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Archives for 2010

Fender Basses – A Rich Legacy

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In the 1950s, Fender put out the very first mass-produced electric bass guitar that anyone could get to start their music career.

The Fender bass guitar was an instant success among professional traveling musicians. The first musicians to tour with the bass guitar were Roy Johnson and William “Monk” Montgomery. These two men collaborated with the broad-minded Lionel Hampton. Together, they debuted the Fender bass guitar triumphantly, making it very popular among their peers.

Gibson, soon after the Fender Precision Bass was offered, created a bass that looked different, more like a violin, than Fender’s. From this time forward, electric musical instruments transformed into an crucial component of popular music, and would stay there for the foreseeable future.

The Fender bass still seems and feels the same, other than a couple modifications. The original electric bass guitar models created by Leo Fender in the 1950’s were such fine instruments that they have become classics. Today, those original models, as well as those from the next couple of decades, are in great demand by musicians. Fender experimented with some models that were changed from that basic model, and reviews were unfavorable. This experimenting proved that Fender hit the nail on the head with the original pattern.

While the huge conflict about which makes a better bass guitar, you can now locate bass guitars in many shapes and materials. This choice is solely up to the judgment of the musician playing the bass. Ebony and alder are exotic woods, but other materials along with graphite are quickly becoming the more popular materials to employ for bass bodies. The sound of each different type of guitar varies, and as such you should try out each one in order to know your preference. Additionally, a lot of professionals choose whether or not the neck should have frets. This provides a distinctive effect on the guitar’s sound, as a bass missing frets will have the strings vibrate on the wooden neck itself.

Whether you favor wood, graphite, frets, or no frets, bass guitar playing is a fun and crucial element in music that completes the full sound.





Acoustic Guitar magazine is 20 years old

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The Acoustic Guitar magazine is celebrating 20 years of service to all those die hard acoustic guitarists out there everywhere!

I’ve always found some great topics and intriguing issues in this magazine. The way the articles are phrased makes them simple to understand and the writers don’t talk down to you. I find this magazine to be unmatched and highly recommend it to any level of guitarist.

I’ve picked up some real nice little riffs and chord progressions in it that I find myself using without even realizing it! The website is just fabulous! If you have an online subscription, the guitar videos will help you become not only a much better guitarist, but a well rounded musician as well. I can’t say enough about the guys and girls that work there.

Acoustic Guitar’s 20th anniversary issue has what they consider to be the top 240 essential albums from the past 20 years. Some are from albums/guitarist that are familiar and some musicians that are very obscure to most, but in the end will help you expand your playing styles in new and exciting directions.

The anniversary installment, January’s issue, covers some great guitar and gear innovations over the past 20 years. Products like the Trace acoustic TA-100, the Kyser Quick Change capo (I’ve got one and I NEVER leave home with out one in my case), the Fishman Acoustic Matrix piezo pickup, tons of guitars and pedals. It also has a real nice article about how guitar making technology has helped change the sound of modern instruments.

Acoustic Guitar 20th Anniversary collector’s edition is out and I highly recommend that you pick this one up for either yourself or a guitarist that you know.

Keep on Jammin’ Acoustic Guitar!

The Roots Music Authority called No Depression

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The website called No depression is a follow up from a quarterly print magazine covering alternative- country music in 1995. The magazine was canceled in June 2008. I caught a glimpse of it while at work the other day and from what I saw of their final issue I wish that they continued on with it.

I found the magazine highlighting a ton of blues players and other songwriters, I only skimmed through it for around an hour and then the patient that had brought it in had to go.

No Depression had received Utne Reader Independent Press Awards for Arts & Literature coverage, and was cited as one of the nation’s Top 20 magazines of any kind in 2004 by the Chicago Tribune. It had it’s own radio show in Texas that was syndicated in between 2002 – 2003. They even did a tour with a couple of bands that they fell in love with during the magazine. They were featuring Whiskeytown, the Old 97’s, Hazeldine, and the Picketts) in 1997.

Our name, No Depression, refers to a song written by southern gospel pioneer J.D. Vaughan called “No Depression In Heaven.” The Carter Family recorded it in 1936, making the song one of their few topical offerings. It was cut again by Charlie Monroe (Bill’s brother and one-time singing partner) in 1948, released as the B-side of his 1950 RCA single “Mother’s Not Dead.” It next resurfaced, minus one verse, on a 1959 album by the New Lost City Ramblers (whose membership included Mike Seeger) called Songs From The Depression. That is the album that St. Louis band Uncle Tupelo heard and that they made the title track to their 1990 debut album. And that, in turn, led to the naming of an Internet discussion board, No Depression/Alt.Country. We thought all that history made it an ideal name for a magazine that wished to cover the past, present and future of American music. And with nodepression.com, we’re echoing the roots of that first-generation discussion board (which is still active, by the way).

In that final issue they also did a piece on a old high school friend of mine Carl Wilson, now that blew my mind!

So check it out and tell me what yo think of it!

Keep on jammin’

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