The new Fender Pawn Shop Series. Two Fender ’72 guitars (front and far left) and two Fender ’51 guitars (far right) flank two Mustang Special guitars.

Fender is proud to continue its long tradition of innovation by introducing the new Pawn Shop Series guitars—the Fender ’51, Fender ’72 and Mustang® Special. These instruments draw inspiration from the eccentric and sometimes wildly innovative Fender creations of the mid-’60s to mid-’70s era that sometimes found their way to the outside world and into the more esoteric pages of Fender history. With this adventurous spirit in mind, Pawn Shop Series instruments emerge as all-new Fender guitars with a boldly creative alchemy of diverse Fender components. And while they are brand-new members of the Fender family crafted with thoroughly modern sound and quality, Pawn Shop Series instruments now take the stage with a remarkable new identity as “guitars that never were but could have been.”

The Pawn Shop Fender ’51 melds Fender elements from the ’50s, ’60s and ’70s into one truly distinctive-looking, dynamic-sounding guitar. It has a Stratocaster® body and a C-shaped Telecaster® neck, with a single-coil Texas Special™ neck pickup, Fender Enforcer™ humbucking bridge pickup and an early-’50s Precision Bass-style dual-knob chrome control plate. Other features include a maple fretboard with modern 9.5” radius and medium jumbo frets, master volume control with push-pull coil split function to get single-coil tone from the humbucking bridge pickup, three-position rotary pickup selector knob, ’70s-style hard-tail Stratocaster bridge, vintage-style tuners and strap buttons, and deluxe gig bag.

The Pawn Shop Fender ’72 presents an unusual combination of classic Fender design elements, not the least of which is its semi-hollow Stratocaster body with an f hole. The result is a truly distinctive instrument with a huge sound, with other features including a U-shaped Telecaster neck, rosewood fretboard with modern 9.5” radius and 6105 frets, Fender Wide Range humbucking neck pickup and Fender Enforcer™ humbucking bridge pickup, early-’50s Precision Bass-style dual-knob chrome control plate with master volume and center-detented pickup blend controls, ’70s-style hard-tail Stratocaster bridge, ’70s-style Fender “F” tuners, mint green pickguard, bullet truss rod, three-bolt neck attachment and deluxe gig bag.

The Pawn Shop Mustang Special is a classic in everything from a venerable Fender model name to its sleek amalgam of design elements and matchless tonal versatility. Its modified offset Mustang body imparts a sleek 1960s vibe, and its 24” short-scale maple neck with a ’60s-era C shape is comfortable for those accustomed to vintage-style instruments. Other features include a rosewood fretboard with modern 9.5” radius and medium jumbo frets, dual Fender Enforcer™ humbucking pickups with ’70s-style covers, pickup toggle switch, three-way coil selector slide switch for each humbucking pickup (enabling 18 different tonal options), mint green pickguard, ’70s-style hard-tail Stratocaster bridge, vintage-style tuners and strap buttons, and deluxe gig bag.

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Happy St. Paddy’s Day 2011

Top of the morning to ya! Here's a little St. Patrick's Day Cheer from the Electro-Harmonix Guitar Effects Company. Don't forget to sport some green out there and have a Jolly Good Day! Cheers!

Bill Ruppert breathes in the dew of a fine morning in old Eire. With a sly wink and a nod, Bill recreates the mystery of the old Ireland using a little Elvin magic and the power of EHX pedals. Learn the secrets of creating lush string synthesizers and Irish tin whistles, using just a regular guitar and Electro-Harmonix effect pedals.

Original Electro-Harmonix Article

Here's Another Great Article from Fender's Site. Enjoy!

A Classic Series Esquire model, with its single pickup concealed beneath the bridge cover.

Q: When is a pickup switch not a pickup selector switch?

A: When it’s the pickup switch on an Esquire® guitar.

Think about it: The Fender Esquire guitar model has only one pickup. So why does it have a three-position pickup switch?

Excellent question. Many of us are so accustomed to thinking of pickup switches as pickup selector switches that we might be unaware that they can in fact have other useful functions. So it is in the case of the time-honored Esquire—Fender’s original electric guitar—on which the three-position switch functions as a tone-shaping control for its single pickup. Its three settings are:

Bridge position. The pickup is routed through the volume control only, with the tone control bypassed.

Middle position. The pickup is routed through the volume and tone controls.

Neck position. The pickup is routed through the volume control and a fixed treble roll-off capacitor that produces a very dark, bass-heavy tone, with the tone control bypassed.

The three-position pickup switch was put to even greater tonal use on the Esquire’s two-pickup sibling of the early 1950s, the Telecaster®, for which it served double-duty as a true pickup selector switch and a tone-shaping switch. Then of course, before the decade was out, players such as James Burton discovered that the switch produced further gratifying tonal options when balanced in the two in-between positions, a phenomenon that also pertained to Fender’s new guitar model of 1954, the Stratocaster®.

The Esquire remains in the Fender family to this day in the form of the Classic Series ’50s Esquire and occasional Custom Shop models.

Original Fender Article

Different worlds, same guitar: The Telecaster in the hands of (clockwise from upper left) Jimmy Bryant (circa early 1950s), John 5, Marty Stuart and the Smithereens’ Jim Babjak.

Thoughts on the musically fascinating double life of Fender’s original electric guitar. If there was ever a guitar with a split personality, it’s the Telecaster.

One the one hand, it’s universally regarded as the number-one country electric guitar. The Telecaster was built for western swing guitarists, introduced by that name in 1951 and thus pre-dating rock ‘n’ roll by nearly half a decade. Its bright signature twang became one of the defining and enduring sounds of country music, and it was the electric guitar of choice for pioneer hit makers such as Merle Haggard, Buck Owens and Waylon Jennings, and for noted sidemen such as James Burton and Luther Perkins. More than half a century later, the Telecaster’s status as the king of country hasn’t diminished a bit. It’s still preferred by the sharpest players and songwriters atop the modern country charts—artists such as Brad Paisley, Marty Stuart, Vince Gill, Keith Urban and many others.

Far removed from the twang of Nashville and Bakersfield, though, the Telecaster has led a fascinating double life. For on the other hand—and often on the other side of the Atlantic—the Telecaster has been the weapon of choice for some of rock’s most inventive legends, innovators and iconoclasts.

Rock ‘n’ roll embraced the Telecaster with open arms and open minds. Rock royals Keith Richards, George Harrison, Pete Townshend, Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck and Ray Davies have all played it. So did 1960s psychedelic godfathers Syd Barrett and Jimmy Page. In the mid-1970s, punk patriarch Joe Strummer led a revolution while brandishing a Telecaster. Later that decade, the Police at first flew the punk flag but made no attempt to disguise the smart chops and startling creativity of Andy Summers, who forged a widely imitated post-punk guitar sound with his battered Telecaster as the trio rose to chart-topping world success in the 1980s. A decade later in the mid-1990s, an inventive new generation of Britpop guitarists emerged, led by Blur’s Graham Coxon and Radiohead’s Johnny Greenwood, both of whom were devoted Telecaster players.

How strange and wonderful then that the same guitar that is the plaintive sound of Waylon Jennings’ sly “Mental Revenge” (1966) is also the seismic sound of one of rock’s most famous debut albums, Led Zeppelin (1969).

And how interesting that the same electric guitar that was put to such dexterous use in the 1950s by lightning-fast western swing ace Jimmy Bryant still exists in the 2000s—and basically unchanged, at that—and is put to equally nimble use by Rob Zombie’s talented shredder, John 5.

The Telecaster provides the main instrumental sound of both these albums, 1969’s Led Zeppelin (above) and Brad Paisley’s 2009 American Saturday Night.

How curious, too, that the same electric guitar that the great Muddy Waters once used to electrify the Delta blues so forcefully in the 1940s and ’50s is the same guitar that bemasked Slipknot guitarist Jim Root currently uses to pulverize metal audiences worldwide.

The Telecaster inhabits different musical worlds that couldn’t possibly be farther apart, yet it manages to sound right at home on a foot-tapping ’60s-era Buck Owens single, an atmospheric ’70s-era Pink Floyd album, a chiming ’80s-era pop hit by the Pretenders, an artsy ’90s-era electronic excursion by Radiohead and a 2000-era de-tuned nu-metal onslaught by Slipknot.

All this from the greatest country music guitar ever. Indeed, the Telecaster still rules the form for which it was intended and invented. Real country music still sounds the way it does because a Telecaster still sounds like, well, like itself.

No other famous electric guitar model seems to enjoy such a musically versatile dichotomy. You think of the Telecaster’s ubiquitous sibling, the Stratocaster®, and you think mainly of famous rock players and blues legends. It’s not necessarily the first electric guitar that leaps to mind at the mention of country music even though plenty of country players swear by it. As indispensable as the Stratocaster is, it doesn’t have quite the air that its older brother has that it naturally lives in two different places at once.

The Telecaster does leap to mind at the mention of both country music and rock music. And as modern music continues to grow around the Telecaster, the more unusual that feat seems. And so perhaps we shouldn’t say that the time-honored Telecaster suffers from a split personality. Rather, we should say that the Telecaster enjoys a split personality. The great players and forces that drive the creation of music, it appears, wouldn’t have had it any other way.

A selection of great guitarists across the popular music spectrum who currently play the Telecaster or who have played it at some point in their careers:

Country, blues, jazz, roots, etc:
Jimmy Bryant

Roy Buchanan

James Burton

Albert Collins

Steve Cropper

Jerry Donahue

Bill Frisell

Danny Gatton

Vince Gill

Ted Greene

Merle Haggard

Waylon Jennings

Bill Kirchen

Albert Lee

Brent Mason

Roy Nichols

Buck Owens

Brad Paisley

Luther Perkins

Will Ray

Don Rich

Arlen Roth

G.E. Smith

Mike Stern

Marty Stuart

Guthrie Trapp

Keith Urban

Redd Volkaert

Muddy Waters

Clarence White


Rock:


Jim Babjak

Syd Barrett

Jeff Beck

Frank Black

Marc Bolan

Peter Buck

Jeff Buckley

Mike Campbell

Eric Clapton

Hugh Cornwell

Graham Coxon

Ray Davies

Bob Dylan

John 5

David Gilmour

Johnny Greenwood

George Harrison

Robyn Hitchcock

Steve Howe

Chrissie Hynde

Wilko Johnson

Alex Lifeson

Jimmy Page

Keith Richards

Robbie Robertson

Jim Root

Bruce Springsteen

Andy Summers

Joe Strummer

Pete Townshend



Original Fender Article

Most guitarists spend the majority of their time learning, practicing and performing with their instrument. This is as it should be. But if you play an electric, then a certain amount of time and attention is required to optimize your gear. Working all the knobs and switches is one thing, but occasionally more than basic operation will be required, especially with a larger rig that incorporates multiple pedals and effects.

Let’s start by going through a basic procedure for troubleshooting a setup with multiple pedals. Assume you’re at a gig and you suddenly have no sound coming from your amp, or even worse, the sound coming from your amp is a loud buzzing or some equally horrifying sound. You fumble around in sheer panic before deciding to plug directly into your amp, foregoing the aural delight of your effects for the evening. The problem was likely something fairly simple, and if not for the panic attack, you probably would have figured it out eventually. Here’s a quick and simple routine that will allow you to quickly pinpoint and address the problem, which should result in shorter down times.

“…problem-solving is often more difficult with the added pressure and excitement of a live performance than practicing in your living room or rehearsal space, when you have time to troubleshoot at your leisure.”

To begin with, it’s easiest to start troubleshooting backwards, from the amp rather than from the guitar. This may seem a little counter-intuitive to some, but since the sound you ultimately hear comes from the amp, that’s where you’ll want to start. Check the amp itself by plugging your guitar cable directly into it. If that works, then you’ve ruled out the amp, guitar, and guitar cable as the possible culprits. Now go ahead and plug your pedals back in. If the problem you’re having is that there’s no sound, pull the output cable out of the last pedal in the chain and touch it to see if you get a buzzing sound from the amp. If so, this indicates that you have signal going from the last pedal to your amp. Reconnect the cable and move on to the next pedal in your chain, using the same test—touch the plug that you pull out of the next pedal’s output jack. Keep moving up one pedal at a time through the signal chain until you locate the source of the signal loss problem, then you can determine what’s causing the loss of signal. It may be a bad or loose patch cord, a pedal with no power, or a bad switch.

For “noise” problems, you will want to plug the guitar directly into the input jack of the last pedal in the chain, and then move up one pedal at a time to find the noisy pedal or patch cord. You should hear a normal sound until you locate the pedal or connection that’s making the noise. It’s often just a cable plug that is not fully seated or a little dirty. It could also be a sick pedal—we’ll discuss troubleshooting noisy or malfunctioning pedals in our next segment, but if you’re in the middle of a gig you may just want to put the problem pedal aside and deal with it later.

This little routine we’ve just outlined may seem elementary to some of you, but we’re surprised at how many pro-level players still find themselves in the above situation—lost as to what to do. There’s also the “firing line factor”: problem-solving is often more difficult with the added pressure and excitement of a live performance than practicing in your living room or rehearsal space, when you have time to troubleshoot at your leisure. “Rehearsing” your set up, breakdown and troubleshooting process during your down time is a great way to make sure you’re fool-proof under fire during a gig.

Finally, if you don’t do so already, it’s a good idea to put together an emergency utility kit to bring along to your gigs. Here’s a quick list of items you’ll want to include:

Extra batteries (even if you use a power supply, in case a power supply dies)

An extra power supply (Boss-type 9VDC wall wart)

An extension cord and a power strip

Extra guitar cables and short patch cords

Screwdrivers (flat and Phillips head)

Wire cutters/strippers

Small handheld volt/ohm meter

Duct tape (good for broken battery covers, bottom plates shutting)

Gaffer’s tape (not the same as Duct tape; it is easily removed. Ideal for taping down wires, set lists, and posting notes)

Electrical tape

Scissors

Cable tie wraps

The name Eddie Van Halen stands for a lot more than just otherworldly guitar playing. It’s also synonymous with technical innovation and intuition, and for good reason. Eddie’s keen sense for the building blocks of tone not only helped revolutionize the way that people played guitar, but how they built them.

Eddie’s name has graced a few excellent signature products throughout the years that reflect his innovative spirit. But now Eddie has a brand all his own. And with the cooperation of Fender Musical Instruments, the EVH brand has thrived, releasing the 5150 III amplifier and the Wolfgang electric guitar. The American-made Wolfgang was a major success, prompting the release of a less expensive model crafted in Japan—the EVH Wolfgang Special.

A Rose By Any Other Name

The Wolfgang Special is very similar to its American-made cousin in several ways. The body is lightweight basswood with a very attractive grain that’s capped with a Tobacco Burst finished maple veneer instead of the carved, ½” thick maple top that adorns the USA model. The veneer is impressive. Moving it about in the light revealed a noticeable depth that I tend to see in high-quality caps and slab bodies.

The quartersawn maple neck was equally impressive, and topped off with an AA birdseye maple fingerboard. In terms of specifications, this neck is essentially the same as the American model, all the way down to the compound radius of 12” to 16”. The unfinished texture of the neck felt wonderful—evoking thoughts of a well-worn Louisville Slugger. That being said, the neck’s size sat more at the midpoint between fat and thin. Meaty enough to grip, but thin enough to enable quick movement all over the fretboard. Eddie’s love of stainless steel vintage fretwire gives the Wolfgang Special accents the old school, hot-rodded guitar feel. More simply, this is one of the finest necks that I’ve come across in quite some time. The precision installation of the fretwire and shape the neck was remarkable, and the combination of the size of the wire, neck profile, radius and bare wood are clearly optimized for the rock player.

Signal output comes from the same two EVH brand humbuckers that are featured in its USA-made cousin, and are screwed directly into the body to help increase sustain and punch. An EVH-branded Floyd Rose locking vibrato system is matched with Eddie’s famous D-Tuna invention for instant dropped-D tuning—making the guitar feel and look almost identical to its higher-priced brethren, minus the carved maple top and multi-ply body binding.

Drop Dead Tone

The overall tone of the Wolfgang Special can be summed up in a general sense as balanced, yet bright. Eddie himself once commented that he never really thought of his sound as “brown” but as bright and authoritative. The Wolfgang Special reflects that school of thought—barking with a razor sharp, stinging quality when pumped through a Dave Friedman-modded Jet City JCAH-BES head. Even though the bridge pickup—rated at 14k—was pretty hot, it was crystal clear when playing big, open chords and heavy riff work.

All of the guitars in the EVH line have their three-way pickup selector switches wired backwards, meaning that the bridge pickup is on when the switch in the up position, and the neck pickup is active when the switch is flipped down. The wiring is an odd signature feature that Eddie is fond of, but I simply found it irritating. It’s easy enough to enlist in a capable tech to reverse the switch, but a shame that many players will want to change the wiring right off the bat.

The neck pickup displayed remarkable clarity and definition. When I dropped the guitar’s tone and volume controls to lower the output, the highs would naturally dissipate while the cutting quality of the pickups remained. I loved having this capacity at my fingertips—particularly since it evoked Eddie’s killer breakdown section in “Panama.”

The pickups’ true tonal nature really shone through when playing the amp clean, and were almost hi-fi sounding in comparison to a lot of other pickups on the market. While most hot pickups will push the amp’s preamp into overdrive fairly easily, the Wolfgang Special’s pickups just enhanced the clean punch of the amp. They had a big, three-dimensional sound that was very present, though at times it required some high-end frequency attenuation from the amp’s treble control. Hot and rocking these pickups might be, they are far from one-trick ponies.

The Verdict

The purpose of the EVH line of guitars was to capture the best of Eddie Van Halen’s design concepts and refine those features in a sleek, highly playable electric guitar that anyone can own and experience. The Wolfgang Special succeeds on all counts at a price that’s even more accessible than its American-made brother. The neck is terrific in every sense of the word, with a smooth, comfortable finish and impeccable fretwork. And the pickups are powerful and precise, yet brash with an unrelenting nature. This instrument was meant to be loud and proud— just as it should be with those legendary initials adorning its headstock.

Original Article