H. R. Giger Ibanez Signature Guitar

The H.R Giger signature guitar.  I don't know if he plays but man... Seriously.  I want one!

Most Awesome Signature Guitars - Dimebag Darrell

Over the next few weeks I'm going to be  looking at some of the most awesome signature guitars of all time. Your average guitar player (if they can afford one) usually plays a Fender Strat, a Gibson Les Paul or some other well known brand of one-size-fits-all guitar in that familiar shape.  However, there are guitarists out there who pick up something whacky and stick with it throughout their career.  When this happens the guitarist and the guitar become one and you simply cannot think of one without the other.

1.  The Dean "Emelle" and Dimebag Darrell

First seen holding this far out guitar on the video "Cowboys from Hell".  Dimebag leaping around the stage with this crazy axe sparked a flood of copyists and wannabe's.  Not surprising when you consider his skill as a master shredder and wildman looks.  It was such a shame that Dimebag had to be taken from us when he was so young.  I would have liked to have known what his style would have developed into had he been given more time.

Back behind the Axe!

After a very long time of not writing anything guitar related, I've decided to start blogging guitars again.  I have to admit that over the last couple of years I had fallen out of love with the instrument but lately I have felt the love come back.  After spending the summer of 2012 reluctantly filling in on bass guitar for a friends' band.  I have now decided after parting ways with them to start up my own project.  I want to play rock 'n' roll again and I want to play it loud and proud!  I have a drummer and I have some basic equipment, in fact, I have all I need to get back into the groove again.  The reason I want to play rock 'n' roll again is because its simple.  I'm in love with the three chord trick that inspired me to start playing all those years ago.  So, from here I'll start again and try to keep this blog updated as best I can.  See you folks soon.  X

Buying Your First Guitar and Commiting Guitar Suicide

People are always asking me about Guitars. I don't mind as I love them and would gladly chat about these fine instruments all day but the one thing that does bug me as a guitar player is when someone wants to buy a guitar and then says, "I just want a cheap one for now to learn on". O.K well this may just sound like common sense to some but I am not going to let that stand in the way of my giving an opinion. Most people who have approached me have a budget of around £100 or so to buy their first guitar and that's fine...as a deposit! "Truthfully" I tell them, "You are not going to get a guitar worth learning on for that price!".

　

I can honestly say that I am not being stuck up here without a hint of sarcasm. It is the unfortunate truth! £100 will not get you a guitar worth learning on unless you are very lucky and manage to find a decent quality second-hand instrument for around that price. Mass produced guitars from the Far East saturate music shop shelves everywhere these days and even American and European brands are made there to save the brands money. But that is not me saying that all instruments made there are of poor quality. Brands like Yamaha are excellent quality manufacturers of all kinds of musical instruments for example. However, it is my belief that if you are thinking about buying your first guitar you should be thinking of paying around £350 to £500. I just heard your jaw hit the floor but if you think about it, it does make more sense. Why?

　

You ignore my advice and you stick to your original budget of £100. You go out and buy your very first guitar from a chain store like Argos, ASDA or Tescos. It looks cool and it comes with all this stuff like a cool strap and a groovy little 10 watt amplifier! Hell man! They even threw in some plectrums WOW! Shaking with excitement you take it home and take it into your danger room, office or shed.

　

You can barely contain your anticipation while unwrapping it and as you peel off the layers of plastic and polythene your heart sings as your guitar looks so shiny and new and you cant wait to stand in front of a mirror and see how it looks. Amazed by your bargain you set up the amp, plug in the leads turn the volume up to 11 and switch on the amp and then.....you realise that your new guitar sounds like shit. The fretboard buzzes and the neck feels rough and there are a few sharp edges on the frets. The strings are too high and hard to press down, your fingers hurt like hell after only minutes of playing.

　

You realise that you can hear police and taxi radios coming through your amp due to lack of shielding and poor quality connector leads. No matter how you tweak your amp or guitar you just cant get it so sound nice or like Slash or Jimi Hendrix. On the first day of your guitar playing career you have already given up inside. You now believe that guitar must be REALLY hard to play, harder than you or anyone else ever imagined and secretly you wish that you had spent the money on an Xbox but to keep up appearances and because having a guitar is cool with chicks, you keep it casually lying around your room so you can say "Yeah, I play guitar" and act all cool and stuff. Eventually you swap it with a friend (who also commits guitar suicide) for a playstation 2 and lose £50 in the process. You defeat yourself on the first day and the world loses another great guitar player. You wish you had taken my advice.

Or

You consider the wisdom of what I am telling you and you save up £500. You go to your local instrument dealer who has a range of excellent quality new and used guitars. You take a guitarist friend with you who will demonstrate the guitar for you if there is no-one in store to help you. Your dealer lets you try out a few different guitars with different amplifier combinations. Epiphone Les Paul’s, Mexican Strats, an Ibanez or two, a Marshall Stack, Peavey Bandit, Vox AC-30 and a few more until you understand how the instruments truly sound. You sit and ponder which guitar is right for you but you can’t decide. You choose not to buy that day and go home dreaming about which guitar is really “you”. 1 Month later- having saved up another £200 you return to the store. You see the same guy you say last time and he welcomes you in.

　

You finally know which instrument you want and you now have enough money to buy both the guitar and amplifier you desire. You take them home, barely containing your excitement. You set up your new gear in your danger room office or shed, set the volume to 11 which is now doomsday loud because you bought a marshall 50 watt mini stack and an Epiphone Les Paul (Insert your own preference here). You switch on and you hit the strings and even though you cant play a note you sound f****** awesome. You can hear those nice tones coming through and even though you cant play like Slash or Jimi just yet you now realise that you have TONE!. Quality, professional sounding TONE! You also realise that half the battle is won and all you need to do now is work on your technique and to practice regularly and soon you will be able to take your music where you want to go instead of being limited by a crappy sound.

　

6 Months later you are beginning to get really good because you have been so inspired by your intruments’ fantastic sound, look and feel that you have practiced every day without fail. You have decided to dedicate your life to playing your chosen instrument. You get recruited into a band because you can really play and you have a cooler sounding instrument than all the other band members combined or any other bands’ guitarist in your area. You have an amazing time playing gigs, getting groupies, getting drunk and all those things associated with bein’ a cool rack n roll guitar player. Things are going great until...

　

Ending 1: After a couple of years you meet a cool rock chick/guy and eventually settle down and have some kids. You cant find the time to play anymore so you give up but hey that's cool, you have more important things to worry about now right? Besides, there always Guitar Hero! 20 years later, you need a little extra money so with a teardrop in your eye you decide get your guitar from under the bed where it has languished- rarely played yet still loved for all this time.

　

You take it back to the store you originally bought it from and there to greet you is the same guy you bought it from all those years ago. He is amazed to see the instrument come back to the store, even more so that its in excellent condition as over the years you cherished, polished and took care of that guitar like it was your child. The amplifier, also in excellent condition as you never used it for gigging was also a delight for him to see.

　

You tell him that you wish to sell it and he offers you 3 times more than you paid for it and tells you that good quality guitars and amplifiers as a rule only ever go up in value. Take Stradivarius violins for example. How much are they worth these days? Thousands..Millions? Also Fender and Gibson guitars hold their value extremely well look how much 80‘s and even 90‘s Stratocasters and Les Pauls are Worth. Why? Because they possess a tone and quality that surpasses their peers. And that as time passes old models get rarer and rarer and new models also with time become rare or sought after for a specific trait.

　

You decide not to sell your guitar and you are inspired to play again. You contact your old band members for a reunion and within months you are earning good money playing the local pub and club scene. Your guitar still looks and plays awesome and the fans love the classic sound. You live happily ever after and are amazed at my wisdom all those years ago.

　

Ending 2; You are offered a record deal. You become a famous guitarist and you get to play stadiums all over the world. Your first guitar becomes your signature model and you inspire a new generation of guitarists with your cool sound and style. You always cherish the advice I gave you.

　

Summary

　

If you are buying a guitar new or second hand, go for quality as it will most definitely keep you inspired and committed long enough to learn to play well. Buy cheap and you will not enjoy your first guitar. There are too many copies and copies of copies out there. Go for something original like a guitar with an unusual shape or construction. Buy second hand to get a bargain or buy a trusted brand new.

Danelectro '56 Reissue Aqua and Cream

This one is mine, a raukus sounding little guitar from Danelectro that when plugged in can howl and squeal with the best of them but also has a really nice shimmery tone when played acousticly. Like all Danelectro’s, it has unique aspects to its construction that give it a remarkable tone, most notably on this model- a wooden saddle upon which the strings sit at the bridge combined with a metal nut at the headstock.

 

Unusual Wooden Saddles on Bridge

It has no neckplate, instead the neck is held in place by 5 large cross-head or posidrive screws that bore straight into the solid centre section of the body and as can be seen in the (photograph) it has a neck cutaway to allow access to the higher register.

Odd neck cutaway and screws instead of neckplate

The body of the guitar is not entirley solid, it has “Tone Pockets” that give the guitar a resonance and sound quality when amplified not unlike an acoustic guitar.

Played plugged into an amplifier its overall resonance combinied with 2 “Lipstick" style single-coil pickups, one in the bridge and one at the neck and a three way selector switch, delivers a tone that can be adapted to many different playing styles. It also comes equipped with a standard quarter inch jack socket.

The playability of this guitar is sometimes a little awkward as there is no truss rod on this model and with the bridge and body not being of the sturdiest design this reissue does occaisionally suffer from questionable intonation and will need regular adjustment using the three screws that are the action adjusters for the bridge.

The neck has a Rosewood fretboard with 21 frets and pearloid fret markers at the 3rd, 5th, 7th, 9th, 12th, 15th, 17th and 19th frets with corresponding fret markers on the top of the neck that can be easily seen. The feel of the neck is smooth and regular and surprisingly solid for such a lightweight guitar. Ideal for smaller guitarists or larger guitarists with smaller fingers. I think overall this guitar has quite a petit yet not too light a feel.

　

Apart from its unique construction, this guitar looks really cool, in fact, I think that most Danelectro guitars do, including the strangely attractive “Longhorn” bass guitar. Their designs are just a little outside the box and I can’t help but be fascinated by their retro charm. Mine has a paintjob that Danelectro describe as “Aqua” but when I bought it I thought it was more like “sky-Blue”.

Either way it is a nice paintjob and has a tasteful cream colored tape trim with matching machine head keys that add contrast to the browns and blue.

Headstock Rear View Showing Machine-Head Detail.

 The scratchplate is clear and also bears the Danelectro “D” logo (and is a little yellowed with age on my guitar).

Clear Plastic Scratchplate with Danelectro"D" Logo

The headstock has the classic vertical Danelectro logo in cream with the original classic Danelectro headstock shape.

Headstock Front View Showing Horizontal Danelctro Logo

I paid £122.00 brand new for mine at a music store closing down sale back in 2000 and I have to say that it was a bargain for the pure joy this humble little guitar has given me every time I have played it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Other Danelectro players- Gomez, me... Who else? Jeff Beck, Peter Buck, Billy Brag, Eric Clapton, Ry Cooder, John Fogherty, Elvis Costello.

Guitar Hero Vs. Guitar Hero

About 10 years ago my friend claimed he had never been able to play the guitar.  That no matter how hard he tried he said he just couldn’t get the hang of it.  Over the years he tried and tried and tried and eventually gave up trying. 

Present day- Friend gets his hands on the guitar hero video game  and tells me how jealous he has been that he cant play like me.  Im not that good really but I can hold a tune and I was fairly confident I had the co-ordination to hold my own if it came down to a duel.  Anyway,  he says he has been practicing on guitar hero and wants to challenge me to a game.

I was up for it even though I had never played the game before so he gave me a walkthrough of the controls and when and how to hit the controler and then we started the game.  I could’t do it, it was too hard.  He kicked my arse so bad it hurt!  Turns out he can do every level on expert.  I wondered how great a guitarist he would have been if he had spent his time practicing a real guitar instead of that silly guitar hero game.  Probly fucking awesome.

Guitars That Changed The World

Great Guitars of the 20th Century

The last century brought with it huge leaps formard in indutrial and technological practices, not least with musical instruments and more specifically the Guitar.  The instruments humble beginnings as an acoustic backing instrument in Jazz and Bluegrass bands with no amplification are a far stretch from the howling, squealing electric instruments we have today.  Yet the basic designs have stayed with us and now, 50, 60 or 70 years laters, are recognizable as the basic foundation upon which most madern guitars are built.

Here are 6 guitar designs from the last century that have made history.


1.  The Gibson Les Paul

Gibson Les Paul Special

Undoubtedly the most iconic guitar of the 20th century almost everyone who is anyone in the world of guitar playing has either has one, used to have one or have used one for its distinct tones its weight and its versatility.


From its humble beginnings as the Les Paul "Log" which Les Paul himself built by sawing in half an epiphone acoustic guitar and inserting a solid peice of 4x4 to which he mounted two single coil pick-ups in the neck.  It has taken over the world stage with performers throughout the rest of the century have hailed it, combined with a Marshall Stack as one of the most awesome sounding instruments ever to be made.


The shape has remained almost identical to the first off the production line with a few refinements over the years.  Many custom models have also been designed for individual guitarists who perhaps wanted custom paint jobs or different pick up or electronics but essentially its the same.


Played by guitarists such as Les Paul, Jimmy Page, Slash and Pete Townsend plus any guitar fan who can afford one I suspect.  Its shape has been copied by many other guitar manufacturers over the years, even the “Guitar Hero” video game has a “Les Paul” shaped controller!

2.  The Fender “Stratocaster”

Fender Stratocaster

The “Strat” as it is commonly known was designed by Leo Fender in the 1950‘s is now one of the most copied and popular guitar designs in the world.   Its unique and revolutionary sweeping curves and offset “devil horn” shape make this guitar instantly recognisable and Is the shape that I’m sure most people think of when thinking of an electric guitar. 

Back in the day the “Strat’s” revolutionary triple single-coil pick-up array and its amazing new tremelo system were hard for guitarist s of the era to ignore. Its design has remained pretty much the same as when it wa s first manufactured except for in 1982 fender introduced the "micro-tilt" neck and truss rod system as well as the bullet strings and tremelo system.  In 1981 The "Strat" appeared in its 2 most well known and quite posssibly the coolest colours- Candy Apple red and Lake Placid blue.

Many legendary guitarists have played the “Strat”, most notably Jimi Hendrix who pushed the instrument to its limits, especially during live shows where he would subject them to various forms of torture to make music like nobody had ever heard before.  Other famous “Strat” players include;  Jeff Beck, Hank Marvin, Richie Sambora, Eric Clapton and many more.

3.  The Gibson “SG”

Gibson SG

onstage or in the studio.  Now after more than 50 years they are still popular among young rock and pop bands.


4.  The Flying “V”



Designed by Gibsons prsident at the time Ted Mcarty and firstt issued in 1958 as part of Gibson's "Exotics" range as part of a plan to help flagging sales, was the most successful of the three it was first released alongide which were the "Explorer" and the "Firebird".  Discontinued after just a couple of years but loved and played by guitarists Lonnie Mack, Albert King and Jimi Hendrix who were looking for an unusal guitar with an overwhelming look and feel was reissued in 1963 and is still one of the coolest guitars around today.

5.  The “Red Special”

Brian May with his Red Special

In this case the Guitar and the Guitarist are inseperable, one without the other would not be the same all out rock legend that is Brian May and his one and only original home built Guitar "The Red Special".  Its very unique look and sound is down to the engineering skills of Brian May and His Father who built the guitar in their workshop from the most basic materials, was designed to specifically respond to feedback with the pick ups set in a solid resin so that they would not squeal and would respond in more the mid frequency range of the guitar. The body of the guitar also has acoustic pockets to give better resonance in the midrange. 


The guitar shape and design were liscenced to GUILD of the U.S.A and BURNS of the U.K guitar manufacturers during the 90's and May used them after retiring the "Red Special" after many years of faithful service.  Brian May now manufactures the "Red Special"  under his own name due  to his concern that he should be the one overseeing its manufacutre (well its his own guitar design so I guess he's entitled!) with the help of his long time guitar tech Pete Malandrone and Barry Moorehouse of  "House" music.

6.  The Ibanez UV 777

Ibanez Seven String Steve Vai Signature Series

First released in 1990 designed by the Legendary guitar virtuoso Steve Vai and built my guitar manufacturers Ibanez.  The “Universe 777“ was the first commercially available 7 string guitar on the market.  Unique in that it had a low “b” string so that even darker and heavier chords could be reached without having to retune and recalibrate a regular 6 string without losing the high “e” string.  Sporting hi tech electronics and hi spec.... well pretty much high spec EVERYTHING!  Including its amazing range of paintjobs.

Vai used this model on tracks from his most memorable work (for me anyway), The album “Passion and Warfare” and has made appearances on all of Vai’s subsequent releases.

Once thought of as something of a novelty, the seven string has now become part of guitar history and is used primarily in metal and by Virtuoso’sfor deeper, heavier sounds and extended range.  The Universe is still available today and has inspired many new guitarists and metal bands to take music that one step further.