Posts Tagged ‘Electric Guitars’

As a musical genre traditional Jazz requires a fairly specific Guitar sound – generally this has involved a very clean dry tone – with little to no effects (perhaps only a hint of reverb) – usually the neck pickup is used with the resultant sound required to be clear enough to pickup the subtle nuances and articulation of the playing.

Jazz Guitarists therefore need to carefully consider their Guitar when setting out – luckily Jazz has been around for many years and there is a wide selection of instruments available. Traditionally Jazz Guitars are hollow body semi acoustics (though not always) and these have tended to favor P90 or Humbucker style pickups to produce the required sound – as stated there are many guitars on the market today – but here we list 5 classic Jazz guitars that helped shape the scene.

1 Gibson ES150

Made famous to the jazz community by Charlie Christian the ES 150 became his guitar. The ES150 became one of the world’s first commercially available electric guitars. With its single coil pickup fitted at the neck and its acoustic shaped body with f holes – the 150 has that sweet warm jazz tone that became a world favorite.

2 Gibson L5

Another of Gibson’s Jazz power trio (the others are the ES150 and the ES175) – the L5 features a large resonant body. With a history that goes back nearly 90 years the L5 has changed a little over this time and has featured different pickups (from P90′s to Humbuckers). As the prestige rhythm guitar it has been played by a variety of greats including Wes Montgomery.

3 Gibson ES-175

With it’s stylish Florentine single cutaway – the ES175 represented a departure for Gibson from their usual design – Debuting in 1949 – the 175 has been associated with a variety of Jazz greats from Herb Ellis to Pat Metheny.

4 Gretsch Country Gentleman/Nashville

While Gretsch are not considered jazz guitars per se – both the Country Gent and the Nashville are able to produce both versatile and authentic jazz tones. Both guitars offer a range of controls for adapting the tone of the guitar and can produce some versatile jazzy results – whilst the FiterTron pickups produce something that’s unlike it’s Gibson counterparts.

5 Fender Telecaster

With it’s sweet and mellow neck pickup tone the telecaster offers something a little different that the usual Jazz fare – Traditionally a country guitar the telecaster has been featured with Jazz artists including Ed Bickert and Mike Stern.

Well, it is around the hundred year mark since the world first started noticing blues guitar players. Of course they were all acoustic guitar pickers then because they had very few places to plug their electric guitars in, but they made the best of what they had. Just as a basic first impression, I would say that blues guitar players kind of favor acoustic guitar every bit as much as electric guitar. A glaring example is the success Eric Clapton had with his Unplugged album, but there are plenty of other electric blues players who are on record playing acoustic guitar. Even Jimi Hendrix appeared on TV playing some acoustic blues songs.

Acoustic blues guitar was brought to the world by the likes of by Robert Johnson, Bill Broonzy, and Rev. Gary Davis. Fingerpicking acoustic blues uses your thumb to play the bass notes while the first and second fingers play the melody. Bear in mind that the thumb is responsible for keeping time, so it will take some time getting your fingers to work independently but it will be worth it. Rev. Gary Davis was an acoustic blues player who used his thumb to strum the chords and only his index finger to play the melody.

Lightnin’ Hopkins was another acoustic blues player whose style was out of step with fashion when he was trying to make his way as a guitar player in his youth. Hopkins grew up listening to music played by bands but he learnt to play the guitar in isolation from other musicians. So he developed a guitar style that imitated a band playing lead, rhythm and bass. He even provided his own percussion by slapping the body of the guitar.

The secret to playing lots of acoustic blues songs is in learning a basic chord sequence. A one, four, five progression – for example C, F and G or G, C and D usually make an acoustic blues guitar chord sequence. Listening to the music of Mississippi John Hurt is a good way to get started on acoustic blues. His early career as a blues performer was hampered by his guitar and vocals being too subtle and expressive than was fashionable at the time.

You can do a web search for lessons on how to play acoustic blues guitar like the great bluesmen of the past, but as a general introduction to playing acoustic fingerstyle guitar, you cannot go wrong with the guitar technique known as “Travis Picking”. The basis of this style is to use the thumb, first, second and third fingers of the right hand to pick the strings in a predetermined sequence while the left hand plays chords. This is the basic idea of the style, but once you can perform this kind of picking with ease, you will find that you will begin to develop your own musical ideas that allow you to depart from rigidly playing standard chords and the same right hand picking patterns. “Travis Picking” was made popular by Country guitarist Merle Travis and popularized further by Chet Atkins.

So we have covered the names and techniques of great acoustic blues guitar players and found a basic way of playing the guitar that will set you on the road to being a blues guitarist.

Many of the visitors to my website ask about vintage guitar values. Do you have a guitar about which you would like to have information? Do you have a question about Fender guitar value, Gibson guitar value, or maybe the value of a Martin guitar? Even if you don’t know what kind of guitar you have, a little research will help you to find the value of your guitar.

What makes a guitar valuable?

Several factors figure into the value of a guitar. In general, the guitar must be one which is sought after by collectors and musicians. The demand for a guitar is determined in general by quality, beauty, and playability. This demand must outweigh the available supply.Age is an important factor in the value of a guitar, but a guitar is not necessarily more valuable just because it is older. It must have been made with a high standard of quality in the first place. An old mediocre quality guitar is just that–an old mediocre guitar! The actual year that a guitar was made may not be as important as the PERIOD in which it was made.

For example, electric guitars which are most valuable today include Fender Telecasters made before 1954, Fender Stratocasters made between 1954 and 1959, and Gibson Les Pauls made between 1958 and 1960. Acoustic guitars of the greatest value include Pre-World War II Martins and Gibsons.This is not to say that other guitars are not valuable. Many vintage guitars will bring a good price. The trick is to know approximately how much YOUR guitar is worth.

How Do I Determine the Value of My Guitar?

In order for you or anyone else to determine the value of your guitar, you must have certain information available. Ideally, you would know the brand, model, and serial number. The brand and model, however, can often be determined through the serial number. Then you must determine the condition of your guitar–prices differ greatly according to condition. Here are some guidelines: (these guidelines are from the “Blue Book of Acoustic and Electric Guitars”)

100% – New – New with all factory materials, including warranty card, owner’s manual, case, and other items that were originally included by the manufacturer. On currently manufactured instruments, the 100% price refers to an instrument not previously sold at retail. Even if a new instrument has been played only twice and traded in a week later, it no longer qualifies at 100%.

Excellent – this Excellent condition range is represented by both High Excellent and Low Excellent condition. High Excellent refers to an instrument that is very clean, looks almost new (perhaps a few light scratches/dings only), and has hardly been used. Low Excellent refers to a guitar that has been played/used, and has accumulated some minor wear in the form of light scratches, dings, small chips, etc. The older an instrument, the less likely it will be in High Excellent condition Even Low Excellent is seldom encountered on instruments over 50 years old, since most acoustic instruments were originally purchased to be played

Average – The Average guitar condition factor indicates an acoustic guitar that has been in a player’s hands and has worn due to player use (hopefully, no abuse). High Average condition instruments have normal dents, small chips, and light dings on the body, and/or scratches on the top and back. However, there should be no problems unless indicated separately. Low Average condition instruments may reflect major finish problems, replacement parts, previous repairs (especially on older instruments), alterations, and neck/fret wear is typically visible.

Once you have this information at hand, you can attempt to find the value of the guitar by consulting various sources on the internet or you can have it appraised by an expert. Researching the value of your guitar on the internet may be free. The downside is that this research requires a big expenditure of time and a wide knowledge of guitar pricing resources. If you have your guitar appraised, remember that the appraiser may also be a dealer who is, after all, wanting to make a profit by reselling the guitar. For this reason, the appraisal MAY be biased.

Because so many of my website visitors have inquired about the value of their guitars, I have begun to offer a GENERAL guitar evaluation service. This service is FREE. If you are interested, please visit:

Vintage Guitar Values at the May Music Studio Website.

As far as instruments go, the bass guitar is one of the newest on the scene. It’s a completely original component of today’s bands and modern music and has not even been in existence for a century. Don’t let the name “bass guitar” fool you either, the bass guitar is not actually derived from the guitar.

While electric guitars were developed from acoustic guitars, bass guitars were developed from the double bass instrument. They were originally known (and are still sometimes called) electrical bass instruments or the electric bass.

The original double bass, or simply the bass, are the massive, classical instruments that have been around for several hundred years. They are played with the instrument resting on the ground, using a bow across the strings.

The bass guitar is of course held with a strap on a musician’s body and is played using one’s fingers. As opposed to the back and forth of the bow on its predecessor and the strumming with a pick of an electrical guitar, the bass guitar is typically played with either plucking or slapping movements of the fingers.

It is tuned to sound the same as an original bass with of course the added benefit of being able to be amplified. In the early part of the 20th century, as music was getting louder, the bass was being drowned out and was unable to be heard. And so the quest for an electrical bass began.

Leo Fender and the Creation of the Bass Guitar

Leo Fender was an amazing man, a visionary and is one of the single most influential people in modern music history. All of these things and many more is Leo Fender. However, one thing he is not is the inventor of the bass guitar.

In 1935, it was Paul Tutmarc who developed the first incarnation of the electric bass. It was to be played horizontally and held like a guitar and could be plugged in for amplification. However, his instrument never truly caught on. It was in 1951 that the bass began earning its spot in modern music.

Leo Fender created his Fender Precision Bass, which was mass produced and skyrocketed in popularity. Gibson followed shortly there after and the bass guitar became an important component of jazz ensembles and today, nearly all musical styles and bands.

Just as with the electric guitar, Leo Fender capitalized on previous inventions, tweaked them to his own specifications and mass produced them to extreme success. While he should be remembered fondly for his contributions, let’s not forget the original inventor of the electric bass, Paul Tutmarc.

The right electric guitar feels smooth in your hands and wraps around your body while you play. She can also sing to you in a way that only you can hear, no matter how much you share her unique sound with others. It’s no wonder that the guitar has impacted the world of music so deeply over the last 60 years that it has permanently embedded itself into history. The guitar practically defines ‘cool’ all on its own, yet the whole concept starts with technology.

Surprisingly, the tech talk associated with the electric guitar isn’t so far fetched or difficult to understand. So if you love your instrument so much that you’re looking to hear how she works, listen up.

The first thing you should know is that there are two types of body styles: Hollow and Semi-Hollow.

Hollow body: This type of guitar is exactly what it sounds like. Essentially, the center is hollow, like an acoustic guitar. The hollow body allows the sound waves created by the guitar to bounce and ricochet inside it, affecting its sound. This is what causes that twang-like sound that you get from a hollow body electric guitar. Semi-Hollow: These are obviously a lot more solid than the hollow-body and produce a more solid sound. The electric guitar is not meant to sound like an acoustic guitar on a wide scale. In fact, the semi-hollow keeps the sound from bouncing around inside the equipment to give you a more crisp clear sound.

Next are the sheer mechanics. Electric guitars pump their sound out by means of magnetic pickups. A pickup is a group of magnets with a coil wire wrapped near or around them. These would be the metallic pieces that subtly vibrate your guitar and you may or may not be able to see your pickups, depending on what guitar you own.

When your guitar is plugged in but not being used, the magnetic field associated with your pickup is also relatively still, except for the electricity running through it. As soon as you strum your girl, however, the wire around or touching that magnetic field picks up the changed field, which produces an electrical signal. The wire essentially carries that signal through the pickup and to your audio wire, which is “programmed” to recognize the signals and interpret them to your amp at the other end.

At the top of your guitar, on the neck, you’ll find next, your tuning pegs. These pegs are holding your strings or wires in place and by winding them tighter, you can produce a higher pitch. When allowing them to hang more loosely, they will produce deeper sounds when strummed. This is, obviously, how a guitarist tunes their instrument, the same way a cello or violin is tuned.

The sections along the neck that are marked by bars or lines into evenly measured segments, are called frets. When a guitar is finely tuned and you press at the right fret for the right pitch, your strum is affected by your shortening the string. This is, of course, how you get notes. Learning to read sheet music, of course, will give any guitarist a tool to increase their skills and use their frets properly.

The controls that are usually located on the body of an electric guitar alter the tone’s brightness by using a simple filter that lowers or raises the frequencies of the pickup.

All in all, the simple set up of an electric guitar, using magnets, wire, some steel and wood are what manufacture the amazing sounds that come from them. Quality, clarity and reliability, however, depend on brand, manufacturer and parts. So with your new found knowledge on the inner workings of the guitar, get out there and research which one makes you sleep well at night and want to wake up in the morning.

Guitars have become important parts of every song today; be it rock or pop, guitars find their use everywhere. Since the early twentieth century, the guitar has been an important musical instrument that has fascinated everyone. Who doesn’t want to be the next “Jimmy Hendrix” or “Carlos Santana”?

The guitar is an amazing instrument; it looks good, sounds great and reflects style which is difficult to ignore. No wonder then that guitarists have massive female fan following! Guitars can be of two types: Spanish and Hawaiian. Whereas the Spanish guitar is the new-age guitar, the Hawaiian guitar is a classical guitar.

The Spanish guitar can again be classified into two types: acoustic and electric. Rosewood is generally used along with maple to make acoustic guitars. However, an electric guitar is a mix of solid wooden body, six-strings and an electric circuit. Ask any rock guitarist and he will tell you how important the electric guitar is in the field of “progressive rock” or “death metal”.

Electric guitars basically amplify sound through amplifiers. Popular rock songs often employ “distortion effects” from electric guitars for a fun and funky sound. Those effects are made using pick-ups and “guitar pedals.” Guitar pedals are also known as multi-processors and allow musicians to experiment with a variety of different sound types.

Guitar pedals open up a whole new set of possibilities for guitarists to add that extra ‘zing’ to their guitar playing. Thanks to modern technology, guitar pedals are now available with a number of high-end features. The best part about a guitar pedal is that it has a number of features stored in a small body. Multi-processor pedals are in great demand today.

If you are a guitarist and you want to develop your technique and style, then you definitely need a guitar pedal. Amateur guitarists should opt for basic guitar pedals. However, for the ‘pros’, there are innumerable guitar pedals available which will leave you asking for more.

An online guitar store will offer a selection of good quality pedals at excellent prices. At any of the online guitar stores, you can choose from a variety of electric guitars, guitar pedals and other gear. By browsing an online guitar center, you can find great deals on a guitar and any extras you might need.