David Lee Roth and Van Halen Reunited
August 16, 2007 by Jo Minor · Leave a Comment
CNN Entertainment Report:
Rock band Van Halen has reunited with the group’s original singer David Lee Roth for their first tour together in more than 20 years, they announced on Monday at a news conference.
Roth, 52, spoke virtually nonstop at the press event, promising that the band’s upcoming 25-date North American trek was merely the precursor to a world tour and to a new album.
The 25-date trek begins on September 27 in Charlotte, North Carolina, and wraps up on December 11 in the Canadian city of Calgary. Key stops include Chicago (October 16, 18), New York City (November 13) and their native Los Angeles (November 20).
Bassist Michael Anthony has been replaced by lead guitarist Eddie Van Halen’s 16-year-old son, Wolfgang. They claim that this is a new band, not a Van Halen re-union. What gives?
In Roth’s 1997 autobiography Crazy from the Heat, Dave said his problems with Eddie Van Halen began when Eddie wanted to become more artistic, when Roth felt they should just focus on giving fans what they wanted - rock and roll with attitude and watching self-depreciating rockstars going nuts on stage.
I hear a lot of this “artistic” thing all the time. A lot bands start going the artistic way and slowly but surely lose touch with what the fans want - people who will buy their albums and attend their concerts. Instead, they focus on making other musicians happy with technically correct and mechanical music.
But other musicians suck. It’s all about your market. It’s all about those who love your music.
Website: www.davidleeroth.com
B-Quartet From Singapore
August 11, 2007 by Jo Minor · 3 Comments
When I was in Singapore in June 2007, I had the wonderful pleasure of watching B-Quartet play live. It made me think about the amount of good music and unique talent out there that never get the recognition they deserve. B-Quartet is definitely one of them, but it is just the way the Singapore music industry works, or is the band themselves to blame?
Let’s see..
Their wonderful EP titled “The Smitten Bard” was published in 2005 by Aging Youth Records. On Aging Youth’s site itself, all news about this band seemed to stop on 21st December 2005. Absolutely nothing after that, except for some occasional appearances here and there, the latest being at Bay Beats Singapore 2007…
I remember asking an Aging Youth representative about the band, and he told me that after the EP itself was released, the band did not go all out to market their EP. Instead of following-up on their album, the band went under the radar for a while.
So what did the get into? My guess is it’s either writing new songs (which is still good), Singaporean national service, or into a “real” job.
In 2007, close to two years later, “The Smitten Bard” EP is still all the band has. And there’s still a lot of copies left in case you want to buy one.
Being winners of the 2002 Yamaha Asian Beat band competition, B-Quartet is made up of two pairs of brothers who happen to be cousins as well. They blend funk, jazz, metal and progressive rock into a blindingly tight set, reflecting their eclectic tastes in music. Playing with a telepathic ability, their technical prowess on their instruments and their exquisite vocal harmonies have enchanted and mesmerized audiences, winning them fans everywhere they go.
That sounds jolly good, but is the band doing anything real to market their music? Even their Myspace profile is lifeless with 83 friends and no MP3s. Seriously, how difficult can it be to upload some? How difficult can it be to upload a professional video to YouTube? How difficult can it be so you have your website and domain name?
The truth is, most bands pour all their efforts into making music, and absolutely nothing into music marketing. Without a real music marketing plan, most bands like B-Quartet gain a handful of loyal supporters, then wither and die.
In 5 years when no one remembers B-Quartet, at least I’ll still have one of their CDs.
More information on the band, B-Quartet:
Here’s a live of “Table 62″, probably my favorite B-Quartet song so far.
Hamer Standard Flametop Electric Guitar
August 9, 2007 by Jo Minor · Leave a Comment
The Hamer Standard Flametop electric guitar is a good looking axe in the unique Explorer type of body style. It features a beautiful flame maple top on alder body, Duncan designed humbuckers, a neck so fast it’s slippery, and other qualities found in more expensive guitars. This Hamer guitar has a retail price tag of $689.50.
Hamer Guitars was founded in 1973 by a tight knit group of musicians headed up by Jol Dantzig and Paul Hamer. They began building modern guitars in a basement in Chicago, Illinois. The first guitar they made was a V-shaped electric bass guitar. To begin the business, they ran small advertisements in guitar magazines. The company expanded slowly and carefully, one guitar at a time in the early years.
These artisans created what is now called the “boutique” guitar. These are beautifully hand-crafted limited edition guitars that are destined to become heirlooms. Hamer is all about “modern vintage” - that means that the buyer is encouraged to think of their guitars as the collectible vintage instruments of the future.
Hamer chooses the very best of the tone woods for their guitars, and then lavish lots of attention on each detail in the process of creating an electric guitar. Their ultimate goal is to build soul into each of their products. A unique idea is a low mass, single truss rod design in their necks that allows you to adjust them from both ends without having double truss rods. As they say, more wood (less truss rod mass) means more tone for your guitar.
Although Hamer began as a company that catered only to professional musicians, they created a line known as the XT line for semi-professional musicians and those who need a little lower price. These are made in Asian factories, but still have good quality. Hamer also has an entry level series now which they call the Slammer.
The Standard Flametop electric guitar from Hamer is part of the XT line that carries a more moderate price tag. The quality, however, is still excellent, and many professionals are plenty happy with this guitar for their gigging needs. It is an amazing rock machine as far as tone is concerned.
Advantages: The Hamer Standard Flametop electric guitar is a great value considering the fine quality construction and modest price. It is set up well right out of the box and the stock Duncan designed pickups are of excellent quality, so there should be no need to swap them out for other pickups.
This guitar is very beautiful as well, with its cherry sunburst coloring over flame maple. The binding enhances the looks, too, as do the crown inlays.
The extreme body shape will have you looking like a rock icon. Unlike some other extreme shaped electric guitars, however, the Hamer Standard Flametop electric guitar is very comfortable to play. The alder body means that it is not too heavy like a guitar made of mahogany would be. You can rock all night with this beautiful baby. The shape is OK for playing while sitting down, which you cannot do comfortably with some of the other shapes on the market.
The tone is good, too, with the notes all clean and crisp. It sounds good whether you are playing it clear and clean or at maximum levels of distortion. The neck is glossy and not too big around which makes it comfortable for playing. It has the 24 frets desired by so many lead guitarists, too.
Disadvantages: It could be alleged that the Hamer Standard Flametop electric guitar is a Gibson Explorer knock-off. Granted, it is a lot like the Gibson Explorer. Also, while some purchasers have found the set up to be perfect right out of the box, others have needed to have a professional guitar tech do a set up and even work on some of the frets. Like other import brands, you could probably get the occasional lemon.
Specs:
- Alder body in Explorer-style shape
- Ivoroid binding on body and on neck joint
- Two piece flame maple cap on body
- Chrome tuners
- Alder set neck
- Rosewood fingerboard
- 24.75 inch scale length
- 24 frets
- Crown inlays
- Two volume control knobs
- One master tone control knob
- Three-way toggle style pickup selector control switch
- Dual Seymour Duncan designed Hamer humbucker pickups
- Tune-o-matic bridge
- Stopbar tailpiece
Hamer Guitars might not be quite as well known as some of the more familiar rock guitar brands. Check out their website if you would like to know more about this brand of electric guitars.
To learn more about collectible “boutique” guitars, check out the website called “American Guitar Boutique.”
The Wikipedia article about Hamer Guitars includes historical information as well as a list of prominent musical artists who use Hamer products.
ESP LTD MH-400 Electric Guitar
August 9, 2007 by Jo Minor · Leave a Comment
Are you looking for a dark heavy guitar for your hard rockin’ needs? The ESP LTD MH-400 electric guitar is a sleek, beautiful superstrat styled guitar with a deep blue transparent finish and two active EMG humbucking pickups that will deliver the goods. The body is mahogany, with a maple top that adds that top end ring along with beauty beneath the see-through finish. At a list price of $949.00, this is serious metal gear.
The ESP name stands for “Electric Sound Products.” This is a very fitting name for a company that has electrified the sound of countless rock musicians. The ESP company was founded in 1975 in Japan by Hisatake Shibuya, as a replacement guitar part provider. As they gained in parts they were dealing in, they realized they had everything they would need to create an entire guitar, so they began to make guitars.
One of the first big names in rock and roll to buy an ESP made guitar was Bruce Kulick of KISS. Another was Ron Wood of the Rolling Stones. A very famous ESP guitar is George Lynch’s Kamikaze guitar, which was made in 1986. ESP is known for high quality at a moderate price, and for making guitars that fit the rock music style. In fact, there are many different endorsed models in their arsenal of potential guitars for you. Some do carry ample price tags, however.
If you are desiring ESP quality, but want to shave a little off the price, check out the LTD guitars. These are less expensive, Korean factory made versions of the full priced ESP guitars.
An interesting historical note about the ESP LTD guitars is that in the 80’s and 90’s, one of their chief competitors was the Jackson Guitar company, which also is known for high-powered extreme rock guitars. When Fender bought out the Jackson name in 2002, a lot of the rock artists who had previously endorsed or used Jackson guitars switched over to ESP. Another company, however, that ESP still has heavy competition from is Dean Guitars.
The MH 400 is basically a superstrat design guitar with great hot pickups and all the spice you need to crank it up and “rawk!”
Advantages: The ESP LTD MH-400 electric guitar has a great tone for all your heavy gigs. It is a real beauty, being a bit darker and more striking in real life than it is in pictures. A major advantage to this guitar is that it contains the EMG 81 and 85 humbucker combination that are so popular with so many musicians. These are very good quality pickups, and you should not see a need to change them out with better ones.
The smooth and thin neck of the ESP LTD MH-400 is extremely fast and good for that furious shredding so many of you like to do. The Floyd Rose bridge and tremolo generally give good reliable service for all your whammy diving needs, although some artists find that it leaves the guitar out of tune. It is truly one of the best rock guitars in its price range, and can be coaxed to turn out some pretty good blues, too.
Disadvantages: Some people complain that the tremolo bridge, being only Floyd Rose licensed and not the real thing, is not that good. It is a major job to change strings on one of these kinds of bridges. It has been suggested that you read up on Floyd Rose bridges before trying to change strings on the ESP LTD MH-400 electric guitar so you will not inadvertently scratch up the beautiful finish in the process.
Another caveat about this guitar is that it may need a set up done by a professional guitar tech when you get it. The guitar tech can show you how to change strings and otherwise get the most out of the Floyd Rose trem, too, while you are there. This is usually a good idea anyway, although many guitars are quite nicely set up when they come out of the package.
Specs:
- Mahogany body with quilted maple top
- Natural color binding on the body
- White binding on the neck
- White binding also on the headstock
- Set neck construction with minimal heel so the upper frets are easily accessed
- 3 piece maple neck
- Rosewood fingerboard
- 25.5 inch scale length
- 24 extra jumbo frets
- Offset pearloid block inlays, with name at the twelfth fret
- Black hardware
- Grover tuners
- EMG 81 active humbucker pickup at the bridge position
- EMG 85 active humbucker pickup in the neck position
- One master volume control knob
- One master tone control knob
- 3-way slotted toggle pickup selector control switch
- Licensed Floyd Rose double locking tremolo bridge system
- Earvana compensated nut for easy tuning
Wikipedia has more information about the ESP guitar company.
Ultimate Guitar has a few reviews of the ESP LTD MH-400 guitar posted.
Paul Reed Smith SE Custom Electric Guitar
August 9, 2007 by Jo Minor · Leave a Comment
When you talk about good quality guitars, ones that have a reputation for fine craftsmanship and great tone, someone always brings up PRS guitars. PRS stands for Paul Reed Smith of course. The Paul Reed Smith SE Custom electric guitar retails for $798.00, which is a good price for a guitar with a reputation like a PRS has.
The wide mahogany neck with 22 frets and mahogany body of the Paul Reed Smith SE Custom electric guitar will provide you with all kinds of resonance and sustain. Paul Reed Smith guitars are known for having a bite in the high end sounds. This is due to the mahogany with maple top construction among other things. The double cutaway body is beveled to give you even greater upper fret access.
Paul Reed Smith is a talented and innovative luthier who began building solid body electric guitars when he was in college. He has a principle by which he develops his design. Every time he makes a new guitar, he plays it and looks for new ideas for making the next one even better. This motto has resulted in some of the best guitars you can find.
Smith also does not limit his methods to only old-fashioned hand crafting or only state of the art robotics. He chooses the best method for each step of the guitar creating process. That means part of the guitar might be factory made with the latest machinery while other parts are painstakingly hand made.
In the early years, one method Smith used for getting ideas for the best guitars was that he would contact rock guitarists when they came to town and tell them about his guitars. He offered them a money back guarantee, but required them to put down a down payment. His first well known buyer was the legendary Ted Nugent. He soon had also sold one to the equally illustrious Carlos Santana.
Since the 1980’s, the double cutaway Custom has been the flagship guitar of the Paul Reed Smith collection. The name “SE Custom” specifically refers to those Customs which are made in Korea with less expensive methods so that they can offer the guitar at a more affordable price. For instance, one change they make in craftsmanship is that instead of an expensive carved maple top, they still use the veneer of maple, but they skip the carving and leave the top flat.
Advantages: Even though it has a mahogany body and neck, it is not as heavy as other mahogany bodied guitars. The tremolo on the Paul Reed Smith Custom SE guitar, if you choose to get the trem style, is a nice version of the John Mann tremolo.
And the sound of the Paul Reed Smith Custom SE is very good. It is often compared to the sound of a Les Paul, which also has a mahogany body, but a lot higher price tag. The pickups on the PRS are very good whether the guitar is played clean or distorted. They really growl.
But one of the most notable advantages of this guitar is that the Paul Reed Smith Custom SE electric guitar is more affordable than other guitars of the same quality!
Disadvantages: The Paul Reed Smith Custom SE has a very wide, fat neck, which might appeal to someone with big hands, but could be a real disadvantage to smaller people. The Custom SE electric guitar lacks the arched, carved top of the more expensive American made PRS guitars, but the flat top does not affect the tone of the guitar.
The PRS Custom SE also does not have a great deal of features, since it has only one tone knob and one volume knob. This decreases your options and flexibility a little bit, but it does simplify your playing choices, which can be a good thing.
Specs:
- Mahogany back
- Genuine maple top with flamed veneer
- Set mahogany neck
- Chrome tuners
- Rosewood fretboard
- 22 frets
- 25 inch scale length
- Moon position inlays
- Wide fat neck carbe
- PRS-designed open-coil zebra humbucking pickups
- 3-way toggle pickup selector switch
- One master volume control knob
- One master tone control knob
- Choice of high sustain wraparound stopbar tailpiece or vibrato bridge
- Comes with a gig bag
Here is an article from Guitar World telling all about the Paul Reed Smith guitars, including the SE Custom.
To read a personal interview with Paul Reed Smith, go to the Harmony Central website for this one.
And here is one more short article about Paul Reed Smith and his wonderful guitars. This article is in the Mel Bay Webzine. You know Mel Bay - the guy that gave us all the wonderful how-to-play
Imeem and Snocap Partnership
August 9, 2007 by Jo Minor · Leave a Comment
Social network Imeem and Snocap have officially launched their previously announced
partnership to prevent copyright infringement and pay artists for the songs that people upload and stream to themselves and others.
The pair and over 5,000 independent labels, like Nettwerk and Orchard, will pay artists on Imeem a share of the advertising revenue generated from ads that run along with the music. Artists previously allowed their music to be posted on the service for promotional purposes, but the new partnership provides greater incentives to join. Artists will be paid in proportion to the number of listeners they have with a “to be determined” revenue split with Imeem. It serves as a compliment for Snocap’s other digital store product that helps monetize music downloads.
IMEEM is an online community where artists, fans & friends can promote their content, share their tastes, and discover blogs, photos, music and video.
Fender Standard HSS Stratocaster Electric Guitar
August 9, 2007 by Jo Minor · Leave a Comment
The Fender Stratocaster is mentioned again and again when you are discussing favorite electric guitars with people. While few people deny that the Strat body shape is about the most comfortable thing going, or that Fender guitars are well made, there is one complaint that is often leveled against the Strat. That complaint is that the three pickups are all single coil pickups. A lot of people desire the flexibility a humbucker would give them.
Single coil pickups give a guitar a good, bright tone. Unfortunately, they also produce a little bit of a static hum because they pick up stray frequencies. A humbucker pickup consists of two coils that are wound opposite of each other. This construction helps to cancel out the stray frequency, and thus the hum is no longer an issue. Hence, these double coil pickups are called “humbuckers.” (They buck the hum.)
Humbucking pickups also produce a darker, warmer tone than the bright, jangly single coil sound. Because of this warmer tone, most rock artists, and many guitarists from other styles of music, prefer humbucking pickups over single coil. Country artists often prefer the regular Stratocaster style guitars with only single coil pickups.
To meet the need of other musicians, however, Fender also makes Stratocasters that have a humbucking pickup at the neck along with the single coil pickups in the middle and bridge positions. These guitars are designated as HSS Stratocasters, with the HSS standing for “humbucker, single-coil, single-coil.” More commonly, these humbucker-equipped Strats are called “fat Strats.” That is because of the “fat” tone available when the humbucker is in use.
Fender makes several series of Stratocaster, such as the American Series, the American Deluxe, and the Highway One varieties. The Standard Series of Fender guitars are the ones that are made in Fender’s Mexican factory instead of in America. These “MIM” (”made in Mexico”) guitars retail for a lot lower prices than the guitars that are made in America. Even so, they retain much of the quality of the higher priced versions. The Fender Standard HSS Stratocaster electric guitar carries a retail price tag of only $571.41-$621.41, which is a far cry from the four digit prices of the American guitars.
Like their more expensive Strat cousins, the Fender Standard HSS Stratocasters come in a wide choice of colors, and you can choose between rosewood and maple for the fingerboard material. Colors available for the body of the guitar include black, Electron Blue, Arctic White, Midnight Wine, Chrome Red, and Brown Sunburst (which is the finish that commands the higher price.)
The Fender Standard HSS Stratocaster electric guitar is a chance to own the most popular guitar style in the world at a reasonable price with a prestigious name on the headstock and a humbucker to boot. What more could you want?
Advantages: Of course, one of the first advantages to any of the Stratocaster family is that it is a downright comfortable guitar to play. The carved, contoured body fits up against you instead of digging into your ribs like some other styles. It is well balanced and you can play it seated, unlike some of the V-shaped guitars or those with heavy necks. And there is the reasonable price on this Mexican made guitar.
But probably the top advantage to playing a fat strat as opposed to other models of guitar out there is the incredible amount of versatility. The humbucker pickup adds a lot of options to the tones you can produce from your guitar, and you are not limited to brighter, jangly single-coil sounds.
All in all, the Fender Standard HSS Stratocaster appears to be a reliable, well made electric guitar for all your needs, whether you are playing gigs or just relaxing at home.
Disadvantages: The tremolo on the Fender Standard HSS Stratocaster electric guitar is pretty bad about throwing the whole guitar out of tune if you use it very much. This is really the case with most tremolos, however. Another complaint that has been made against this guitar is that the neck pickup does not have much volume. Some players don’t like the tone on some of the settings.
Specs:
- Alder body in contoured design with two deep cutaways
- Maple “C” shaped neck
- Choice of rosewood or maple for fingerboard
- 21 medium jumbo frets
- 25.5 inch scale length
- 1 11/16 inches wide at the nut
- Chrome hardware
- Vintage synchronized tremolo with whammy bar
- Thicker bridge block that provides increased sustain and a more stable point of contact with the strings
- Humbucking pickup in the bridge position
- Two single-coil pickups in the middle and neck positions
- 5-position pickup selector switch
- One master volume control knob
- Two tone control knobs
- Comes with a Fender gig bag
Check out this blog for Strat Collectors.
While researching Stratocasters, I ran across this interview with guitarist Theresa Anderson. Let’s hear it for the guitar girls!
More Info / Buy Online: Fender Standard HSS Stratocaster
Epiphone Zakk Wylde Les Paul Custom Electric Guitar
August 9, 2007 by Jo Minor · Leave a Comment
The Epiphone Zakk Wylde Les Paul Custom electric guitar, with its black and white bulls-eye stripes, will have you looking and rocking like Zakk Wylde. This Epi retails for $1,332, but you should be able to find it for as low as $800 or so discounted. This means you can have Zakk Wylde looks and legendary Les Paul tone for a lot less than if you had to get the Gibson version of the guitar.
Les Paul style guitars are favored by many top music artists, in addition to Zakk Wylde. With its high output humbucking pickups and resonant mahogany-rich body, the LP is particularly suited to metal styles. The details that make a Les Paul guitar what it is, though, originally were designed for playing jazz. Les Paul himself earned his fame in playing jazz guitar. Well, for jazz playing and for his inventions.
Did you know Les Paul was also an important pioneer in the development of multi-track recording? Where would modern music be without the wonders of multi-track recording? But that is off the subject. He is best known for his part in the evolution of the solid body electric guitar. Les Paul was born Lester William Polfus and is from Waukesha, Wisconsin. He was inventive from an early age, with interests in both music and electronics.
Les Paul’s designs in solid body guitars were eventually used by Gibson guitars, with the first Gibson Les Paul electric guitar debuting in 1954. Rock musicians discovered the guitar style some years later, since rock music was not even thought of yet! Anyway, Zakk Wylde is just one of the influential rockers that has chosen the Les Paul for his own signature sound.
Wylde became lead guitarist for Ozzy Osbourne in 1987. He was replacing Jake E. Lee, who had replaced the late Randy Rhodes. Many of the most well known rockers have painted their electric guitars with a signature look. Jimi Hendrix, for example, created art on his guitars. Eddie Van Halen is also well known for his uniquely painted guitars. Randy Rhodes was known to sometimes play a V-shaped Jackson guitar painted with polka-dots.
Wylde’s choice of a unique paint job for his guitars was a bulls-eye design. It is said that it was originally supposed to look like a spiral, but the luthier painted a bulls-eye instead and Wylde liked it, so the design stuck. Anyway, if you have wished you could have a guitar like his but could not afford the Gibson variety, Epiphone can get you in business for a lot less dough.
Advantages: The use of alder and maple woods along with mahogany give the Epiphone Zakk Wylde Les Paul Custom electric guitar a bit lighter weight than the normal solid mahogany Les Pauls. It is a versatile guitar, able to handle all types of rock music, and hold its own on country and jazz, too. Stunning, unique looks, great Les Paul tone, and that it is endorsed by a favorite of many rock fans are other reasons you might want this guitar.
Disadvantages: The EMG humbucking pickups on the Epiphone Zakk Wylde LP are passive instead of active pickups. These stock pickups seem to be more suited to softer styles of music, like jazz and blues, rather than screaming hard rock. The guitar has also been accused of being neck heavy. The neck is also finished with a substance that has been called “sticky” instead of being left unfinished, which is the way many guitarists prefer. The paint job is reported to be just a “decal,” too.
A number of reviewers feel like the price is too high, that you are just shelling out extra cash for a catchy paint job and Zakk Wylde’s name. Others say if you change the passive humbuckers to active ones you will have a good sounding, good looking guitar you can wail like Zakk Wylde on.
Specs:
- Mahogany-alder body in rounded single cutaway shape
- Maple top
- Black and white bulls-eye finish
- Hard maple set neck
- Neck joint set at 16th fret
- Rosewood fingerboard
- Pearloid block inlays
- 24.75 inch scale length
- 1.68 inches wide at the nut
- Binding on body, neck, and head
- Gold hardware
- Dual EMG humbucker pickups (HZH4A and HZH4)
- Limited lifetime warranty
Here is a lesson in major and minor pentatonic scales, which are necessary to know in order to play Zakk Wylde style solos.
Here is information about the MXR ZW-44 Zakk Wylde Overdrive pedal.
Finally a bio of Les Paul that focuses on his music instead of on his connection with the development of the solid body guitar style that bears his endorsement.
Fender American Stratocaster Electric Guitar
August 9, 2007 by Jo Minor · Leave a Comment
There is a whole family of Fender Stratocaster’s on the market these days, from inexpensive Squiers to Custom Shop Strats that cost many thousands of dollars. It seems however, that one of the most loved and prestigious of all of them, indeed of all electric guitars, is the Fender American Stratocaster. It is not exactly cheap, retailing for $1,356.99 - $1,406.99, depending on the finish, with sunburst pattern finishes being higher priced.
The Fender American Stratocaster differs from the Standard Strat in that the Standard is made in Mexico. These are sometimes called MIM (which stands for “Made in Mexico”) Stratocasters. The American Stratocaster electric guitar is made in America, so it commands a higher price. It is available in black, 3-tone sunburst, Olympic white, Candy Cola, Butterscotch blond, Charcoal Frost metallic, and Shoreline Gold colors. In each of the colors, you have a choice between rosewood or maple for the fingerboard.
Many of the greatest of all electric guitar players down through the years have favored Fender Stratocasters over other brands of guitars. The story of the Strat is an interesting one. Fender released the Telecaster electric guitar in 1951 and many people liked its simple styling. Still, others complained that it felt like a slab of wood on your lap and that it dug into their ribs.
Fender went to work designing and came up with the Stratocaster. The name comes from two rather modernistic (in the 50’s) words. One was the Stratosphere - that part of the sky where planes fly and clouds float around. The other is broadcaster, which refers to the guitars suitability to being used broadcast on radio, television, and where ever. So the implication is something that is as modern as an airplane and deserves to being broadcast over the whole earth.
The Fender American Stratocaster has some great new upgrades. For one thing, it is routed so that you can install humbucker pickups at the neck and bridge in the future if you desire. It has a new neck shape that helps you play faster. The three very good pickups give you all sorts of variety. For instance, the neck pickup is great for playing blues. The bridge pickup, on the other hand, is perfect for a country sound.
Advantages: The American Stratocaster is one of the most comfortable guitars you can play, and it is very well made. This is a professional level instrument and will do you proud when you gig with it. The action is fast and good, and the strings have a light feel to them. The playability and the sound are excellent. It has a more curved fretboard than many other rock-oriented electric guitars, and that curved feel makes the guitar really good for playing rhythm.
As stated earlier, the American Strat is very versatile. You’ll find yourself playing jazzy sounds, blues, classic rock, country, you name it.
Disadvantages: The Fender American Stratocaster electric guitar is not really a metal guitar. You really need humbuckers if you are going to sound good playing heavy metal and similar styles of music. Still the Strat is very versatile. The tremolo is a good one, but all trems cause guitars to go out of tune. It has been suggested that the tremolo on the American Strat needs a few more springs.
Specs:
- Carved, contoured alder body
- Maple neck in modern “C” shape
- Choice of rosewood or maple fingerboard
- Rolled fingerboard edges
- 9.5 inch (241 mm) fingerboard radius
- 22 medium jumbo frets
- 25.5 inch (648 mm.) scale length
- 1.6875 inch (43 mm.) wide at the nut
- Chrome hardware
- 3 American Strat Single coil pickups
- Master volume control knob
- One tone control knob for the neck pickup
- One tone control knob called “Delta Tone”
- (“Delta Tone” system includes high output bridge pickup and special No-Load tone control for Middle and Bridge Pickups)
- 5-Position Blade pickup selector switch
- Position 1: Bridge pickup
- Position 2: Bridge and middle Pickup
- Position 3: Middle Pickup
- Position 4: Middle and neck pickup
- Position 5: Neck Pickup
- American 2-point synchronized tremolo with stainless steel saddles
- Fender-Schaller Deluxe Staggered Cast-Sealed tuning machines
- “Parchment” colored knobs and pickup covers
- Original headstock shape
- Original body shape with “Original Contour Body” decal on headstock
- H/S/H Pickup routing
- Nickel plated steel strings in .009 to .042 gauges
- Includes a standard molded case
More Info / Buy Online: Fender American Stratocaster
Other related sites:
- Here is a hands-on review of the Fender American series of electric guitars.
- This is kind of interesting - some thoughts on Strats and what this particular guitarist likes and doesn’t like about them. He gets into a discussion of neck radius that’s pretty informative.
- This review is of a limited edition deluxe Strat, but should be of interest to Fender fans everywhere.
Epiphone Les Paul Standard Plus Top Electric Guitar
August 8, 2007 by Jo Minor · Leave a Comment
Wow! What a gorgeous array of color choices for a good looking Epiphone Les Paul electric guitar! The Epi Les Paul Standard has a list price of $665.00 to $832.00, depending on finish. The solid black version is the least expensive, while the transparent and sunburst finishes cost the higher amount. It features the good looking trapezoid inlays on the fingerboard as well as the other LP detailings that make these guitars popular.
The Les Paul variety of electric guitars is popular with all sorts of musicians, from country and jazz players to the most extreme metal head. The style has a familiar history. Les Paul is a jazz musician who in the forties was experimenting with ideas for a solid body electric guitar. The hollow body electric guitar was already invented, but no one had perfected the solid body yet.
Paul went to the heads at Gibson to show them what he had come up with. It was basically a piece of 4 by 4 with a pickup and strings and a jazz guitar body attached. Paul called it the Log. Gibson called it a broomstick with a pickup. They just were not ready for Paul’s revolutionary idea. As it turned out, Fender beat Gibson to the draw when they released the simply crafted Telecaster in 1951.
In the next couple of years, Gibson and Les Paul hammered out the details to produce the first Gibson Les Paul guitar, which featured the rounded body and single cutaway still seen in these guitars. The mahogany wood used in these guitars is heavy and causes the resonance and tone to be excellent. Paul preferred the guitar to be finished in gold paint or glossy black finish, because those both look classy.
Down through the years, Gibson varied details and finishes on Les Paul guitars to create a whole collection. When competitors started copying various details, however, and offering electric guitars for a smaller price, Gibson chose to purchase another guitar name in order to offer their Les Pauls, SG’s, Flying V’s, and other models more cheaply. The company they bought was Epiphone.
Epiphone was a century old instrument company that began in the Mediterranean area. Now they are primarily a manufacturer of lower priced Gibson models. One way they keep the price of Epiphone guitars down is that they use polyurethane for a finish instead of nitrocellulose lacquer. The nitro finish takes days to apply, which means more money spent on the guitar while it is in the factory. Nitro is thought to enhance the tone, however. Whether it is worth the extra cost is up to the individual guitar buyer.
The Epiphone Les Paul Standard Plus Top electric guitar is one of the best electric guitars in its price range. It lacks the solid mahogany body, using part alder. This reduces the weight while still keeping a good tone. It has two humbuckers, great sustain due to a mahogany set neck, and the warm, thick tone for which LP’s are famous. The maple top on the colored versions adds sparkle to the sound (and dollars to the price.)
Advantages: It is endorsed by Les Paul, which says a lot. It has that rich Les Paul tone that works so well for hard rock music styles. The action is fast, too. It has a darker sound with more bass than the Gibsons, but it is a good sound. But of course, the lower price tag is the main advantage of this guitar over its Gibson namesakes.
Disadvantages: There tend to be a few complaints that have been made about the Epiphone Les Paul Standard Plus Top electric guitar. For one thing, it is sometimes hard to get the action right so that it does not buzz. The weight has always been a disadvantage of Les Paul guitars, but this variety has been said to feel weird and lop-sided in weight.
Another complaint is that the neck is quite thick. Many rock guitarists who like to shred and tap and such prefer guitars that have thin necks. It would probably be good if you could try out a few guitars and see how the Epiphone Les Paul, or any Les Paul, feels and sounds to you.
Specs:
- Mahogany-alder body in single cutaway style
- Carved maple top
- Set mahogany neck
- Rosewood fingerboard
- 24.75 inch scale
- 1.68 inches wide at the nut
- Pearloid trapezoid position marker inlays
- Cream colored binding on body and fretboard
- Chrome covered pickups
- Two humbuckers
- Chrome hardware
- Limited lifetime warranty
- Two tone control knobs
- Two volume control knobs
- Three way toggle pickup selector switch
- Tune-o-matic bridge
- Stop bar tail piece
Musician’s Friend features a hands-on review of the Epiphone Les Paul electric guitars.
Would you like to read an interview with the famed Les Paul himself?
