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.

Featured, News »

Another cool competition.  From Fender this time.
Everyone loves a Jazzmaster, right?  ‘Course you do.  Well, so does J Mascis of Dinosaur Jr.
Fender are doing a Dinosaur Jr. tie-in with this competition.  You can win a, very handsome, custom-built, sparkle-finish Jazzmaster – with a gold anodised pickguard (none more cool) – that’s been signed by J Mascis.
If you win, Fender will even give you a copy of the latest Dino Jr. album.  Probably, the Jazzmaster is a bigger draw though – it is pretty stunning.
Pop off to Fender and sign up …

Featured, News »

Fender has posted an interview with guitarist, John 5.
There can’t be many that are unfamiliar with John 5, if only from his work with Marilyn Manson.  He has, of course, worked with a shed-load of other artists and is lucky enough to have both a Fender and a Squier signature model (and both quite nice they are too).
You may not know, however, that he has a Fender Telecaster from every year they’ve been available except for ’57, ’58 and ’60.  Lucky bastard.
His favourite is a 1950 Broadcaster.
It’s a good interview …

Featured, News »

Something for any Hank Marvin and/or Shadows fans out there.
Celebrating The Shadows is a concert of tribute acts to raise money for the Children In Need charity.  The concert is on 20th of November in Rushey Way in Reading and includes four Shadows tribute bands.
It also includes an auction for two electric guitars – a Fender 50’s Classic Stratocaster in Fiesta Red and a Burns Marquee in white.
Each has been signed by Hank and the Shadows (Bruce Welch and Brian Bennet) as well as ‘Sir’ Cliff Richard.
They’ll be auctioned off …

Headline, How To, Workshop »

The 3-Saddle Intonation Problem
If you play a Telecaster with a 3-saddle bridge (like the one shown opposite), you may be aware that setting intonation on the instrument is a matter of compromise.  Because a single adjustment screw sets the intonation on two different strings at the same time, Telecaster intonation is really a matter of ‘balancing the differences’ and getting each string as close as possible without putting its partner string out by too much.
Move to a 6-saddle bridge
If this really bothers you, you can move to a 6-saddle bridge. …

How To, Workshop »

You’re a millionaire playboy guitarist with a vintage Fender or you’re just someone with one of many current or past Fender originals and reissues.
Whatever the case, you’re finding that those big blues bends that you love doing are buzzing or, worse still, choking-out completely and dying. Your guitar plays fine and buzz-free the rest of the time but as soon as you go for a nice, soulful, bent note, it buzzes or chokes.
Annoying.
Possibly more annoying is when I tell you that there’s a good chance it’s just a limitation …