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Book Content

This Machine Kills Fascists

Content:

- Introduction (Woody Guthrie)

- A History

- A Collection

- Independent Stores

- Legendary Guitars

Woody Guthrie (1912-1967)

Woody was a giant in the folk music scene. His music appealed to the struggling blue collar workers, farmers and labourers of the time who had persevered through the tough Great Depression who had gained a new respect for a romanticized American culture. He wrote about the Dust Bowl, the Great Depression, the second world war and the tensions surrounding the beginnings of Cold War.

Around the time of the second world war Woody took to playing a guitar with a sticker that read “This machine kills fascists.” Showing the power of the guitar and how music can be used an instrument for change.

His music went on to inspire the next generation of folk singers including Bob Dylan, Phil Ochs and Joan Baez.

Woody Guthrie

Illustration

"Song to Woody" Bob Dylan

I'm out here a thousand miles from my home
Walking a road other men have gone down
I'm seeing a new world of people and things
Hear paupers and peasants and princes and kings

Hey hey Woody Guthrie I wrote you a song
About a funny old world that's coming along
Seems sick and it's hungry, it's tired and it's torn
It looks like it's dying and it's hardly been born

Hey Woody Guthrie but I know that you know
All the things that I'm saying and a many times more
I'm singing you the song but I can't sing enough
'Cause there's not many men that've done the things that you've done

Here's to Cisco and Sonny and Leadbelly too
And to all the good people that travelled with you
Here's to the hearts and the hands of the men
That come with the dust and are gone with the wind

I'm leaving tomorrow but I could leave today
Somewhere down the road someday
The very last thing that I'd want to do
Is to say I've been hitting some hard travelling too

History 

The guitar can be traced back thousands of years, with the oldest preserved guitar-like instrument belonging to an Egyptian signer.

What makes a guitar?

-       A long fretted neck

-       Flat wooden sound board

-       Ribs

-       Flat back (with incurved sides)

The name guitar comes from the ancient Sanskrit word for ‘string’ – ‘tar’

The lute – between the 6^th and the 9^th century

The lute gets its name and its shape from the arabic 'ud. Al 'ud, meaning 'the wooden one'. It came to Europe in the middle ages. The lute has five pairs of strings and was played with a quill plectrum.

The Lute

The baroque guitar – 1600’s

The baroque guitar replaced the lute during in Europe during the renaissance period. Like the lute the baroque has 5 pairs of strings, but a body that more resembles the acoustic guitar we are familiar with today.

The Baroque

Antonio Torres Jurado Guitars – 1800’s

Antonio Torres Jurado was a famous Spanish luthier and guitarist. He took the traditional European forms of guitars and created the modern classic guitar.

Antonio Torres Jurado Guitars

The first electric guitars – Rickenbacker – 1931 ‘frying pan’

The ‘frying pan’ was the first successful electric guitar and the first successful electric instrument of any kind. It was created by George Beauchamp and then manufactured by Rickenbacker Electro. The guitar earned its name because of its long neck and circular body resembling a frying pan.

Rickenbacker - 1931

The Rickenbacker ‘Electro String’ – 1935

The electro was a standard (Spanish)  style guitar with a completely solid Bakelite body. it is often referred to as the first solid body electric Spanish guitar - as the chambers were for weight reduction only and not designed to resonate.

Rickenbacker - 1935

Les Paul ‘Log’ – 1941

Les Paul, was an American jazz, country, and blues guitarist, songwriter, luthier, and inventor. He was one of the pioneers of the solid-body electric guitar. Paul's innovative guitar, "The Log", built after-hours in the Epiphone guitar factory in 1940, a 4" × 4" chunk of pine with strings and a pickup, was one of the first solid-body electric guitars.

The Log

Bigbsy – Travis Guitar – 1947

Paul Adelburt Bigsby built this solid body electric guitar. He designed the strings in the body rather than the tailpiece to give the instrument the same level of sustain as steel guitars. The headstock shape is said to have inspired Leo Fenders Telecaster.

Bigsby Travis

Fender Telecaster – 1948

The telecaster was developed by Leo Fender and is considered to be the first commercially successful solid body electric guitar. The guitar was originally introduced as the Broadcaster, before changing its name to the Nocaster due to legal issues and then settling on Telecaster by the summer of 1951.

Telecaster

Gibson Les Paul – 1952

Gibson produced this guitar in response to the popularity of the Telecaster. This model featured a trapeze tailpiece and a solid gold finish to make the guitar seem more high end. This original generation was produced from 1952 till 1960.

Gibson Les Paul 52

Fender Stratocaster – 1954

Possibly the most popular electric guitar ever made. Notable players of this guitar include Bob Dylan, Stevie Ray Vaughn, Jimi Hendrix and Eric Clapton.

Stratocaster 1954

A Collection

1989 Fender Stratocaster Plus

Strat Plus Series was introduced by Fender in 1987 and was the highest end production model next to Fender's Custom Shop guitars. Production was stopped in July of 1998.

-       Fender American Elite Stratocaster HSS Shawbucker

-       HSS standing for Humbucker single-coil single-coil

-       Deluxe cast

-       Olympic white

-       Special electronics: push-push passing lane, switch to engage bridge pick up.

1989 Fender Stratocaster Plus (Bahama Green)

-It has gold lace sensor pickups. I

t’s a very unusual guitar in that very few were made in that colour, and the fact that it has a rosewood neck makes it even rarer.

Fender Stratocaster Deluxe Standard

-       essentially a strat plus, but without locking machine heads and a roller nut ( the bit that the strings go over to get to the tuning things)

-       These guitars were only made for 1 year, between 1989 and 1990.

-       It has a maple neck.

-       Unfortunately, the gold lace sensor pick up at the neck died, replaced them with Wilkinson noiseless pickups.

Fender Telecaster Deluxe (tungsten silver)

-       USA deluxe.

-       N3 pickups, which can be put out of phase, C profile neck.

Gibson Les Paul 1996 standard in ebony

-       Burst bucker pro pick ups

-       Humbucker pick ups as they ‘buck the hum’ which means they don’t hum when plugged into an amp

-       Standard neck

-       Trapeze inlays

-       3 way selection switch

1957 Gibson Les Paul custom shop reissue in TV yellow

-       Tv Yellow

-       Very limited run

-       Believed to be one of only 40 made world wide

-       The colour was designed to stand out on the black and white tv sets of the era

Ibanez 1520 prestige

-       Bubinga wood top

-       Floyd rose trem

-       Made in the fuji gem factory, japan

-       Handmade

-       super rare guitar.

-       finished in the exotic bubinga hard wood.

-       The neck it thin and flat and fast.

-       It’s the only guitar in my collection that has a floyd rose trem

Gibson SG Standard

-       P90 pickups – single coils

-       Heavier sounding compaired to a strat due to the way they have been manufactured

-       Traditional neck, much thicker in comparison to the modern neck

-       Trapeze inlays

Tokai Gold Star Stratocaster.

-       sonic blue 82 strat copy.

-       Maple neck punked out with Semore  Duncan and Dimarzio pick ups.

Independent Stores

Jaywalk Guitars

Address:

104 High Street, Somerset, BA16 0EW

Andertons Music 

 Andertons is probably the most famous independent guitar shop in the UK. The family run store is currently run by Lee Anderton also known as ‘The Captain’. Lee gained a following from posting youtube videos about guitars and accessories with friend Rob Chapman, who owns his own guitar company called Chapman Guitars. This is a great example of an independent company using the internet to their advantage rather than their detriment.

What’s your name?

‘Big Mac’

How long have you been working in the store?

‘18 Months’

Do you think the internet has effected the store?

‘Yes, definitely’

What is the best guitar you have had in?

‘Duessenberg Paloma’

Address –

58 & 59 Woodbridge Road, Guilford, Surrey, GU1 4RF

Roadhouse Music

94 Wide Bargate, Boston, Lincolnshire, PE21 6SE

Electro Music

Electro music is an independent music shop in Doncaster run, originally run by brothers, John and Mike Wiltschinsky. They first opened the doors of the Copley Road store in 1982. Within 3 years the brothers gained a loyal customer base and expanded to a larger store on the same road. Throughout the following 8 years the brothers acquired all the properties between 60 and 64 Copley Road, knocking down the walls in between to create an Aladins cave of music gear. The store even had its own house band that would go out and do the occasional gig. The shop now sits at 82 Copley road.

Interview with Jonny from Donny

What Year did you open?

‘1982’

Do you think the internet has effected your shop?

‘of course, its difficult to make a profit when you can find the same guitar online for a lower price. But we still have new customers in here every day. You cant get a feel for a guitar online, you cant pick it up or play it. It’s a different experience all together.’

What’s the best guitar you’ve had in?

Last week a guy came in with his granddads guitar who had passed away. It was part of his estate and the lad said he was going to throw them in the skip but then he remembered coming to this shop when he was a kid and thought we could sell it for him. It turned out to be a 1960’s Fender Telecaster and we got him £7,000. That was great because we managed to get the lad some money and the guitar went somewhere where it would be played nd looked after rather than just being thrown in a skip.

Who is the most famous person you have had in the store?

‘The bloke from Oasis, didn’t buy owt though.’

Address –82 Copley Road, Doncaster, DN1 2QW

Real Time Music

 Address –13 Marsden Street, Chesterfield, S40 1JY

Legendary guitars

Jimi Hendrix Stratocaster that he set on fire (Monterey Pop Festival)

Jimi Hendrix's Monterey Stratocaster

The colorfully decorated Strat that the guitar god played during his breakout performance at the Monterey Pop Festival is famous for its short lifespan: Hendrix lit it on fire at that celebrated show. Replicas of its flower-power design are still popular – John Mayer plays one. 

Eric Clapton’s ‘Blackie’ – Customized 50’s Fender Strat

actually assembled from parts of three Strats the guitarist bought at a Nashville shop in the Seventies. After Clapton retired the guitar in the mid-Eighties, it brought a then-record $959,500 in 2004 at an auction supporting Crossroads, the guitarist's rehab center.

Jimmy Page's double-neck Gibson EDS-1275

The unforgettable guitar that made the multi-part "Stairway to Heaven" a certifiable epic, the Led Zeppelin guitarist's double neck Gibson – 12 strings on top, six on the bottom – has spawned plenty of imitators. 

B.B. King's 'Lucille'

After rescuing his $30 Gibson from a burning Arkansas dance hall in 1949, bluesman B.B. King learned that the fire was started by two men fighting over a woman named Lucille. He has used the name for each of his guitars since, including various Gibsons and Telecasters. In 1980 Gibson began manufacturing the B.B. King signature "Lucille" model, a variation on the company’s combination hollow- and solid-body ES-355. 

Eddie Van Halen's 'Frankenstrat'

Van Halen's guitarist created his signature axe by combining Gibson sound with a Fender appearance. The guitar is well-known for its Pollock-like paintwork – red, with crisscrossing black and white stripes.  

Bo Diddley’s “Twang Machine” Gretsch 

Frequently referred to as “that rectangular guitar”, Bo Diddley’s “Twang Machine” is the one most closely associated with the very early days of rock music on this list. The greatly influential blues / rock musician first created the rectangular-shaped guitar with Gretsch in 1958.

Gibson Les Paul 59

Over the past decade 1959 Gibson Les Paul Standards have sold from $50,000 for hard-worn examples to over $1-million for Peter Green’s and Gary Moore's legendary Holy Grail — the guitar Green used on Fleetwood Mac’s early albums and that Moore also put to the test repeatedly during his fruitful career. Models from 1958 and 1960 don’t sell for the same staggering amounts at auction, even though Clapton’s legendary Bluesbreakers Les Paul was a ’60. And sonically not every ’59 channels the voice of God, since manufacturing procedures were less precise and consistent during the ’50 and ’60s.

David Gilmore (Pink Floyd) #0001 Stratocaster

David explained to Guitarist in 1986 how he got his hands on the guitar: ”Eventually Phil (Taylor, David’s long-time guitar technician) wanted to borrow some money to buy a house, so I blackmailed him! I said the only way I’d lend him the money to buy the house, was if he sold me the white Strat…”. This must have been sometime around 1976-77. Apparently, the guitar had originally belonged to Leo Fender who gave (or sold) it to Seymour Duncan. Duncan later sold it to Phil in the mid 70’s for $900.

The guitar made its first appearance on the live promo clips filmed for David’s first solo album in 1978. It’s is not documented whether it was used for the album or not. Later, he would use it during the The Wall sessions, including that famous rhythm guitar on Another Brick in the Wall (part 2), which was recorded by plugging the #0001 straight into the mixing console.

MISC 

Quotes / Other

‘You sacrifice the things you love, I love my guitar.’ – Jimi Hendrix