Guitars and Heroes

Author: Julien Bitoun
Publisher: Firefly Books
ISBN: 9780228101185
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 256

Book Description
An encyclopedia of more than 100 guitars and the musicians who have mastered them. Guitars and Heroes is organized by era, from the rockabilly pioneers to the guitar heroes of the future. Each chapter contains portraits of guitarists (past and present) and their favorite instruments. The authoritative text describes the musician's favored guitar or guitars and why they prefer them, often revealing a hidden facet of the musician's artistic approach. Special photo spreads include The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Van Halen, Prince, Billie Joe Armstrong, AC/DC, Les Paul, anatomy of a Stratocaster, 5 Replica Guitars; Burst, the world's most expensive guitar; 5 Most Desirable Amplifiers, 5 Pedals That Changed the World, 5 Groundbreaking Sounds, The Chicago Blues in 5 Albums, 5 Essential Hard Rock Albums and 5 Design Gibson Mistakes. The book is organized into three sections (Birth of an Art, The Golden Age, Modern Times) and nine chapters, each with a selection of artists and their guitars, including these: Delta Blues and Rockabilly Robert Johnson, Jimmie Rogers, Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson, Buddy Holly Chicago Blues and Jazz Muddy Waters, Chuck Berry, Sister Rosetta Tharpe, Trini Lopez, George Benson British Blues Boom Dave Davies, Pete Townshend, Jimmy Page, Eric Clapton, Peter Green Surf, Garage Rock and Psychedelic Jimi Hendrix, Frank Zappa, Santana, Ry Cooder, Duane Allman Birth of Hard Rock Ritchie Blackmore, Neil Young, Brian May, Peter Frampton, Joan Jett Arena Rock, Shred and New Wave Bruce Springsteen, Stevie Ray Vaughan, The Edge, Joe Satriani, Slash Grunge and Alternative Rock Kurt Cobain, Buzz Osborne, Sonic Youth, Rivers Cuomo Metal to Djent Dimebag Darrell, John 5, Buckethead, Meshuggah, Tosin Abasi Guitar Heroes of the Future St. Vincent, Joe Bonamassa, Jack White, Ron Thal, Matthew Bellamy. Guitars and Heroes is a sensational encyclopedia for all guitarists, guitar geeks, collectors and avid listeners, and an essential purchase for all collections.

Star Guitars

Author: Dave Hunter
Publisher: Voyageur Press (MN)
ISBN: 0760347018
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 290

Book Description
These are the guitars so famous that their names are often household words: B. B. King's Lucille, Eric Clapton's Blackie, Stevie Ray Vaughan's First Wife, Billy F Gibbons' Pearly Gates, Neil Young's Old Black, and many more. Here's the first-ever illustrated history of the actual guitars of the stars that made the music. Other best-selling guitar histories look at the rank-and-file models, but this book is unique in profiling the actual "star guitars"--the million-dollar babies, such as the 1968 Stratocaster that Jimi Hendrix burned at Woodstock, which sold at Sotheby's auction house in 1993 for $1,300,000. Amateurs buy guitars to emulate the stars--Clapton's Strat, Slash's Les Paul--and this book explains the stars' modifications, thus showing how others can recreate those famous tones.

The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Guitar Heroes

Author: Rusty Cutchin
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781847862181
Category : Blues (Music)
Languages : en
Pages : 448

Book Description
Featuring over 180 of the world's greatest guitar superstars, "The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Guitar Heroes" is a definitive guide to those guitarists whose talents helped change the face of music forever and touched the lives of millions. From the heroes of rock - the likes of Hendrix, Clapton, Page and Beck - to classical maestros such as John Williams and Latin legends such as Paco de Lucia, this comprehensive catalogue of guitarists covers a wide range of musical styles. It will allow the reader to discover legendary players from the earliest blues pioneers right up to today's indie icons and everyone in between.Grouped into seven chapters based on the genre of music each guitarist is most closely associated with, each chapter is then organised chronologically according to the guitarists' birth dates, making the book easy to navigate. Written by an expert team of music writers and musicologists, the informative text tells the story of how each of these axemen rose up to stand out from the crowd, carving themselves a place in the history books. Learn what inspired them to create the music that led to their legendary status, how they achieved such greatness and the tools they used to get to the top.Supported by over 400 superb images that bring each page to life and capture the power and emotion behind the music, this encyclopedia is the ideal book for any aspiring guitar hero, and will satisfy even the most die-hard of music fans. The comprehensive reference section includes an extensive listing of a further 500 of the greatest musicians ever to pick up an axe, recommended further reading and a host of website links, all of which provide a further gateway into the lives of the greatest guitarists the world has ever known.

Play It Loud

Author: Brad Tolinski
Publisher: Anchor
ISBN: 0385541007
Category : Music
Languages : en
Pages : 344

Book Description
The inspiration for the Play It Loud exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art "Every guitar player will want to read this book twice. And even the casual music fan will find a thrilling narrative that weaves together cultural history, musical history, race, politics, business case studies, advertising, and technological discovery." —Daniel Levitin, Wall Street Journal For generations the electric guitar has been an international symbol of freedom, danger, rebellion, and hedonism. In Play It Loud, veteran music journalists Brad Tolinski and Alan di Perna bring the history of this iconic instrument to roaring life. It's a story of inventors and iconoclasts, of scam artists, prodigies, and mythologizers as varied and original as the instruments they spawned. Play It Loud uses twelve landmark guitars—each of them artistic milestones in their own right—to illustrate the conflict and passion the instruments have inspired. It introduces Leo Fender, a man who couldn't play a note but whose innovations helped transform the guitar into the explosive sound machine it is today. Some of the most significant social movements of the twentieth century are indebted to the guitar: It was an essential element in the fight for racial equality in the entertainment industry; a mirror to the rise of the teenager as social force; a linchpin of punk's sound and ethos. And today the guitar has come full circle, with contemporary titans such as Jack White of The White Stripes, Annie Clark (aka St. Vincent), and Dan Auerbach of The Black Keys bringing some of the earliest electric guitar forms back to the limelight. Featuring interviews with Les Paul, Keith Richards, Carlos Santana, Eddie Van Halen, Steve Vai, and dozens more players and creators, Play It Loud is the story of how a band of innovators transformed an idea into a revolution.

Legends, Icons & Rebels

Author: Robbie Robertson
Publisher: Tundra Books
ISBN: 1101918683
Category : Juvenile Nonfiction
Languages : en
Pages : 130

Book Description
Part memoir, part tribute, and all great storytelling ... Music industry veterans Robbie Robertson, Jim Guerinot, Jared Levine, and Sebastian Robertson invite young readers to share with them in celebrating twenty-seven musical legends. Short profiles chronicle personal stories and achievements of extraordinarily talented artists whose innovations changed the landscape of music for generations to come. Carefully compiled like any great playlist, the line-up features originators, rebels, and risk-takers across diverse genres. From Ray Charles to Johnny Cash, Chuck Berry to Bob Dylan, Robertson shares anecdotes about these artists and the influence they had on his own musical journey. Always respectful of their reader, the writers never shy away from speaking about the difficult challenges these recording artists faced and the very human foibles that sometimes led to their tragic end. Most of all, it's the authors' passion and insights into these personal stories of creativity and collaboration -- and the power of music to shine a light on injustice and foster change -- that will fascinate, enlighten, and inspire music fans of all ages.

Guitar World Presents Van Halen

Author: Guitar World Magazine
Publisher: Hal Leonard Corporation
ISBN: 0879309695
Category : Music
Languages : en
Pages : 275

Book Description
There is possibly no guitar player of the modern era more influential than Eddie Van Halen. Now, from the pages of "Guitar World Magazine" comes this outstanding collection of interviews and insights. Whether you are a fan or a professional musician, you'll be entertained and educated by this comprehensive, in-depth collection.

Guitar World Presents the 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time!

Author: Jeff Kitts
Publisher: Hal Leonard Corporation
ISBN: 9780634046193
Category : Music
Languages : en
Pages : 220

Book Description
(Guitar World Presents). This exciting book from the editors of Guitar World is a treasure trove for any guitarist. Featuring electrifying profiles of everyone from hard rock gods (Wes Borland, Dimebag Darrell, Tony Iommi) to British giants (Eric Clapton, Jimmy Page, even Nigel Tufnel) to trailblazing bluesmen (John Lee Hooker, Reverend Gary Davis) to country gents (Clarence White, Albert Lee) to the founding fathers (Chuck Berry, Dick Dale) as well as jazzmen, progressive rockers, punks and rockabilly superstars, Guitar World's 100 Greatest Guitarists puts all these inspiring masters at your fingertips. But the fun doesn't stop there. Guitar World has also assembled the riveting stories behind the 100 greatest guitar solos. You know them note-for-note, from David Gilmour's transcendent phrasing in "Comfortably Numb" to Jimi Hendrix's rich notes in "Little Wing" to Kurt Cobain's unforgettable melodic turns in "Smells Like Teen Spirit," and now you can get the inside stories of how these magic moments were captured for all time. Rounding off the collection is bonus material such as a lesson with Metallica's Kirk Hammet, a guide to the 12 greatest guitar tones, and 25 guitar masters weighing in on their favorite solos.

Guitars Illustrated

Author: Terry Burrows
Publisher: Three Rivers Press
ISBN: 9780823082698
Category : Electric guitar
Languages : en
Pages : 0

Book Description
A visual catalog of that follows the histories of important guitars and their manufacturers.

The Birth of Loud

Author: Ian S. Port
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1501141767
Category : Music
Languages : en
Pages : 352

Book Description
“A hot-rod joy ride through mid-20th-century American history” (The New York Times Book Review), this one-of-a-kind narrative masterfully recreates the rivalry between the two men who innovated the electric guitar’s amplified sound—Leo Fender and Les Paul—and their intense competition to convince rock stars like the Beatles, Jimi Hendrix, and Eric Clapton to play the instruments they built. In the years after World War II, music was evolving from big-band jazz into rock ’n’ roll—and these louder styles demanded revolutionary instruments. When Leo Fender’s tiny firm marketed the first solid-body electric guitar, the Esquire, musicians immediately saw its appeal. Not to be out-maneuvered, Gibson, the largest guitar manufacturer, raced to build a competitive product. The company designed an “axe” that would make Fender’s Esquire look cheap and convinced Les Paul—whose endorsement Leo Fender had sought—to put his name on it. Thus was born the guitar world’s most heated rivalry: Gibson versus Fender, Les versus Leo. While Fender was a quiet, half-blind, self-taught radio repairman, Paul was a brilliant but headstrong pop star and guitarist who spent years toying with new musical technologies. Their contest turned into an arms race as the most inventive musicians of the 1950s and 1960s—including bluesman Muddy Waters, rocker Buddy Holly, the Beatles, Bob Dylan, and Eric Clapton—adopted one maker’s guitar or another. By 1969 it was clear that these new electric instruments had launched music into a radical new age, empowering artists with a vibrancy and volume never before attainable. In “an excellent dual portrait” (The Wall Street Journal), Ian S. Port tells the full story in The Birth of Loud, offering “spot-on human characterizations, and erotic paeans to the bodies of guitars” (The Atlantic). “The story of these instruments is the story of America in the postwar era: loud, cocky, brash, aggressively new” (The Washington Post).

Guitar Family Trees

Author: Terry Burrows
Publisher: Apple Press
ISBN: 9781845434236
Category : Guitar
Languages : en
Pages : 0

Book Description
"Guitar Family Trees is a striking visual account of the most prominent guitars in the instrument's illustrious history, from the earliest Renaissance acoustics right up to state-of-the-art 21st century models. This comprehensive book charts the history of the most respected manufacturers and the evolution of their guitars in more detail than ever before. Specially designed photographic guitar family trees, including four special fold-outs, provide at-a-glance overviews of the development of every make and model, decade by decade. Terry Burrows then takes a close-up look at 200 iconic models to create an invaluable catalog of guitars. A stunning full-color photograph of each model is accompanied by informative text tracing its development, with key design and sound features highlighted, and an exhaustive specification list. Burrows also reveals the guitarists who love to play each model, and the tracks on which you can hear it played"--Publisher description.