Posts Tagged ‘Gibson Guitar’
Monday, May 25th, 2009
This story does not go to eleven (mandatory opening line for a story related to Spinal Tap). The New York Times had a great story yesterday about how the original three members of Spinal Tap - Christopher Guest, Michael McKean and Harry Shearer - are going out on a tour billed as “Unwigged and Unplugged.” Of course the original drummer can’t join them since he died after choking on vomit - oddly, not his own vomit. The article describes how founding members Christopher Guest and Michael McKean first bonded in the late 1960’s over a certain model of Gibson guitar they both owned. Care to find out which one? Read the whole story.
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Tags: Christopher Guest, Gibson ES-335, Gibson ES-335TD, Gibson Guitar, Harry Shearer, Michael McKean, Spinal Tap
Posted in Guitars, News | 2 Comments »
Thursday, November 20th, 2008
We’re regularly ipressed by the great (i.e., free) guitar instruction online. Gibson Guitar has an especially instructive portion of their site called Arlen Roth’s Lesson of the Day where (get this) every day there is a new guitar lesson - using a Gibson guitar no less! Today’s lesson is an introduction to slide guitar. I have become particularly interested in slide guitar lately since Brian has been playing it all day in the office since purchasing a nut extender (see related story).
This lesson is very instructive. Roth covers fundamentals, dampening with the left and right hands, fingerpicking and choosing the right slide.
Introduction to Slide Guitar (Gibson Guitars)
Related Story: Choosing the Right Slide
Tags: arlen roth, Gibson Guitar, nut extender, slide guitar
Posted in Instruction | No Comments »
Wednesday, November 19th, 2008
We’re writing to let you know about some big improvements on Fretbase.
In the beginning, we wanted to build a website and community for guitarists built on a database of important guitar-related info. In fact, the “base” in our name refers to that database. (And “Fret” refers to the frets in a guitar – not what our families have been doing since we started this venture.)
Today we launched the Fretbase database along with a number of other useful features. We’re fired up to tell you about them.
- Fretbase now has over 24,000 pages devoted to your favorite guitars, artists and songs. What this means is that you can now get detailed information and photos of the Gibson Les Paul and hundreds of other guitars. Or maybe you want more detailed information about the guitars and songs played by Eric Clapton. Fretbase has that too. Or perhaps you just want to see some bedroom rockstars play Stairway to Heaven. Check.
- The entire database was built on a wiki (user editable) platform. So if you notice a guitar, artist or song that is missing, you can add it to Fretbase in no time. It is O.K. if you don’t have all of the relevant info. Just add your item to Fretbase and our expert editors will do the rest.
- Fretbase now has tens of thousands of guitar tabs integrated into the site. If you are just looking for a good place to get tabs for the Beatles’ Blackbird, Fretbase is the place to go.
- As a consumer of guitar-related stuff, we wanted to make it easy for you to find the stuff you need. The site now has pages on great local retailers – like Gryphon Stringed Instruments in Palo Alto, links to latest promotions from online guitar stores (see the top right of our top page), and links to download the songs you are trying to play – like Sweet Home Alabama - from iTunes and Amazon.
- Most importantly, Fretbase has enabled comments and discussions on every guitar, artist and song on Fretbase. So if you want to talk to other people that have a Fender Stratocaster or if you want to get tips on how to play Hotel California, Fretbase is the place.
Most importantly, we want Fretbase to be useful for all guitarists. If you have feedback, we’re eager to get it. Just post in our comments.
Tags: blackbird beatles, Eric Clapton, fender stratocaster, fretbase, Gibson Guitar, gibson les paul, gryphon stringed instruments, hotel california, stairway to heaven
Posted in News | No Comments »
Friday, September 12th, 2008
In today’s Fretbase Face Off, we’ll see two classics fight it out. In the first corner, we have the Martin D-28 - the solid spruce and rosewood dreadnought standard. In the other corner, we have the Gibson Hummingbird - a performer’s favorite played by artists including Keith Richards. We are pretty big Martin fans over here but we have been quite intrigued by Gibson guitars lately - in particular the Hummingbird and the J-45. If you want to see how these guitars did in the face-off, click on the link at the bottom of the story to see the video. And let us know which one you liked best in the comments.
Read more about Martin D-28 at Musician’s Friend
Read more about Gibson Hummingbird at Musician’s Friend
See the Video!
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Tags: Acoustic Guitar, Gibson Guitar, gibson hummingbird, guitar, Martin D-28, martin guitar
Posted in Uncategorized | 7 Comments »
Wednesday, September 3rd, 2008
I have been a fan of John Hiatt since the early 90’s when copies of Bring The Family and Slow Turning (on cassette back then) helped me survive some long cross-country drives between California and North Carolina. Recently, I have enjoyed seeing John Hiatt on the songwriter’s tour that Guy Clark, Lyle Lovett, Joe Ely and Hyatt have been performing.
So I was pretty happy when John Hiatt got the cover story of this month’s Acoustic Guitar Magazine. In particular, it was interesting to learn that Hiatt’s main acoustic guitars are Gibsons - two Gibson J-45’s and a Gibson J-200 (see photo). Both of these guitars are classic Gibsons - which makes sense for a guy like Hiatt. The article is good and it is a great excuse to check out his music again.
John Hiatt (Acoustic Guitar Magazine)
Gibson J-45 (Musician’s Friend)
Gibson J-200 Story (Fretbase)
Subscribe to Acoustic Guitar Magazine
Photo Credit: Archman8 via Creative Commons License
Tags: Acoustic Guitar, Gibson Guitar, Gibson J-200, Gibson J-45, John Hiatt
Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »
Wednesday, August 6th, 2008
We have been thinking about Chris Isaak a lot lately since he recently played the Mountain Winery in Saratoga (not too far from us here at Fretbase). We did a little research into his guitars and here is what we learned.
The guy is into Gibson guitars.
His primary electric guitar is a custom white Gibson ES-345 (in first photo). He says that people often think it is a Gretsch because it’s white but it is really a Gibson. The ES-345 guitar is the first on which Gibson used 5-way variable tone control in 1959. Gibson released a Chris Isaak signature model of this guitar in 2004. Chris also plays a Chet Atkins Country Gentleman.
As for acoustics, Isaak plays a Gibson J-200 Sunburst (now called the SJ-200). He plays and writes songs on it at night - often working on tunes right up until the point where he falls asleep.
All of Isaak’s songs are available on iTunes and Amazon.
Has anybody seen Chris Isaak in concert with any of these guitars? We’d love to hear how he was in the comments.
Photos courtesy of Gibson Guitars.
Tags: Chet Atkins, Chris Isaak, Gibson Guitar, Gibson SJ-200, guitar
Posted in Uncategorized | 1 Comment »
Wednesday, July 9th, 2008
I know you have been in this positon. You are debating between two different guitars and just can’t decide. Do you want to pay for the Martin or will the Chinese-built alternative work for you? You want a big bodied guitar. Do you go for a Gibson jumbo or a Martin dreadnought? Is the extra money for a Santa Cruz or a Collings really worth it?
Brian and I dreamed of (o.k., discussed) a feature where we would have videos comparing similar guitars, but our first conversation on how we would implement it went something like this.
Dave: That’s a great idea.
Brian: But where will we get all the guitars?
Dave: I thought you had them.
But then we realized we don’t need to run these comparisons ourselves. There are already plenty available online (I’m really starting to believe in this online thing). We’ll be sharing the best ones we find right here on Fretbase and make them easily available to you.
Without further delay, the first Fretbase Face Off….
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Tags: Acoustic Guitar, Gibson Guitar, Gibson J-45, guitar, Martin D-28, martin guitar, Martin HD-28
Posted in Uncategorized | 1 Comment »
Wednesday, June 25th, 2008
My wife discovered Patty Griffin at a listening station at a Borders Books & Music in 1996 (it is amazing to think there was a time when we found good new music that way). At the time, Patty had just released her first album Living With Ghosts. We both became big fans of the album and of Patty. Since then, Patty Griffin has become an even more popular musician and songwriter (even though her original label dumped her - fools - before she got picked up by Dave Matthews’ label). Her songs have been recorded by artists from The Dixie Chicks to Emmylou Harris, but we still prefer Patty Griffin’s versions of all of her songs. Last year I saw Patty Griffin on back-to-back nights at The Catalyst in Santa Cruz and then The Warfield in San Francisco. She was great both nights. Patty is a great artist to try to play on the acoustic guitar. Read on to find out how.
Photo Credit: Rick Harris under a Creative Commons License
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Tags: D'Addario Strings, Gibson Guitar, Gibson J-200, Gibson J-200 Junior, Patty Griffin, Shubb Capo, Tabs
Posted in Uncategorized | 1 Comment »
