We often think of the solidbody electric guitar as the instrument that gave birth to rock and roll, citing guitars like the Fender Broadcaster of 1950, the Gibson Les Paul of 1952, or the Fender Stratocaster and the Gretsch Duo Jet (actually a semi-solid design) of 1954. The fact is, however, when these new tools were just hitting the scene—and while the whole concept of a solidbodied guitar was still awaiting judgment from players at large—rock and roll was already being forged on the instruments that great players had been using to make groundbreaking music for a full decade or more.
Friday, May 09, 2008 11:03 AM
A lot of ingredients work together to form the precious tone that issues forth from your electric guitar, but however much time and consideration you have put into pickup and hardware selection, the way in which the wood components resonate together remains the make-or-break factor that determines the voice of your instrument. We examined tone woods in general in one of my earlier Tone Tips, It All Starts with the Wood, but this time I want to offer a few pointers to help you pinpoint the guitars that are really happening resonance-wise.
Monday, May 05, 2008 4:37 PM
Like just about anything worth owning, even the best tube amplifiers available need occasional maintenance to continue performing at their peak. In this age of low or no-maintenance consumer goods, where you’re more likely to toss your DVD player in the nearest Dumpster and swing by the local big box retailer to pick up another one for $49.95 than to actually get a small fault repaired (which, no doubt, would cost you considerably more than the new unit), the notion of routine maintenance for electronic goods has largely fallen by the wayside. Genuine all-tube guitar amps, however, even brand new ones, are not like other consumer electronics products; they are the archaic technology of a bygone era, and thanks to that they can sound sweeter than any fancy box of bits that has been conceived to replace them. As such, though, they need a regular check and tune up. Treat them right, and they’ll reward you not only with stunning tone, but flawless performance.
Monday, April 28, 2008 3:14 PM
Guitarists’ hearts beat with the round, resonant thump of fine tonewood. The sounds of our dreams emanate from warm mahogany, snappy maple, throaty rosewood, silky ebony. Without carefully controlled and managed foresting, however, and consideration from the manufacturers who use them—guitar makers included—some of these noble woods could vanish forever. Rather than acquire and horde all it can and crank it out on high-priced instruments until supplies simply dry up, Gibson is determined to do something about it. Great traditional tonewoods can be raised and harvested in a sustainable, earth-friendly way, and exciting new alternative tonewoods can be found to complement them. And when a leading guitar maker like Gibson puts its weight behind both ventures it’s a win-win situation for players and the earth alike.
Tuesday, April 22, 2008 2:02 PM
No, not Gm7—that’s chord. I’m talking sans “h,” that long, black, and too often faulty umbilical cord between guitar and amp. Otherwise known as a cable or lead. It’s a rather simple subject, you say? Just plug it in and hope it works? Ah, not so fast, my friend. Stop to consider that that thin stranded wire carries all of your precious tone to whatever’s going to broadcast it to the masses—however high and mighty the gear at either end of it—and compound that with the fact that a great many guitarists are gigging and recording with cords in need of attention, or immediate replacement, and suddenly we’ve got an impending catastrophe to head off here.
Monday, April 21, 2008 1:52 PM
Patrons of Tootsie’s Orchid Lounge in the Nashville International Airport (BNA) wine, dine, and mingle around a giant Leopard. But fear not because this leopard isn’t live, rather it is a Baldwin Grand Custom piano featuring exclusive leopard print woodwork and design.
Gifted to BNA by Baldwin Piano, a division of Nashville-based Gibson Guitar, for permanent display in Tootsie’s Orchid Lounge on the non-secure side of the terminal, the Baldwin Custom Leopard Grand piano arrived at the airport on March 12.
Thursday, April 10, 2008 12:10 PM
Gibson’s “Patent Applied For” humbucking pickup of 1957-’62 is a much-loved tonal icon, and is still the template for some of the most popular reproduction-style pickups that the company makes. But plenty of players want a little something different from their humbuckers, so the company has tweaked, modified, and hotrodded the formula in a wide range of directions to prove that there is life beyond the PAF.
While original PAFs are noted for their warmth, depth, and clarity, they aren’t especially “hot” pickups by today’s standards, and the same applies to Gibson’s excellent PAF reissues: the ’57 Classics, Burstbuckers, and Burstbucker Pros. Certain playing styles demand more output, in order to drive an amp into breakup more easily, to maximize the potential of fuzz and distortion effects, or to generate maximum sustain and harmonic feedback.
Monday, March 24, 2008 11:04 AM
As the original home of the hallowed “Patent Applied For” (PAF) humbucker, Gibson has retained a preeminent place in the strata of noise-free tone since the unveiling of that legendary component in 1957. Today Gibson offers a broad range of accurate PAF-style reproductions in order to capture the variation that arose from some inconsistent manufacturing practices of half a century ago, but the diversity can confuse some players as they plunge into the market. Let’s take a close look at what separates some of these vintage humbucking pickup models, and in Part 2 we’ll examine other pickups available from Gibson today.
Thursday, March 20, 2008 9:07 AM
When you pluck a note on the electric guitar, much happens virtually simultaneously to create the sound that you consider “your tone” that breaking it down can be an almost mind-boggling undertaking. Throughout this Tone Tips series we have looked at many different components of the guitar itself, considered parts of the amplifier, and even discussed how different speakers can alter your sound. Now it’s time to take it a step further and examine speaker cabinets themselves, these simple-seeming boxes that many guitarists consider just a “carrying case” of sorts for the drivers, but which add resonance and color to every note you play.
Saturday, March 15, 2008 8:30 AM
Through the course of the Tone Tips series I have discussed a great many elements that contribute to guitar tone, but we haven’t yet examined the component with which your sound really begins: the strings. Plenty of other factors come into play simultaneously to contribute to your tone—wood resonance, pickup response, the density and solidity of different pieces of hardware—but it all starts with the plucked string. The fun thing about strings, too, is that as with picks (plectrums) that we discussed way back in Tone Tips: Pick a Winner, once you develop a thorough understanding of the qualities of different types of strings you can use that knowledge to tweak the sound and feel of any kind of guitar.
Wednesday, March 12, 2008 11:11 AM
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