Thursday, February 11th, 2010
Surf guitar legend Dick Dale has another new signature guitar from Fender called the Malibu SCE. The new acoustic-electric was designed right along with Dick Dale himself and comes in a color described by Fender as “Surfin’ Red”. Dick Dale also has the Fender Dick Dale Signature Stratocaster.
Monday, February 1st, 2010
We stumbled upon an interesting article from USA Today that gives an overview of some Fender’s digital strategy. The No. 1 guitar manufacturer is embracing the Rock Band phenomenon (we noticed this trend in 2008) by trying to bridge the gap between the casual gamer and the beginner guitarist. The article is also interesting in that in gives some industry-wide figures on sales for last year.
Thursday, January 14th, 2010
Here’s a new way to show off your unending passion for guitars. Fender and T-Mobile announced a new limited edition version of the myTouch 3G phone with a sunburst finish. What’s great is after you drop your phone a few times, it becomes a relic’d version of the phone.
T-Mobile has signed up Eric Clapton to be the pitchman and they’re premiering on January 20th with Clapton in a commercial with the phone. We have to admit, it does have a nice flame on it.
Wednesday, January 6th, 2010
Just in time for NAMM 2010, Fender is announcing a new line of guitars called Fender American Special Series. The idea is create a solid, American made Fender that will be more affordable to the everyday guitar player. Can you say “recession buster!”
The new line up will include three guitars - a Stratocaster and a Stratocaster HSS along with a Telecaster version. Check out the video…
Wednesday, December 9th, 2009
We know that you would normally wait until the end of the year to start recapping the top items of the year, but here at Fretbase we like to do things differently. We know that people are considering guitars for that special someone right now and so we thought it would be worthwhile to let our users know now which were our most popular guitars in 2009.
So far this year over 400,000 people have visited Fretbase to get information about a guitar, gear, artist or song and we figure those 400,000 people probably know quite a bit (heck, they are reading Fretbase aren’t they?). So we have compiled a list of the most popular guitars as determined by looking at the number of our readers looking at each of these guitars. So without any further delay, let’s get to the list.
Tuesday, November 24th, 2009
Inspired in part by Michelle Obama’s gift earlier this year of a Gibson Hummingbird acoustic guitar to Carla Bruni-Sarkozi, the New York Times has an article today suggesting classic guitars as a good item to buy or give as a gift this holiday season (we should all have friends or family like this). While the first lady gave Bruni-Sarkozy a new model Hummingbird, the article suggests that an original model from the 1960’s might have been a better choice.
According to a guitar-maker quoted in the story, “A Hummingbird from the 1960s would cost in the region of $6,000, about twice as much as the new model. They are both great guitars, but for the extra money you get a level of craftsmanship in the vintage version that has been lost.” Then, the author turns his attention to the guitar that continues to be far and away the most sought after vintage guitar.
Sunday, May 31st, 2009
Monday, May 18th, 2009
You know what it’s like. You are traveling on business. You decided to fly with only carry-on so that you could keep it light. It is you, some clothes and your razor. After a full day of really boring meetings you are getting awfully lonely. You miss her. You head into the hotel bar and order a drink and drown your sorrow in your pretzels. It doesn’t help. You miss her more than ever. You wonder why you took this job. You wonder why it makes you travel so much. You wonder when you’ll see her again.
You miss your guitar.
Sheila is her name (wait, that’s just me). You cry out to her. “Sheila, Sheila, Sheila. Why?” You feel worse.
Well, thanks to Guitar Affair, just because you don’t have Sheila doesn’t mean you have to be lonely. You can Love The One You’re With. Whole Story…
Wednesday, April 1st, 2009
Fender has lost an appeal with the United States Patent and Trademark Office after it attempted to trademark the body shapes of the Fender Stratocaster, Telecaster and Precision Bass guitars. Fender had targeted companies like U.S. Music Corp (Washburn, Parker), Warmoth (makes guitar bodies), Schecter, ESP, Peavey and a bunch of others to try and stop the usage of the guitar shapes. The court focused on the question of whether or not consumers view these guitar shapes indication of the source of the manufacturer of the guitar.
Apparently the litigation has been going on for the past 5 years and has generated over 20,000 pages of court documents. Full story…
Monday, March 30th, 2009
While most people who think of Prince like to think of his singing and dancing, the guy plays a pretty mean electric guitar. But as he gets older (he’s 51), Prince is shifting from his less conventional guitars like this one to something more standard. Prince was on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno last week to promote the two CD’s of his music that he’s releasing through Target this week - LOtUSFLOW3R and MPLSoUND (don’t try to even say their names - much less say them five times fast). Instead of playing one of his regular purple concoctions, this time Prince showed up playing a light blue Fender Stratocaster - still a little out there but definitely more conventional. Click on to see the video.
