Hammond Music

Posts Tagged ‘jimi hendrix’

Mark Knopfler talks about a Fender Stratocaster

There can’t be many people who’ve not fantasised about becoming a guitar hero. Standing onstage, legs apart thrashing out power chords and blistering guitar solos loud enough to make peoples ears bleed. And there are a number of truly great electric guitars that have stood the test of time.

One of the most famous electric guitars is the Fender Stratocaster. Originally designed way back in 1954 the Fender Strat was the instrument favoured by the late, great Jimi Hendrix. It’s also the instrument chosen by the likes of Eric Clapton and Pete Townsend of the Who. The Fender Stratocaster continues to be as popular today as it ever was and a whole new generation of guitarists are discovering this great, iconic instrument.

Another well known guitar from Fender is the Telecaster. This beautifully simple instrument was first introduced as the Broadcaster in late 1949 and has been in continuous production ever since. There are many talented and well known guitar players who prefer to play Fender Teles. Keith Richards of the Rolling Stones is probably one of the most famous guitarists who chooses to play Telecasters.

If we are talking about classic guitars we must of course mention the fantastic Gibson Les Paul. This is another truly great electric guitar, first made back in the 1950s and in continuous production ever since. Jimmy Page, of Led Zeppelin and Yardbirds fame, is just one guitarist who loves the Gibson Les Paul. Another great guitarist who made the sound of this instrument famous in the song ‘Alright Now’ was the lat Paul Kossoff of the band Free.

Since I’ve given a mention to two Fenders its only fair that I should talk about two great Gibsons. I could have chosen the fantastic ES335, a favourite with many great guitarists, including BB King but instead I have chosen the exceptional Gibson SG. This great electric guitar with its distinctive looks was first introduced in the early 1960s initially to compete with the popular Fender Stratocaster. This is the guitar used by Angus Young of Australian rock band ACDC for all of their well known rock anthems. This great instrument was also the guitar used by Tony Iommi, guitarist with seventies rock band Black Sabbath.

There are just so many great guitars but these four are, without doubt, at the top of the list of great electric guitars of our age.

Jimi Hendrix is considered by many to be the best guitarist in the world.Even a well known name, among more artistically conservative musicians.He was very talented.However besides being a musical genius, so was his use of equipment of the era.Jimi loved to use new gear and constantly encouraged his tech, Roger Mayer to modify or create new guitar effects pedals and mix up signal routing methods.

Jimi realized that many guitar and amps of the era had limitations, and it wasn't long till he tried to bridge the issue.Chief among the them was signal sustain or compression, and over coming fast note decay while playing his fender stratocaster.  Its Eric Clapton that introduced Jimi to Fuzz Tone box in England in the mid 1960’s and a love affair ensued with guitar effects pedals.The Fuzz Tone in particular is widely believe to be the first commercial practical guitar effects pedal in the early 60's.Made famous by the Rolling Stone's Kieth Richard's lead riff on 'Can't get no satisfaction.Many new fuzz distortion pedals were designed such as; the fuzz face, tone bender and many more.Jimi gravitated to the fuzz face for sure its a known fact and is probably the leading profound reason this pedal has had such a resurgence of interest in recent years.

But getting back to the leading issue Jimi faced with note decay a lack of sustain and widely unknown problems surrounding the impedance issue inherent with all audio equipment.Jimi singled out the fuzz face, octavia, vox wah (not so much the thomas organ cry baby) and univibe phaser/chorus leslie rotating speaker emulation later in his career.Jimi often left the first generation of fuzz face the dallas arbiter nkt-275 germanuim transistor fuzz engaged and even when his marshall lead plexi stack's were roaring, hence he soon noticed the compression and boost when he roll back the volume knob on his guitar.  He was simply ahead of his time.

I can still remember a time not too long ago when I was seriously starting to believe that the electric guitar was breathing its last breaths. I think you can also remember a time when pop music used to dominate the music scene? Instead of wanting to learn to play electric guitar, it seemed to me that becoming the next Backstreet Boys spin-off was the coolest thing ever, at least according to the rest of the pop world.

Well, thank all that is good and holy, the days of the electric guitar is upon us once again. Because of a small handful of bands, rock has been given new life and because of this more and more people want to take up this instrument and learn to play electric guitar. A few excellent reasons why you should strongly consider trying your hand at an electric is:

1) It’s versatile! One of the most amazing features of the electric guitar is how many things you can do with it. Most new guitarists learn to play electric guitar to play rock songs, but there are a multitude of other amazing genres you can try out as well. You can find the some of the world’s greatest guitarists playing styles like jazz and blues, but they are also frequently found in other genres like metal, country, pop and many more.

2) You can get a great range of sound! You get a few extraordinary guitar players who can get almost any sound out of their axes that they want to. You can either buy effects pedals or just tweak some setting on your own setup to produce very unique sounds. The world’s best guitar players use both of these techniques to produce some amazing effects.

3) You’ll look cool! There no doubt that classical and acoustic guitars are beautiful, but something about passionately playing a solo on an electric guitar just screams cool. Just take a look at how effortlessly the rockstars are surrounded by the ladies; it makes it easy to understand why the guys are interested to learn to play electric guitar!

How can you learn to play?

There are tons of ways that you can learn to play electric guitar. These include:

1) Take classes: Having an instructor up close and personal is great and you will definitely see some gains towards your end goal.
2) Teach yourself: Some people have the self-discipline to sit sit down and learn to play electric guitar all by themselves. You should note that if you intend to play in a group like a band it can be very useful for everybody to have basic understanding of theory.
3) Take internet lessons: With the digital age that we’re living in it means that many things have been brought into the comfort of your own bedroom, including learning to play guitar. Websites are available that offers lessons online and for download. We highly recommend you check out our Jamorama review.

Before you begin on your journey, you should make sure that you have all the necessary equipment. Get yourself a guitar and amplifier that is not too expensive so that you wouldn’t have spent too much if you decide to stop playing for a while.

Remember to never hesitate to ask every single question you can think of as this is the best way to learn to play electric guitar. You will encounter a lot of guitarists in your journey and when something sounds awesome, ask them to show you how they did it. If you are practicing regularly, you will be stunning the crowds in no time!