1.
Gibson Super 400
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The Gibson Super 400 is a high-end carved solid wood archtop guitar, the largest, fanciest-adorned, and highest-priced factory-built archtop / hollowbody guitar ever. It is an influential guitar model that inspired many other master guitar builders. It was first sold in 1934 and named for its $400 price, the Super 400 was the largest guitar that the Gibson Guitar Corporation had produced. Until 1939, it had a hand-engraved tailpiece and a finger rest support. During the very early production stock the truss rod cover had engraved L5 Super, in 1939 the guitar was changed. The upper bout was enlarged, and the tailpiece was replaced with the one still fitted today on current Super 400s. The f-holes were slightly enlarged and a cutaway option also became available and this was called the Super 400P, later changed to C for Cutaway. During the 1950s, Gibson released the Super 400 CES and this had a slightly thicker top to reduce feedback, two P-90 pickups, and individual tone and volume controls, along with a three-way toggle switch. Later, the P-90 pickups were replaced with Alnico V pickups, then in 1957, there have been variations in the limited edition custom models. In 2000 Gibson offered the Super 400 with a Charlie Christian pickup, the Super 400 is still available today, with two humbucker pickups. The full acoustic version is no longer available, the 1963 Gibson Super 400 CES Florentine model belonging to Scotty Moore played an important role in Elvis Presleys stage performance, the 68 Comeback Special. Gibson Guitar Corporation product list Super 400 at Gibson website Super 400 Review and Demo Video - Flash Required
2.
Acoustic guitar
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An acoustic guitar is a guitar that produces sound acoustically—by transmitting the vibration of the strings to the air—as opposed to relying on electronic amplification. The sound waves from the strings of an acoustic guitar resonate through the guitars body and this typically involves the use of a sound board and a sound box to strengthen the vibrations of the strings. The main source of sound in a guitar is the string. The string vibrates at a frequency and also creates many harmonics at various different frequencies. The frequencies produced can depend on string length, mass, gitterns, a small plucked guitar were the first small guitar-like instruments created during the Middle Ages with a round back like that of a lute. Modern guitar shaped instruments were not seen until the Renaissance era where the body, the earliest string instruments that related to the guitar and its structure where broadly known as the vihuelas within Spanish musical culture. Vihuelas where string instruments that were seen in the 16th century during the Renaissance. Later, Spanish writers distinguished these instruments into 2 categories of vihuelas, the vihuela de arco was an instrument that mimicked the violin, and the vihuela de penola was played with a plectrum or by hand. When it was played by hand it was known as the vihuela de mano, vihuela de mano shared extreme similarities with the Renaissance guitar as it used hand movement at the sound hole or sound chamber of the instrument to create music. The real production of guitars kicked off in France where the popularity, the production became so large that early famous creators such as Gaspard Duyffooprucgars instruments were being sold as copies by other guitar makers in Lyon. Benoist Lejeune, a maker, offered and sold guitar copies of Duyffoprucgars instruments and was later imprisoned for using his mark and work. During this time, the production was increasing tremendously but it was not until Robert and Claude Denis appeared overproducing the early Renaissance guitar in Paris, as father and son, Robert and Claude produced hundreds of guitars that increased the popularity of the instrument greatly. Because of them and the great many guitar inventors of this time, by 1790 only six-course vihuela guitars were being created and had become the main type and model of guitar used in Spain. Most of the older 5-course guitars where still in use but were also being modified to a six-coursed acoustical guitar, by the 19th century, coursed strings where evolved into 6 single-stringed instruments much like that of the guitar today. It had evolved into the modern look except for size, retaining a smaller frame, the acoustic guitars soundboard, or top, also has a strong effect on the loudness of the guitar. No amplification actually occurs in this process, because no energy is added to increase the loudness of the sound. All the energy is provided by the plucking of the string, but without a soundboard, the string would just cut through the air without actually moving it much. The soundboard increases the surface of the area in a process called mechanical impedance matching
3.
Jazz guitar
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The term jazz guitar may refer to either a type of guitar or to the variety of guitar playing styles used in the various genres which are commonly termed jazz. The jazz-type guitar was born as a result of using electric amplification to increase the volume of acoustic guitars. Conceived in the early 1930s, the guitar became a necessity as jazz musicians sought to amplify their sound to be heard over loud big bands. When guitarists in big bands only had acoustic guitars, all they could do was play chords, once guitarists switched from acoustic guitar to electric guitar and began using guitar amplifiers, it made the guitar much easier to hear, which enabled guitarists to play guitar solos. Arguably, no musical instrument had greater influence on how jazz evolved since the beginning of the twentieth century. Traditionally, jazz guitarists use an archtop with a relatively broad hollow sound-box, violin-style f-holes, a floating bridge. Solid body guitars, mass-produced since the early 1950s, are also used, Jazz guitar playing styles include comping with jazz chord voicings and blowing over jazz chord progressions with jazz-style phrasing and ornaments. Comping refers to playing chords underneath a melody or another musicians solo improvisations. When jazz guitar players improvise, they may use the scales, modes, the stringed, chord-playing rhythm can be heard in groups which included military band-style instruments such as brass, saxes, clarinets, and drums, such as early jazz groups. As the acoustic guitar became a popular instrument in the early 20th century. The Gibson L5, an acoustic guitar which was first produced in 1923, was an early “jazz”-style guitar which was used by early jazz guitarists such as Eddie Lang. During the late 1930s and through the 1940s—the heyday of big band jazz, some guitarists, such as Freddie Green of Count Basie’s band, developed a guitar-specific style of accompaniment. Few of the big bands, however, featured amplified guitar solos, improved electric guitars such as Gibson’s ES-175, gave players a larger variety of tonal options. In the 1940s through the 1960s, players such as Wes Montgomery, Joe Pass, as jazz-rock fusion emerged in the early 1970s, many players switched to the more rock-oriented solid body guitars. Other jazz guitarists, like Grant Green and Wes Montgomery, turned to applying their skills to pop-oriented styles that fused jazz with soul and R&B, younger jazz musicians rode the surge of electric popular genres such as blues, rock, and funk to reach new audiences. Fusion players such as John McLaughlin adopted the fluid, powerful sound of guitarists such as Clapton. McLaughlin was an innovator, incorporating hard jazz with the new sounds of Clapton, Hendrix, Beck. Guitarists such as Pat Martino, Al Di Meola, Larry Coryell, John Abercrombie, John Scofield, in addition, they also simply turned up to full volume in order to create natural overdrive such as the blues rock players
4.
Blues
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Blues is a genre and musical form originated by African Americans in the Deep South of the United States around the end of the 19th century. The genre developed from roots in African musical traditions, African-American work songs, spirituals, Blues incorporated spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts, chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads. Blue notes, usually thirds or fifths flattened in pitch, are also a part of the sound. Blues shuffles or walking bass reinforce the trance-like rhythm and form a repetitive effect known as the groove, Blues as a genre is also characterized by its lyrics, bass lines, and instrumentation. Early traditional blues verses consisted of a single line repeated four times, Early blues frequently took the form of a loose narrative, often relating the troubles experienced in African-American society. Many elements, such as the format and the use of blue notes. The origins of the blues are closely related to the religious music of the Afro-American community. The first appearance of the blues is often dated to after the ending of slavery and, later and it is associated with the newly acquired freedom of the former slaves. Chroniclers began to report about blues music at the dawn of the 20th century, the first publication of blues sheet music was in 1908. Blues has since evolved from unaccompanied vocal music and oral traditions of slaves into a variety of styles and subgenres. Blues subgenres include country blues, such as Delta blues and Piedmont blues, as well as urban blues styles such as Chicago blues, World War II marked the transition from acoustic to electric blues and the progressive opening of blues music to a wider audience, especially white listeners. In the 1960s and 1970s, a form called blues rock evolved. The term blues may have come from blue devils, meaning melancholy and sadness, the phrase blue devils may also have been derived from Britain in the 1600s, when the term referred to the intense visual hallucinations that can accompany severe alcohol withdrawal. As time went on, the phrase lost the reference to devils, by the 1800s in the United States, the term blues was associated with drinking alcohol, a meaning which survives in the phrase blue law, which prohibits the sale of alcohol on Sunday. Though the use of the phrase in African-American music may be older, it has been attested to in print since 1912, in lyrics the phrase is often used to describe a depressed mood. The lyrics of traditional blues verses probably often consisted of a single line repeated four times. Two of the first published songs, Dallas Blues and Saint Louis Blues, were 12-bar blues with the AAB lyric structure. Handy wrote that he adopted this convention to avoid the monotony of lines repeated three times, the lines are often sung following a pattern closer to rhythmic talk than to a melody
5.
Rockabilly
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Rockabilly is one of the earliest styles of rock and roll music, dating back to the early 1950s in the United States, especially the South. As a genre it blends the sound of Western musical styles such as country with that of rhythm and blues, leading to what is considered classic rock, some have also described it as a blend of bluegrass with rock and roll. The term rockabilly itself is a portmanteau of rock and hillbilly, other important influences on rockabilly include western swing, boogie woogie, jump blues, and electric blues. An interest in the genre endures even in the 21st century, Rockabilly has left a legacy, spawning a variety of sub-styles and influencing other genres such as punk rock. There was a relationship between blues and country music from the very earliest country recordings in the 1920s. The first nationwide country hit was Wreck of the Old 97, backed with Lonesome Road Blues, during the 1930s and 1940s, two new sounds emerged. Recordings of Willss from the mid 1940s to the early 1950s include two beat jazz rhythms, jazz choruses, and guitar work that preceded early rockabilly recordings, wills is quoted as saying Rock and Roll. Why, man, thats the kind of music weve been playin since 1928. But its just basic rhythm and has gone by a lot of different names in my time and its the same, whether you just follow a drum beat like in Africa or surround it with a lot of instruments. The Maddox Brothers and Rose were at the edge of rockabilly with the slapped bass that Fred Maddox had developed. Maddox said, Youve got to have somethin they can tap their foot, or dance to, after World War II the band shifted into higher gear leaning more toward a whimsical honky-tonk feel, with a heavy, manic bottom end - the slap bass of Fred Maddox. They played hillbilly music but it sounded real hot and they played real loud for that time, too. The Maddoxes were also known for their antics and stuff. I mean it just wasnt us up there pickin and singing, there was something going on all the time. The demonstrative Maddoxes, helped release white bodies from traditional motions of decorum, more and more younger white artists began to behave on stage like the lively Maddoxes. Others believe that they were not only at the leading edge, Bill Monroe is known as the Father of Bluegrass, a specific style of country music. Many of his songs were in form, while others took the form of folk ballads, parlor songs. Bluegrass was a staple of music in the early 1950s
6.
Psychobilly
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Psychobilly is a fusion genre of rock music that mixes elements of punk rock, rock and roll, rockabilly, and rhythm and blues. It is one of several subgenres of rockabilly which also include thrashabilly, punkabilly, surfabilly and gothabilly, merriam-Webster defines it as music that blends punk rock and rockabilly, another dictionary defines it as loud frantic rockabilly music. Psychobilly, while rooted in the twang of rockabilly, owes just as much to the sound of straight up three-chord punk, Psychobilly bands and lyrics usually take an apolitical stance, a reaction to the right- and left-wing political attitudes which divided other British youth cultures. Many psychobilly bands are trios of guitar, upright bass and drums. Psychobilly gained underground popularity in Europe beginning in the early 1980s, with the UK band The Meteors, the second wave of psychobilly began with the 1986 release of British band Demented Are Gos debut album In Sickness & In Health. The genre soon spread throughout Europe, inspiring a number of new such as Mad Sin and the Nekromantix. The evolution of psychobilly as a genre is described as having occurred in waves. In the mid- to late 1970s, as punk rock became popular, several rockabilly and garage rock bands appeared who would influence the development of psychobilly. The term psychobilly was first used in the lyrics to the country song One Piece at a Time, written by Wayne Kemp for Johnny Cash, the lyrics describe the construction of a psychobilly Cadillac using stolen auto parts. It wasnt meant as a style of music, nevertheless, The Cramps, along with artists such as Screamin Jay Hawkins, are considered important precursors to psychobilly. Their 1979 album Songs the Lord Taught Us is considered influential to the formation of the psychobilly genre, about. com calls The Meteors the first true psychobilly band and notes their blend of the themes of horror, punk and rockabilly. They were the first band to use the term Psychobilly as a description of their music, formed in South London in 1980, they are considered the first verifiable psychobilly band. Their albums In Heaven and Wreckin Crew are recognized as landmarks of the years of the genre. Starting in the scene, the Meteors were quickly shunned for being too different. Excuses for exclusion from rockabilly concerts varied from the band having too extreme of a sound to their drummer having green hair, the Meteors blended elements of punk rock, rockabilly, and horror film themes in their music. Another commentator argues that The Misfits American Nightmare may have been the first psychobilly song, the Meteors also articulated psychobillys apolitical stance, a reaction to the right- and left-wing political attitudes which divided other British youth cultures. Fans of The Meteors, known as the Crazies, are attributed with inventing the style of slam dancing known as wrecking. The short-lived Sharks, formed in Bristol in 1980, followed closely behind The Meteors with their influential album Phantom Rockers, Demented Are Go are a Welsh psychobilly band that was formed around 1982 in Cardiff
7.
Bridge (instrument)
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Most stringed instruments produce their sound through the application of energy to the strings, which sets them into vibratory motion. The strings alone, however, produce only a faint sound because they displace only a volume of air as they vibrate. Consequently, the sound of the strings alone requires impedance matching to the air by transmitting their vibrations to a larger surface area capable of displacing larger volumes of air. This calls for an arrangement that allows for the strings to vibrate freely, a bridge is the customary means by which this is accomplished. Typically, the bridge is perpendicular to the strings and larger surface with the tension of the strings pressing down on the bridge and thus on the larger surface beneath it. That larger, more acoustically responsive surface may be coupled to a sound chamber—an enclosure such as the body of a guitar or violin—that provides resonance that helps amplify the sound, alternatively, a bridge may consist of multiple parts. One common form is a bridge that incorporates a separate bearing surface on which the strings rest and this is often of a material harder than the bridge itself, such as bone, ivory, high-density plastic, or metal. A classical guitar saddle sits loosely in the bridge and is kept there by string tension. The saddle has shallow grooves in it, at least for the treble strings, yet another type of multi-part bridge is common on instruments whose sound plate is curved rather than flat. Instruments of this type, such as guitars and mandolins, often have a bridge with a base. On classical and flat-top guitars the bridge is glued to the top, a bridge held on to the top by string tension, as in archtop guitars, is known as a floating bridge, and requires a separate tailpiece to anchor the strings. The bridge must transfer vibration to the board or other amplifying surface. As the strings are set in motion, it does this by bending to and this causes the sounding board to vibrate at the same frequency as the string producing a wave-like motion and an audible sound. Bridges are designed to hold the strings at a height above the fingerboard of the instrument. Bridge height may be fixed or alterable, in addition to supporting the strings and transmitting their vibrations, the bridge also controls the spacing between strings with shallow grooves cut in the bridge or its saddle. The strings sit in grooves, thus are held in their proper lateral position. The nut, at the end of the instrument from the bridge or tailpiece. Bridges for electric guitars can be divided into two groups, vibrato and non-vibrato
8.
F-hole
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A sound hole is an opening in the upper sound board of a stringed musical instrument. Bowed lyras have D-holes and mandolins may have F-holes, round or oval holes, a round or oval hole is usually a single one, under the strings. F-holes and D-holes are usually made in pairs placed symmetrically on both sides of the strings, most hollowbody and semi-hollow electric guitars also have F-holes. Though the purpose of sound holes is to help acoustic instruments project their sound more efficiently, in 2015 researchers at MIT published an analysis charting the evolution and improvements in effectiveness of violin F-hole design over time. Tacoma Guitars has developed a unique paisley soundhole placed on the side of the upper bout of their Wing Series guitars. This is a relatively low-stress area that requires less bracing to support the hole, a few hollowbody or semi-hollow electric guitars, such as the Fender Telecaster Thinline and the Gibson ES-120T, have one f-hole instead of two, usually on the bass side. Stringworks U - brief explanation of the effects of sound holes, with a closeup diagram of an F-shaped soundhole
9.
Tailpiece
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A tailpiece is a component on many stringed musical instruments that anchors one end of the strings, usually opposite the end with the tuning mechanism. The tailpiece anchors the strings, so it must be enough to withstand their combined tension. Tailpieces are made of many materials, violin tailpieces are typically of wood, usually ebony, rosewood, boxwood, or rarely pernambuco. Other materials include cast light metal, and composites including plastic, choice of material may have more than just cosmetic effect, a well-made instrument is sensitive to tailpiece weight, mass distribution, and tailgut placement on the saddle. Fretted string instrument tailpieces are typically made of metal, violin tailpieces come in various shapes. Some resemble a tulip or a goblet, the common Hill style has a central longitudinal ridge that gives it a faceted appearance. Some violin tailpieces feature decorative elements, as shell inlays or ornate stylized or figurative carvings, devices called fine-tuners are sometimes used to assist in the tuning of the instrument, they may either be affixed to the tailpiece or built into its design. Most modern violinists, regardless of other strings they use, play an E with a solid steel core. For convenience in tuning, the mass of a single fine tuner is a tolerable trade-off. Four fine tuners are advantageous when tuning a set of metal-core strings, some electric guitar tailpieces feature a vibrato bar, which a player uses to alter the pitch of all strings at once for various musical effects. A well-set-up instrument from the family will have attention paid to the tuning of the afterlength. On many instruments it is set to 1/6 the playing length and this tuning may be varied to give certain desired effects
10.
Stoptail bridge
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A stoptail bridge used on a solid body electric guitar or archtop guitar is a specialized kind of fixed hard-tail bridge. Hard-tail bridged guitars use different bridges from those fitted with vibrato systems. The stoptail bridge consists of two parts, a fixed bridge piece, such as a Tune-o-matic and a separate stopbar tailpiece. A stopbar tailpiece is, as the name implies, a formed metal piece commonly made of pot metal or zinc alloys although aluminum. Aluminum was also used in the examples of stoptail bridges from the 1950s. The stop part comes from the fact that the ends are held in place or they stop inside the bar. The bar is mounted on top of the body usually by means of sturdy threaded metal studs screwed into threaded sleeves embedded into the body of the guitar. The studs and stopbar are located behind the bridge piece. The stopbar can either simply slip onto notches on top of the studs, one danger to be aware of is that the stopbar can fall out of the notches when changing strings and put a ding in the guitars finish. When it is held in place using the screws, it is referred to as a locking stopbar. In these designs, the Tune-o-matic bridge section is also usually fastened to its embedded studs by set screws and this fastening of the key components in a stoptail bridge system is claimed to impart more sustain and tone to the guitars sound. The stopbar has holes drilled into it that allow the strings to be threaded from the rear. The string path then goes over the saddles and the string nut to the machine heads located on the headstock. The stopbar tailpiece is meant to be adjusted for string tension, the threaded posts can be lowered or raised to increase or relieve the string tension at pitch. This is an important adjustment especially when changing the gauge of the set on the guitar. Some players prefer to tighten the stopbar all the way down in an attempt to increase sustain and this requires a different stringing technique. Some players, like Duane Allman, deviate from the norm and this is when the direction of the string path is reversed so that the strings are threaded through the leading edge of the stopbar then come out the rear and wrapped over the top of the stop bar. The advantage is that strings are supposedly easier to bend because of the string break angle
11.
Bigsby vibrato tailpiece
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The Bigsby vibrato tailpiece is a type of mechanical vibrato device for electric guitar designed by Paul A. Bigsby. The device allows musicians to bend the pitch of notes or entire chords with their hand for various effects. The origin of this usage of the term by electric guitarists is attributed to Leo Fender. The Bigsby vibrato unit is installed on the top of the guitar, the arm of the Bigsby is spring-loaded and attached to a pivoting metal bar, around which the strings of the guitar are installed. In the neutral or unused position, the pressure of the spring counterbalances the pull of the strings, when the arm of the Bigsby is pushed down towards the top of the guitar, the bridge rocks forward causing the strings to loosen, lowering their pitch. When the arm is released, the return to normal pitch. The arm may also be lifted to raise the pitch of the strings, the Bigsby is highly controllable within its range of motion and usually requires little force to operate. It is ideally suited to musicians who use slow, subtle and it has limited range compared to vibrato units using longer springs contained internally. Competing units, like the Floyd Rose and the Fender synchronized tremolo are therefore preferred by some players, many electric guitars can also be retrofitted with a Bigsby, which requires no additional routing, but may require additional holes to be drilled. Adapters, such as the models sold by Vibramate, can be used to install a Bigsby Vibrato on a guitar without drilling any holes, variations in guitars, such as between flat top and archtop, require different models of Bigsby. Bigsby units ship with their own bridges, though these are often discarded in favor of more adjustable alternatives such as the Tune-o-matic style bridge or Jazzmaster style bridge. Vibrato systems for guitar#Bigsby Tailed bridge guitar Bigsby guitars, who produce the Bigsby vibrato tailpiece
12.
Orville Gibson
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Orville H. Gibson was a luthier who founded the Gibson Guitar Company in Kalamazoo, Michigan in 1896, makers of guitars, mandolins and other instruments. He was born in Chateaugay, New York, Gibson began in 1894 in his home workshop in Kalamazoo, Michigan. With no formal training, Gibson created a new style of mandolin and guitar, with tops carved rather than bent. He applied for and was granted a patent on the design, more importantly, they were louder and more durable than contemporary fretted instruments, and musicians soon demanded more than he was able to build in his one-man shop. On the strength of Gibsons ideas, five Kalamazoo businessmen formed the Gibson Mandolin-Guitar Mfg. Co. Ltd. in 1902. Within a short period after the company was started, the board passed a motion that Orville H. Gibson be paid only for the time he works for the Company. After that time, there is no indication whether he worked there full-time. Julius Bellson states in his 1973 publication, The Gibson Story, starting in 1908, Gibson was paid a salary of $500 by Gibson Mandolin-Guitar Manufacturing Co. He had a number of stays in hospitals between 1907 and 1911, in 1916, he was again hospitalized, and died on August 19,1918, at 62 years of age, in St. Lawrence State Hospital in Ogdensburg, New York. Gibson is buried at Morningside Cemetery in Malone, New York, luthiers Gibson Guitar Corporation Archtop guitar Extensive pictures of historical gibson instruments and history The earliest known Orville Gibson guitar The last known Orville Gibson mandolin
13.
Mandolin
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A mandolin is a musical instrument in the lute family and is usually plucked with a plectrum or pick. It commonly has four courses of doubled metal strings tuned in unison, although five, the courses are normally tuned in a succession of perfect fifths. It is the member of a family that includes the mandola, octave mandolin, mandocello. There are many styles of mandolin, but three are common, the Neapolitan or round-backed mandolin, the mandolin and the flat-backed mandolin. The round-back has a bottom, constructed of strips of wood. The carved-top or arch-top mandolin has a shallower, arched back. The flat-backed mandolin uses thin sheets of wood for the body, each style of instrument has its own sound quality and is associated with particular forms of music. Neapolitan mandolins feature prominently in European classical music and traditional music, carved-top instruments are common in American folk music and bluegrass music. Flat-backed instruments are used in Irish, British and Brazilian folk music. Some modern Brazilian instruments feature a fifth course tuned a fifth lower than the standard fourth course. There has also been a type and an instrument with sixteen-strings. Much of mandolin development revolved around the soundboard, pre-mandolin instruments were quiet instruments, strung with as many as six courses of gut strings, and were plucked with the fingers or with a quill. However, modern instruments are louder—using four courses of metal strings, the modern soundboard is designed to withstand the pressure of metal strings that would break earlier instruments. The soundboard comes in many shapes—but generally round or teardrop-shaped, sometimes with scrolls or other projections, there is usually one or more sound holes in the soundboard, either round, oval, or shaped like a calligraphic f. A round or oval sound hole may be covered or bordered with decorative rosettes or purfling, Mandolins evolved from the lute family in Italy during the 17th and 18th centuries, and the deep bowled mandolin, produced particularly in Naples, became common in the 19th century. Dating to around c.13,000 BC, a painting in the Trois Frères cave in France depicts what some believe is a musical bow. From the musical bow, families of stringed instruments developed, since each string played a note, adding strings added new notes, creating bow harps, harps. In turn, this led to being able to play dyads and chords, another innovation occurred when the bow harp was straightened out and a bridge used to lift the strings off the stick-neck, creating the lute
14.
Parlor guitar
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Parlor or parlour guitar usually refers to a type of acoustic guitar smaller than a Size No.0 Concert Guitar by C. F. Martin & Company. The popularity of these guitars peaked from the late 19th century until the 1950s, many blues and folk musicians have used smaller-bodied guitars, which were often more affordable, mass production models. Parlor guitar has come to denote a style of American guitar music from the 19th. Noted composers include William Foden, Winslow Hayden, William Bateman, Justin Holland, the Scruggs style and its banjo rolls are based upon and contemporary with parlor-style guitar. Historical guitars smaller than Size No.0 In the 2000s, the guitar is enjoying a renaissance among players who like their midrangery tone, historic vibe. Modern luthiers are making parlor guitars in a variety of tonewoods. Takamine Guitars produces one made of cedar and koa, with a preamp powered by a 12AU7, fylde Guitars produces the Single Malt Ariel constructed from used whisky casks. F. Martin & Company — Martin defined the larger Size No.0 as Concert Guitar, in contrast to the smaller, Media related to Parlor guitar at Wikimedia Commons Media related to Parlor size guitars at Wikimedia Commons
15.
Stella (guitar)
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Stella was an American guitar brand owned by the Oscar Schmidt Company. The Stella brand consists of low and mid-level stringed instruments, Stella guitars were played by notable artists, including Robert Johnson, Lead Belly, Charlie Patton, Doc Watson and Willie Nelson who learned to play on one. Kurt Cobain of Nirvana played an acoustic Stella on the recording of the song Polly, from the Nevermind album, Stella was acquired by the Harmony Company in 1939. The brand was dissolved in 1974, and was reintroduced by M. B. T. International, which is the parent of the Harmony Company. Stella was one of musical instrument brands made in Jersey City, New Jersey. Other Schmidt brands included Sovereign and La Scala, the company produced low and mid-level stringed instruments such as guitars, mandolins, banjos and autoharps. The company thrived during the first quarter of the 20th century, in 1920, the company was said to be the worlds largest manufacturer of stringed instruments. Stella instruments were noted for their tone and relatively low price. Top of the line Stella and Sovereign guitars cost a fraction of the lowest end Gibson or C. F. Martin instruments, after struggling through the Great Depression, the company sold their fretted instrument division in the late 1930s, but continued to make autoharps. Schmidts Stella, Sovereign and La Scala brands were acquired by the Harmony Company of Chicago, Harmony went on to produce student grade Stella instruments, as well as mid-level Sovereign guitars and banjos
16.
Harmony Company
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The Harmony Company was an American company that, in its heyday, was the largest musical instrument manufacturer in the USA. They made many types of stringed instruments, including ukuleles, acoustic and electric guitars, Harmony was founded in 1892 by Wilhelm Schultz. In 1916, Sears, Roebuck and Co. purchased it, at the time Harmony was led by Joe Kraus, who was chairman until 1940. In 1928, Harmony introduced the first of many Roy Smeck models and they sold 250,000 pieces in 1923 and 500,000 in 1930, including various models of guitars, banjos, and mandolins. In the late 1930s, the firm began making violins again after a 19-year hiatus and they also bought brand names from the bankrupt Oscar Schmidt Co. —La Scala, Stella, and Sovereign. They sold not only Harmony products, but instruments under the Sears name, Silvertone, and a variety of trade names—Vogue, Valencia, Johnny Marvin, Monterey, Stella, and others. In 1940, after Kraus had a conflict management, he left. The company peaked in 1964-1965, selling 350,000 instruments, between 1945 and 1975, the Chicago firm mass-produced about ten million guitars. The company reduced their output over the years, later focusing on student models sold through JCPenney, the pickups on almost all electric guitars and basses that Harmony produced were manufactured by Rowe Industries Inc. /H. N. Rowe & Company/Rowe DeArmond Inc. /DeArmond In. in Toledo, many of the instrument amplifiers badged with the Harmony name were manufactured by Sound Projects Company of Cicero, Illinois. The Harmony Guitar Company ceased in 1975, and sold the Harmony name, in the early 2000s, an unrelated company, the Westheimer Corp. based in Lake Barrington, Illinois briefly imported reissue Harmony guitars. Harmony Company models Oscar Schmidt Inc, related brands Stella Silvertone Airline Harmony Westheimer Guitars Company Website Harmony at National Music Museum
17.
Gibson L-5
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The Gibson L-5 guitar was first produced in 1922 by the Gibson Guitar Corporation, then of Kalamazoo, Michigan, under the direction of master luthier Lloyd Loar, and has been in production ever since. It was considered the guitar of the company during the big band era. It was originally offered as an instrument, with electric models not made available until the 1940s. Worldwide, the L-5 was the first guitar to feature f-holes, then as well as today, the construction of the L-5 is similar in construction, carving, bracing and tap-tuning, to building a cello. This guitar as well as the cello are similarly designed in order to amplify and project the acoustic vibration of strings throughout carved and tuned woods, from 1922 to 1934 the L-5 was produced with a 16 lower bout width. In 1934 the lower bout was increased to 17 - and this width is used today. Also released in 1934 was the one-inch larger 18 archtop guitar named the L5 Super which in a couple years was renamed the Super 400 and these two master-built acoustic guitars are Gibsons top-of-the-line carved wood and highly ornate archtop instruments. These guitars cannot be constructed quickly, nor can corners be cut, the time, skilled workmanship and materials used in these builds has been delivered non-stop for the past 90+ years. Today the standard model of the L-5 is a version designed for less feedback when amplified. From time to there are variations of the L-5 built. One fine example of an L-5 variation is the thin-bodied L-5 CT which has the same specifications except for body thickness. The CT model was first constructed for performer George Gobel, another variation of the L-5 is the Wes Montgomery Model. Wes Montgomery was a major guitarist highly associated with the L-5, the Wes Montgomery model has a single Classic 57 pickup in the neck position as well as an X-brace supporting the top - as per earlier braces in the acoustic version. These features Montgomery felt helped achieve the warm guitar voice for which he loved this guitar model, another variation of the L-5 is the 1955 Gibson ByrdLand model. The Byrdland guitar has a thin L-5-style body with a neck on older models. The L-5 has for generations been seen in the hands of many performers. Much of the RCA fifties recordings of Elvis Presley feature the sound of Scotty Moores L-5, Nashville session guitarist Hank Garland, who also recorded acclaimed jazz albums before his near-fatal automobile accident, frequently played an L-5. A little known fact - the L-5 is the guitar that Groucho Marx kept by his side throughout his private life, though not widely known, Marx played the guitar well
18.
Gibson ES-150
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The Gibson Guitar Corporations ES-150 guitar is generally recognized as the worlds first commercially successful Spanish-style electric guitar. The ES stands for Electric Spanish, and it was designated 150 because it was priced at around $150, after its introduction in 1936, it immediately became popular in jazz orchestras of the period. Unlike the usual acoustic guitars utilized in jazz, it was enough to take a more prominent position in ensembles. The guitar was produced with minor variations until 1940, when the ES-150 designation denoted a model with a different construction, the ES-150 was developed and released in association with two US retailers, Montgomery Ward and Spiegel. It was preceded by Gibson adding ancillary piezo pickups to its regular acoustic guitars and these electrified guitars proved so successful that soon two retailers, Montgomery Ward and Spiegel May Stern, suggested in summer 1936 that Gibson build the ES model. Montgomery Ward was the first to them for sale, as the 1270 model. It had Gibsons bar pickup, and a control, like Spiegels 34-S model it lacked any Gibson identification. Spiegel received 42 of these instruments between January and August 1937 before it cut them from the catalog, the contract with Montgomery Ward ran until 1940, an estimated 900 instruments with the 1270 designation were made. The first guitar was shipped to Baileys House of Music on November 20,1936, the instrument sold for $155 including cord, six-tube amplifier, and case. In 1937, the peak year, an average of forty guitars a month were shipped. In early 1937 Gibson also began shipping two other versions, a guitar and a plectrum version. Early players were Eddie Durham, Floyd Smith and, the most famous of them, Charlie Christian and his joining the Benny Goodman Sextet in August 1939 gave it a near-mythical status. Gibson introduced a version in August 1938, the ES-100, and a more upscale version. By 1940 sales had slumped, and Gibsons facelift for the model included new pickups, made with the new Alnico magnets, the new pickups were installed on all of Gibsons electric models, being first introduced in July 1940. On the ES-150, this pickup was placed closer to the bridge, still, Gibson installed bar-style pickups on request, on the models for Hank Garland, Barry Galbraith, and Barney Kessel. It reintroduced the bar pickup for the audience in 1958 for an extra $60, it was announced with the question. In the late 1960s, Gibson introduced the ES-150DC, which was a different instrument. The ES-150DC was an electric guitar with a double-cutaway body similar in appearance to the semi-hollow 335 guitars
19.
John D'Angelico
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John D’Angelico was a luthier from New York City, noted for his handmade archtop guitars and mandolins. John D’Angelico was born in 1905 in New York to an Italian-American family, and was apprenticed in 1914 to his great-uncle, Raphael Ciani, who made violins, mandolins, DAngelico took over as supervisor of Ciani’s shop when he died. In 1932, he working on his own designs in his own workshop in New York. By 1937, D’Angelico had settled on at least four main f-hole archtop guitar designs, heavily influenced by the Gibson L-5, Excel –17 inch body New Yorker –18 inch body. Through at least the late 1930s, D’Angelico’s guitar necks had non-adjustable steel reinforcement, later models had functional truss rods. By the late 40s, DAngelico was building only the Excel, all New Yorker models featured pearl inlays in the headstock and fingerboards, as well as quadruple bindings. All of D’Angelico’s guitars were hand-built, and many were customized for specific people, D’Angelico’s shop rarely made more than 30 guitars per year. In all, it is estimated that he built 1,164 guitars, D’Angelico also built a few round-hole archtops, and a few mandolins. Original DAngelico guitars are identified by a serial number punched inside the bass f-hole—the serial numbers ranging from 1001 to 2164, D’Angelico suffered a series of heart attacks starting in 1959, and also suffered from pneumonia. He died at age 59 in 1964, the DAngelico Guitars brand has continued under other owners. Some of DAngelicos employees went on to become craftsmen in their own right, among them were Jimmy Di Serio, who worked for DAngelico from 1932-1959, and Jimmy DAquisto, who worked for DAngelico in the last few years of his life. In 1952, he hired DAquisto as an apprentice, who would buy the business from the DAngelico family. DAngelico and DAquisto are generally regarded as the two greatest archtop guitar makers of the 20th century, in 2011, works by DAngelico and DAquisto were included in the Guitar Heroes exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. Archtop guitar Jimmy DAquisto Ralph Patt Peterson, Jonathon, tuning in thirds, A new approach to playing leads to a new kind of guitar. American Lutherie, The Quarterly Journal of the Guild of American Luthiers,8222 South Park Avenue, Tacoma WA98408, USA
20.
Jimmy D'Aquisto
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James L. DAquisto was an Italian American guitar maker. He served as an apprentice to John DAngelico from 1952 and was considered his successor after the death in 1964. James D’Aquisto, born November 9,1935 was trained by, Jimmy said “I was making $35 a week. I was like the runner, I’d go to the stores, pick up the tuners, go get the tailpieces from downtown, take the necks to the engraver, I cleaned the windows, swept the floors, everything – we all did that. On Friday we put away the tools and cleaned the shop so when Monday came the place would be spotless. ”Later, James learned the “rough work” of the D’Angelico building style. By around 1960, John’s health was failing and Jimmy was asked to do more and more of the work, and, finally. John died on September 1,1964 at age 59, Jimmy continued the business of building guitars, under his own name. In 1966 he moved to Huntington, Long Island and in 1973 moved to Farmingdale, in 1980 he made his final move to Greenport, Long Island. His guitars are considered without peer, Jimmy D’Aquisto was always felt that he might die at the same age as his mentor, at age 59. In fact, he died Tuesday, April 17,1995 at the age of 59, and the first to be worth a million dollars. In 2006, James L. DAquisto was a inductee to the Long Island Music Hall of Fame and his tools and work bench — passed down to him from DAngelico — are on display at the National Music Museum. DAquisto flat top guitars are a group of 16 guitars made by Jimmy DAquisto and his flat tops are unique and carry a bracing design entirely of his own devising. He made 16 flat top guitars from 1973 to his last in early 1984 and he made two types, a grand auditorium and a dreadnought. In general, they were deep guitars with an oval sound hole. He believed the sound hole produced greater projection than the typical round sound hole. They have a strong bass boom and the midrange and clarity expected from a DAquisto, overall, their tonal structure is well-balanced and very suitable for recording. Of course, each of his instruments were built and variations were common. A customer would be given names and phone numbers of then current owners so the owner could play existing guitars
21.
Gretsch
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Gretsch is an American company that manufactures guitars, basses and drums. The company was founded in 1883 by Friedrich Gretsch, a 27-year-old German immigrant, Friedrich Gretsch manufactured banjos, tambourines, and drums until his death in 1895. In 1916, his son, Fred Gretsch Sr. moved operations to Brooklyn, most modern-era Gretsch guitars are manufactured in the Far East, though American-made Custom Shop models are available. In 2003, Gretsch entered an agreement with Fender Musical Instruments Corporation. Under the terms of that agreement Fred W. Gretsch would retain ownership while FMIC would handle most of the development, distribution, Gretsch was founded in 1883 by Friedrich Gretsch, a young German immigrant. His Brooklyn shop was designed for the manufacture of banjos, tambourines, in 1895, Gretsch died at the age of 39, and the then successful company was taken over by his son Fred Sr. By 1916, Fred had moved the company into a larger 10-story building in the Williamsburg district, chuck Berry also played the Duo Jet when he recorded his first major hit, Maybellene and is pictured on his LP After School Session. Two other models were introduced - the Country Club, and the White Falcon, Guitar production by the Gretsch Company began in the early 1930s, and Gretsch guitars became highly sought after, most notably in the 1950s and 1960s. They lost favor with players during the 1970s and 1980s for various reasons, Gretsch eventually went bankrupt, then was revived in 1989 by Fred W. Gretsch, a great-grandson of Friedrich Gretsch. Fred W. Gretsch remains president of the company, during this time, Chet Atkins became an endorser of Gretsch. Atkins was one of the pre-eminent guitarists of his day, and his endorsement gave Gretsch greater visibility in competition with Gibson and Fender. Gretsch ultimately sold thousands of guitars with Chets name on the pickguard, most notably the 6120 Chet Atkins model, the worldwide success of Eddys twangy instrumental records, television appearances, and extensive touring, helped expose the Gretsch guitar to the teenage rock and roll market. George Harrison, years later, would refer to model as the Eddie Cochran/Duane Eddy guitar. Other Chet Atkins models were the Country Gentleman and the Tennessean, many rockabilly players had followed in the footsteps of Eddie Cochran, who also wielded a 6120 and Gene Vincents guitarist Cliff Gallup, who played a Duo Jet. Elvis Presley later owned a Gretsch Country Gentleman—, playing it briefly both on stage and in the studio, Gretsch quickly became a legitimate competitor to both Gibson and its main rivals, Fender and Rickenbacker. Gretsch fortunes rose yet again in the sixties when George Harrison played a Gretsch Country Gentleman on The Ed Sullivan Show. Despite popular belief, he acquired two Country Gentleman guitars, his first was destroyed when it fell out of the trunk of a car on the roadway. He would later switch to a Gretsch Tennessean and his Country Gentleman made its last appearance in the video of Youre Going to Lose That Girl in the movie Help
22.
Epiphone
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Epiphone is an American musical instrument manufacturer founded by Anastasios Stathopoulos, currently based in Nashville, Tennessee. In 1957 Epiphone, Inc. of New York was purchased by CMI and given the name Epiphone, Inc. of Kalamazoo, CMI took great measures to keep Gibson and Epiphone separate in different buildings each with its own management team. Epiphone is owned by Gibson Guitar Corporation and was Gibsons main rival in the market prior to its acquisition in 1957. Their professional archtops, including the Emperor, Deluxe, Broadway and Triumph, aside from guitars, Epiphone also made upright basses, banjos, and other stringed instruments. However, the weakness in the aftermath of World War II allowed Gibsons parent, CMI. The name Epiphone is a combination of proprietor Epaminondas Stathopoulos nickname Epi, Epiphone began in 1873, in Smyrna, Ottoman Empire, where Greek founder Anastasios Stathopoulos made his own fiddles and lutes. Stathopoulo moved to the United States in 1903 and continued to make his original instruments, as well as mandolins, from Long Island City in Queens, Anastasios died in 1915, and his son, Epaminondas, took over. After two years, the became known as The House Of Stathopoulo. Just after the end of World War I, the company started to make banjos, the company produced its recording line of banjos in 1924 and, four years later, took on the name of the Epiphone Banjo Company. It produced its first guitars in 1928, after Epi died in 1943, control of the company went to his brothers, Orphie and Frixo. In 1951, a four-month-long strike forced a relocation of Epiphone from New York City to Philadelphia, in 1957 the company was acquired by CMI who also owned Gibson, Lowrey, Selmer and others, Gibson. After Epiphone became a subsidiary of Norlin, many of its instruments were later patterned after the more expensive Gibson versions, however, Epiphone also maintains its own line of archtop guitars and basses. As of January,2013, Epiphone makes the following guitars and this outfit was an amplifier, case and lap steel guitar stand all rolled into one unit and was supplied by a suitcase manufacturer of the time. Gibson produced Epiphone amplifiers in the 1960s and these were basically copies or variations of Gibson and Fender amplifiers. They used a design, and some had reverb and tremolo. Gibson decided to launch a new line of Epiphone amplifiers in 2005 with many different models, including the So Cal, Blues Custom, the Valve Hot Rod and Valve Senior were released in 2009. The Valve Hot Rod is a 5 watt amp like the Valve Junior, the Valve Senior offers 20 watts of power, with a full equalizer, gain, volume, reverb, and presence control. As of 2012, Epiphone has ceased production of their line of amplifiers with the exception of the Player and Performance Pack practice amplifiers and these Amplifiers are under the Epiphone Electar moniker
23.
Framus
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Framus is a German string instrument manufacturing company, that existed from 1946 until going bankrupt in 1975. The Framus brand was revived in 1995 as part of Warwick GmbH & Co Music Equipment KG in Markneukirchen and their headquarters and custom shops are located in Markneukirchen, Shanghai, New York City, and Nashville. 1946, The foundation of Franconian Musical Instruments by Fred A. Wilfer KG in Erlangen,1954, A larger factory is built in Bubenreuth, Germany to house the 300-strong workforce. 1967, Further expansion sees the building of a facility in Pretzfeld. 1975, The rapidly changing market forces the company into bankruptcy,1995, Framus musical instruments enter into production under Warwick GmbH & Co Music Equipment KG. Framus originated in the town of Schönbach, today called Luby u Chebu in the area of Eger, the city at the foot of the Erzgebirge was shaped by the music. Violins and other string instruments have been manufactured and exported from Schönbach worldwide, there, in the Bohemian area, the founder of Framus, Fred Wilfer was born in 1917. Even before the first train was going to transport violin makers from Schönbach to other areas, Fred Wilfer contacted different government authorities in Bavaria, the Bavarian government welcomed his plans and asked him to create all conditions needed for the settlement to Bavaria. In 1946 he founded the FRAMUS works, the name being an acronym of FRAnconian MUSical instruments and designed to draw attention to the fact that the celebrated violin makers of Schönbach had made Franconia their new home. When the first train transporting violin makers from Schönbach arrived in Erlangen he was the man in charge to find housing for them and he also made arrangements for the establishment of the first workshops. In March 1946 the first group of Schönbach violin makers arrived in Erlangen, with Fred Wilfer, a factory was set up in a former wheel warehouse in Möhrendorf in autumn 1946. At the end of 1948 the factory was moved to a brewery in the nearby town of Baiersdorf. Soon, even this large space proved inadequate, in late 1949 Bubenreuth became the center of settlement for the Schönbach violin makers. There, Wilfer began building one of the most modern factories of the time, with 2200 square meters of space at their disposal, they were soon producing more than 2000 instruments in a month. The guitar - particularly the electric guitar - became the new bestseller, sales increased enormously due to the popularity of rock and roll music at the end of the 1950s. Because of this development, several advances were introduced. Framus became the largest guitar producer in Europe, employing around 300 workers by the late 1960s, in the 50s Paul McCartney owned a model of a Framus Ivor Mairants Zenith guitar. He had originally given a trumpet for his 14th birthday in 1956
24.
Jazz
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Jazz is a music genre that originated amongst African Americans in New Orleans, United States, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and developed from roots in Blues and Ragtime. Since the 1920s jazz age, jazz has become recognized as a form of musical expression. Jazz is characterized by swing and blue notes, call and response vocals, polyrhythms, Jazz has roots in West African cultural and musical expression, and in African-American music traditions including blues and ragtime, as well as European military band music. Although the foundation of jazz is deeply rooted within the Black experience of the United States, different cultures have contributed their own experience, intellectuals around the world have hailed jazz as one of Americas original art forms. As jazz spread around the world, it drew on different national, regional, and local musical cultures, New Orleans jazz began in the early 1910s, combining earlier brass-band marches, French quadrilles, biguine, ragtime and blues with collective polyphonic improvisation. In the 1930s, heavily arranged dance-oriented swing big bands, Kansas City jazz, bebop emerged in the 1940s, shifting jazz from danceable popular music toward a more challenging musicians music which was played at faster tempos and used more chord-based improvisation. Cool jazz developed in the end of the 1940s, introducing calmer, smoother sounds and long, modal jazz developed in the late 1950s, using the mode, or musical scale, as the basis of musical structure and improvisation. Jazz-rock fusion appeared in the late 1960s and early 1970s, combining jazz improvisation with rock rhythms, electric instruments. In the early 1980s, a form of jazz fusion called smooth jazz became successful. Other styles and genres abound in the 2000s, such as Latin, the question of the origin of the word jazz has resulted in considerable research, and its history is well documented. It is believed to be related to jasm, a term dating back to 1860 meaning pep. The use of the word in a context was documented as early as 1915 in the Chicago Daily Tribune. Its first documented use in a context in New Orleans was in a November 14,1916 Times-Picayune article about jas bands. In an interview with NPR, musician Eubie Blake offered his recollections of the slang connotations of the term, saying, When Broadway picked it up. That was dirty, and if you knew what it was, the American Dialect Society named it the Word of the Twentieth Century. Jazz has proved to be difficult to define, since it encompasses such a wide range of music spanning a period of over 100 years. Attempts have been made to define jazz from the perspective of other musical traditions, in the opinion of Robert Christgau, most of us would say that inventing meaning while letting loose is the essence and promise of jazz. As Duke Ellington, one of jazzs most famous figures, said, although jazz is considered highly difficult to define, at least in part because it contains so many varied subgenres, improvisation is consistently regarded as being one of its key elements
25.
Country music
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Country music is a genre of United States popular music that originated in the southern United States in the 1920s. It takes its roots from the genre of United States, such as folk music. Blues modes have been used throughout its recorded history. The term country music is used today to many styles and subgenres. In 2009 country music was the most listened to rush hour radio genre during the evening commute, immigrants to the Southern Appalachian Mountains of North America brought the music and instruments of Europe and Africa along with them for nearly 300 years. Country music was introduced to the world as a Southern phenomenon, Bristol, Tennessee, has been formally recognized by the U. S. Congress as the Birthplace of Country Music, based on the historic Bristol recording sessions of 1927. Since 2014, the city has been home to the Birthplace of Country Music Museum, historians have also noted the influence of the less-known Johnson City sessions of 1928 and 1929, and the Knoxville sessions of 1929 and 1930. Prior to these, pioneer settlers, in the Great Smoky Mountains region, had developed a musical heritage. The first generation emerged in the early 1920s, with Atlantas music scene playing a role in launching countrys earliest recording artists. Okeh Records began issuing hillbilly music records by Fiddlin John Carson as early as 1923, followed by Columbia Records in 1924, many hillbilly musicians, such as Cliff Carlisle, recorded blues songs throughout the 1920s. The most important was the Grand Ole Opry, aired starting in 1925 by WSM in Nashville, during the 1930s and 1940s, cowboy songs, or Western music, which had been recorded since the 1920s, were popularized by films made in Hollywood. Bob Wills was another musician from the Lower Great Plains who had become very popular as the leader of a hot string band. His mix of country and jazz, which started out as dance hall music, Wills was one of the first country musicians known to have added an electric guitar to his band, in 1938. Country musicians began recording boogie in 1939, shortly after it had played at Carnegie Hall. Gospel music remained a component of country music. It became known as honky tonk, and had its roots in Western swing and the music of Mexico. By the early 1950s a blend of Western swing, country boogie, rockabilly was most popular with country fans in the 1950s, and 1956 could be called the year of rockabilly in country music. Beginning in the mid-1950s, and reaching its peak during the early 1960s, the late 1960s in American music produced a unique blend as a result of traditionalist backlash within separate genres
26.
Big band
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A big band is a type of musical ensemble associated with playing jazz music and which became popular during the Swing Era from the early 1930s until the late 1940s. Big Bands evolved with the times and continue to this day, a big band typically consists of approximately 12 to 25 musicians and contains saxophones, trumpets, trombones, and a rhythm section. The terms jazz band, jazz ensemble, stage band, jazz orchestra and this does not, however, mean that each one of these names is technically correct for naming a big band specifically. The music is traditionally called charts, improvised solos may be played only when called for by the arranger. There are two periods in the history of popular bands. Beginning in the mid-1920s, big bands, then consisting of 10–25 pieces. At that time they played a form of jazz that involved very little improvisation, which included a string section with violins. A few bands also had violas and cellos, usually one or two along with them, the dance form of jazz was characterized by a sweet and romantic melody. Orchestras tended to stick to the melody as it was written and vocals would be sung, many of these artists changed styles or retired after the introduction of swing music. Although unashamedly commercial, these bands often featured front-rank jazz musicians - for example Paul Whiteman employed Bix Beiderbecke, there were also all-girl bands such as Helen Lewis and Her All-Girl Jazz Syncopators. Towards the end of the 1920s, a new form of Big Band emerged which was more authentically jazz and this form of music never gained the popularity of the sweet dance form of jazz. The few recordings made in form of jazz were labelled race records and were intended for a limited urban audience. Few white musicians were familiar with music, Johnny Mercer. The three major centres in this development were New York City, Chicago and Kansas City, some big ensembles, like the Joe King Oliver outfit played a kind of half arranged, half improvised jazz, often relying on head arrangements. Other great bands, like the one of Luis Russell became a vehicle for star instrumentalists, there the whole arrangement had to promote all the possibilities of the star, although they often contained very good musicians, like Henry Red Allen, J. C. Earl Hines became the star of Chicago with his Grand Terrace Cafe band, meanwhile, in Kansas City and across the Southwest, an earthier, bluesier style was developed by such bandleaders as Benny Moten and, later, by Jay McShann and Jesse Stone. Radio was a factor in gaining notice and fame for Benny Goodman. Soon, others challenged him, and the battles of the bands became a staple at theater performances featuring many groups on one bill
27.
Swing music
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Swing music, or simply swing, is a form of American music that dominated in the 1930s and 1940s. The name swing came from the swing feel where the emphasis is on the off–beat or weaker pulse in the music, Swing bands usually featured soloists who would improvise on the melody over the arrangement. The danceable swing style of big bands and bandleaders such as Benny Goodman was the dominant form of American popular music from 1935 to 1946, the verb to swing is also used as a term of praise for playing that has a strong groove or drive. Notable musicians of the era include Louis Armstrong, Cab Calloway, Benny Goodman, Duke Ellington, Glenn Miller, Count Basie, Woody Herman. Swing has roots in the late 1920s as larger ensembles began using written arrangements, a typical song played in swing style would feature a strong, anchoring rhythm section in support of more loosely tied wind and brass. The most common style consisted of having a soloist take center stage, Swing music began to decline in popularity during World War II because of several factors. By the late 1940s, swing had morphed into traditional pop music, or evolved into new styles such as jump blues, Swing music saw a revival in the late 1950s and 1960s with pop vocalists such as Frank Sinatra, Nat King Cole, and Ella Fitzgerald. Swing blended with other genres to create new styles, in country music, artists such as Jimmie Rodgers, Moon Mullican and Bob Wills introduced many elements of swing along with blues to create a genre called western swing. Gypsy swing is an outgrowth of Venuti and Langs jazz violin swing, in the 1970s, and 1980s, fans of big band music attended swing music performances at supper clubs. In the late-1980s a trendier, more urban-styled swing-beat emerged called new jack swing, in the late 1990s and into the 2000s there was a swing revival, led by Squirrel Nut Zippers, Brian Setzer, Big Bad Voodoo Daddy, and Lavay Smith. In Canada, some of the early 2000s records by The JW-Jones Blues Band included swing revival elements, the 1920s saw parallel trends in jazz and popular music that would later converge into the swing style. New Orleans style jazz was based on a meter and contrapuntal improvisation led by a trumpet or cornet, typically followed by a clarinet. The rhythm section consisted of a tuba and drums, and sometimes a banjo, by the early 1920s guitars and pianos sometimes substituted for the banjo and a string bass sometimes substituted for the tuba. Further innovations in small ensemble playing led to development of the Chicago style identified with Louis Armstrong, a stint with the Fletcher Henderson Orchestra familiarized him with arranged ensemble playing that differed from the New Orleans style, in which saxophones became the dominant sound among the reeds. Armstrong brought those back to his smaller ensembles, the soloist played over an ensemble relegated to a supporting role in the background. The string bass also lent itself to playing in a 4/4 rhythm rather than the 2/4 rhythm dictated by the tuba. The new format gave the soloist the opportunity to play with more rhythmic freedom, but playing with swing remained the province of the soloist, not the ensemble. The late 1920s saw increasingly sophisticated arrangements used by bigger ensembles, some arrangements used call-response between horn sections to build the melody
28.
Gibson ES Series
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The Gibson ES series of semi-acoustic guitar are manufactured by the Gibson Guitar Corporation. The letters ES stand for Electric Spanish, to them from Hawaiian-style guitars which were played flat on the lap. ES-5 Three-pickup, full depth hollowbody, eS-5 Switchmaster ES-100 Entry-level archtop hollow-body model. ES-120T Most basic student model, thinline, eS-130 ES-135 Thick-body version of ES-125TDC. ES-137 Upscaled ES-135 with Les Paul sound, eS-140 3/4 size, short scale ES-175. ES-150 Gibsons first electric guitar, based on L-50, EST-150 and EPG-150 were shipped. ES-165 Single pickup ES-175 based on Herb Elliss, ES-175 Full depth, florentine cutaway, maple top,24 3/4 scale. ES-175D ES-175T ES-225T Variation on ES-125T, with trapeze bridge, eS-250 Rare, fancier version of ES-150. ES-260 Resembling ES-125T/ES-225T, but semi-hollow with center block, stop tailpiece, knob placement differed slightly from other ES-series. ES-295 ES-175 resembling Les Paul Goldtop with trapeze bridge, eS-320TD Similar to ES-330TD but with tune-o-matic and metal control plate. ES-325 Similar to ES-330TD but with mini-humbuckers, single f-hole, ES-330TD Double rounded cutaway, thinline hollow-body. ES-333 Stripped down version of ES-335, ES-335 Worlds first thinline archtop semi-acoustic. ES-335 Bass ES-336 Replaced by CS-336, ES-339 Size of CS-336 with construction of ES-335. ES-340TD ES-335 with a master volume/mixer and phase switch, ES-345 ES-335 construction, but with parallelogram inlays, Varitone, and stereo outputs. ES-347 Alternate ES-345 with a switch instead of Varitone. ES-355 Upscaled ES-345 with vibrato unit, optional Varitone and stereo outputs, eS-369 ES-390 Similar in size to the ES-339, but with the fully hollow construction of ES-330. Equipped with mini humbuckers or dog-ear P90s, eS-775 ES-175 with higher quality components. ES Artist Upscale model of ES-335 without f-holes, with active circuit by Moog, signatured models Byrdland Thinline, short-scale L-5 CES, named after Billy Byrd and Hank Garland
29.
Instrument amplifier
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An instrument amplifier is an electronic device which converts the often barely audible or purely electronic signal of a musical instrument into an audible sound. Combination amplifiers include a preamplifier, an amplifier, tone controls, and one or more speakers in a cabinet. Instrument amplifiers are available for specific instruments, including the guitar, electric bass, electric/electronic keyboards. A guitar amplifier is designed to amplify the signal of an electric so that it will produce a sound through a loudspeaker that is loud enough for the performer. Most guitar amplifiers can also modify the tone by emphasizing or de-emphasizing certain frequencies. Vibrations of the strings are picked up by a microphone or pickup. For electric guitars, strings are almost always made of metal, acoustic guitars do not usually have a built-in pickup or microphone, at least with entry-level and beginner instruments. Acoustic guitars may also use a pickup, which converts the vibrations of the instrument into an electronic signal. Standard amplifiers, such as the Fender tweed-style amps and Gibson amps, are used by traditional rock, blues. They are used by guitarists, pedal steel guitar players. Combo amplifiers such as the Fender Super Reverb have powerful, loud tube amplifiers, four 10 speakers, smaller guitar amps are also available, which have fewer speakers and lighter, less powerful amplifier units. Smaller guitar amps are easier to transport to gigs and sound recording sessions, smaller amps are widely used in small venue shows and in recordings, because players can obtain the tone they want without having to have an excessively loud volume. One of the challenge with the large, powerful 4x10 Fender Bassman-type amps is that to get the tone a player wants, she has to turn up the amp to too loud a volume. These amps are designed to produce a variety of sounds ranging from a clean, warm sound to a growling, natural overdrive, when the volume is set near its maximum. These amplifiers usually have a sharp treble roll-off at 5 kHz to reduce the high frequencies. The nickname tweed refers to the lacquered beige-light brown fabric covering used on these amplifiers, the smallest combo amplifiers, which are mainly used for individual practice and warm-up purposes, may have only a single 8 or 10 speaker. Some harmonica players use these small combo amplifiers for concert performances, though, larger combo amplifiers, with one 12 inch speaker or two or four 10 or 12 inch speakers are used for club performances and larger venues. For large concert venues such as stadiums, performers may use an amplifier head with several separate speaker cabinets
30.
Charlie Christian
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Charles Henry Charlie Christian was an American swing and jazz guitarist. Christian was an important early performer on the guitar and a key figure in the development of bebop. He gained national exposure as a member of the Benny Goodman Sextet and his single-string technique, combined with amplification, helped bring the guitar out of the rhythm section and into the forefront as a solo instrument. John Hammond and George T. Simon called Christian the best improvisational talent of the swing era, Christians influence reached beyond jazz and swing. In 1990, he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in the category Early Influence, in 2006 Oklahoma City renamed a street in its Bricktown entertainment district Charlie Christian Avenue. Christian was born in Bonham, Texas and his family moved to Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, when he was a small child. He had two brothers, Edward, born in 1906, and Clarence, born in 1911, All three sons were taught music by their father, Clarence Henry Christian. Clarence Henry was struck blind by fever, and in order to support the family he and he would have them lead him into the better neighborhoods, where they would perform for cash or goods. When Charles was old enough to go along, he first entertained by dancing, later he learned to play the guitar, inheriting his fathers instruments upon his death when Charles was 12. He attended Douglass School in Oklahoma City, where he was encouraged in music by an instructor. Charles wanted to play saxophone in the school band. As he believed playing the trumpet would disfigure his lip, he quit to pursue his interest in baseball, around 1931, he took the guitarist Bigfoot Ralph Hamilton and began secretly schooling the younger Charles in jazz. They taught him to solo on three songs, Rose Room, Tea for Two, and Sweet Georgia Brown, when the time was right they took him out to one of the many after-hours jam sessions along Deep Deuce, Northeast Second Street, in Oklahoma City. Let Charles play one, they told Edward, ah, nobody wants to hear them old blues, Edward replied. After some encouragement, he allowed Charles to play, what do you want to play. All three songs were big in the early 1930s, and Edward was surprised that Charles knew them, after two encores, Charles had played all three, and Deep Deuce was in an uproar. He coolly dismissed himself from the jam session, and his mother had heard about it before he got home, Charles fathered a daughter, Billie Jean Christian by Margretta Lorraine Downey of Oklahoma City. Charles soon was performing locally and on the road throughout the Midwest, by 1936 he was playing electric guitar and had become a regional attraction
31.
Gibson ES-175
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The Gibson ES-175 is an electric guitar manufactured by the Gibson Guitar Corporation, currently still in production. It is a 24 3⁄4 scale full hollow-body guitar with a trapeze tailpiece and it is one of the most famous jazz guitars in history. The ES-175 is a single- or dual-pickup archtop electric guitar made by Gibson, the ES-175 has a rosewood fingerboard with parallelogram inlays, a 3 deep body, a floating bridge, one or two humbuckers,20 frets and independent volume and tone controls for each pickup. The guitar has the standard Gibson scale length of 24, the ES-175 was originally designed to be a cheaper alternative to Gibsons high-end archtop models, though current production ES-175s feature figured maple laminates. The ES-175 debuted in 1949, as Gibsons mid-level laminate top alternative to the L-5 and it was also the first Gibson electric to feature a stylish Florentine cutaway. Its first incarnation had one pickup in the neck position. The models name is derived from its price of $175. In 1953, the ES-175D, a model, was introduced. The ES-175 or ES-175D could be ordered in either sunburst finish or in natural finish, beginning in February 1957, ES-175s came equipped with humbuckers. Many new jazz guitarists such as Pat Metheny used these to emulate the sound of Joe Pass, the ES-175 with humbuckers is prized for its full, rich tone. Some guitarists will try to mimic the rich resonant sound of this rather large hollow-body instrument by turning the knob all the way down on smaller, or solid body. The ES-175 was largely spared these changes until the mid-1970s, in 1976, the three-piece maple neck replaced the one-piece mahogany neck, a volute was added, and the wooden bridge was replaced by a Nashville bridge. By the mid-1970s, Gibson had discontinued the single-pickup model, in 1976 Gibson introduced the ES-175T, a thin-body variant on the ES-175. It was made for three years, and available in sunburst, natural and wine red. The model proved unpopular and was discontinued in 1979. In 2002, Gibson released a Steve Howe signature model, based on Howes 1964 ES-175, in 2012, Gibson released a pair of 1959 ES-175 reissues, a single-pickup and a dual-pickup model. It is the first production ES-175 single pickup model since the 1970s, Jazz guitarist Joe Pass played his ES-175, donated to him ca. This model guitar is used not only by jazz guitarists, scotty Moore, the guitarist for Elvis Presley, played an ES-295, dual P-90-equipped, all gold ES-175
32.
Cutaway (guitar)
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A cutaway on the guitar construction is an indentation in the upper bout of the guitar body adjacent to the guitar neck, designed to allow easier access to the upper frets. Some manufacturers denote instrument models with cutaway using the suffix C, there are two main types of cutaways, Venetian and Florentine. A Venetian cutaway has a rounded bout, a Florentine cutaway has a sharp bout. The terms probably originate with the Gibson Guitar Corporation and probably do not reflect historic instrument-making practices of Florence and Venice, a less common third type is the squared-off cutaway, used on the Selmer-Maccaferri guitar and some nylon-string guitars. Instruments with only a lower cutaway are known as single cutaway instruments and these terms are sometimes shortened to single cut or double cut. As well as the common lower cutaway, many instruments have an upper cutaway, sometimes smaller than the lower one. This is mainly seen on electric guitars, as the reduction in size resulting from a double cutaway would be detrimental to the sound quality of an acoustic guitar. Double cutaways allow the thumb as well as the fingers to move past the neck-body join, symmetrical ones also facilitate left-handed use of right-handed instruments
33.
Electric guitar
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The vibrations of the strings are sensed by a pickup, of which the most common type is the magnetic pickup, which uses the principle of direct electromagnetic induction. The signal generated by a guitar is too weak to drive a loudspeaker, so it is plugged into a guitar amplifier before being sent to a loudspeaker. The output of a guitar is an electric signal. Invented in 1931, the electric guitar was adopted by jazz guitarists. Early proponents of the guitar on record included Les Paul, Lonnie Johnson, Sister Rosetta Tharpe, T-Bone Walker. During the 1950s and 1960s, the guitar became the most important instrument in pop music. It has evolved into an instrument that is capable of a multitude of sounds and styles in genres ranging from pop and rock to country music, blues and jazz. It served as a component in the development of electric blues, rock and roll, rock music, heavy metal music. Electric guitar design and construction vary greatly in the shape of the body and the configuration of the neck, bridge, Guitars may have a fixed bridge or a spring-loaded hinged bridge that lets players bend the pitch of notes or chords up or down or perform vibrato effects. The sound of a guitar can be modified by new playing techniques such as string bending, tapping, hammering on, using audio feedback, in a small group, such as a power trio, one guitarist switches between both roles. In larger rock and metal bands, there is often a rhythm guitarist, many experiments at electrically amplifying the vibrations of a string instrument were made dating back to the early part of the 20th century. Patents from the 1910s show telephone transmitters were adapted and placed inside violins, hobbyists in the 1920s used carbon button microphones attached to the bridge, however, these detected vibration from the bridge on top of the instrument, resulting in a weak signal. With numerous people experimenting with electrical instruments in the 1920s and early 1930s, Electric guitars were originally designed by acoustic guitar makers and instrument manufacturers. Some of the earliest electric guitars adapted hollow-bodied acoustic instruments and used tungsten pickups, the first electrically amplified guitar was designed in 1931 by George Beauchamp, the general manager of the National Guitar Corporation, with Paul Barth, who was vice president. The maple body prototype for the one-piece cast aluminum frying pan was built by Harry Watson, commercial production began in late summer of 1932 by the Ro-Pat-In Corporation, in Los Angeles, a partnership of Beauchamp, Adolph Rickenbacker, and Paul Barth. In 1934, the company was renamed the Rickenbacker Electro Stringed Instrument Company, in that year Beauchamp applied for a United States patent for an Electrical Stringed Musical Instrument and the patent was issued in 1937. The Electro-Spanish Ken Roberts provided players a full 25 scale, with 17 frets free of the fretboard and it is estimated that fewer than 50 Electro-Spanish Ken Roberts were constructed between 1933 and 1937, fewer than 10 are known to survive today. The need for the guitar became apparent during the big band era as orchestras increased in size, particularly when acoustic guitars had to compete with large
34.
Tal Farlow
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Talmage Holt Farlow was an American jazz guitarist. He was nicknamed Octopus because of how his large, quick hands spread over the fretboard, where guitarists of his day combined rhythmic chords with linear melodies, Farlow placed single notes together in clusters, varying between harmonically enriched tones. As music critic Stuart Nicholson put it, In terms of guitar prowess it was the equivalent of Roger Bannister breaking the four minute mile, Talmage Holt Farlow was born in Greensboro, North Carolina, in 1921. He taught himself how to play guitar and he learned chord melodies by playing a mandolin tuned like a ukulele and listened to Bix Beiderbecke, Louis Armstrong, and Eddie Lang. His only professional training was as a sign painter. He requested the night shift so he could listen to big band standards on the shop radio and his career was influenced by hearing Charlie Christian playing electric guitar with the Benny Goodman band. He said he made his own guitar because he couldnt afford one. Farlow made an impression on the world when he played in a trio with Red Norvo. He used virtuoso technique and guitar mechanics, such as harmonics and his large, quick hands earned him the nickname The Octopus. When Farlow was married in 1958, he retired from performing and settled in Sea Bright, New Jersey. He continued to play dates in local clubs. In 1962 the Gibson Guitar Corporation, with Farlows participation, produced the Tal Farlow model, Farlow made one album as a leader during 1960–1975, but emerged more often during 1976–1984, recording for Concord before disappearing again. He was profiled in the documentary Talmage Farlow, Farlow died of esophageal cancer at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York City on July 25,1998, at the age of 77. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Duke University
35.
Barney Kessel
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Barney Kessel was an American jazz guitarist born in Muskogee, Oklahoma. Kessel was a member of the group of session musicians known as the Wrecking Crew. Kessel began his career as a teenager touring with local dance bands, when he was 16, he started playing with the Oklahoma A & M band, Hal Price & the Varsitonians. The band members lovingly nicknamed him Fruitcake because he used to practice up to 16 hours a day and he then moved on to bands such as that led by Chico Marx. He quickly established himself as a key post-Charlie Christian jazz guitarist, in 1944 he participated in the film Jammin the Blues, which featured Lester Young, and in 1947 he recorded with Charlie Parkers New Stars on the Relaxin at Camarillo session for Dial Records. He was rated the No.1 guitarist in Esquire, Down Beat, Kessel was known for his innovative work in the guitar trio setting. In the 1950s, he made a series of albums called The Poll Winners with Ray Brown on bass, also from the 1950s, his three Kessel Plays Standards volumes contain some of his most polished work. Kessel was also a member of the Oscar Peterson Trio with Ray Brown for a year, the guitar chair was called the hardest gig in show business since Peterson often liked to play at breakneck tempos. Herb Ellis took over from Kessel, Kessel also played with Sonny Rollins in the late 1950s and can be heard on the Sonny Rollins and the Contemporary Leaders album on songs like How High the Moon. In 1957, Barney Kessel was introduced to the Kay Musical Instrument Company while playing at a jazz club in Chicago. He was offered three models, the K1700, K6700 and K8700 in the endorsement and each bore his signature etched into the underside of the pickguard. This was also the introduction of the full kelvinator headstock, in 1960, Barney left Kay but the production of these guitars continued without his signature. In 2014, the Kay Guitar Company, working closely with Kessels widow Phillis, in this capacity he played on hundreds of famous pop recordings, including albums and singles by Phil Spector, The Beach Boys, The Monkees and many others. He appeared in a part playing a jazz guitarist named Barney in one episode of the Perry Mason TV show. He also wrote and arranged the music, including a jazz version of Here Comes the Bride. In 1961 The Gibson Guitar Corporation introduced The Barney Kessel model guitar onto the market, one custom instrument Kessel played was essentially a 12-string guitar neck attached to a mandolin body, which may have been played on the intro to The Beach Boys Wouldnt It Be Nice. He played Mr. Spocks theme on bass, which first appeared in the Star Trek episode Amok Time, during the 1970s, Kessel presented his seminar The Effective Guitarist in various locations around the world, and performed extensively with Herb Ellis and Charlie Byrd as The Great Guitars. On Pete Townshends 1983 album Scoop, Townshend paid homage to the guitarist with the instrumental song To Barney Kessel
36.
Johnny Smith
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John Henry Johnny Smith was an American cool jazz and mainstream jazz guitarist. He wrote the tune Walk, Dont Run in 1954, in 1984, Smith was inducted into the Alabama Jazz Hall of Fame. During the Great Depression, Smiths family moved from Birmingham, Alabama, through cities, ending up in Portland. Smith taught himself to play guitar in pawnshops, which let him play in exchange for keeping the guitars in tune, at thirteen years of age he was teaching others to play the guitar. One of Smiths students bought a new guitar and gave him his old guitar, Smith joined Uncle Lem and the Mountain Boys, a local hillbilly band that travelled around Maine, performing at dances, fairs and similar venues. Smith earned four dollars a night and he dropped out of high school to accommodate this enterprise. Having become increasingly interested in the bands that he heard on the radio. He left The Mountain Boys when he was eighteen years old to join a variety called the Airport Boys. Having learned to fly from pilots he befriended, Smith enlisted in the United States Army Air Corps in the hopes of becoming a military pilot and he was invalidated from the flight programme because of imperfect vision in his left eye. Given a choice between joining the band and being sent to mechanics school, Smith opted to join the military band. Smith claims that they gave him a cornet, an Arbans instructional book, determined not to go to mechanics school, Smith spent the two weeks practicing the cornet in the latrine, as recommended by the bandleader, and passed the examination. An extremely diverse musician, Johnny Smith was equally at home playing in the famous Birdland jazz club or sight-reading scores in the pit of the New York Philharmonic. From Schoenberg to Gershwin to originals, Smith was one of the most versatile guitarists of the 1950s, Smiths playing is characterized by closed-position chord voicings and rapidly ascending lines. From those famous 1952 sides and into the 1960s he recorded for the Roost label, mosaic Records has issued the majority of them in an 8-CD set. His most critically acclaimed album was Moonlight in Vermont and his most famous musical composition is the tune Walk Dont Run, written for a 1954 recording session as counter-melody to the chord changes of Softly, as in a Morning Sunrise. Guitarist Chet Atkins covered the tune, recording a neo-classical rendition of the song on the guitar for his Hi Fi in Focus album which preceded the Ventures hit by three years. He played his arrangement fingerstyle, including the bass notes A, G, F, the musicians who became The Ventures heard the Atkins version, simplified it, sped it up, and recorded it in 1960. The Ventures version went to No.2 on the Billboard Top 100 for a week in September 1960
37.
Gretsch White Falcon
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The Gretsch White Falcon is a high-end electric hollowbody guitar introduced in 1954 by Gretsch. Since then it has various changes, and is still being made. As of 2013, Gretsch offers a number of models including a custom-built replica of the original. In early 1954, Gretsch marketing strategist Jimmie Webster sought to design a guitar to improve upon the Gibson Super 400 and he wanted a Dream Guitar, and gained his inspiration by walking through the Gretsch factory and watching the construction of the diversity of musical instruments the company produced. From the banjo production line, Webster recalled the engraved pearl inlays that adorned the fretboard, many of Gretschs drums were covered with thick sparkly gold plastic that could also be used as binding on guitars. The White Falcon was unveiled at the NAMM show in July 1954 and it was displayed as the guitar of the future, but Gretsch initially had no plans to manufacture the model. It was supposed to be a showpiece, much like GMs Motorama Dream Cars of the day, the high interest from sales representatives led Gretsch to rush the guitar into production, and the first White Falcons were sold in 1955, identified as the model 6136. As the companys new high-end guitar, Gretsch marketed it as the finest guitar we know how to make –, the White Falcon originally cost $600, this price was second only to the $690 price of Gibsons Super 400CESN. Throughout the 1950s and 1960s, Gretsch tweaked the Falcon, a stereo version became available as well. It also switched to a twin-cutaway body beginning in 1962, Fred Gretsch retired in 1967 and sold his company to the Baldwin Piano Company. Baldwin would have trouble understanding guitars in general and the White Falcon in particular, most who were inspired by the new popular guitarists Jimi Hendrix, Jeff Beck, Eric Clapton and other musical greats were turning to Fender, rather than Gretsch. The rapidly deteriorating Baldwin Manufacturing then experienced two fires at its new Arkansas plant in 1973. Gretsch limped through the 1970s and finally closed in the 1980s, in 1989 Fred Gretsch III resumed control of the family business and began making guitars again. These instruments are based on classic Gretsch designs, including the White Falcon, models are now available commemorating every phase in the design of the White Falcon. Gretsch added a Brian Setzer Black Phoenix model to its lineup, like Brian Setzers signature Hot Rod 6120, the Black Phoenix features stripped-down electronics that consist of two pickups, a selector switch, and a volume knob. In January 2013, Gretsch introduced the Billy Duffy signature model, replicating the Baldwin-era design with silver binding, bacon, Tony, Dave Burrluck, Paul Day, Michael Wright. The Gretsch Pages, White Falcon models The Gretsch Pages, History 6136 variants Brian Setzer Black Falcon Bono Irish Falcon Silver Falcon Black Falcon with Bigsby
38.
Chet Atkins
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Chester Burton Chet Atkins known as Mr. He was primarily known as a guitarist and he also played the mandolin, fiddle, banjo, and ukulele. Atkins signature picking style was inspired by Merle Travis, other major guitar influences were Django Reinhardt, George Barnes, Les Paul, and, later, Jerry Reed. His distinctive picking style and musicianship brought him admirers inside and outside the country scene, among many honors, Atkins received 14 Grammy Awards and the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. He also received nine Country Music Association awards for Instrumentalist of the Year and he was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum, and the Musicians Hall of Fame and Museum. Atkins was born on June 20,1924, in Luttrell, Tennessee and his parents divorced when he was six, after which he was raised by his mother. He was the youngest of three boys and a girl and he started out on the ukulele, later moving on to the fiddle, but traded his brother Lowell an old pistol and some chores for a guitar when he was nine. He stated in his 1974 autobiography, We were so poor, forced to relocate to Fortson, Georgia, outside of Columbus, to live with his father because of a critical asthma condition, Atkins was a sensitive youth who made music his obsession. Because of his illness, he was forced to sleep in a chair to breathe comfortably. On those nights, he played his guitar until he fell asleep holding it, while living in Fortson, he attended the historic Mountain Hill School. He returned in the 1990s to play a series of charity concerts to save the school from demolition, Atkins became an accomplished guitarist while he was in high school. He used the restroom in the school to practice, because it gave better acoustics and his first guitar had a nail for a nut and was so bowed that only the first few frets could be used. He later purchased an electric guitar and amp, but he had to travel many miles to find an electrical outlet. Later in life, he gave himself the honorary degree CGP. In 2011, his daughter Merle Atkins Russell bestowed the CGP degree on his longtime sideman Paul Yandell and she then declared no more CGPs would be allowed by the Atkins estate. His half-brother Jim was a successful guitarist who worked with the Les Paul Trio in New York, Atkins did not have a strong style of his own until 1939, when he heard Merle Travis picking over WLW radio. This early influence dramatically shaped his unique playing style, whereas Traviss right hand used his index finger for the melody and thumb for bass notes, Atkins expanded his right-hand style to include picking with his first three fingers, with the thumb on bass. Chet Atkins was a ham radio general class licensee, formerly using the call sign WA4CZD, he obtained the vanity call sign W4CGP in 1998 to include the CGP designation
39.
Rock and roll
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While elements of rock and roll can be heard in blues records from the 1920s and in country records of the 1930s, the genre did not acquire its name until the 1950s. For the purpose of differentiation, this deals with the first definition. The beat is essentially a blues rhythm with an accentuated backbeat, classic rock and roll is usually played with one or two electric guitars, a double bass or string bass or an electric bass guitar, and a drum kit. Beyond simply a style, rock and roll, as seen in movies and on television, influenced lifestyles, fashion, attitudes. In addition, rock and roll may have contributed to the civil rights movement because both African-American and white American teens enjoyed the music and it went on to spawn various genres, often without the initially characteristic backbeat, that are now more commonly called simply rock music or rock. The term rock and roll now has at least two different meanings, both in common usage, the American Heritage Dictionary and the Merriam-Webster Dictionary both define rock and roll as synonymous with rock music. Encyclopædia Britannica, on the hand, regards it as the music that originated in the mid-1950s. In 1934, the song Rock and Roll by the Boswell Sisters appeared in the film Transatlantic Merry-Go-Round, in 1942, Billboard magazine columnist Maurie Orodenker started to use the term rock-and-roll to describe upbeat recordings such as Rock Me by Sister Rosetta Tharpe. By 1943, the Rock and Roll Inn in South Merchantville, in 1951, Cleveland, Ohio disc jockey Alan Freed began playing this music style while popularizing the phrase to describe it. The origins of rock and roll have been debated by commentators. The migration of former slaves and their descendants to major urban centers such as St. The immediate roots of rock and roll lay in the rhythm and blues, then called race music, particularly significant influences were jazz, blues, gospel, country, and folk. The 1940s saw the use of blaring horns, shouted lyrics. In the same period, particularly on the West Coast and in the Midwest, similarly, country boogie and Chicago electric blues supplied many of the elements that would be seen as characteristic of rock and roll. Rock and roll arrived at a time of technological change, soon after the development of the electric guitar, amplifier and microphone. It was the realization that relatively affluent white teenagers were listening to music that led to the development of what was to be defined as rock. Because the development of rock and roll was a process, no single record can be identified as unambiguously the first rock. Other artists with rock and roll hits included Chuck Berry, Bo Diddley, Little Richard, Jerry Lee Lewis
40.
Duane Eddy
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Duane Eddy is an American guitarist. He had sold 12 million records by 1963 and he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1994, and the Musicians Hall of Fame and Museum in 2008. Born in Corning, New York, he began playing the guitar at the age of five, in 1951 his family moved to Tucson, and then to Coolidge, Arizona. At the age of 16 he obtained a Chet Atkins model Gretsch guitar, while performing at local radio station KCKY they met disc jockey Lee Hazlewood, who produced the duos single, Soda Fountain Girl, recorded and released in 1955 in Phoenix. Eddy devised a technique of playing lead on his guitars bass strings to produce a low, in November 1957, Eddy recorded an instrumental, Movin n Groovin, co-written by Eddy and Hazlewood. As the Phoenix studio had no echo chamber, Hazlewood bought a 2,000 gallon water tank which he used as an echo chamber to accentuate the twangy guitar sound. In 1958, Eddy signed a contract with Lester Sill. Sill and Hazlewood leased the tapes of all the singles and albums to the Philadelphia-based Jamie Records. S. A, the follow-up, Rebel Rouser, featured overdubbed saxophone by Los Angeles session musician Gil Bernal, and yells and handclaps by doo-wop group the Rivingtons. The tune became Eddys breakthrough hit, reaching number 6 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and it sold over one million copies, earning Eddy his first gold disc. On January 9,1959, Eddys debut album, Have Twangy Guitar Will Travel, was released, reaching number 5, on his fourth album, Songs of Our Heritage, each track featured him playing acoustic guitar or banjo. It became his second million selling disc, Eddys records were equally successful in the UK, and in 1960, readers of the UKs NME voted him Worlds Number One Musical Personality, ousting Elvis Presley. In 1960 Eddy signed a contract directly with Jamie Records, bypassing Sill and this caused a temporary rift between Eddy and Hazlewood. The result was that for the duration of his contract with Jamie, Eddy produced his own singles, Duane Eddy and the Rebels became a frequent act on The Dick Clark Show. He married singer Jessi Colter in 1962 and that year he signed a three-year contract with Paul Ankas production company, Camy. It was in the days of recording in RCAs studios that he renewed contact with Lee Hazlewood. Eddys 1962 single release, Guitar Man, co-written with Hazlewood, in the 1970s, he produced album projects for Phil Everly and Waylon Jennings. In 1972, he worked with Al Gorgoni, rhythm guitar, on BJ Thomass Rock and Roll Lullaby. In 1975, a collaboration with hit songwriter Tony Macaulay and former founding member of The Seekers, Keith Potger, led to another UK top ten record, the single, You Are My Sunshine, featuring Willie Nelson and Waylon Jennings, hit the country charts in 1977
41.
Eddie Cochran
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Edward Raymond Eddie Cochran was an American musician. Cochrans rockabilly songs, such as Twenty Flight Rock, Summertime Blues, Cmon Everybody and he experimented with multitrack recording, distortion techniques and overdubbing even on his earliest singles. He played the guitar, piano, bass and drums and his image as a sharply dressed and good-looking young man with a rebellious attitude epitomized the stance of the 1950s rocker, and in death he achieved an iconic status. Cochran was involved with music from an age, playing in the school band. In 1954, he formed a duet with the guitarist Hank Cochran, and his first success came when he performed the song Twenty Flight Rock in the film The Girl Cant Help It, starring Jayne Mansfield. Soon afterwards, he signed a contract with Liberty Records. Cochran died at age 21 after an accident, while traveling in a taxi in Chippenham, Wiltshire, during his British tour in April 1960. Though his best-known songs were released during his lifetime, more of his songs were released posthumously, in 1987 Cochran was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. His songs have been covered by a variety of recording artists. Cochran was born October 3,1938, in Albert Lea, Minnesota, to Alice and his parents were from Oklahoma, and he always said in interviews that his parents had some roots in Oklahoma. He took music lessons in school but quit the band to play drums, also, rather than taking piano lessons, he began learning guitar, playing country and other music he heard on the radio. Cochrans family moved to Bell Gardens, California, in 1952, as his guitar playing improved, he formed a band with two friends from his junior high school. He dropped out of Bell Gardens High School in his first year to become a professional musician, during a show featuring many performers at an American Legion hall, he met Hank Cochran, a songwriter. Although they were not related, they recorded as the Cochran Brothers and they recorded a few singles for Ekko Records that were fairly successful and helped to establish them as a performing act. Eddie Cochran also worked as a musician and began writing songs, making a demo with Jerry Capehart. In July 1955, Eddie Cochrans first solo artist single was released by Crest Records and it featured Skinny Jim, now regarded as a rock-and-roll and rockabilly classic. In the spring of 1956, Boris Petroff asked Cochran if he would appear in the comedy film The Girl Cant Help It. Cochran agreed and performed the song Twenty Flight Rock in the movie, in 1957 Cochran starred in his second film, Untamed Youth, and he had yet another hit, Sittin in the Balcony, one of the few songs he recorded that were written by other songwriters
42.
Gibson ES-335
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The Gibson ES-335 is the worlds first commercial thinline archtop semi-acoustic electric guitar. Released by the Gibson Guitar Corporation as part of its ES series in 1958, it is fully hollow nor fully solid, instead. The side wings formed by the two cutaways into its upper bouts are hollow, and the top has two violin-style f-holes over the hollow chambers, before 1952 Gibson produced only hollow-body guitars, which are prone to feedback when amplified loudly. By 1958 Gibson was making a few models which had much lower feedback and better sustain but lacked the darker, warmer tone. The ES-335 was an attempt to find a ground, a warmer tone than a solid body produced with almost as little feedback. With a basic price of $267.50, it became a best-seller. The first major update came in mid 1962, with the most visible change being the markers on neck, early models had dots, later models had blocks. Notable users were Larry Carlton, Robben Ford, John Scofield, Lee Ritenour, Alvin Lee, Richie Blackmore, Noel Gallagher, some models feature a coil split switch, which allows the humbuckers to produce a single-coil sound. The ES-335 Pro, ES-335TD CRS and CRR models were equipped with Gibson Dirty Fingers humbuckers, other signature models have included the heavily customized Alvin Lee Big Red 335. A reissue of the 1963 model was a 2014 Editors pick in Guitar Player magazine, the ES-345 also featured an optional stereophonic output jack, gold-plated hardware, large split parallelogram fingerboard inlays, and a thicker three-ply edge binding than that of the ES-335. Notable users were B. B. King, Freddie King, Bill Nelson, John McLaughlin, Jorma Kaukonen, Fred Frith, Porl Thompson of The Cure, Steve Howe and Elvin Bishop. The ES-345 was discontinued in 1981, one year after the Gibson Lucille, as of 2012, the ES-345 is available as a limited edition from Gibsons discount line, Epiphone Guitars, as well as the ES-355. The differences between two models are, The ES-355TD was at the top of Gibsons range of thinline semi-acoustic guitars and it was manufactured from 1958 to 1982, fitted with Varitone Stereo option, as ES-355TD-SV released in 1959. The headstock has a split-diamond inlay rather than the crown inlay on the 335/345. The fingerboard inlays are inlaid mother-of-pearl blocks, beginning at the first position of the fretboard, in addition to the headstock, binding is also applied to the fretboard and both the front and the back edges of the body. Rather than the rosewood fretboard on a 335 or 345, both variations of the 355 have an ebony fingerboard for a smoother sound, early models of Epiphones limited edition budget version had an ebony fingerboard but the later issues had a rosewood board. The ES-355 was available with a Vibrola vibrato unit or a Bigsby vibrato tailpiece and it was also available with a stereo output and Varitone tone filter circuitry. When fitted with the optional stereo wiring and Varitone, the model was known as the ES-355TD-SV, the best-known user of this guitar is probably B. B. King, whose trademark guitar, Lucille, was the basis for a 1981 signature model
43.
Epiphone Casino
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The Epiphone Casino is a thinline hollow body electric guitar manufactured by Epiphone, a branch of Gibson. Glenn Frey, John Illsley, Peter Green and Dave Grohl, Casinos have been manufactured in USA, Japan, Korea and China. The Casino, also designated by Epiphone as model E230TD, is a thinline hollow-bodied guitar with two Gibson P-90 pick-ups, although generally fitted with a trapeze-type tailpiece, often a Bigsby vibrato tailpiece is used in its place. This makes it lighter, and louder when played without an amplifier, early versions of the Casino had a spruce top. Through 1970, the Casino headstock was set at a 17-degree angle and the top was made of five laminated layers of maple, birch, maple, birch, and maple. With the exception of the John Lennon models, subsequent Casinos have been made with 14-degree headstock angle with five layer all maple laminated tops, current versions have a laminated maple top, sides, and back, and a mahogany neck. Per the Epiphone String Gauge Guide, the Casino comes with string gauges,0.0100.0130.0170.0260.0360.046. In 1966 John Lennon and George Harrison bought 1965 Casinos, which are seen in photos of Japan concerts. John Lennon used the Epiphone Casino as his main instrument during the remainder of his time with the Beatles, in the early seventies, the original tuners were replaced with a set of gold Grover tuners or machine heads. His stripped guitar, is first seen in the Revolution promo film and it can also be seen in the Let It Be film, and most other pictures of Lennon playing guitar after that time. Harrison had his fitted with a Bigsby trem, removed the pickguard and he also had it sanded down in 1968. Epiphone currently builds several versions of the Casino and these include, Regular Archtop-Series Casino made in China and uses non-American made parts Elitist Casino. Made in Japan and set-up in America, and contains American made parts such as the pickups, body is 5-ply maple, Gibson P-90 pickups, and nickel hardware. The body is the size as a Gibson ES-339. Inspired by John Lennon 1965 or Revolution Casino, the 1965 version has a sunburst finish, white pick guard and small button Grover tuners. This limited version is offered in Royal Tan and Vintage Sunburst and it sports a 5-layer maple-birch body, Gibson P-90 pickups, short headstock, bullet trussrod cover, tortoiseshell pickguard, and pre-Gibson era Epiphone badge
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B.B. King
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Riley Benjamin King, known professionally as B. B. King, was an American blues singer, electric guitarist, songwriter, and record producer. King introduced a style of soloing based on fluid string bending and shimmering vibrato that influenced many later electric blues guitarists. King was known for performing throughout his musical career, appearing at more than 200 concerts per year on average into his 70s. In 1956, he appeared at 342 shows. King was born on a plantation in Berclair, Mississippi. He was attracted to music and the guitar in church, and began his career in juke joints. He later lived in Memphis, Tennessee, and Chicago, King died at the age of 89 in Las Vegas, Nevada, on May 14,2015, from congestive heart failure and diabetic complications. Riley Benjamin King was born on September 16,1925, on a plantation called Berclair, near the town of Itta Bena, Mississippi. He considered the city of Indianola, Mississippi to be his home. When Riley was four years old, his mother left his father for another man, so the boy was raised by his grandmother, Elnora Farr, in Kilmichael. While young, King sang in the choir at Elkhorn Baptist Church in Kilmichael. King was attracted to the Pentecostal Church of God in Christ because of its music, the local minister led worship with a Sears Roebuck Silvertone guitar. The minister taught King his first three chords and it seems that at the age of 12 he purchased his first guitar for $15.00, although another source indicates he was given his first guitar by Bukka White, his mothers first cousin. In November 1941 King Biscuit Time first aired, broadcasting on KFFA in Helena and it was a radio show featuring the Mississippi Delta blues. King listened to it while on break at a plantation, a self-taught guitarist, he then wanted to become a radio musician. In 1946, King followed Bukka White to Memphis, Tennessee, White took him in for the next ten months. However, King returned to Mississippi shortly afterward, where he decided to prepare himself better for the next visit and he performed on Sonny Boy Williamsons radio program on KWEM in West Memphis, where he began to develop an audience. Kings appearances led to engagements at the Sixteenth Avenue Grill in West Memphis
