three coil pickups, and this is what gives this particular model of guitar such a distinctive tone. In complete contrast, there are also piezoelectric pickups which use crystals positioned under each string, and when the string is struck, its vibrations very slightly alter the shape of the crystal. As the crystal changes shape, a very small voltage of electricity is produced, and by amplifying this, the sound is achieved.
What You Need to Know About Bass Guitars and Amplifiers
Apr 18, 2009 Fender Guitars
Leo Fender and George Fullerton are the founders and inventors of the electric bass guitars that was first introduced in the 1950s. The split up feature of the first bass guitar was introduced in 1957. This feature is the one responsible for producing the humbucking effect attributed to bass guitars. A violin shaped guitar was then released by Gibson followed by a more modern designed six years thereafter. Because of the success and popularity of guitars, several small guitar companies followed the ranks of Fender and Gibson and manufactured their own versions of bass guitars. In the 1960’s, rock music became widely popular making bass guitar a common household name.
Wood and graphite are the most common materials used to manufacture bass guitars. But each part of the bass guitar uses different types of materials like alder for the body, maple for the neck, and rosewood for the fretboard. Lacquer, wax and oil are used for the finishing of the bass guitar. Bass guitars are usually flat or curved. Some bass guitars appear to be headless with the tuning machines in the bridge. More expensive types of bass guitars and acoustic bass guitars are usually made of ovangkol, wenge, or ebony.
Electric guitars and bass guitars have similar amplification functions. To connect an amplifier to a speaker, a patch cord is used. Most electric bassists use a combo amplifier, with the amplifier and the speaker in one cabinet.
Musicians who regard playing instruments and creating music as a real career path spend a great deal of their time and effort in practicing and improving their talents on playing the bass guitar. Plucking techniques differ with each guitarist; pizzicato style would be when the strings are plucked with the fingers. James Jamerson played his “The Hook,” a style of plucking that only involved his index finger.
Several musicians from different genres use the slap and pop style of plucking. Funk uses tones and percussive sounds by slapping a string with the thumb and snapping the strings with the index or middle fingers. Rock and Fusion also use this method and this was popular all throughout the 80’s and 90’s.
When a guitarist wants to speed up his play, picks or plectrums is used to make the strumming more articulate and sound perfect and distinct. Picks for bass guitars are thicker and heavier because of its heavier strings.
There are several different bass guitars and amplifiers you can choose from. You can single handedly search online for the best types and even find several accoutrements you might be interested in.
