Take a close look at the creation of one of the World’s most iconic guitars. While you are here … listen to ‘Hey Mister Tambourine Man’ just perfect! Francis C. Hall was born in Iowa in 1909… More
MUDDY WATERS – “I’m a man”… or “Mannish Boy”?
Muddy Waters originally recorded this in 1955, then re-recorded it in 1977 for his Hard Again album in a version produced by Johnny Winter.
The repetitive guitar line is easy to play, but very memorable. Waters used the same basic riff on his song “Hoochie Coochie Man.” This riff appears on many other Blues songs in both the 5 note and a shortened 4 note version. George Thorogood used it for his song “Bad To The Bone.”
The Rolling Stones often played this in their early days and released it on their 1977 Love You Live album. Muddy Waters was a huge influence on The Stones, and their name comes from his song “Rollin’ Stone Blues.”
This was used in the movie The Long Kiss Goodnight, starring Samuel L. Jackson and Geena Davis. It also appears in Better Off Dead, Risky Business and Goodfellas (as part of the “Sunday, May 11th, 1980” montage).
Sometimes when Muddy performed this in front of an audience, he would shake up a full beer bottle, stick it in the front of his pants, then open it up during the part when he bellows “Im a man!” Foam sprayed all over the place, and it was a naughty, but very funny bit of stage theater.
Definitely the archetype for the rockers who followed long after he did, and those rockers to this day more often than not idolize him.
Courtesy Bertrand – Paris, France
Tradition and innovation make today’s SOUTHERN BARBECUE the best … ever!
Whether you know how to smoke some pig at home or not, barbecue spots often become embodiments of our passion for pulled pork, our belief in brisket, and our reverence for ribs. They are the keepers of the flame, the seraphs of smoke, who keep this true tradition burning and push it into the future.
You might think barbecue is all about tradition, about doing things the way they used to be done. But new ingredients, creative methods, and fresh faces have always found their way into one of this country’s oldest cuisines. From Savannah to Seattle, the most recent wave of pitmasters preach the gospel of all-wood cooking, just like barbecue’s earliest practitioners. But in many ways they act more like chefs than grizzled veterans. Heritage hogs are showing up on menus. Everything is homemade, down to the pickles. Well-marbled Prime has replaced leaner Select as the preferred grade of brisket. These neotraditionalists are young—most are under 40—yet they’ve shown plenty of wisdom, knowing which customs to heed and which to throw out with the overdressed slaw. Here, we celebrate the best in barbecue today. —Daniel Vaughn
We expect barbecue to be a bargain, which is why many legendary spots start with inexpensive commodity meats. But not B’s Cracklin’ BBQ, which opened in Savannah in 2014. Welder-turned-pitmaster Bryan Furman uses local pasture-raised, heritage-breed whole hogs, cooked over oak and cherrywood for 12 hours. The firmer fat of the Berkshire-Yorkshire hybrid melts into the meat, as if Furman were basting with butter. It was that difference that drew lines out the door. And then, after B’s busiest weekend ever last June, the restaurant burned to the ground (the cause: a faulty compressor in the soda machine). Fellow pitmasters lent Furman equipment so he could cook around town to raise money. B’s reopened after just four months, serving ’cue—the pork!—that’s as good as ever. —Andrew Thomas Lee
2. Now There’s Pastrami on the Menu
Pastrami—beef brisket that’s been cured and smoked—is the quintessential Jewish deli order, usually piled high on rye. Recently it’s found a home in barbecue joints. Cattleack Barbeque in Dallas cubes beef-belly pastrami into salty nuggets. At The Granary ’Cue & Brew in San Antonio, coriander and black pepper tumble off of smoked pastrami beef ribs. Green Street Smoked Meats in Chicago serves brisket pastrami straight off the butcher paper. It’s not Katz’s, but we’re not complaining. —D.V.
Andrew Thomas Lee
The Sides Are No Longer an Afterthought
It’s hard being a side. When you’re up against mahogany-crusted ribs, even mac and cheese can feel unloved. But now chefs like Elliott Moss at Buxton Hall in Asheville, NC, are doing what he calls “chef-driven, grandma-influenced sides.” They all respect the classics—but one-up them. —Andrew Knowlton
Andrew Thomas Lee
4. Get Over It: They Serve Booze
Alcohol has long been anathema to barbecue, but newer spots welcome it on menus. We asked two pitmasters about the addition. First there’s third-generation barbecue man Sam Jones, who runs the new Sam Jones BBQ in Winterville, NC, and the iconic Skylight Inn, owned by his family for nearly 70 years. Then there’s newbie Wyatt Dickson, who left a law career to open Picnic in Durham.
SJ: Skylight sold beer in the early days, but my grandfather stopped in the late ’50s. Fast-forward to now, there’s something about eastern North Carolina that says alcohol with barbecue is taboo. If you ask me, they go together—if somebody’s cooking pig at a tailgate they’re gonna be drinking beer. But people who are our parents’ age for the most part do not dig a restaurant in eastern North Carolina selling beer. The Greenville newspaper, The Daily Reflector, has this section called “Bless Your Heart”…
WD: You didn’t get one of those, did you? That’s a Southern F-you!
SJ: I was in “Bless Your Heart” every other day.
WD: Bless your heart, Sam, I’m sorry.
SJ: This is a column that could be used for good, like, “Bless your heart to the guy that gave me an extra dollar when I was short at the grocery store.”
It was used toward me as: “Bless your heart to every other barbecue place in eastern North Carolina for not selling beer.” Hint, hint, the new place, not gonna call any names, Sam Jones.
WD: You’re going to hell for it.
SJ: I had a lady in line tell me that!
WD: People are passionate about barbecue.
—Belle Cushing
5. This Woman Is One of the Best in the Biz
There aren’t a lot of female pitmasters. And there are none like Helen Turner. Since 1996, six days a week (Sunday is for church), you’ll find her at Helen’s Bar B Q, a no-frills, freestanding wooden joint in Brownsville, TN, a little over an hour’s drive from Memphis. A one-woman show, she stokes the fire out back. She chops the pork. If you’re lucky, she’ll be the one to take your order. If you’re really lucky, she’ll laugh. The only thing better than her laugh is her pork. Get the sandwich. Get two, actually. —A.K.
Winnie Au
6. Yankees Make Some of the Best
The idea that great barbecue doesn’t exist outside of the South was debunked years ago. But destination barbecue—the kind you’d drive hours out of your way for just to try a slab of spareribs? That was property of the South. At least until Billy Durney, a giant of a man and former bodyguard for the rich and famous, opened Hometown Bar-B-Que in the warehouse-filled Red Hook neighborhood of Brooklyn.
My Southern friends started texting me: “It looks like the real deal!” “Can we go next time I’m in town?” “Did New York finally get a barbecue spot you love?” (It is, we must, and yes.) Like many pioneers before him, Durney started smoking meats in his backyard for friends. A hobby grew into a profession. His traditional brisket, pork, and turkey could hold their own below the Mason-Dixon Line, while his Jamaican jerk baby back ribs and lamb belly might be the start of a New York City style. And his ginormous beef ribs, rubbed simply with salt and pepper and smoked for hours? Forget a drive. They’re worth a plane ticket. —A.K.
7. Pitmasters Have Fine-Dining Pedigrees
As more high-end chefs get into the business, some of their old ways have snuck into the smokehouse. —Julia Bainbridge
Barbecue Butter
Chef Tim Rattray of The Granary in San Antonio saves the liquid runoff from his slow-cooked beef, strains out the fat, and whips the results into butter to serve with Texas toast.
Well-Rested Brisket
Folks cock their heads when they learn Ronnie Killen rests the brisket at Killen’s Barbecue in Pearland, TX, for five hours. “Most people pick it right off the pit and cut it,” he says. For juicier results, Killen treats it like he does a rib eye at his nearby steakhouse.
: there’s the humble ribhouse Dreamland that turns into a madhouse when the Crimson Tide starts to roll; there’s four-time Memphis in May Competition winner Chris Lilly’s Big Bob Gibson; and there’s even our winner, the new-school Southern Soul Barbecue in St. Simon’s Island, Georgia. The 2017 list of the South’s Best Barbecue Joints shows the dichotomy between our love for those still, smokey, picnic-tabled joints we’ve been frequenting forever and our appreciation for those bringing modern concepts and techniques to it like the now-famous BBQ Nachos at Memphis’ Central BBQ.
http://www.southernliving.com/souths-best/bbq#dreamland-bar-b-que-sign-tuscaloosa-abamama
Muddy Waters … heppest of the HEP. Smooth blues from 1963.
1963 Muddy Waters sings “Got my mojo working.” Iconic clip of some rockin’ blues! All Star jam session! Sonny Boy Williamson on harmonica, Otis Spann and piano, Matt Murphy on guitar, Willie Dixon on upright bass, and Bill Stepney on drums! From the American Folk Blues Festival! Lay it on me, one time! #heppestofthehep #hep #hoth
Courtesy FaceBook
Set-up; possibly THE single-most important element to enjoying your guitar. And, who better to show us how than JOE WALSH. (… this is great!)
Joe Walsh is the guitarist from the legendary band The Eagles. He gives us a lesson on his process for setting up a guitar. Setting up your instrument involves adjusting your guitars hardware to ensure no issues such as string buzz or intonation problems occur.
A guitar that is properly setup will not only sound better but will play better too. If you’re a serious guitarist, you should ensure that your guitar is setup comfortably. You can also take your guitar to a luthier to have it done on your behalf.
This tutorial includes:
- Stretching strings
- Truss rod adjustment
- Tuning up with harmonics
- Intonation
- Action
- Pickup height
- A Jimmy Page secret
Courtesy Dean Hailstone – PlayGuitarLive and You Tube. Joe also dedicates the tutorial to Les Paul, creator of the legendary guitar.
The FIVE most expensive guitars in the World … John Lennon’s Long-Lost Gibson J-160E is number 1 at $2.4 MM.
WATCH HERE: John Lennon’s long-lost GIBSON J-160 E occupies the #1 spot at 2.4 million dollars
WATCH HERE: How John Lennon’s Long-Lost $2.4 Million Gibson J-160E Guitar Was Found | Guitar World
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John Lennon’s long-lost acoustic Gibson J-160E acoustic-electric guitar, which he used while recording the Beatles’ Please Please Me and With the Beatles albums, sold for a record-shattering $2.41 million Saturday during a live Julien’s auction.
The guitar, which was missing for more than 40 years, sold for three times its $800,000 estimate to a buyer who asked to remain anonymous.
The guitar’s mysterious odyssey has stood as one of the most enduring mysteries vexing Beatlemaniacs since 1963. Though the guitar—a Gibson Jumbo, with a Sunburst spruce finish and P-90 single-coil pickups—produced a collection of tunes that would change the course of rock history, Lennon used it for a relatively brief period.
After one of the Beatles’ legendary 1963 holiday concerts at the Finsbury Park Astoria Theater in London, the instrument was apparently left behind by the band’s longtime roadie, Mal Evans, who would later recall the moment “when I lost John’s guitar” as the lowest point in his early Beatles career. Lennon would occasionally tease Evans (who died in 1976), “Mal, you can have your job back as soon as you find my guitar.”
The next four years in the guitar’s life are a mystery, but it resurfaced in 1967 at a San Diego guitar shop called the Blue Guitar, a popular hub of the city’s burgeoning folk, rock and bluegrass scene. Most likely taken as a trade-in (no one associated with the store then or now remembers who brought the guitar in, nor do any written records remain, and certainly no one knew of the instrument’s significance), the Gibson was purchased for $175 by a young man named Tommy Pressley, a then-21-year-old carpenter’s apprentice and bluegrass player who frequented the shop.
Two years later and needing money for a move, Pressley sold the guitar for the same price to his childhood friend, John McCaw.
McCaw, 69, who still works contractor in the San Diego area, played the instrument off and on over the next four decades, though he admits it often stayed on his wall or in a closet. “What you see today,” he says about the scratched guitar, “is exactly the way it looked the day I bought it 46 years ago. All the little dents and nicks and dings that you see were all there.”
In April 2014, McCaw, who had resumed his musical avocation, had just completed a group guitar lesson at San Diego’s Sanctuary Art and Music Studio when he noticed a 2012 copy of Guitar Aficionado magazine with George Harrison’s son, Dhani, on the cover. Inside was a photo of George’s 1962 Gibson J160-E (which is still owned by the Harrison Estate).
Noticing the closeness of the serial numbers, McCaw and Marc Intravaia, the studio owner and friend, contacted Beatles Gear author Andy Babiuk, who examined and authenticated the instrument as the missing Lennon instrument. The guitar is included on the cover of Babiuk’s revised Beatles Gear—The Ultimate Edition, which is available today (November 10).
“It was at that point that I realized I can’t keep the guitar,” McCaw told GuitarWorld.com. “It’s too big for me. It’s not going to fit in my house anymore.”
The guitar is without question one of the most significant instruments in rock history. One of two nearly identical 1962 Gibson J-160E acoustic-electric guitars purchased on September 10, 1962, by Beatles manager Brian Epstein for Lennon and George Harrison, the guitar was used by Lennon to co-compose (with Paul McCartney) such early Beatles classics as “I Saw Her Standing There,” “She Loves You,” “I Want to Hold Your Hand” and “All My Loving.”
Lennon’s earliest known use of the guitar was during the Abbey Road recording sessions of September 11, 1962, when the Beatles—with Ringo Starr having recently replaced original drummer Pete Best—recorded “Love Me Do” and “P.S. I Love You.”
Courtesy Posted 11/10/2015 by Guitar World Staff
Brand New GIBSON ‘Lzzy Hale Explorer’ in arctic white … provides the inspiration for my blog.
One of the most beautiful Explorers ever is also one of the hardest biting Gibson USA has ever made. Gorgeous Alpine White paintjob, golden hardware and `57 Classics say this beauty hides a wild beast within.
As one of the symbols of heavy music and rebellion, Explorer was generally thought of a brutal guitar made for tough guys, a sort of an axe which turned boys into men. Angular shape, spartan design, aggressive tone and the type of players it was usually picked up by have given it an aura of pure masculinity. Almost unimaginable was the situation in which a girl would pick up an Explorer and start rocking as hard as all the men which raised that same Explorer onto the manliness throne. But, today in 2014, with two studio albums, countless concerts around the world and seventeen years of filling the guitar and vocal duties in the mighty Halestorm, Lzzy Hale has proven she can rock as hard as any guy out there and that she`s more than strong enough to tame a wild Explorer. For the winter season of 2014/15 Gibson USA unveils Lzzy`s first signature, an Alpine White Lzzy Hale Explorer.
Gibson USA Lzzy Hale Explorer is both a beauty and a beast packed into one mighty and gorgeous six-stringer. It comes with a solid, single-cut Explorer body made of mahogany and a set in neck, also made of mahogany. Gibson USA `57 Classics make sure this rocking machine never runs out of gas, while the standard two-piece bridge and Grover`s mini tuners keep the strings in perfect check. Fingerboard installed on top of the neck is a standard issue Gibson USA fingerboard. It is made of rosewood and it features 22 frets, block inlays, 12” radius, as well as a 1.695” Tektoid nut. A more in-depth review and full specs list can be found on the Lzzy Hale Explorer detail page on our site and official Gibson USA official web page.
Ludovico Cipriani rocks Ray Charles’ “Hard Times” with tasty riffs and some very cool licks …
LISTEN HERE to his beautiful & soulful playing … I hear some B.B. KING in there, somewhere, also.
… but I don’t know very much about this player. He lives in BOLOGNA, ITALY w/a beautiful woman named NADIA BIOCCO, records at several different studios and teaches guitar and theory. One thing I do know – he can put together a jazzy and organic lead on that fabulous 335! A great player and a beautiful guitar paying tribute to song-master Ray Charles who wrote the song.
… it might be a FENDER, a D’AQUISTO, or a pre-war MARTIN; here are today’s 25 most expensive vintage guitars.
By Alan Greenwood and VINTAGE GUITAR MAGAZINE
There are few collectibles in modern pop culture that are as cool as guitars. They’re functional, tactile art that inspires players and music fans alike. As a VG reader, you’re acutely aware of the guitar’s status as a pop-culture icon. But beyond fond memories of The Beatles on Ed Sullivan or Hendrix at Woodstock, for some, guitars also serve as investments. So, using data accumulated in the research for The Official Vintage Guitar Price Guide 2011, we offer this look at the 25 most valuable production-model (not celebrity-owned) guitars.
1. 1958-’59 Gibson Explorer
($250,000 to $310,000)
Part of an attempt to market “modernistic” guitars in the burgeoning “space age,” when it hit stores, the Explorer got little attention from buyers. Orders were scarce, so production numbers stayed very low. Eric Clapton played one in the ’70s, and since then, collectors have become fond of the color and sound of its body, made of African limba – which Gibson re-named “Korina” for the sake of marketing.
2. 1936-’42 Martin D-45
($250,000 to $400,000)
Vintage Martin dreadnoughts are considered the pinnacle of steel-string acoustics, and those given the Style 45 dress – Brazilian-rosewood back and sides, ivory-bound body and neck, and fancy fretboard inlays – were priced beyond the reach of all but a few Depression-era players.
3. 1958-’60 Gibson Les Paul Standard
($225,000 to $375,000)
Though Gibson tried to make a splash in the market by giving its Les Paul model a fancy maple top and sunburst finish, the guitar failed to truly catch on. Its status changed dramatically, though, with the 1966 release of John Mayall’s Blues Breakers featuring Eric Clapton. Then Michael Bloomfield started playing one, which further influenced top-tier guitarists of the late ’60s; the list of players who picked up a “’Burst” afterward includes names like Page, Allman, Kossoff, Gibbons, and Beck. Today, it’s not only the preeminent collectible solidbody, but some would say the reason solidbodies are collectible, period.
4. 1930-’33 Martin OM-45
($265,000 to $350,000)
Another example of how rarity drives values into the realm of unobtanium, the OM-45 was made in very small numbers each year (think barely-into-double-digits at the most!). The first-year “Deluxe” version brings the highest dollar.
5. 1958-’59 Gibson Flying V
($200,000 to $250,000)
Another of Gibson’s “modernistic” Korina-bodied guitars, like the Explorer, it was offered for only two years. Its unusual V-shaped body was eye-catching, but again, not popular. So, only 98 were made. It was most famously used by blues legend Albert King. Reintroduced in the ’70s with a more traditional mahogany body, it then became popular amongst rock players.
6. 1931-’36 Martin D-28
($140,000 to $170,000)
Though not as fancy as the D-45, its $100 price tag still put it mostly out of reach in the midst of the Great Depression. Thus, production stayed low.
7. 1928-’42 Martin 000-45
($93,000 to $160,000)
One of the models that mark evolutionary changes at Martin, with the advent of bracing for steel strings in ’28, values jump. In ’34, Martin transitioned it to a 14-fret, creating the version preferred by collectors.
8. 1938-’42 Gibson Super Jumbo/SJ-200
($90,000 to $120,000)
Gibson’s answer to Martin’s D line, it was larger, showier with its sunburst finish and “moustache” bridge, and wound up in the hands of many a big-screen singing cowboy.
9. 57 Gibson Les Paul model
($86,000 to $106,000)
Gibson’s original Les Paul, the “goldtop” was refined through the early/mid ’50s until it peaked in ’57, when it was used to launch the company’s new “humbucking” pickups.
10. D’Aquisto archtops
($75,000 to $100,000)
Luthier James D’Aquisto (d. 1995) apprenticed under the famed John D’Angelico. D’Aquisto mostly built to order, and his rarest models bring a premium.
11. 1929-’31 Martin OM-28
($68,000 to $95,000)
Unlike other Martins, the first version today is most revered, with its “pyramid-end” bridge and banjo-style tuners.
12. 1950-’51 Fender Broadcaster
($49,500 to $86,000)
Leo Fender’s first Spanish-style guitar was also the first to incorporate a “bolt-on” neck, which lent well to mass-production. Its single-cutaway design is simple, and its workingman’s appeal never waned. Known today as the Telecaster, it’s one of the “big three” collectible electrics, along with the Fender Stratocaster and Gibson Les Paul.
13. 1957-’61 Gibson Les Paul Custom
($49,500 to $81,000)
The fanciest version of the original Les Paul, it was given a black finish (Les’ original preference!), binding on its body, neck, and headstock, gold-colored hardware, and block inlays on its fretboard. The model came into its own, however, when Gibson added a third humbucker.
14. 1918-’43 Martin 000-42
($40,000 to $80,000)
15. 1958-’59 Gibson ES-335TD
($40,000 to $80,000)
Gibson’s thinline concept crossed attributes of hollowbody and solidbody guitars and became one of the classics. The earliest ones – with dot inlays on the fretboard – are the most collectible.
16. 1956-’64 Gretsch White Penguin
($40,000 to $78,000)
A dressed-up solidbody showpiece first built for Jimmie Webster to play at trade shows, it was produced in small numbers.
17. 1927-’38 Martin 00-45
($59,000 to $75,000)
18. 1932-’36 Martin D-18
($55,000 to $75,000)
19. 1959-’62 Fender Stratocaster
($40,000 to $75,000)
The axe that led the way as guitar-driven pop music moved to the forefront. The “Strat” was cutting-edge, with a body that was thinner and lighter, and an evolutionary vibrato. High-profile rock-and-roll guitarists’ took to it. The fact it was available in various shades of automotive paint (which Fender called “Custom Color”) added to its luster – and collectibility!
20. 1923-’30 Ditson Style 111
($57,000 to $70,000)
Martin – built guitars for a music distributor, this one was the basis of Martin’s own dreadnoughts.
21. 1959-’64 Fender Telecaster Custom
($23,000 to $70,000)
Fancied up with binding on the front and back of its body, custom-color versions are the most collectible – the rarer the color, the more its worth.
22. 1931-’33 Martin OM-28
($57,000 to $68,000)
23. 1936-’40 Gibson Advanced Jumbo
($55,000 to $65,000)
The original – and just slightly smaller – version of the Super Jumbo.
24. 1947-’64 D’Angelico New Yorker (cutaway)
($40,000 to $59,000)
John D’Angelico started luthier training at the age of nine and studied violin making, which influenced his archtop designs. His are considered some of the finest instruments made.
25. 1952-’61 Fender Telecaster
($30,000 to $49,000)
The final step in the early evolution of Leo Fender’s classic.
Courtesy 25 Most Valuable Guitars | Vintage Guitar® magazine
Virgil Arlo vintage-style P.A.F. pick-ups … sweetest humbucking tone
Played by Allen Hinds … LISTEN HERE!
For most of his life, Virgil Arlo has been building the highest quality reproductions of what a vintage Guitar Pickup should sound like. His pickups are used by some of the best Guitar Players around. If you are looking to return a vintage guitar to it’s former glory or give a more modern guitar that timeless Vintage Tone, then you have arrived at the right spot. You will not find a more musical, versatile or organic sounding set of guitar pickups.
Vintage PAF’s (“Patent Applied For’) are known for having the sweetest Humbucking tones. The truth is that the early PAF’s were all over the place in terms of method and material. The result is that some sound outstanding and have great mojo while others were lacking. Over the years Virgil Arlo has encountered a few of the really special vintage PAF’s. Luckily he took notes and figured out how to recreate these Legendary Humbucking Gems. Now you can have these great tones for yourself.
There are a lot of new PAF type pickups on the market these days that sound like new Humbuckers. The Virgil Arlo P.A.F. sound are as close to best vintage PAF’s that you can get. These pickups are full sounding while also being articulate and maintaining a wide frequency range. They don’t have too much output or harsh treble.
These P.A.F.’s have great clarity and excellent string to string note separation. They sound great clean but also excel in medium and high gain situations. Your lows stay tight and the overall EQ stays balanced. Unlike humbuckers that sound the same in every guitar, these P.A.F.’s will capture and produce the best tones from your guitar. The overtones will make you fall in love with your guitar all over again. The dynamics and touch sensitivity will make it impossible to put your guitar down. Getting a pickup to sound this Complex is no easy task. They are a truly rewarding set of pickups.
Courtesy VIRGIL ARLO (c) 2017
Multi-pickup shoot-out; which pups sound best? Tested by REVERB.
SEE THE VIDEO HERE …
How to Select the Right Pickups for Your Tone …
Some Stratocaster modifications, such as using a matchbook cover to jam the original 3-way pickup switch in the “in-between” positions (effectively creating a five-way switch), have found their way into Fender’s production lines and became some of the standard Strat features used today for the ultimate musical expression.
Pure Vintage pickups are carefully constructed to reproduce the tone and performance of the original ‘50s Fender pickups as closely as possible. Available in three different “flavors,” all use precisely staggered polepieces to even out bass/treble string volumes while creating prominent midrange (a key component to the Strat sound). They’re also wax-potted to reduce undesirable feedback when played through a cranked-up amp.
Pure Vintage ’56 and ’59 Strat pickups feature prominent midrange tempered with a touch of treble. This sonic formula makes them great for country, Americana and other roots-type music and allows your playing to cut smoothly through sonically cluttered mixes. Due to the alnico 3 polepieces, the ’56 pickups offer a tighter bass than the ’59 pickups, which feature Alnico 5 magnets, respond slightly better to changes in your picking dynamics and “breathe” along with your music. For the warmest, roundest vintage-style tones, slap a set of Alnico 5-based ’65 pickups in your Strat and revel in the classic sound heard on countless psychedelic and classic blues albums from the ’60s and early ’70s
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Modern Rock and Metal Madness
One secret to achieving unforgettable mid- to high-gain overdriven hard rock and modern metal tones is using high-output pickups that slam a tube amp’s preamp stage, generating mighty crunch from the get-go. Fender Twin Head humbucking pickups and single-coil Deluxe Drive pickups are ideal for that—all three offer plenty of headroom and high output, produce aggressive tone with ease, and still provide plenty of sparkle and clarity when played clean.Available in both neck and bridge versions, the Twin Head pickups generate an even string response thanks to the flush-mounted polepieces and mix of Alnico 3/5 and ceramic magnets. The Twin Head Vintage pickup is fantastic for swaggering late-’70s and Sunset Strip hard rock while the Twin Head Modern pickups generate snarling classic thrash and modern metalcore tones with ease, reacting equally well to both downtuned palm-muting and squealing harmonics. The supercharged Deluxe Drive pickups are the “hot rods” of the single-coil offering, providing balanced sound matched with highly responsive pedal-to-the-metal volume that’s equally useful for electric blues players and modern rockers alike.Courtesy Written by
"B-B-Q and the BLUES" by Larry Collins 