Category — Fender Guitars

My Bloody Valentine’s headlining set at the Fuji Rock Festival was captured on professional video, and video is available online for the song “To Here Knows When”.

The footage is great of the band and stage setup, the band really does sound good live. I noticed that of course Kevin Sheild’s is playing a Fender Jaguar and 2nd guitarist/vocalist Belinda Butcher is playing a Fender Mustang.

“To Here Knows When” live at the Fuji Rock Festival.

The Police have officially called it quits for good (for the 2nd time). The band finished their 151-show reunion tour last night at New York City’s Madison Square Garden. The tour came in as the 3rd highest grossing tour of all time with a whopping $358,825,665 in total gross, only U2 and The Rolling Stones have out grossed them.

Reviews of the finale show have generally been positive, noting that the band and in particular drummer Stewart Copeland were very tight. Sting has been playing his usual Fender bass, his signature model. Some reviews have noted the odd first encore break the band took.

“Another twist was saved for the encore, which began with a dexterous run through Jimi Hendrix’s “Purple Haze.” Just prior, the video screens revealed that the heavily bearded Sting was being shaved backstage, while simultaneously getting a manicure, pedicure and massage.”

Wow, Sting is just ridiculous, I won’t even bother saying much more than that. One cool thing is that their 2nd encore, just one more song was the up-tempo “Next To You” which definitely reminds me of the bands early english-punk roots, after all that is the scene they originally came out of.

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Guitar Blog has a great piece up (dated July 28th, 2008) about the inappropriate use of decals on guitars. In it, several points are mentioned about how it is not only deceiving to mark a guitar with the incorrect decal, but also an insult to the guitar you may currently have..

The most commonly used decals are Fender’s, these are put on everything from strat knock-offs to guitars that don’t even closely resemble a Fender. Squier guitars are common victims of the fake decal routine but as stated at Guitar Blog, you shouldn’t be ashamed to play a Squier Guitar as some of them are great guitars in their own right.

The desire to want guitars beyond your means is something every guitarist goes through. It is only after you  see many of your musical idols performing with cheap gear that you realize the instrument isn’t usually what makes them so good, it is their playing and that is what is most important.

Hoping to pick up on the absence of Guitar Center’s and convenience, Best Buy has announced that they will begin carrying musical instruments. The store won’t change into solely a musical instrument retailer, but they will allocate a certain amount of space per store to instruments/musical equipment.

“The nation’s largest consumer electronics retailer will announce Tuesday that it plans to open as many as 85 of the music centers inside its stores by the end of the year and could add even more locations in the future, executives told The Associated Press.”

“Each site will use about 2,500 square feet of retail space and include roughly 1,000 different products with well-known brand names such as Fender, Gibson, Drum Workshop and Roland.”

“When the rollout is complete, Best Buy — already considered by many investors to be a global powerhouse in the electronics retailing world — will become the second-largest instrument seller in the country based on locations.”

While I am usually weary of huge corporations in general, I really think this is a postive thing. A lot of kids in smaller towns or areas don’t have any local music stores or even Guitar Center and I can see a lot of kids getting their first guitar from a place like Best Buy.

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Stereogum has a very interesting post up today, which essentially is a link to a bootleg of a Stephen Malkmus & The Jicks performance at The Siren Festival from July 19th.

This is interesting because not only is a pretty official website posting a bootleg, but during the performance the band played a new song, not yet released titled “Astral Facial”.

Also of note is the picture above from the post, where it appears that Stephen Malkmus is playing a Japanese Fender Stratocaster, the kind I am always looking for because of the smaller neck radius.

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Gibson.com has a great, brand-new interview with Buzz Osborne of The Melvins up at their site. In this interview Buzz Osborne discusses, among other things, the recording of The Melvins new album “Nude With Boots” and his thoughts on music in general.

One thing I thought was very interesting about the interview is that he mentions using Fender guitars in places on the new album. Buzz Osborne is usually associated with Les Paul Customs, as many Melvins fans know. Excerpt…

“I used my ’69 Les Paul on the whole album supported by a Silvertone, Telecaster, and an early ’90s reissue Mustang.”

You can check out the full interview here.

Well, continuing in the tradition of the late spring season, here is another new album being discussed. This time it’s the famous/infamous Courtney Love…The widow of Kurt Cobain, ex-Hole lead singer and current solo artist.

Love’s last album, as most people know, (or don’t I guess) “America’s Sweetheart” was a total bomb. The album was released in 2004 and to date has sold 86,000 copies according to Nielsen SoundScan.

Now Courtney Love is speaking about her upcoming album via her MySpace blog. She is once again working with Custard Records owner and famed producer/songwriter Linda Perry.

“Don’t assume you know any songs on this album,” she continues. “Some may sound somewhat familiar or even have the same titles and arrangements. A few are just precious diamonds I wouldn’t touch, but there’s TONS of NEW ones which you haven’t a clue about.”

“I think we made a beautiful, vibey, magical record,” Perry told Billboard in late 2006. “Courtney Love’s name should be right next to Bob Dylan when they say best lyricist of all time.”

Well, I don’t know about that…Bob Dylan? Really? The reason I’m posting about Courtney Love here is simple, it’s because she’s a lot of people’s favorite guitarist (sarcasm). She actually did have her own guitar that she took part in designing, it was part of Fender’s lower budget Squier series models and it was called The Venus. While I can’t comment on the playability of the guitar, I think its cool that she designed a more affordable model.

As far as Courtney Love’s music and my opinion of it, I actually thought Hole’s first album ‘Pretty on The Inside” was a good record and even Live Through This, everything after that point im not all that familiar with. We’ll see what happens with this new album I guess.

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Highly influential shoegaze band My Bloody Valentine have reunited. While initially their only dates included euro dates and summer European festivals, such as the massive Roskilde Festival in Denmark, the band has now announced US headlining tour dates.

Pitchforkmedia are as usual, really psyched that a cool but really overrated band such as MBV (as hipsters refer to them I guess), is reuniting and touring…

“Well my little gazers of shoe, it’s finally happening. My Bloody Valentine have revealed that they will pack up all the Jaguars and Jazzmasters and all the folks who have to constantly re-tune those Jaguars and Jazzmasters for an extended visit to the United States of America (and Toronto)– one that will include the previously freaked-out-about and recently-expanded ATP New York, along with seven additional dates.”

I might actually go to one of the shows in Santa Monica, if the ticket prices aren’t too ridiculous. A lot of people thought they’d never see My Bloody Valentine reunite ever, but everyone likes money I guess…

06-20 London, England - The Roundhouse
06-21 London, England - The Roundhouse
06-22 London, England - The Roundhouse
06-23 London, England - The Roundhouse
06-24 London, England - The Roundhouse
06-28 Manchester, England - Apollo
06-29 Manchester, England - Apollo
07-02 Glasgow, Scotland - Barrowland
07-03 Glasgow, Scotland - Barrowland
07-03-06 Roskilde, Denmark - Roskilde Festival
07-09 Paris, France - Zenith
07-17-20 Benicàssim, Spain - Festival Internacional de Benicàssim
07-25 Naeba, Japan - Fuji Rock Festival
08-08 Oslo, Norway - Øya Festival
09-05 Isle of Wight, England - Bestival
09-19-21 Monticello, NY - Kutshers Country Club (ATP New York)
09-22 New York, NY - Roseland Ballroom
09-23 New York, NY - Roseland Ballroom
09-25 Toronto, Ontario - Ricoh
09-27 Chicago, IL - Aragon Ballroom
09-30 San Francisco, CA - The Concourse
10-01 Santa Monica, CA - Santa Monica Civic Center
10-02 Santa Monica, CA - Santa Monica Civic Center

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This is one of the coolest basses I’ve seen in a while. I’m not exactly sure how many of these were ever manufactured, but its a completely clear, (made of Lucite) 1970’s Fender MusicMaster bass. I found out about this after reading a post at guitarz.blogspot.com, which features a link to the eBay auction of the guitar.

I’d personally love to get this, (or one like it) myself, as I love the Bronco Bass that I have. This bass and the Bronco basses are 3/4 scale and very easy to play. These are especially great for someone who is mainly a guitar player but needs a bass to record with or workout parts. The fact that this one is made of Lucite and clear makes it all the more unique.

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So…I still haven’t gotten a Telecaster yet, BUT…I am still searching and considering different options. As I stated in my last post, I am looking for a Japanese made Fender Telecaster (or MIJ), because of the smaller neck radius, craftsmanship and the $600 price tag. The $1200+ American price tag (for basically the same guitar), is a little much.

I’ve looked online, at new guitars, on eBay (my usual guitar browsing place) for used Tele’s. I however, do not want to buy a guitar without having played it first. Obviously playability is one of, if not, the most important part of a guitar. The problem is, a lot of local guitar shops around Los Angeles are so ridiculously overpriced.

I think my best option is probably to try and find the model that I want, play it locally and then shop around online for the same model. Although this is hard as well, since every guitar, even the same models play differently. Just have to figure out something I guess…when I do, I’ll post here.