CDs and DVDs, Featured »

Woah. Thanks to the Fender blog for bringing this baby to our attention.
The video below is a taster for a new, double-disk, DVD, Leo Fender’s Telecaster – The Original Twang. This documentary film looks at the 60 year history of the Tele and its antecedents, the Broadcaster, Esquire and No-Caster. Teles from way back in Leo Fender’s Fullerton up to current custom shop instruments feature.
There are interviews, and performances, from a mass of Tele players and lovers including Steve Cropper, Jeff Beck, Keith Richards, James Burton, Albert Lee, …

Competition, Featured »

With the Experience Hendrix Tour getting ready to hit to roads in March, Fender have snaffled tickets for six of the nineteen shows and are giving them away, the crazy bastards.
If you feel you’d like to watch, Billy Cox, Joe Satriani, Jonny Lang, Eric Johnson, Kenny Wayne Shepherd, Brad Whitford, Doyle Bramhall II, Ernie Isley, Living Colour- Double Trouble’s Chris Layton, Los Lobos, Susan Tedeschi, Sacred Steel and Hubert Sumlin all do Hendrixy stuff, you need to get yourself over to Fender and enter the competition.
Fender have two tickets for each …

Featured, News »

That’s a Gibson logo over there but Gibson aren’t the only ones caught up in a series of legal actions that accuse Gibson themselves, Fender, Yamaha, Guitar Centre and the National Association of Music Merchants (NAMM) of meeting to agree price fixing arrangements. The plaintiffs in these cases claim the alleged cartel is in violation of the Sherman Antitrust Act.
The industry association denies the charges but their attorney has declined to comment pending litigation.
Gibson, however, have commented.  This was published earlier today, 27th January.
Official Statement from Gibson Guitar Corp
01.27.2010
Gibson …

Featured, News »

Look closely.
See that?  That’s a rosewood bridge with an acoustic saddle on there.  But it looks like a Tele bridge.  If you’re going to make a hybrid-type guitar from a Tele, that’s a nice touch.
And that’s what this is.  The Acoustasonic Tele is fitted with a Fishman Aurasystem to allow realistic, acoustic tones from a Tele.  It’s also got a regular, magnetic neck pickup to give more traditional (electric) Tele sounds.
Cool, eh?

The magnetic pickup is a Custom Shop Twisted Tele single-coil.  Its controls are on the front plate as per …

Featured, News »

Fender have announced details of the 2010 American Special series of instruments.  Fender claim these are built ‘by the people, for the people’ and that they are ‘guitars for the times’.
US-built, the series, so far, includes the American Special Telecaster, Stratocaster and Stratocaster HSS.  They are touted as highly-affordable guitars within the reach of an entire spectrum of players that share many features with the Highway One and American Standard instruments.
All American Specials have alder bodies finished in urethane and buffed to a gloss.  All share a 9.5″-radius, maple neck …

Bass, Featured »

Fender are celebrating half a century of Jazz Bass goodness by introducing the limited edition, 50th Anniversary Jazz Bass.  The idea is that this bass incorporates design elements from several important periods in Jazz Bass history.
This baby includes features from a few different eras (even if ‘modernised’ versions of them).
From the 60’s:

Nitrocellulose finish in Candy Apple Red.
60’s style headstock logo
C-shaped neck
Chrome pickup and bridge covers
Pearloid block inlays on the fingerboard

From the 70’s:

Bridge pickup placement
Thumb rest

From today:

High-mass, vintage-style bridge
Modern tuners
Posiflex neck support rods

Personally, I’ve always liked Jazz basses with block inlays …

Featured »

Are you guitar enough?
Maybe you’ve got some guitar magazines under your coffee table.  Maybe you’ve got some picks strewn around your coffee table.  But, have you got a guitar coffee table?
Were betting not.  Now you can remedy that.
If you provide Fender with $250, they will provide you with a coffee table in the shape of a Strat headstock.  If you’re really, really flush, you could part with $750 for a Deluxe model of either a Strat or a Tele headstock.
We’re guessing most living rooms probably won’t be adorned with these …

Featured, News »

If you pop over to Fender’s UK site, you can register to win a Squier Telecaster that has been signed by a whole crapload of musicians.
All you need to do is enter your details at Fender and this could be yours. The winner will be picked on 4th of January.
All of the autographers (yeah, we know it’s not a word) are members of bands who performed at this year’s Reading Festival.
And there’s a lot of them.  The guitar is signed by:

Alexisonfire
Atreyu
Bring Me The Horizon
Deftones
Enter Shikari
Fightstar
Frank Turner
Funeral For A Friend
Glasvegas
Gossip
Hockey
Kids In …

Featured, News »

It’s getting towards that time of year again.  Out with the old, in with the new and all that.  And, as a discerning, guitar-geek, you need something to record important dates – gigs, rehearsals, Yngwie Malsteem’s birthday, that sort of thing.
You could make do with that calendar that your significant-other has bought – the one full of pictures of weird, fluffy kittens looking terrified because a photographer has glued them into a boot for the purposes of a shot that makes a certain person say ‘awwwww’ but makes most people …

Featured, News »

It seems the only news lately is sales, sales, sales.
For their Thanksgiving celebration, Fender are offering 10% off the price of all Fender gear over the holiday weekend (27th to 30th November).
This isn’t a sale, however, it’s actually called Fender Fan Appreciation Days. Fair enough – doesn’t matter what it’s called when there are bargains to be had.
This is in participating Fender dealers only (and US only).
To see if there’s a participating dealer near you, check Fender.