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The Right Guitar For You...
Guitars Framed Art Print Joyce, Michelle Buy at AllPosters.com
I get asked all the time by beginning guitar players which guitar is right for them... Well... first off, there are so many types of guitarz out there, it's no wonder why a large majority of guitar players get burned on their first buying experience. My first guess would be to decide on what type of music you are into and what type of music gives you the motivation to pick up the guitar in the first place. If your into to rock music, you'll probably want an electric to start on. Country or Folk music you would maybe want an acoustic guitar. However, both types will do the trick.
This article will cover a few types of guitarz and give you a little history too! Don't forget to check my affiliates for all your educational needz. If your looking for kick ass guitar lessons online, I highly recommend Guitar Tips.com & Guitar Alliance.com. So don't forget to check them out and give 'em a test drive. Check out the Leo Fender Video further on down the page. Please Enjoy!
Types of Guitars There are numerous types of guitars… These include electric, steel string acoustic, and classical. Each of these main categories have various sub-types. Electric guitars can be solid body, hollow-body or semi-hollow. The flamenco guitar is similar to the classical guitar other than the fact that is lighter in construction, may have friction tuning pegs and a golpe plate (tap plate). Steel-string acoustics may have a pickup to allow for amplification. Some more types of Guitars are Electric, 7 String, 12 String,16 String, Double Neck,12 or 16 string Electric 12 or 16 string, Electric 4 string, Acoustic, 12 or 16 string Acoustic. Electric guitars have traditionally had two big measuring sticks... the Fender Stratocaster and the Gibson Les Paul. These are two traditional designs that have stood the test of time and won the respect of guitarists from many genres and generations. The electric guitar saw its early development in the form of Hawaiian guitars. Adolph Rickenbacker made one in 1931 and soon after, Leo Fender and Les Paul began working on making electric guitars of their own.
Insider Secrets to playing the Guitar
The big achievement was the electric pick-up which changes the string's vibrations into electricity... In 1938, Leo Fender he took a chance and opened the Fender Radio Service in downtown Fullerton. Soon, musicians began coming to Leo in search of improved guitars and amplifiers. Fender began K & F Manufacturing with fellow inventor Doc Kauffman (who designed guitars for Rickenbacker) in a shed behind the radio shop where, in 1945, he unveiled his first electric guitar.
In 1946, Leo opened the Fender Electric Instrument Company in Fullerton. It was there that he created the legendary Telecaster and Stratocaster - arguably, the most popular and successful guitar designs in history. Fender moved the small factory to 500 S. Raymond Ave. in Fullerton, and, in 1965, sold it to CBS Musical Instruments. Although, by his own admission, he "could not play a note," Fender went on to be inducted into both the Rock and Roll and Country Music Halls of Fame - recognition of the tremendous impact he had on contemporary society through his musical inventions. After the non-competition clause expired in the CBS sale agreement, Leo began designing guitars and basses for Music Man. The Sting Ray, and Sabre are two Fender designs. In the 1980s, Leo opened the G&L business on Fender Avenue (named for him) in Fullerton. He continued to work there every day until his death on March 21, 1991, from complications from Parkinson's Disease.
In the early 1960s Rickenbacker history became forever wedded to one of the biggest music upheavals of the 20th century: the invasion of the mop-top Beatles from Liverpool, England. The Beatles used several Rickenbacker models in the early years. Before the group broke up, John Lennon would own at least four.
This love affair began in Hamburg, Germany in 1960 when he bought a natural-blonde Model 325 with a Kauffman vibrato. Lennon played the original (which was eventually refinished black but still easily identified by its gold-backed lucite pickguard) on all Beatle recordings and in all concerts until early 1964. While Paul's Rick bass surged like an undertow, George Harrison's double-bound 360/12 (the second one made by the company) defined a new tone at the other end of the audio spectrum. Its ringing sound embellished "You Can't Do That," "Eight Days a Week," and "A Hard Day's Night," to name just three 12-string cuts from the 1964-65 period. Thus the Beatles created unprecedented, international interest in Rickenbackers, which many fans actually believed came from Britain... (Before 1964 all Rickenbacker guitars had been made at the original Electro String factory in Los Angeles. That year Hall moved it over a six month period to Santa Ana, in nearby Orange County. )
Les Paul has had such a staggeringly huge influence over the way American popular music sounds today that many tend to overlook his significant impact upon the jazz world. Before his attention was diverted toward recording multi-layered hits for the pop market, he made his name as a brilliant Heavily influenced by Django Reinhardt at first, Paul eventually developed an astonishingly fluid, hard-swinging style of his own, one that featured extremely rapid runs, fluttered and repeated single notes, and chunking rhythm support, mixing in country & western licks and humorous crowd-pleasing effects. No doubt his brassy style gave critics a bad time, but the gregarious, garrulous Paul didn't much care; he was bent on showing his audiences a good time.
Even on his many pop hits for Capitol in the late '40s and early '50s, one can always hear a jazz sensibility at work in the rapid lead solo lines and bluesy bent notes -- and no one could close a record as suavely as Les. And of course, his early use of the electric guitar and pioneering experiments with multitrack recording, guitar design and electronic effects devices have filtered down to countless jazz musicians. Among the jazzers who acknowledge his influence are George Benson, Al DiMeola , Stanley Jordan (whose neck-tapping sound is very reminiscent of Paul's records), Pat Martino and Bucky Pizzarell.
Which Guitar Is Best For You
Updated: 3/17/07
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Though he couldn't read music, Paul had a magnificent ear and innate sense of structure, conceiving complete arrangements entirely in his head before he set them down track by track on disc or tape.
