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| Who's the Real Father of the Modern Electric Guitar |
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| In the early 1940s, Les Paul built a primitive instrument called "The Log" with electric pickups attached to a solid pinewood block. The Fender and the Gibson companies brought the solidbody electric to the masses.
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| The story behind Rocktron |
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| Rocktron launched in 1983 when founder, Bob Waller, along with co-hort Jim Chowning and others stepped back from a long musical career that included stints on the Hollywood club circuit and the Detroit to Toronto circuit. Using their background from years of club and concert appearances with their rock bands (The Blame, and originally Wildwood), the boys decided to launch a company aimed at producing top quality signal processing, amplification and effects. |
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| Mel Bay Still Teaching Music at age 60 |
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| For six decades, Mel Bay Publications has taught much of the world to play guitar and accordion, banjo, even the pan flute, for that matter. Mel Bay Publications, housed in a nondescript industrial park surrounded by farm fields 35 miles southwest of St. Louis, is celebrating its 60th anniversary this year. |
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| Hal Leonard Releases - Gibson Guitars: Ted McCarty's Golden Era 1948-1966 |
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| A new book published by Hal Leonard spotlights the great Gibson guitars of the 1950s, and aims to restore McCarty's name and reputation. Gibson Guitars: Ted McCarty's Golden Era 1948-1966 by author/collector Gil Hembree (with a foreword by pickup designer Seymour Duncan) sets out to change that, and through interviews Hembree conducted with former Gibson employees of the era, fellow collectors, and with McCarty himself before his death at age 91 in 2001, does a remarkable job. |
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| The History Behind Elixir Strings |
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| Whenever you play a guitar or other stringed instrument, you leave something of yourself behind. We’re not talking about artistic sacrifice or heartfelt emotion, we’re talking about actual physical traces of yourself in the form of sweat, body oils, tiny bits of dead skin, and any dirt or soils that were on your hands when you sat down to jam. Unless you have a high-powered microscope, you can’t see these materials on your strings, but they’re rubbing off and accumulating between the windings every time you play. |
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| History of Schecter Guitars |
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| Schecter Guitar Research is an American, and well respected guitar company whose instruments are favored by hard rock and metal musicians. Although it began producing its own line of guitars in 1989, the company originally started as a replacement part facility. They now have a custom shop and make a very popular line of guitars known as the Diamond Series. Though they are usually favored by hard rock and metal musicians, but they do have jazz and blues guitars such as the "Schecter Jazz Elite." The leading line of schecter at the moment are the Elite, but the custom series are very close behind; due to it's "Custom 4" |
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| Roger Mayor - Guitar Effects History |
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| Roger Mayer first started making guitar effects in 1964 for his friend Jimmy Page. Jimmy Page, Jeff Beck and Big Jim Sullivan featured these early models on many hit records by various artists as they all played on a lot of sessions and of course their own bands like the Yardbirds. Big Jim Sullivan in fact had two hit record that featured a fuzz box solo "Hold Me" and "Together" both by P.J.Proby Those were the first British records to have that sound. |
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| Gibson Serial Numbers |
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| Finding the year of a particular Gibson instrument is usually done by referencing the instrument's serial number or factory order number. The following information applies to all Gibson instruments including guitars, mandolins, lapsteels, basses and others. We have compiled a selection of links for you to check out! |
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| The History Of Epiphone |
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| Epiphones passion has always been about more than just making guitars. It has been about making music. It has been about understanding what is inside every musican that makes them want to, have to, express themselves. And understanding the myriad musical styles, where they are going and how they might develop. For over one hundred and twenty-five years Epiphone have continually looked for new and better ways to help players take their music farther. |
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| Ancient Guitar Images |
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| For all you guitar history buffs we included some of the first known guitar photos. The guitars are based from the 16th Century up to the late 18th Century. |
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| The History of Danelectro |
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| The following file shows a time line of the Danelectro Company from Nathan Daniels start with Epiphone to when he sold his company to MCA in 1966 to the rebirth in the late 90's. |
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| History of Gibsons PAF Pickups |
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| By the mid-1950s, Gibson wanted to counter the latest electric guitars introduced by competitors and especially those by Fender. Leo Fender had built a company from nothing in the mid-1940s to a substantial factor in the solid-body guitar market. Gibson believed they could beat Fender and other rivals for market share by developing a low-noise pickup. |
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| Legendary Solidbodies Guitars |
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| Solid body guitars as we know them today were developed around 1947 or '48 in southern California, but precisely how this came about is somewhat unclear. |
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| A Little Knowledge of The Blues |
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| Most of us like the Style we call the blues, but not many of us actually know the history behind it. Blues music is the backbone of all of todays American Music. So if you like the style of Rock,Country,Jazz,Folk etc., they all came from the blues! Yeah even bands like Metallica. Blues music is said to have started in the cotton fields back in the early 1900's. Black Slaves would sing to each other trying to ease the pain of everyday life as a slave. |
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| Guitar History |
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| We get this question alot from beginners. You can break down your selection into 2 main guitar types. (1) Being the Gibson Les Paul and (2) Being the Fender Stratocaster. Of course there's more guitars out there like Paul Reed Smith, ESP, G&L,Hamer, Jackson, but they are second generation guitars as we could call them. When you think of a fat tone with crunch the first guitar that comes to mind is the Gibson Les Paul humbuckers. For them sparkly clean tones the Fender Stratocaster aka.. Strat, single coils come to mind. |
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