Fender Electric Guitar - The Good and Bad Concerning Fender Brand Guitars,By Kyle Hoffman

Fender has been a trusted guitar company for decades with hundreds of professional guitarists worldwide supporting their products. There's no doubt that they know the business of electric guitars and guitar accessories.

However, if you're a beginning player looking for a new guitar with a certain tone in mind, is the Fender brand right for you? Here are a few of the positive aspects of Fender-made guitars and what they can provide.

* They are more dominant in the mid-range of tone.

Fender electric guitars have a large market in the country and standard rock genres due to their versatile tone quality. They tend to be more mid-range dominant allowing them to provide a little more attack on stage.

* Fenders are light-weight guitars.

If you're the kind of player that enjoys moving around and performing a few tricks, then maybe a Fender is right for you. These guitars are very light and won't hold you back when you're jumping, running, or even attempting some risky guitar whips.

* You can do a little more with a thinner neck.

If you have smaller hands Fender electric guitars are known for providing thinner necks for easy playing action. You won't be straining your fingers or wrist trying to curve around the neck to reach those frets.

These are just a few of the positive attributes regarding Fender guitars, but it might not be what you're looking for as a guitarist. Here's a short list of detrimental aspects that might sway you in another direction.

* You lose a few frets.

Some lead and metal guitarists prefer instruments with a few more frets than normal. Fender electric guitars tend to have less frets so as not to complicate the build. So those last few notes you reach for, they might not be there.

* The action is a little high before you have it adjusted.

Right out of the box, these guitars have raised strings a bit high from the fret board. This is appropriate for harder strumming, but to play with light and fast fingers, the height of those strings should be adjusted at your local music store.

* There's less "meat" in the guitar's tone.

Since Fender electric guitars are dominant in the mid range of tones, there's actually a little less in the bottom end of the sound spectrum. Of course this can be slightly adjusted by the knobs on your guitar amplifier, but you might be a guitarist that prefers a nice boost in bass straight from the instrument.

The Fender company has and will always will produce guitars in a wide variety of models, but they might not be for every guitarist. Do an appropriate amount of research before you decide what kind of guitar is right for you.

Kyle Hoffman is a computer specialist, recording engineer, hardcore vocalist, guitar-enthusiast, and the writer of the popular guitar blog How To Guitar Tune.

Visit How To Guitar Tune for all the best quick and easy guitar tips.

If you're a beginner, visit How To Guitar Play to get started!

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Paul McCartney's Vintage Gibson Guitars

Paul McCartney's Vintage Gibson Guitars
By [http://ezinearticles.com/?expert=Brenne_Meirowitz]Brenne Meirowitz

Are you a collector of vintage Gibson Guitars, fan of Paul McCartney, or
the Beatles? Well then, you might enjoy reading this bit of vintage
Gibson Guitars trivia. Back on November 20, 2007, Gibson Guitartown
London held an auction for 62 unique hand painted and signed Gibson
guitars, including a 10 foot Gibson Les Paul replica guitar signed by
Paul McCartney. The winning bid came in at 60,000 GBP - about $123,000
and about a quarter of the total auction revenue. The guitar, called
the, "And The Crowd Goes Wild" is decorated with colorful figures of
children waving their arms in the air. The body of the giant fiberglass
guitar is red, with a black arm - also adorned with child figurines,
designed by artist Rosie Brooks. The giant Gibson was on public display
from June - September 2007, at More London on London's South Bank by
City Hall and attracted over 2.5 million visitors.

Gibson released the names of some of the other well-known UK musicians
who signed some of the other auctioned regular sized Gibson SG guitars
for the charity event. The participants included Ronnie Wood, Paul
Weller, Noel Gallagher, Rod Stewart, Robert Plant, Jimmy Page, Gary
Moore, Mark Knopfler, Slash, Brian May, Ozzy Osbourne, Kaiser Chiefs,
New Order, Kasabian, KT Tunstall, Depeche Mode, James Blunt, and Roger
Waters. However, if you are looking to add this collector's piece to
your own - stop right there - it won't be available on EBay anytime
soon. Once the bidding ended and a winner was determined, he or she was
obligated to donate the giant guitar to the Great Ormond Street
Hospital. Happily, though, the winning bidder, Ari Goldberger, was
awarded a special Gibson Les Paul signed by McCartney at the event. An
engraved plaque bearing Goldberger's name was placed beside the 10 foot
guitar now permanently a figure in Vintage Gibson Guitar history. The
ceremony took place on December 7, 2007 as part of a Christmas
fundraiser.

The event, organized by Gibson Guitartown London, raised money for three
children's charities - Nordoff- Robbins Music Therapy, The Prince's
Trust, and Teenage Cancer Trust.

On a commercial note, coinciding with the London auction event,
Starbucks and Gibson Guitars held a national sweepstakes for a chance to
win a one-of-a-kind, hand-painted Limited Edition Paul McCartney
Epiphone 1964 Texan, which is a replica of the guitar that McCartney
used to record "Yesterday," as well as perform the song on The Ed
Sullivan Show. McCartney consulted with Epiphone in order to ensure the
Vintage Gibson Guitar's historical accuracy. In addition to the grand
prize hand-painted guitar, McCartney also signed three other Epiphone
Texans. The grand-prize winner, Rebecca Voss, of Minneapolis,
Minnesota, exclaimed after being notified of her good fortune, "I
couldn't be more excited to own this guitar with Paul's signature. I am
a lifelong fan and this means so much to me. Thank you so much, and
thanks to Starbucks and Epiphone Guitars!" For the curious, Paul still
owns and plays his vintage Gibson Guitar - Epiphone 1964 Texan.

Written by, Brenne Meirowitz, B.A., M.S., M.A. Paul McCartney's
[http://www.gibsonguitarstop.com/Vintage_Gibson_Guitars.html]Vintage
Gibson Guitars
was written while researching information about
[http://www.gibsonguitarstop.com/]Gibson Guitar Stop.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Brenne_Meirowitz
http://EzineArticles.com/?Paul-McCartneys-Vintage-Gibson-Guitars&id=2881185

How To Play Acoustic Guitar

If you want to learn how to play acoustic guitar there are some things that you need to know right from the start. Believe me when I say that they will save you a great deal of frustration.

Here are some great tips that should help:

1# Because you will need to practice often (and sometimes you wont want to)-, playing along to a favorite song can be a great motivator. Even if you are a raw beginner you will be surprised at how many songs you can play along to.

"Google" your favorite song and see if there's a result that offers chord charts for them. Study the charts to find a song you know that has a simple chord progression, these will be chords that you can already play or would like to learn. Download the chord charts and start practicing. You'll be amazed at how good you will feel when you are playing along to your well loved songs.

2# Make sure that your guitar is tuned properly. You may not believe this but I've met people who wanted to know how to play acoustic guitar that didn't know that each string on a guitar had to be tuned to a specific pith!. It's not a case of getting the tuning nearly right either, you need to get it "spot on" why? because you will judge your playing by the way you sound and if just one string is slightly of pitch, your "sound" wont be as good as you would like or indeed would have been had your guitar been in tune.

To make sure your guitar is in tune you can use a set of inexpensive pitch pipes. Learn to tune from string to string. Use an electronic guitar tuner or tune from a piano or another guitar. To save room in this article I wont go into detail but you can find some excellent information here:

http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Guitar/Setting_up_the_Guitar

3# Decide on what type of pick (plectrum)you want to use. This is one of the most overlooked pieces of equipment. Picks come in various gauges. A very thin pick will give a much softer sound than a thick one so try experimenting and choose the pick that achieves the sound you want. Some guitarist wear a pick on there thumb and some guitarists just use their fingers. It's all a matter of choice and something you do need to be aware of.

4# Now you'll have to excuse me here as I'm going to use a word that some people find quite upsetting. Are you ready? The word is "practice". I'm sorry but it just had to be said. Of course, we all promise we will prac000034CEtice but there's always a good film on or the big game just about to start and a hundred other excuses. I'm no different, so here my suggestion.

Don't promise yourself that you will practice for an hour every day. Make that a promise of twenty minutes everyday. Little and often is best I find. Have your guitar and chord books or tabs to hand if you're watching TV, that way you can have five minutes practice during the commercial break (and sometimes longer). I find that this works really well as it's sort of unplanned (and far more enjoyable than most of the commercials).

I hope that these tips will help you on your way to becoming a great guitarist.

Practice, Practice, Practice. That's how to play acoustic guitar.

Play On.

If you have enjoyed this article you can find more great information at:

How To Play Acoustic Guitar

and the best part is it's entirely FREE