NAMM 2010: 50th Anniversary Jazz Bass
So who’s a sucker for a good Jazz Bass? I know I am. The only thing cooler than a Jazz Bass is a Jazz Bass with the big ‘ol bridge cover and block inlays. Well thanks a lot, Fender: you just made saving up for my next trip to the US so much more difficult by announcing the 50th Anniversary Jazz bass.
From Fender.com:
The Fender Jazz Bass guitar was first delivered to the world in 1960. If the Precision Bass® was a muscle car, the new Jazz bass was a sports car, and it proved incredibly popular with bassists of all styles worldwide.
Although remarkably unchanged since its introduction half a century ago, the Jazz Bass did see a very gradual succession of subtle design refinements over the course of the past five decades. Accordingly, our limited edition 50th anniversary Jazz Bass is a truly distinctive instrument in that it boasts design touches from several periods in Jazz Bass history, including ’60s-era lacquer finish, headstock logo, chrome bridge and pickup covers; ’70s-era thumb rest and bridge pickup positioning; and modern-era high-mass bridge and graphite neck support rods.
Comes in a deluxe black hardshell case containing cable, strap, polishing cloth and collectible 50th Anniversary Jazz Bass brochure.
VIDEO: Jim Root’s guitar rig
Check out this video by the folks at Jim Dunlop. It features Slipknot/Stone Sour’s Jim Root going through his rig, including the MXR Carbon Copy, and showing off his new prototype signature Stratocaster, which will be available from Fender in 2010.
Oh, swearing alert on this one.
CLICK HERE for my review of the Fender Jim Root Telecaster.
LESSON: How to sound like Jeff Beck
Jeff Beck is heading back to Australia to play the Byron Bay Bluesfest (along with Al Di Meola, Joe Bonamassa and Buddy Guy), making up for lost time after not visiting Australia for over 20 years until his tour here in January this year (my review here). His style has evolved and mutated rapidly over the years making it hard to pin down a general Jeff Beck sound, so let’s check it out as it stands today.
I’m sure we’ve all heard the old ‘tone is in the hands’ argument. There are some who might reply, “Yeah, the hands that sign for the credit card to pay for expensive gear,” but in Beck’s case it’s quite literally true. He jettisoned his pick years ago and is pretty much exclusively a fingers-against-steel man today. The tone that results from this is quite unique and very much unattainable if you use a pick. The attack is softer and the note seems to swell up then mellow out over its duration, instead of beginning with a percussive kerthunk then fading out.
Beck can play pretty freaking fast when he wants to, which is no easy task without a pick. The secret is to pick with your thumb for downstrokes and your index finger for upstrokes. An added benefit of this is that the hand angle required to pull it off cleanly is ideal for manipulating the guitar’s volume control with the pinkie finger as you play, allowing an even greater range of dynamic movement. Unlike picking from the wrist or elbow with a plectrum, picking with the fingers requires almost no hand movement, so it’s easier to make control adjustments far more detailed than otherwise possible.
Another clever benefit of picking this way is that the hand is ideally placed to achieve vibrato or even pitch bending by pushing the bridge of the guitar. Beck has his Stratocaster bridges set to float, so he can raise the pitch a few semitones as well as lower it. This is hard to achieve with a vintage-style 6-screw trem, but much easier with a more modern two-point fulcrum system as found on his signature model and any number of Strats since the 80s. Either way, you’ll want to reduce the spring tension enough to have the bridge sit forward a bit. When done right you’ll get better tuning stability, although as with any floating system the trade-off is a little sustain …although Beck deals with it and EVH seems to do okay…
The last trick we’re going to look at also involves a floating bridge; playing melodies with the whammy bar. Steve Vai really seems to have taken this technique and run with it, but Beck was the pioneer. Try this: hit a harmonic at the 12th fret of the G string then use the bar to raise it the equivalent of two frets. Then without stopping the note, bring it back down to the original pitch, then dump it down a half step. After a little practice your ears will catch up to your hands and you’ll be able to zero in accurately on pitches. Soon you’ll be able to play expressive melodies that almost sound like a slide guitar, but using harmonics as you please.
CLICK HERE to buy Jeff Beck’s ‘Performing This Week…Live At Ronnie Scotts’ from Amazon.com
NEWS: VESICA VL neck for Strat
Have you seen VESICA Design’s stuff? They made waves recently with the Vesica Lead, a guitar which has a bunch of additional space on the fretboard so you can bend the high E string down towards the floor, the theory being that you can do some bitchen drone stuff and oblique bends that wouldn’t otherwise be possible. Seems like a cool idea but I think it’ll take a bit of time and maybe a top-level endorser or two before it really catches on. Guitar players can be a conservative bunch, sometimes to our own detriment. I’d love to try one of these out some time. Hope they’re at NAMM in January.
Anyway, now you can buy a VESICA replacement neck for your Strat. Cool.
VESICA Design announces the VL Neck™ for Strat®
October 20, 2009
VESICA Design Inc. has introduced the VL Neck™ for Strat®, the bolt-on replacement neck for the Fender Stratocaster® that is a simple and cost effective way to expand the musical capabilities of your current guitar.
The VL Neck™ design was first introduced with the Vesica Lead™ electric guitar, now the VL Neck™ for Strat® provides the guitarist with the same expanded lead opportunities without any modifications to their existing guitar body.
The VL Neck™ for Strat® offers a semi-tone of outward bending capabilities in the upper register of the neck. This additional capability permits the inner strings to continue to produce sound while the outer strings are bending, a freedom of string movement designed for both traditional playing techniques and the creation of new licks, riffs and ultimately new music.
The VL Neck™ for Strat®
Features:
Maple VL Neck™
Rosewood fingerboard
Two-way action steel truss rod
22 medium frets: .092″ w .048??? c
Pre-drilled mounting holes
Clear satin polyurethane finish
Graph Tech nut
For more information, visit http://www.vesicaguitars.com.
FEATURE: Wait, they made a 7-string of that?!?
This week’s announcement of a 7-string Gibson Explorer (CLICK HERE to buy it from Guitar Center)has got me thinking – wouldn’t it be great if 7-string versions of some of our other favourites were made? Well it turns out that even if there’s no official off-the-shelf version, chances are you can probably find a 7-string version of whatever you’re after. And if you can’t, you can always commission one from a custom builder. But check out these 7s you probably didn’t know existed.
Fender 7-String Stratocaster Maestro Alex Gregory Prototype
This one is lurking at Gbase.com and is for sale. The desciption notes: “This was released as the first 7-string rock-and-roll solidbody electric and was designed to accomodate a high “A” string to facilitate the upper register notes, unlike the previous 7-string guitars which featured an added low “B” for walking bass lines. This is the prototype for the the Maestro Alex Gregory signature model and includes extra tortoise pickguard (signed by the artist), copies of the original blueprints, patents and documentation of the history of the model.”
CLICK HERE to see Fender prototypes on eBay.
Agile T-7
In many ways a 7-string Telecaster makes perfect sense. Put aside for a moment the tendency to think of the 7-string as a metal or shred axe, and think about how awesome those low twangy notes would sound on a Telecaster set up for a filthy-but-clean Junior Brown tone. Features of the Agile T-7 include: Swamp Ash Body, 1 Pieces maple bolt on neck with “C” profile, Maple fretboard with 15” radius, 25.5″ scale and black dots and 22 Jumbo frets, Grover chrome tuners with 18-1 ratio, Agile passive single coil pickups, Graphite Nut, and Satin Polyurethane Finish.
CLICK HERE to see Agile guitars on eBay.
Epiphone 7-string Les Paul
I came so close to buying one of these when they first came out. It seemed a local store just couldn’t shift ‘em and had bumped one down by 50% to drive a little interest. Alas, at the time I still couldn’t afford it (curse you, former job that sucked and paid very little!). These Korean-made beauties combine the darkness of the Les Paul tone with the ‘I’m gonna kill you’ vibe of a chuggy low B string for the ultimate in Guitars That Can Stun Large Animals Two Towns Over.
CLICK HERE to see Epiphone 7-string Les Pauls on eBay.
Epiphone 7-string Flying V
Wait, what’s this? A 7-string Flying V? Awesome. This is an Epiphone but hopefully Gibson will make some of these to go with the Explorers some day. If you can find one of these at your local second hand guitar emporium or auction site, grab it, soup it up with some EMGs or DiMarzio D-Activators and you, sir, have yourself an unstoppable metal machine.
CLICK HERE to see Epiphone 7-string Flying Vs on eBay.
Ibanez RGA
CLICK HERE to see Ibanez 7-strings on eBay.
NEWS: Boss Fender Reverb pedal now shipping
Middle of the week, which means I’m too busy with other stuff to do any serious hardcore blogging, so here’s a press release for ya!
1963 Fender Spring Reverb Returns as a Modern Stompbox
Los Angeles, CA, August 11, 2009 — BOSS® and Fender® USA have collaborated to create the FRV-1, a stunning recreation of the 1963 Fender Reverb®. A staple sound of rockabilly, country, blues, surf rock and even grunge rock, this tube-driven reverb sound is now available in an affordable, rugged compact pedal.
The FRV-1 recreates the classic spring-reverb sound of the 1963 Fender Reverb via patented COSM® technology. Three classic controls for Dwell, Tone, and Mix allow players to refine their tone, adding buttery warmth or sparkling twang.
The FRV-1 is now available with an MSRP of $206.50.
Boss FBM-1 Fender Bassman Pedal
Boss FDR-1 Fender Deluxe Reverb Pedal
SUMMER NAMM: Squire John 5, Sham Kamikaze sigs
Here’s something cool for the John 5 fan on a budget from Squire:
J5 Telecaster
John 5 is a self-described “Fender® fanatic” with a jaw-dropping collection of his favorite instrument, the Telecaster® (“the greatest guitars ever built, by far,” in his words). His Squier signature model, the J5 Telecaster, is a double-bound beauty based on his oft-modded workhorse Telecaster, which was pieced together at the Fender Custom Shop.
Features include John 5’s distinctive black-and- chrome look—a double-bound alder body with a gloss black polyester finish, a polished stainless steel pickguard and chrome hardware. The one-piece maple neck has a modern C shape, a matching black Telecaster headstock and a 12”-radius rosewood fingerboard with 22 medium jumbo frets.
The custom-designed humbucking pickups use a special dual-volume setup with the bridge pickup control in the front position and the neck pickup control in the back position (5 prefers this setup because he spends much time giving the bridge pickup a workout). Rapid toggling the upper-bout three-way pickup switch gives you 5’s signature “kill” effect by turning off the neck pickup volume and leaving the bridge control full up.
Here’s John 5 ripping it up at home on his Squire sig Telecaster:
Sham Kamikaze Stratocaster
Squier introduces its Sham Kamikaze Signature Stratocaster guitar model, named for and designed with the help of Malaysia’s top guitarist. The guitar puts Kamikaze’s own personal touch on a Squier Classic Vibe series instrument, not the least of which is its distinctive and non-traditional reverse headstock design and reverse string arrangement, which lends a certain subtle, loose feel to the guitar’s comfortable playability.
Features also include an alder body finished in Black or Vintage White, gloss maple neck, Kamikaze’s signature on the front of the headstock and a Sigma logo on the back, vintage-style single-ply white pickguard, three custom vintage-style single-coil pickups (reverse-angled bridge pickup) with reverse staggered alnico III magnets, vintage-style tuning machines and tremolo, and aged plastic parts.
Available only in Malaysia; distributed by Bentley Music.
NEWS: Fender announces Sonic Youth signature Jazzmasters
Cool news for Sonic Youth fans. I see that while it’s very trendy to have Thurston Moore write a foreword for your book, Fender has gone all out and had him write a whole zine. Collectoriffic!
Sonic pioneers Thurston Moore and Lee Ranaldo design heavily modified guitars in conjunction with latest studio release …
Hot on the heels of their latest critically acclaimed album, The Eternal, Sonic Youth has teamed up with Fender to create two of the most highly anticipated guitars in recent memory—the Thurston Moore and Lee Ranaldo signature Jazzmaster guitars, which will be available beginning July 1.
Moore and Ranaldo, canonized as two of “The 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time” by Rolling Stone magazine in 2003, make up two-fifths of one of the most respected and influential bands in recent memory. Moore and Ranaldo have been playing Fender instruments for the lion’s share of their careers, to the point where the simple image of a Jazzmaster guitar creates an instant free-associative connection with the band. In celebration of 2008’s 50th Anniversary of the Jazzmaster, Fender had been connecting and talking to all of the icons of the instrument, and a dialogue struck up with Lee and Thurston that led to the design and creation of Fender’s latest signature model additions.
“When Fender came to us with an offer to make signature models of our Jazzmaster guitars we jumped at the chance,” Moore and Ranaldo said. “These are the guitars that have defined the sound of Sonic Youth for more than 20 years. Although we love all guitars, Jazzmasters are the ones we’ve modified and perfected for our uses over the years. With massive input from our great road crew, we’ve come up with a Thurston Jazzmaster and Lee ‘Jazzblaster’ that fully reflect the current state of the guitars we play in 2009. In fact, we couldn’t wait to get our hands on these axes—the prototypes of our Fender models have already been thrust into action during the recording of our latest album, The Eternal, and have already begun to acquire the scrapes and scars of live performance. These guitars rock Sonic-style!”
Moore and Ranaldo have always modified their Jazzmaster guitars—removing all extraneous controls—simplifying and stripping them back to their essence, leaving just a three-way switch and volume knob. In many ways, these two instruments are similar, yet in almost every major way (pickups, bridges, frets) they are totally different. Both guitars have alder bodies, “C”-shaped maple necks with rosewood fingerboards, American Vintage Jazzmaster tremolos and black anodized aluminum pickguards. Moore’s Jazzmaster features Seymour Duncan® Antiquity II for Jazzmaster pickups, an Adjusto-Matic™ bridge and 21 jumbo frets, and is available in Forest Green Transparent satin nitrocellulose lacquer finish with satin black painted headstock. Ranaldo’s guitar features re-voiced wide range humbucking pickups, Mustang®-style bridge and 21 vintage frets, and is available in Sapphire Blue Transparent satin nitrocellulose lacquer finish with satin black painted headstock.
Each Sonic Youth Jazzmaster guitar comes with a custom sticker sheet and a full-color 24-page indie rock ’zine containing photos, set lists, tuning charts, illustrations, tech info and extensive interviews. Designed and laid out largely by Ranaldo himself, this is the definitive insider’s guide to all things Jazzmaster in the world of Sonic Youth.
Sonic Youth came together in 1981 and quickly became a fixture in New York City’s No Wave art and music scene. Over the years, they have released several monumental albums, including Sonic Youth (1982), Daydream Nation (1988), Goo (1990), Dirty (1992) and Murray Street (2002), and have influenced legions of bands all over the world. Known as much for their hardcore ethos and DIY work ethic as their signature lo-fi noise explorations and radical playing styles and techniques, they have been able to achieve recognition and success, all while staying true to their original values and vision.
“We were stoked to have the opportunity to create something together, and the resultant instruments are spot-on at evoking the essence of their unique styles and preferences,” said Justin Norvell, marketing director for Fender electric guitars. “These guitars went through pretty rigorous R&D—the guys and their techs were incredibly hands-on throughout the whole process. When they were home we took their original guitars apart, re-voiced pickups against their vintage guitars, and more. When they were out on tour, we traded countless late-night e-mails, making adjustments based on their road performance. In the end we are all extremely happy with the results, and we believe that Sonic Youth fans all over the world will be as well.”
For more information on the Sonic Youth guitars, the band and a free mp3 download of new single “Sacred Trickster,” visit www.fender.com/sonicyouth.
Photo by Eric Baecht
NEWS: Boss launches Fender Reverb pedal
Neat! Here’s a cool option for those who wish they had an old school spring reverb tank to get their Hank Marvin licks sounding all authentic-like, but can’t spare the big bucks required to snag such a lusted-after piece of vintage guitar history. Fender and Boss are obviously pretty happy with their recent collaborations, the 65 Deluxe Reverb and 59 Bassman pedals, so they’ve partnered up once again with the FRV-1 Fender Reverb.
Boss Announces FRV-1 Fender Reverb Pedal
1963 Fender Spring Reverb Returns as a Modern Stompbox BOSS® and Fender® USA have collaborated to create the FRV-1, a stunning recreation of the 1963 Fender Reverb®. A staple sound of rockabilly, country, blues, surf rock and even grunge rock, this tube-driven reverb sound is now available in an affordable, rugged compact pedal.
The FRV-1 recreates the classic spring-reverb sound of the 1963 Fender Reverb via patented COSM® technology. Three classic controls for Dwell, Tone, and Mix allow players to refine their tone, adding buttery warmth or sparkling twang.
The FRV-1 is expected to be available in late July.
For more information, visit their web site at http://www.bossus.com/.
Boss FDR-1 Fender Deluxe Reverb Pedal Standard
Boss FBM-1 Fender Bassman Pedal
FEATURE: Cool Guitars They Don’t Make Any More, Part 3
Charvel Surfcaster
The Charvel Surfcaster debuted in 1992 and at the time it was a bit of an anachronism. A little too early to cash in on the grunge-inspired attraction to vintage designs, and a little too late for the kind of clean-toned, ‘The Cure’ type tones it excelled at, the Surfcaster’s most notable user was probably Anthrax’s Scott Ian, who used one for the clean tones in the track ‘Black Lodge’ from The Sound Of White Noise and was pictured with one on the cover of a 1993 edition of Guitar World. These semi-hollow, lipstick pickup-toting axes never quite got the respect they deserved, although those who did buy them evidently loved them because it’s quite rare to see them on the used market. When you do find them, expect to pay around USD$1,000. The Surfcaster design lived on until 2005, by which time it had been shifted to sister company Jackson, with production moved from Japan to India. Personally I’d love to see Surfcasters return to regular production under Charvel.
CLICK HERE to see Charvel Surfcaster guitars on eBay.
Yamaha SGV
I love these retro designs. The SGV series was probably a bit to wild for most players, with its slight upside-down melted Rickenbacker bass look and unconventional whammy bridge which worked great when you gave it a little TLC but was maybe a little too high maintenance for some. The SGV-800 (and the more upscale SGV-1200) had a pair of P90-style single coils which were fat and growly. The SGV-700 (and lower-priced little buddy the SGV-300) rocked a smaller single coil and a very unique humbucker. The retro/modern look wasn’t lost on Meegs from Coal Chamber, who used a black custom shop SGV with twin humbuckers, a fixed bridge, drop-tuning lever on the low E string, and number-shaped fretboard position markers, Jason Becker-style. You can find SGVs on eBay and in pawnshops pretty regularly and while they were underappreciated in their day, a little set-up know-how makes them a bargain well worth seeking out today.
CLICK HERE to see Yamaha guitars on eBay.
Washburn Steve Stevens
These models were advertised somewhat heavily in the guitar magazines when Stevens was a member of Motley Crue singer Vince Neil’s solo band circa 1993. I remember seeing the truss rod adjustment at the base of the neck, as well as the 2-humbucker, 1 volume, 1 tone control layout and thinking “Dude’s trying to make a Strat-style guitar out of an Ernie Ball Music Man Edward Van Halen.” Funnily enough, by the time the Vince Neil tour rolled around, Stevens was playing… Ernie Ball Music Man Edward Van Halens. There were three versions of Washburn’s Steve Stevens signature guitar: two Chicago custom shop-built models (the SS80 and SS100) and the Korean-made SS40. The SS100 had a white front with a Frankenstein graphic and black back and sides, while the SS80 was solid black. Pickups were a set of slanted Seymour Duncan JBs, and the body wood was poplar. Check out this old-school Washburn advertisement.
CLICK HERE to see Yamaha SGV guitars on eBay.
Fender Tommy Emmanuel Telecaster
CLICK HERE to see Tommy Emmanuel stuff on eBay.
Ibanez Steve Lukather (SL1010SL)
Steve Lukather’s current Ernie Ball Music Man signature is so kickass a guitar that it’s easy to forget that in the early-mid 80s he had a signature Ibanez. Part of the Roadstar II series, Luke’s model featured a carved birdseye maple top on a basswood body, a maple neck with ebony fretboard, two Ibanez humbuckers (a Super 58 in the neck and an SL Special – essentially an overwound Super 58 – in the bridge position), 22 frets, subtle cross inlays, coil splitting performed via the volume and tone pots, and the much-maligned Pro Rock’r bridge, which had a locking nut and fine tuners but wasn’t as stable as Ibanez’s later Edge series models.
CLICK HERE to see Ibanez Steve Lukather guitars on eBay.
Futher reading:
Cool guitars they don’t make any more
Cool guitars they don’t make any more 2
Cool guitars they don’t make any more 4
Hi! I'm Peter Hodgson. I write for Gibson.com, Australian Guitar, Australian Musician, Mixdown Magazine (including my instructional column, 'Unleash Your Inner Rock God,' which has been running since 2007), Blunt, Beat (including their weekly hard rock/metal column Crunch) and The Brag. And I'm Assistant Social Coordinator with Seymour Duncan.
I've been playing guitar since I was 8 years old, and I've been writing for magazines since I was 18. I've also worked as a guitar teacher (up to 50 students a week), a setup tech, a newspaper editor, and I've also dabbled in radio a little bit. I live in Melbourne, Australia, and my hobbies include drinking way too much coffee, and eating way too much Mexican food.
You can check out my guitar playing at Bandcamp or on YouTube, and feel free to email me at iheartguitarblog@gmail.com