1.
Fender Musical Instruments Corporation
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Fender Musical Instruments Corporation, commonly referred to simply as Fender, is an American manufacturer of stringed instruments and amplifiers. It is known for its electric guitars and bass guitars, such as the Stratocaster, Telecaster, Precision Bass. Its headquarters are in Scottsdale, Arizona, the company, previously named the Fender Electric Instrument Manufacturing Company, was founded in Fullerton, California, by Clarence Leonidas Leo Fender in 1946. The company is a privately held corporation with Andy Mooney serving as the Chief Executive Officer, the company filed for an initial public offering in March 2012, but this was withdrawn five months later. In addition to its Scottsdale headquarters, Fender has manufacturing facilities in Corona, California and Ensenada, Baja California. The company also makes and / or distributes acoustic guitars, electric basses, mandolins, banjos, and electric violins, as well as amplifiers, bass amplifiers. Other Fender brands include Squier, Jackson, Charvel, EVH guitars and amplifiers in collaboration with Eddie Van Halen, in 1950, Fender introduced the first mass-produced solid-body Spanish-style electric guitar, the Telecaster. Following its success, Fender created the first mass-produced electric bass, in 1954, Fender unveiled the Stratocaster guitar. With the Telecaster and Precision Bass on the market for some time, the Strats comfortable contoured edges and in-built vibrato system led to its soaring popularity. The solid wood bodies of Fenders instruments allowed for minimal feedback with high-gain amplification, the Fender guitars were popular with musicians in a variety of genres and are now revered for their build quality and tonal excellence. The company began as Fenders Radio Service in late 1938 in Fullerton and it got its name from the surname of its founder Leo Fender. All designs were based on research developed and released to the domain by Western Electric in the 1930s. The business also sidelined in carrying records for sale and the in rental of company-designed PA systems, Leo became intrigued by design flaws in contemporary musical instrument amplifiers and began building amplifiers based on his own designs or modifications to designs. Production began in 1945 with Hawaiian lap steel guitars and amplifiers sold as sets, by the end of the year Fender became convinced that manufacturing was more profitable than repair and he decided to concentrate on that business instead. Kauffman remained, however, unconvinced and he and Fender amicably parted ways by early 1946, at that point Leo renamed the company the Fender Electric Instrument Company. The service shop remained open until 1951, although Leo Fender did not personally supervise it after 1947, a custom lap steel guitar made in 1946 for his friend Noel Boggs was probably the very first product of the new company, already sporting the familiar Big F logo. In the late 1940s, Leo Fender began to experiment with more conventional guitar designs, as early as 1949, the familiar shape of the Telecaster can be made out in some of Fenders prototypes. Early Telecasters were plagued with issues, Leo Fender boasted the strength of the Telecasters one-piece pine neck while early adopters lamented its tendency to bow in humid weather
2.
Solid-body
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The most well-known solid body instruments are the electric guitar and electric bass. These were instrumental in creating new genres of such as rock. Common woods used in the construction of solid body instruments are ash, alder, maple, mahogany, korina, spruce, rosewood, the first two make up the majority of solid body electric guitars. Solid body instruments have some of the features as acoustic string instruments. Like a typical string instrument they have a neck with tuners for the strings, a bridge, the fretboard is a piece of wood placed on the top surface of the neck, extending from the head to the body. The strings run above the fingerboard, some fingerboards have frets or bars which the strings are pressed against. This allows musicians to stop the string in the same place, ebony, rosewood and maple are commonly used to make the fingerboard. Some electric guitar necks do not have a piece of wood for the fingerboard surface. All the solid bodies have variations in length or, the length of the strings from the nut to the bridge. The action, or the height of the strings from the fingerboard, is adjustable on solid body instruments, most solid bodies have controls for volume and tone. Some have an electronic preamplifier with equalization for low, middle and these are used to shape the sound along with the aid of the main amplifier. Amplifiers allow solid body instruments to be heard at high volumes when desired, while noting this, it will be assumed that electric lap steels without sounding boards are solid-body instruments for the purposes of this article. The first commercially successful solid-body instrument was the Rickenbacker frying pan lap steel guitar, the first commercially successful solid-body electric guitar was the Fender Broadcaster in 1950. A trademark dispute with the Gretsch Corporation who marketed a line of Broadcaster drums led to a change to the current designation. Fender also produced a one pickup version called the Fender Esquire starting in 1950 and these were followed by the Gibson Les Paul in 1952. Solid Body Electric Guitars The solid body electric guitar is one of the most well-known solid body instruments, instrumental in rock, metal, blues, and country music, the electric guitar has been responsible for creating various sounds. There are some characteristics of solid body electric guitars. They typically have six strings although there are some seven- and eight-string models, most have at least a volume and tone control
3.
Bolt-on neck
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Bolt-on neck is a method of guitar construction that involves joining a guitar neck and body using screws or bolts, as opposed to glue as with set-in neck joints. The bolt-on method is used frequently on solid body electric guitars, in the typical electric guitar bolt-on neck joint, the body and neck cross in horizontal plane, the neck is inserted in a pre-routed pocket in the body, and they are joined using 3 or 4 screws. However, a metal plate is usually considered as a part of vintage style and they are a popular place to emboss manufacturers logos, stamp out serial numbers. Many electric guitars with necks, Fender in particular, writes the production date on the end of the neck. The neck must be removed to see the date, the neck date is often cross referenced with the serial number to accurately date the guitar. The typical acoustic guitar bolt-on neck as popularized by Taylor Guitars includes threaded inserts in the heel of the neck, bolts inserted through the neck block of the body from inside the instrument attach the neck to the body. The term is usually a misnomer, introduced mostly by Fender whose guitars traditionally had what is called bolt-on necks, real bolted joints exist—particularly in acoustic guitars—but are less common in electric guitars. The maker claims this permits a higher fastening torque than ordinary wood screws, some sources differentiate bolt-on and bolt-in neck construction. The difference is that a bolt-on neck involves constructing a protruding flange that fits inside a pocket in the guitar body. Then the neck is secured inside this pocket using screws that run perpendicular to the surface of the guitar. In contrast, a bolt-in neck doesnt need to have such a flange inside the guitar body, usually, in bolt-in variant, a neck pickup is mounted directly on the extended neck wood underneath it, not on the guitar body. Bolt-in neck is used in electric guitars on a basis, but on acoustic guitars it is somewhat rare. However it is considered superior by some in terms of sound, however, given a relative uncommonness of bolt-in necks in electric guitars, most luthiers call both neck joints bolt-on. Luthiers and guitar players cite both advantages and disadvantages of bolt-on neck construction, note that most of these views are highly subjective and relative. It is not easy to measure most of the claims objectively or even compare objective factors, Typically cited advantages of bolt-on neck include, Easier and cheaper to mass produce and to repair if damaged. A Stratocaster neck can also be fitted to a Telecaster body, less traditional versions exist, such as 3-screw plate or even 6-screw plate bolt-on joint, but they may differ widely in the shapes, sizes and position of screws. Which one is better is debatable, but budget guitar manufacturers often choose 3-screw joints for its minimal cost, easy to control, sometimes bolt-on neck includes some sort of adjustment screw that can control neck-to-body angle, such as the Fender Deluxe American Stratocasters Micro-Tilt adjustment. More attack and snap, slightly brighter tone, but this advantage is frequently debated, more resonance and sustain Typically cited disadvantages of bolt-on neck include, For solid body electric guitars, harder access to top frets, especially if screw plate is used and visible
4.
Alder
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Alder is the common name of a genus of flowering plants belonging to the birch family Betulaceae. The common name alder evolved from Old English alor, which in turn is derived from Proto-Germanic root aliso, the generic name Alnus is the equivalent Latin name. With a few exceptions, alders are deciduous, and the leaves are alternate, simple and these trees differ from the birches in that the female catkins are woody and do not disintegrate at maturity, opening to release the seeds in a similar manner to many conifer cones. The largest species are red alder on the west coast of North America, by contrast, the widespread Alnus viridis is rarely more than a 5-m-tall shrub. Alders are commonly found near streams, rivers, and wetlands, Alder leaves and sometimes catkins are used as food by numerous butterflies and moths. A. glutinosa and A. viridis are classed as environmental weeds in New Zealand, Alder leaves and especially the roots are important to the ecosystem because they enrich the soil with nitrogen and other nutrients. Alder is particularly noted for its important symbiotic relationship with Frankia alni and this bacterium is found in root nodules, which may be as large as a human fist, with many small lobes, and light brown in colour. The bacterium absorbs nitrogen from the air and makes it available to the tree, Alder, in turn, provides the bacterium with sugars, which it produces through photosynthesis. Because of its abundance, red alder delivers large amounts of nitrogen to enrich forest soils, red alder stands have been found to supply between 120 and 290 pounds of nitrogen per acre annually to the soil. From Alaska to Oregon, Sitka alder characteristically pioneer fresh, gravelly sites at the foot of retreating glaciers, alders are common among the first species to colonize disturbed areas from floods, windstorms, fires, landslides, etc. Alder groves themselves often serve as natural firebreaks since these trees are much less flammable than conifers. Their foliage and leaf litter does not carry a fire well, in addition, the light weight of alder seeds allows for easy dispersal by the wind. Although it outgrows coastal Douglas-fir for the first 25 years, it is shade intolerant. Red alder is the Pacific Northwests largest alder and the most plentiful, alders largely help create conditions favorable for giant conifers that replace them. Alder root nodules Alder roots are parasitized by northern groundcone, the catkins of some alder species have a degree of edibility, and may be rich in protein. Reported to have a bitter and unpleasant taste, they are useful for survival purposes. The wood of certain species is often used to smoke various food items such as coffee, salmon. Most of the pilings that form the foundation of Venice were made from alder trees, Alder bark contains the anti-inflammatory salicin, which is metabolized into salicylic acid in the body
5.
Fraxinus
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Fraxinus /ˈfræksᵻnəs/, English name ash, is a genus of flowering plants in the olive and lilac family, Oleaceae. It contains 45–65 species of medium to large trees, mostly deciduous though a few subtropical species are evergreen. The genus is widespread across much of Europe, Asia and North America, the trees common English name, ash, traces back to the Old English æsc, while the generic name originated in Latin. Both words also mean spear in their respective languages, the leaves are opposite, and mostly pinnately compound, simple in a few species. The seeds, popularly known as keys or helicopter seeds, are a type of known as a samara. Rowans or mountain ashes have leaves and buds superficially similar to those of true ashes, species are organized according to phylogenetic analysis. – California ash or two-petal ash Fraxinus anomala Torr, ex S. Watson – singleleaf ash Fraxinus quadrangulata Michx. – blue ash Fraxinus lowellii – Lowell ash Fraxinus trifoliata Section Melioides sensu lato Fraxinus chiisanensis Fraxinus cuspidata Torr. – fragrant ash Fraxinus platypoda Fraxinus spaethiana Lingelsh, – Späths ash Section Melioides sensu stricto Fraxinus uhdei Lingelsh. – Shamel ash or tropical ash Fraxinus latifolia Benth, – Oregon ash Fraxinus papillosa Lingelsh. – Chihuahua ash Fraxinus americana L. – white ash or American ash Fraxinus profunda Bush – pumpkin ash Fraxinus pennsylvanica Marshall – green ash Fraxinus velutina Torr, – velvet ash or Arizona ash Fraxinus berlandieriana DC. – Mexican ash Fraxinus caroliniana Mill, – Carolina ash Fraxinus texensis Sarg. – Texas ash Section Pauciflorae Fraxinus greggii A. ex DC, – Afghan ash Fraxinus dimorpha Section Fraxinus Fraxinus nigra Marshall – black ash Fraxinus mandschurica Rupr. – Manchurian ash Fraxinus holotricha Koehne Fraxinus angustifolia Vahl – narrow-leafed ash Fraxinus angustifolia subsp, oxycarpa – Caucasian ash Claret ash or raywood ash Fraxinus angustifolia subsp. – European ash Fraxinus pallisiae Wilmott – Pallis ash Fraxinus sogdiana Bge Section Ornus Fraxinus griffithii C. B. Clarke – Griffiths ash Fraxinus micrantha Lingelsh, – Chinese ash or Korean ash Fraxinus japonica – Japanese ash Fraxinus longicuspis Fraxinus floribunda Wall. – Himalayan manna ash Fraxinus ornus L. – manna ash or flowering ash Fraxinus bungeana DC, – Bunges ash Fraxinus paxiana Lingelsh. The emerald ash borer is a wood-boring beetle accidentally introduced to North America from eastern Asia via solid wood packing material in the late 1980s to early 1990s and it has killed tens of millions of trees in 15 states in the United States and adjacent Ontario in Canada. It threatens some seven billion ash trees in North America, the public is being cautioned not to transport unfinished wood products, such as firewood, to slow the spread of this insect pest. The disease has infected about 90% of Denmarks ash trees, in 2016, the ash tree was reported as in danger of extinction in Europe
6.
Populus
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Populus is a genus of 25–35 species of deciduous flowering plants in the family Salicaceae, native to most of the Northern Hemisphere. English names variously applied to different species include poplar /ˈpɒp. lər/, aspen, in the September 2006 issue of Science Magazine, the Joint Genome Institute announced that the western balsam poplar was the first tree whose full DNA code had been determined by DNA sequencing. The genus has a genetic diversity, and can grow from 15–50 m tall. The shoots are stout, with the terminal bud present, leaf size is very variable even on a single tree, typically with small leaves on side shoots, and very large leaves on strong-growing lead shoots. The leaves often turn bright gold to yellow before they fall during autumn, the flowers are mostly dioecious and appear in early spring before the leaves. They are borne in long, drooping, sessile or pedunculate catkins produced from buds formed in the axils of the leaves of the previous year. The flowers are each seated in a disk which is borne on the base of a scale which is itself attached to the rachis of the catkin. The scales are obovate, lobed, and fringed, membranous, hairy or smooth, the female flower also has no calyx or corolla, and comprises a single-celled ovary seated in a cup-shaped disk. The style is short, with two to four stigmata, variously lobed, and numerous ovules, pollination is by wind, with the female catkins lengthening considerably between pollination and maturity. Poplars of the section are often wetlands or riparian trees. The aspens are among the most important boreal broadleaf trees, Poplars and aspens are important food plants for the larvae of a large number of Lepidoptera species. Pleurotus populinus, the oyster mushroom, is found exclusively on dead wood of Populus trees in North America. The genus Populus has traditionally divided into six sections on the basis of leaf and flower characters. Recent genetic studies have supported this, confirming some previously suspected reticulate evolution due to past hybridisation and introgression events between the groups. Some species had differing relationships indicated by their nuclear DNA and chloroplast DNA sequences and they have the advantage of growing to a very large size at a rapid pace. Almost all poplars take root readily from cuttings or where broken branches lie on the ground, trees with fastigiate branching are particularly popular, and are widely grown across Europe and southwest Asia. Common poplar varieties are, G48 w22 The trees are grown from kalam or cuttings, harvested annually in January and February, most commonly used to make plywood, Yamuna Nagar in Haryana state has a large plywood industry reliant upon poplar. It is graded according to known as over, under
7.
Maple
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Acer /ˈeɪsər/ is a genus of trees or shrubs commonly known as maple. There are approximately 128 species, most of which are native to Asia, with a number appearing in Europe, northern Africa. Only one species, Acer laurinum, extends to the Southern Hemisphere, the type species of the genus is the sycamore maple, Acer pseudoplatanus, the most common maple species in Europe. Most maples are trees growing to 10–45 m height, others are shrubs less than 10 meters tall with a number of small trunks originating at ground level. Most species are deciduous, and many are renowned for their autumn colour, but a few in southern Asia. Most are shade-tolerant when young and are often riparian, understory, many of the root systems are typically dense and fibrous, inhibiting the growth of other vegetation underneath them. A few species, notably Acer cappadocicum, frequently produce root sprouts, maples are distinguished by opposite leaf arrangement. The leaves in most species are palmate veined and lobed, with 3 to 9 veins each leading to a lobe, a small number of species differ in having palmate compound, pinnate compound, pinnate veined or unlobed leaves. Several species, including Acer griseum, Acer mandshuricum, Acer maximowiczianum, one species, Acer negundo, has pinnately compound leaves that may be simply trifoliate or may have five, seven, or rarely nine leaflets. A few, such as Acer laevigatum and Acer carpinifolium, have pinnately veined simple leaves, the flowers are regular, pentamerous, and borne in racemes, corymbs, or umbels. They have four or five sepals, four or five petals about 1 –6 mm long, four to ten stamens about 6 –10 mm long, and two pistils or a pistil with two styles. The ovary is superior and has two carpels, whose wings elongate the flowers, making it easy to tell which flowers are female. Maples flower in winter or early spring, in most species with or just after the appearance of the leaves. Maple flowers are green, yellow, orange or red, though individually small, the effect of an entire tree in flower can be striking in several species. Some maples are a spring source of pollen and nectar for bees. The distinctive fruits are called samaras, maple keys, helicopters and these seeds occur in distinctive pairs each containing one seed enclosed in a nutlet attached to a flattened wing of fibrous, papery tissue. They are shaped to spin as they fall and to carry the seeds a considerable distance on the wind, people often call them helicopters due to the way that they spin as they fall. During World War II, the US Army developed an air drop supply carrier that could carry up to 65 pounds of supplies and was based on the Maple seed
8.
Rosewood
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Rosewood refers to any of a number of richly hued timbers, often brownish with darker veining but found in many different hues. All genuine rosewoods belong to the genus Dalbergia and it is best known as Brazilian Rosewood, but also as Bahia rosewood. This wood has a sweet smell, which persists for many years. Another classic rosewood comes from Dalbergia latifolia known as Indian rosewood or sonokeling and it is native to India and is also grown in plantations elsewhere in Pakistan. Madagascar rosewood, known as bois de rose, is prized for its red color. It is overexploited in the wild, despite a 2010 moratorium on trade and illegal logging, throughout southeast Asia Dalbergia oliveri is harvested for use in woodworking. It has a fragrant and dense grain near the core, however the outer sapwood is soft. Dalbergia cultrata that has variegated burgundy to light color, a blackwood timber is sold as Burmese Rosewood. Products built with rosewood based engineered woods are sold as Malaysian Rosewood or as Dalbergia oliveri, some rosewood comes from Dalbergia retusa, also known as the Nicaraguan rosewood or as palisander is controlled by CITES under Appendix 2 which allows some commercial activity. Several species are known as Guatemalan rosewood or Panama rosewood, D. tucerencis, D. tucarensis, stevensonii, also on CITES Appendix 2, is used for marimba keys, guitar parts, clarinets and other musical and ornamental applications. Not all species in the large genus Dalbergia yield rosewoods, only about a species do. The woods of some species in the genus Dalbergia are notable—even famous—woods in their own right, African blackwood, cocobolo, kingwood. The woods of some species are usable for tool handles at best. The timber trade will sell many timbers under the name due to some similarities. A fair number of these come from other legume genera. Another that may be found in market from Southeast Asia is Pterocarpus indicus, Dalbergia sissoo is timber from rosewood species from India and Bangladesh, usually known as Sheesham or North-Indian Rosewood. It is extremely dense and has mild rot resistance, but it is porous and its exterior is soft and it is used for making cabinets, flooring and carving. It is exported as quality veneers, due to its after work quality when sealed and dyed, it is often sold as genuine rosewood or as teak
9.
Libidibia ferrea
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Libidibia ferrea, formerly Caesalpinia ferrea, and commonly known as pau ferro, Brazilian ironwood, or leopard tree, is a tree found in Brazil and Bolivia. Most species of Caesalpinia s. l. have poorly defined growth rings, pitting between vessels is alternate and covered, and fibres are generally not divided by a septum. The axial parenchyma varies from a shape to confluent, and is irregularly storied, while the rays are of variable height. Libidibia in particular has layered longitudinal parenchyma and narrow homocellular rays without crystals in the ray cells and its wood is often used for making fingerboards for electric basses and guitars. It has a feel and similar tonal attributes to rosewood. The wood may also be used for flooring, fancy furniture and it is also known by the names morado, palo santo, caviuna, Brazilian ironwood, and Bolivian rosewood, though it is not actually rosewood. In guitar making, pau ferro is not only used for fingerboards or bridges but also can be used for the back, the Brazilian guitar maker Giannini uses the wood in many of its classical guitars. Although similar in ways to rosewood, pau ferro has slightly different tonal qualities, with coloration from coffee brown to yellow brown. The Stevie Ray Vaughan model Signature Fender Stratocaster comes with a pau ferro fingerboard, pau ferro, used as a rosewood substitute, is a strong sensitizer capable of causing acute outbreaks of allergic and irritant dermatitis in workers not previously exposed to it. This, however, has not prevented furniture factories from using the product, apparently, most workers develop tolerance to the wood. The allergen is -3, 4-dimethoxydalbergion, a skin sensitizer
10.
Pickup (music technology)
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The signal from a pickup can also be recorded directly, using a DI box or broadcast on the radio or television. Most electric guitars and electric basses use magnetic pickups, acoustic guitars, upright basses and fiddles often use a piezoelectric pickup. A magnetic pickup consists of a permanent magnet with a core of such as alnico or ferrite. The pickup is most often mounted on the body of the instrument, Magnetic pickups used with string basses can be attached to the bridge. The permanent magnet creates a field, the motion of the vibrating steel strings disturbs the field, changing magnetic flux. The pickup is then connected with a cable to an amplifier which amplifies the signal to a sufficient magnitude of power to drive a loudspeaker. A pickup can also be connected to recording equipment via a patch cable, there may also be an internal preamplifier device mounted in an acoustic guitar or in an external box. When a preamp is used in way, it is between the pickup and cable and can significantly reduce the equivalent impedance of the pickup coil. The output voltage of magnetic pickups varies between 100 mV rms to over 1 V rms for some of the higher output types, some high-output pickups achieve this by employing very strong magnets, thus creating more flux and thereby more output. This can be detrimental to the sound because the magnets pull on the strings can cause problems with intonation as well as damp the strings. Other high-output pickups have more turns of wire to increase the voltage generated by the strings movement, however, this also increases the pickups output resistance/impedance, which can affect high frequencies if the pickup is not isolated by a buffer amplifier or a DI unit. The turns of wire in proximity to each other have an equivalent self-capacitance that and this resonance can accentuate certain frequencies, giving the pickup a characteristic tonal quality. The more turns of wire in the winding, the higher the output voltage, the inductive source impedance inherent in this type of transducer makes it less linear than other forms of pickups, such as piezo-electric or optical. The tonal quality produced by this nonlinearity is, however, subject to taste, the external load usually consists of resistance and capacitance between the hot lead and shield in the guitar cable. The electric cable also has a capacitance, which can be a significant portion of the overall system capacitance and this arrangement of passive components forms a resistively-damped second-order low-pass filter. Single coil pickups act like an antenna and are prone to pick up mains hum along with the musical signal. Mains hum consists of a signal at a nominal 50 or 60 Hz, depending on local alternating current frequency. The changing magnetic flux caused by the mains current links with the windings of the pickup, the pickups also are sensitive to the electromagnetic field from nearby cathode ray tubes in video monitors or televisions
