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Lap steel and jazz guitarists such as Charlie Christian were the first pioneers in amplification using new pick up and amplifier technology that had been developed in the ’30s and ’40s.
Big band music had been the mainstay of popular music during the second world war and shortly after with guitars only playing a minor role.
But with the development of electric guitars and the dawn of a new post war youth culture guitars became the symbol of rebellion for the first type of music that truly belonged to the kids – Rock’n’Roll.
Rock’n’Roll was born out of the social and economic effects of the second world war.
The Big bands broke up and were replaced with smaller simplistic amplified groups.
With it’s new amplified power the guitar now emerged as a lead instrument and took center stage.
Buddy Holly, Chuck Berry, and Bo Diddley helped initiate this paradigm shift in music that was a blend of white and black music based heavily on rhythm and blues turbocharged with electric guitars and pop sensibilities.
The Rock’n’Roll years that were to follow would be responsible for the ultimate classic guitar models that simply have not been surpassed.
These guitars designs made the blueprint for all electric guitars as we know them today and as a result, these original guitars from the first few years of production have become the holy grail of guitars.
1949
Gibson had been the main brand for guitarists highly influenced by proto jazz guitar hero Charlie Christian and his use of his Gibson ES-150.
But now the just as the embryo of Rock’n’Roll was developing, Fender, a new brand with a cheaper bolted on neck were laying the foundations for joining Gibson as the two household names that everybody associates with electric guitars.
In 1949 we saw the birth of what we now refer to as the “Tele” with Leo Fender’s 1949 Prototype.
1949-Fender-Broadcaster-prototype
1950
In 1950 Leo Fender released his updated version and came out with the Fender Esquire, the design had the bolted on neck rather than use the traditional dovetail joint. This made the guitar easier and cheaper to make, customize, and repair.
This design was the first that made bolt on neck, solid body guitars viable in the marketplace for working class musicians.
The one pick-up Esquire was joined by the two pick-up Broadcaster later that year.
1951
The Broadcaster was renamed the Telecaster following the result of legal action from the Gretsch company as they already had the Broadkaster name registered for a line of drums.
1952
Gibson wasn’t to be left behind in the solid-body market and went back to Les Paul who they had previously rejected with his ‘Log‘ guitar to gain his design input and his considerable commercial star name endorsement.
Together they come up with their version of the solid-body Stradivarius, and the Gibson ‘Les Paul’ was born.
1952 Les Paul Goldtop
The Goldtop version sold for $210, about $20 more than the Telecaster.
While Les Paul was at a peak in 1952 with his Galloping Guitars EP, his stardom was soon to fade as new country-blues hybrids called Rockabilly and Rock ‘n’ Roll became the next big thing.
1954
It is generally accepted by historians that Rock n’ Roll was born in 1954 and Gibson kept innovating guitar design adding the now generic Tune-o-matic bridge to the new Les Paul Custom which was dubbed the ‘Black Beauty’ to improve the intonation and string dampening capabilities.
1954 Les Paul Custom
The Fender ‘Stratocaster’ came out in 1954, it’s unique tone came from three single coil pickups and it’s refined synchronized tremolo.
1954 Fender Stratocaster
Buddy Holly was one of Rock’n’Roll’s first superstar musicians and his use of the Stratocaster propelled Fender into the spotlight.
Many people believe Leo Fender borrowed the famous scroll headstock design straight from his fellow friend and guitar designer Paul A. Bigsby.
Paul A. Bigsby did introduce the scroll headstock for the electric guitar before Leo Fender but he didn’t necessarily invent it.
It is thought that both Leo and Paul were just honoring the tradition of earlier European guitars that mimicked the scroll of a violin headstock and may have even discussed this in their many guitar design conversations. This could be a tale of two guys centering on a similar idea around the same time.
1955
Another influential partnership between the manufacturer and musician was between Gretsch and Chet Atkins.
The first Chet Atkins signature guitar was the eye catching Gretsch ‘6120′ launched in 1955, featuring a campfire orange finish, kitschy G logo, and engravings of cowboy motifs on the fretboard like steer heads and cactus.
1955 Gretsch 6120
Chet Atkins hated the look but reluctantly used it, and it was a success, outselling Gibson’s concurrent ES-175.
1956
Fender introduced new less expensive student models, including the Musicmaster and Duo-Sonic.
1957
Seth Lover designed and invented humbucking pickups in 1955. These legendary early ‘Patent Applied For’ or P.A.F pickups were added to the GibsonLes Paul in 1957.
The result was a warm, dark, bass-heavy sound that would differentiate Les Pauls from the brighter Fender sound, and as the name implied they canceled the 60-cycle hum associated with single coil pickups.
1958
The Gibson Les Paul guitar saw its first major design change. A new model called the Les Paul Standard.
Over time this model and year have become the holiest of Holy Grail of guitars.
1958 Les Paul Standard
It retained most of the features of the ’57 Goldtop Les Paul including the newly released P.A.F humbucking pickups and for the first time came in the iconic cherry-red sunburst finish.
Gibson marketed the Les Paul Standard originally to jazz players, wrongly assuming that Rock ‘n’ Roll was going away, a mistake that would cost them dearly.
In 1958 Gibson also introduced the all time classic semi-acoustic ES-335.
1958 Gibson ES-335
The world was changing and Gibson was desperate to show that they could be modern and futuristic. The blueprint for Heavy Rock and Metal guitars of the future was made with a trio of ultra-Modernist designs.
1958 Gibson Flying V1958 Gibson Explorer
The third design called the Moderne was not put into production with a limited run until 1982.
Fender was also still aiming their guitars at jazz players resulting in the Jazzmaster in 1958 which incorporated modern automobile curves and detailing keeping it up with the trends.
Fender 1958 Jazzmaster
1961
Unbelievably Gibson stopped production of the Les Paul guitar in 1961.
Due to a lack of sales and interest from Jazz guitarists to whom the guitar was marketed meant only around 1,700 Les Paul Standards were originally made and it was considered a flop.
This low production number along with the even lower ones for the Explorer and Flying V further cemented their place as the most iconic and collectible Holy Grails of all electric guitars.
Music tastes had now fully shifted away from the jazzy big band sounds and the new cultural youth movement wasn’t into guitar designs from their parent’s generation, deeming them old fashioned and out of date.
A huge growing market had evolved and Fender with their cheaper less jazz orientated Telecasters and Stratocasters had taken a big part of Gibsons sales.
In an attempt to rectify this they introduced the GibsonLes Paul SG, with a more modernist look and simpler body construction that significantly reduced production costs to help them compete.
1961 Gibson Les Paul SG
Les Paul had no input in its design but he reluctantly posed within the catalog with it for contractual reasons.
Eventually Les asked for his name to be removed and by the end of 1963 when the stock of ‘Les Paul’ truss rod cover plates was exhausted it was.
1962
The Jaguar was released in time to join the Jazzmaster and Stratocaster to become the guitars that dominated the new wave of popular surf music 1962 – 1964.
Fender 1962 Jaguar
1963
Fender’s bid to become the world’s largest guitar brand would see them make the most controversial decision in their history.
Find out more in the next part!
Keep your eye out for our next installment ‘History of the Electric Guitar – The Swinging Sixties’ so you can talk proper ‘Guitar Bollocks’ with your friends.
Better still SUBSCRIBE and don’t miss anything with your monthly update and very special offers!
Thanks again for Dr. Fester at his great Music Blog Fast ‘n’ Bulbous for his contribution and inspiration
Please contact us if you have any ‘Guitar Bollocks’ to say or would like to contribute at guitarbollocks@gmail.com
The amazing story of the electric guitar is of how guitars became entwined with recorded music and culture, becoming the symbol for change in the soundtrack of the post-world war generation.
Before guitars were amplified they just didn’t have the volume to compete in the popular big bands and orchestras of the times.
They were generally relegated to not much more than adding to the overall rhythm swing.
The story of how this changed starts in 1926 with two pioneers that saw this challenge and laid the groundwork for what is the electric guitar as we know it today.
1926
Musician and lap steel guitar player George Beauchamp’s early efforts at making guitars loud enough to overcome crowd noise, loud drums, and amplified vocals lead him to seek out and ask repairman/inventor John Dopyera to make him a resonator guitar.
Resonator guitars are different from normal acoustic guitars in the fact that they produce sound by conducting the string vibrations through the bridge to one or more spun metal cones called ‘resonators’.
This collaboration resulted in the development of the tri-cone resonator metal bodied guitars, which have three spun aluminum cones attached to the bridge to get as much volume out of the guitars as possible.
1927
Together they set up the National String Instrument Corporation better known as National and in 1927 and released their first Tricone guitars.
1927 National Tricone
1931
The machinist that George Beauchamp’s and John Dopyera’s National guitar company outsourced it’s aluminum cone resonators and brass bodies to was a man called Adolph Rickenbacker.
In his constant efforts to have more volume George Beauchamp experimented mounting a magnetic pickup on his acoustic steel guitar to produce an electrical signal that could be electronically amplified through a loudspeaker.
The idea failed as the acoustic properties of the guitar made it unfeasible, it produced too much unwanted feedback.
George Beauchamp then took his idea to build a solid amplifiable instrument to Adolph Rickenbacker and together they formed the Ro-Pat-In Company which was later renamed to Rickenbacker.
1932
In 1932 George Beauchamp and Adolph Rickenbacker released the Electro A-22 lap steel electric guitar better known as the Frying Pan because of its solid aluminum circular body and long neck make it resemble a frying pan.
It was designed to capitalize on the popularity of Hawaiian music in the 1930s.
Rickenbacker produced the Frying Pan instruments from 1932 to 1939.
1932 Rickenbacker Electro A-22
Adolph Rickenbaker’s chief electric guitar designer was Clayton Orr Kauffman better known as Doc Kauffman.
He was an inventor and lap steel player and was responsible for helping to develop the first pickups used to electronically amplifying these guitars.
This was the same Doc Kauffman who later went into partnership with a certain Mr. Leo Fender at K & F Manufacturing Corporation.
1936
The world’s first commercially successful Spanish-style electric guitar was the Gibson Guitar Corporation‘s ES-150 guitar.
1936 Gibson ES-150
It was first made in 1936 and achieved its success after it became the choice of one of the first two big name guitar hero’s, Charlie Christian (the other being Merle Travis, more on him later).
He was a buddy of influential Texas bluesman T-Bone Walker and was blowing people away in the jazz scene in Oklahoma City when he was recruited by Benny Goodman in 1939.
Soon after, the Gibson ES-150 (which actually stood for Electric Spanish and $150 in price) became Charlie’s main guitar.
The popularity of Charlie and his GibsonES-150 exploded, despite the fact that they were only just emerging from the Great Depression, and $150 was a lot of money.
1939
As Les Paul became a successful performer, he would later end up hanging out with fellow guitarists at the Epiphone showroom in New York.
Sometimes present were Charlie Christian and the amazing Gypsy jazz guitarist Django Reinhardt.
They’d talk about the challenges that the hollow body guitars of the day presented in controlling tone and feedback.
A tinkerer since the 1920s, Les Paul worked on a concept for a solid body guitar, resulting in 1939 of the “Log”.
1939 Les Paul Log
The guitar was built around a solid 4″ x 4″ slab of pine equipped with homemade tremolo and pickups.
However, audiences and musicians ridiculed the look of the instrument so LesPaul cut an Epiphone archtop body in half and added the “wings” to resemble the shape people were used to.
Even so, people like Epiphone’s Epi Stathopoulo were less than impressed at first.
1944
Paul A.Bigsby, Les Paul, and Leo Fender were friends and used to gather to discuss pickup and guitar design.
This would result in the cross pollination of ideas that developed the blueprint for the classic guitars that we play, love and lust over to this day.
Paul A. Bigsby first began building instruments in his spare time and built one for Les Paul with the same small body as his lap steel.
He also began building his own pickups after building his own winding machine from sewing machine parts.
At first, he wound his own coils in the then established horseshoe style but soon he came up with his own design.
Les Paul promptly installed this newly designed Bigsby single coil pickup in the bridge position of his Epiphone hollow body that he used to record “How High the Moon” on.
Sheet music showing the Bigby pickup on Les’s Epiphone guitar.
Meanwhile, with a friendship that started during the second world war, Leo Fender and the same Doc Kauffman who had worked for Adolph Rickenbacker in the early ’30s, patented a lap steel guitar with an electric pickup.
1945
Leo Fender and Doc Kauffman set up K & F Manufacturing Corporation to design and build amplified Hawaiian guitars and amplifiers and began selling the patented lap steel guitar in a kit with an amplifier.
1947
Paul A. Bigsby moved on from his lap and pedal steel guitars and made not only the famous Bigsby ‘Vibrato’ unit but also his most iconic and influential instrument.
It was the guitar he made for country picker Merle Travis, with a cast-aluminum bridge.
1947 Bigsby Merle Travis Guitar
Not only did it have a headstock shape that foretold the Fender Stratocaster with its six-on-a-side tuners, a body shape that presaged the Gibson Les Paul but it also fed the strings through the body which were held by six metal ferrules predating the Fender Telecaster.
1948
Leo Fender started working on the prototype of a thin solid-body electric guitar that would revolutionize guitar production and the world of guitars forever!
Keep your eye out for our next installment ‘History of the Electric Guitar – The Holy Grail Years’ so you can talk proper ‘Guitar Bollocks’ with your friends.
Better still SUBSCRIBE and don’t miss anything with your monthly update and very special offers!
Many thanks to Dr. Fester for his massive contribution to this post, please check out his brilliant Music Blog Fast ‘n’ Bulbous.
Please contact us if you have any ‘Guitar Bollocks’ to say and would like to contribute at guitarbollocks@gmail.com
With April Fools Day just gone, we thought I would share a few of our favorite Guitar themed pranks from the last few years and also the best of this year’s crop.
Electro-Harmonix ‘BAG9 Bagpipe Machine’.
Mad Mike Mathews and his knob twiddling disciples at Electro-Harmonix have always kept us smiling even when it’s not April Fools day.
Anyone that names a pedal a ‘Big Muff’ got is the right side of crazy in the world of the too serious music industry.
In 2018 they launched the BAG9 bagpipe Machine with the following blurb:
“Now you don’t need the real McCoy to annoy the daylights out of your neighbors and family. The BAG9 gives you nine 100% authentic—and probably analog—bagpipe sounds, with modes ranging from Braveheart to the cheeky Kilt Lifter”.
“Increase your gigs, as the BAG9 will give you access to play funerals, parades, battlefields and any number of drunk bar gigs on St Patrick’s Day.”
AC/DC cover bands around the world got excited for a minute at the prospect of being able to do ‘It’s a long way to the top’.
Oh well here’s a vid to keep you going with the brilliant Bon Scott having a right old blow of the pipes.
JPTR FX ‘Metal Zone 3000T’.
Pork loving German company JPTR came out with this great prank in 2017 and asked?
“Want a souped-up Metal Zone with three footswitches and four toggles that probably do nothing”?
“How about a “Distortion” knob that goes from MAX all the way up to MAX”?
“JPTR FX’s 3000T will sort you out in a jiffy”.
“This is our remake of one of the influential pedal classics of metal history.”
and those experts at Keeley Guitar Effects updated the prank a couple of years ago with their version.
Keeley’s ‘MT-2019’.
Here’s what they had to say in their 2019 launch of their modded Boss MT-2.
“Lots of people have asked for it, and we’re proud to announce that we’ll be bringing back mods”!
“Well.. Only one. But it’s the moddiest mod of all mods”!
Introducing the MT-2019, offering a switch for every frequency. (Run it in the effects loop for maximum tonal shapeage!)
Marshall’s ‘Invisi-Series’
Back in 2019 Marshall Amps presented there new ‘Invisi-series’ taking the meaning of a transparent tone to a whole new level!
Their blurb ran with the following:
“Marshall’s new Invisi-series amps promise to give you that classic 4×12 tone in full, unadulterated form”.
“Ever wondered how so many bands play without amps on stage? It’s time to reveal the secret”…
“Introducing the Invisi-series from Marshall”.
This year they’ve been at it again by offering the
Marshall ’46-channel footswitch’.
On a video released on their Instagram page they launched a new 46 channel footswitch and from the screenshot above had the switches labeled up for prank settings such as ‘more cowbell’, ‘autotune’ and even ‘more talent’. Now if they had one with a switch of ‘Turn the F’ing bass down’ that would sell.
Gibson ‘Broken-Neck Limited-Edition Les Paul’.
Back in 2018 Gibson CEO Henry Juszkiewicz revealed the company is gearing up to release a limited-edition series of broken-neck Gibson Les Paul guitars.
He said:
“I stumbled upon an article in which Kirk from Metallica talked about his famous Les Paul, the one that once belonged to Peter Green and Gary Moore. The guitar got its headstock broken off when Gary Moore was involved in a car accident. During this interview, Mr Hammett said that Les Pauls always sound better when you break their neck and repair them”.
“That’s when I got this idea. Why not do the limited edition Broken Neck Les Pauls with a DIY repair kit?
“This way we’ll have Les Paul with stronger necks and better sound. Plus, if some of the buyers turn out to be good at repairing these guitars they’ll get the chance to work for Gibson.
“We’ll soon be hiring the best guitar builders in the country and making the best Les Pauls in history. We’ll also hire the breaking professionals who will find the best ways to break off these headstocks at the perfect angle. And then we’ll put it all in a big package along with a DIY repair kit.
CEO Henry then went on to say the price was going to be $9,999
The problem was Gibson were that up their own arse hole at the time people actually thought it could be true.
The rest is history.
Jim Dunlop ‘Tortex Shred ’n Sniff’.
In 2019 Jim Dunlop presented their Shred ’n Sniff picks.
Apparently they have been infused with the aromas of the most hipster-ish dishes out there today.
Anyone fancy Sriracha-infused poke bowl, artisanal tangelo marmalade, craft IPA (blueberry-flavored), and, of course, avocado toast. Struggling musicians won’t have to skip meals ever again.
The company said:
“These revolutionary picks combine the memory and durability of Tortex with the aromatic essence of today’s hottest culinary trends—the more furious the shred, the sweeter the smell”.
Fender ‘Ambicaster’.
One that made us smile a few years ago was the great left-hand guitar blog’s LeftyFretz‘s fantastic spoof Fender Ambicaster.
The Fender American Professional Ambicaster purported to be the first ambidextrous electric guitar.
Its unique selling point was that it had both left- and right-handed configurations in one instrument. Brilliant!
Best 2020 April Fools Day Prank Goes To:
The Chibson Hand Pick
Image credit: Chibson
The best laugh we had on this year’s Aprils fools day was courtesy of the brilliant Chibson who brought us the fantastic ‘Chibson Hand Pick’.
Chibson’s Instagram is well known for its excellent photoshop guitar puns and is really worth checking out.
Designed to tackle the problems that accompany traditional plectrums – namely getting lost in your acoustic or laundry – the Hand Pick is six times larger than other picks, with a 250mm thickness, so there’s no chance of losing it. Like, at all.
Check out the accompanying video it’s awesome.
Best of all it’s apparently available from Reverb.com for $9.99 all proceeds will be donated to the MusiCares Covid-19 Relief Fund.
Well that another load of ‘Guitar Bollocks’ for you.
Let us know your favorites April Fools Day Guitar Pranks.
Sick of all the hype around vintage guitars. The idea that your not a great guitarist until you’ve sold your kidney to obtain one?
Well, start thinking outside the box, be original and make your own mark. Here’s how some of the greats have tried and have done it.
The Wayne Charvel ‘Hydra’.
Before Eddie Van Halen changed the course of DIY guitar customization he would try all the tricks in the book to get noticed.
Hence the use of the ‘Hydra’ guitar by Wayne Charvel.
This beast features a bolt on maple neck with rosewood fingerboard. Also note the pre Floyd Rose Strat trem with brass saddles.
I’m not quite sure when Eddie received it, but something I am sure about is he was never coked-up enough to use it live regularly and the only photo I can find of him with this crazy curiosity is the pic below which looks like a promo shot.
“Does my hair look nice”?
Somehow I’ve never seen a reissue of it. He got there in the end though with his incredible musical skills and his unique ‘Frankenstein’ Strat creations.
Take care Eddie. We love ya.
ZZ Top’s ‘Fur’ Guitars.
Billy and his Texas plank spanking partner in crime Dusty have more in common than a fine collection of bird twigs in their facial hair, they’re both up for having some fun with the wood in their hands.
The bearded ones original Dean Explorer Fur Guitars were an instant WTF moment when they showed up on their MTV smash video ‘Legs’.
Their fur fetish didn’t stop there and they still play their fur-boding instruments live.
This version was made by John Bolin and is inspired by another of our featured artists Bo Diddley’s iconic square Gretsch.
Prince ‘Symbol’ Guitar.
“I can’t hear you”
Mad Musical Midget Prince was no stranger to the wacky world of original crazy guitar shapes.
Through his life, his originality shone through all he touched and that included his guitars with his famous ‘Cloud Guitar’ that now resides with all the other Alien artifacts at the Smithsonian Museum.
He reached his zany pinnacle of lunacy with his ‘Symbol’ guitar that was shaped surprisingly like the symbol he once replaced his name with.
This instrument was custom built by German luthier, Jerry Auerswald and is most well known when he played it at his iconic Super Bowl XLI Halftime Show performance through a rain and wind storm.
For those too busy practicing speed masturbation techniques to fully appreciate the Purple One’s genius just watch the amazing emotional solo as he joins Rock N Roll Royalty to perform “While My Guitar Gently Weeps” in tribute to George Harrison at the 2004 Rock N Roll Hall of Fame Inductions.
This time he’s playing on his famous tortoise-shell pickguard Hohner Tele. The solo kicks in at 3.30 but it ain’t like you probably got anything else to do so sit back and enjoy the whole song.
Rick Nielsen’s ‘Hamer 5 Neck’.
Slapstick slaphead Rick Nielen of rock legends Cheap Trick is a confirmed guitar nut in most people’s eyes.
Reportedly having a running collection of about 500 guitars and having been quoted as having owned at least 2000 guitars since his collecting started around 1964.
He doesn’t let us down when it comes to being a user of offbeat guitars to get noticed and is especially fond of multi neck madness.
“Please wake me up when I’ve finished this solo”.
Rick has 3 custom made 5-necked Hamers.
This one, his favorite which was built in 1981 includes a fretless neck (bottom), one with T-style pickups, one with a Kahler vibrato, one with humbuckers and a hardtail bridge, and one that’s a 12-string on the top.
If you look carefully you can see the 5 way rotary just under his wrist for selecting which neck he’s using.
Rick has stated that he had them made to make him look normal (Hmm) after playing with 3 different guitars around his neck at the same time. God bless his back.
Rick estimates that he has 100 or so custom-made guitars in his collection, including the five-neck Hamer guitar.
“Originally, I wanted a guitar that had six necks on it,” he says. “I wanted it to spin like a roulette wheel. But around that time, Billy Gibbons from ZZ Top came out with a guitar that spun, so I decided to come out with something more conservative, a five-neck.”
He even had a double neck made in his likeness that he calls ‘Uncle Dick’ that he loves to play just in case you were wondering about his personality.
Rock on Rick. It’s good to see he knows it’s all about having fun.
Bo Diddley’s “Twang Machine” Gretsch.
Bo Diddley, the self-acclaimed founder of Rock N Roll first created the rectangular-shaped guitar with Gretsch in 1958.
He drew his inspiration from old homemade instruments by folk musicians, who made guitars out of cigar boxes.
According to Diddley himself, the necessity for an instrument with a smaller body came after an incident with a Gibson L5, where he jumped around the stage a bit too much and eventually hit his groin with the guitar.
We’re not sure how the Twang Machine’s sharp corners are any safer, though.
How not to do it.
Sorry, I don’t know who this regulation folk-beard nut job is but he chose the wrong letter of the alphabet for his choice of guitar.
It should have been in the shape of a capital C.
Finally My Favorite.
The Wangmaster!
Just remember it’s all a load of ‘Guitar Bollocks’ that having a vintage guitar is the be-all and end-all. Being original is more important and fun. Especially if you’re skint.
Please send me your offbeat guitar pics and I’ll post the best.
Crazy team of guitar repairing mavericks helps poor guitarists save energy bending down.
Jack’s Instrument Services and his team of guitar obsessed knob twiddlers from good old Manchester, England have done it again. Remember the dreamy Fender Jazzmaster and its built-in delay effect that gripped the nation a couple of weeks ago. Well, now they have given hope to all the filthy dirt obsessed electric guitarists with their latest energy saving creation.
Our instruments taste so good!
Since the earliest days of the first guitar pedals, one problem has plagued all guitarists around the world. Bending down to adjust the knobs on your pedals. Causing countless overworked guitarists to use valuable energy and put them at risk of developing awful back problems.
This even resulted in what many experts believe to be the cause of the awful Shoegazing outbreak in the late ’80s when thousands of guitarists got to the point of developing slouched Quasimodo postures.
Now, after over a year of careful research, planning and designing the team has created the ultimate solution.
Meet The Fuzzbeast
They have cut a hole in a guitar and put a guitar pedal in. But not just any old pedal, no a FUZZ, and it’s based on a Zvez Fuzz Factory. The Death By Audio inspired faceplate also includes even more knobs for an octave circuit and an impressively large joystick to get your hand around.
The drastically modified Epiphone Les Paul has been fitted with a stereo output with the power running down one side of the cable, so no need to worry about replacing batteries. It was also has been upgraded with no nonsense Tonerider Generator zebra pickups and received a full fret dress whilst in the workshop.
Check the video below for a full rundown on what this beast can do.
Let’s hope Jack and his wood in hand clan get plenty of virtuosi Matt Bellamy wannabes calling.
They could end up starting a new genre of music altogether “Hipgazing” if they’re not careful with the likes of fellow eccentric Youtuber “Look Mum No Computer”.
He’s also not averse to chopping up guitars as with his real Gibson Les Paul Synth Monster.
He states in his video that “some of you might be saying, ‘why the heck have you done that to a Gibson Les Paul, why didn’t you do it to a cheaper guitar?’ Well, the thing is, why would you do it to a cheaper guitar? If you’re gonna be using it, you may as well do it to the guitar you like playing.”
That’s more Rock N Rock than half of the saddos out there so I take my hat off to him.
See the video below for “Look Mum No Computer” Les Paul Synth hack job.
Great to see plenty the spirit of innovation is alive and well in this boring musical wasteland.
It’s a well known fact that many guitarists are only second to singers when it comes to suffering from a glass back. So if your one of those unfortunate souls then this may be the ideal solution for you and can contact the well regarded Jack’s Instrument Service on the link below.
Scientists develop revolutionary new bass guitar strings because the ones you’re using at the moment may be holding you back from Stardom !!!
The bass is often seen as a poor man’s guitar for those that can’t quite stretch to buying the extra two strings that come with a regular six-string guitar and some people (proper guitarists but never drummers) even say it’s a simpletons version of a guitar for muso wannabees who might mentally struggle with thinking about the six strings on a guitar rather than the four on a bass.
This has made it an instrument that often takes second fiddle to the lead guitar in the Rock God stakes, despite being played by some of the most famous and talented musicians on the planet.
But now with the help of Scotch drinking Scottish scientists things may be about to change.
Dr. Kemp and his cohorts at the Music Centre of the University of St Andrews’ School of Physics and Astronomy (yeah far out man) think their time has come to receive the praise they deserve.
How can this discriminatory barrier be overcome?
Well it’s not by being a better musician or crafting your art so chill.
I’ll tell you how it’s by creating revolutionary new bass guitar strings using fresh construction techniques that allow you to take the righteous instrument to places that previous performers were unable to reach, until now in a tonal sense (wow cosmic man). I’m taking myself into wanting some, now!
According to the burb behind the science of the strings, the new bass strings will allow bassists to play higher notes that sound more harmonious than ever before.
Dr. Kemp’s previous research has included developing electric guitar strings (glad I’m not paying his wages) which allow chord bends to be achieved that were not previously possible on standard electric guitars, such as Strats and Les Pauls. Wow, more bending!
Dr. Kemp, an accomplished noodler himself, said: “Normal bass guitar strings can be played far up the neck. But the lowest pitch strings sound bad and are poor at harmonizing with higher notes” and “my new strings allow for improved tone when playing high up the neck of the instrument.”
Dr. Kemps crazy string obsessed dudes used a technique known as “lumped construction” and he states “It has only been applied to piano strings before.”
According to the Scottish scientists’ low-end theory in a study that has been published in SN Applied Sciences, bass guitar strings are “inharmonic” when fretted high up the neck (don’t tell Jaco) and that by producing thicker strings allows for greater harmonic content as well as improved pitch.
Dr. Kemp, who sells electric guitars online (you don’t say) and his colleagues, found making them thicker produces a string with much greater harmony? It also improved pitch (because normal bass strings are known for pitch problems apparently).
They believe it will change the musical landscape.
So there you go.
Bassists your time has come!
Why waste your time with hours of boring practice just buy some new magic bass guitar strings and you’ll be a harmonious Bass God in no time.
