Rob Roberge Rocks

UCLA professor and author Rob Roberge contacted me recently. He is a talented novelist and vintage guitar freak. See his novel on my homepage. Visit his site at MyRareGuitars.com for some very cool content.

New Arrival! A Bouncing Baby Website!

There's a new website in town. It's VintageBassGuitar.net.

It's all about basses, and will go into great detail as time goes on. I love vintage guitars of all kinds, but basses are my thing. Bookmark it if you love basses.

Been on Vacation..What's Going On??

Lot's of visits to the Vintageguitarpedia I see. That's very cool. I've got some great stuff to add in the next few weeks. For now, I'll unpack and have a beer. Later.

Sunday Morning Coming Down...

I miss Jimi. I know, I'm too young to have been around when he was living, but I feel I knew him. He taught a 70's rock kid turned 80's punk, to whatever today about putting tabs down and playing with feeling.

News and Views

Ah, the 1960's...the rise of surf music, the loss of 1950's rock icons and across the Big Pond an interest in and resurgence of American blues music will soon give rise to the British Invasion and some of our future guitar legends.

The guitar manufacturers were also undergoing some changes themselves and as research and development plodded forward, These changes were reflected in the guitars themselves. Over at Fender, Leo and the gang brought us the Telecaster, and although not its replacement, but by Leo's standards an improvement in design, he then brought us the Stratocaster in the early 1960's. The pre-CBS Stratocasters (1959 to 1964)underwent some significant changes within its own design. Essentially, the Stratocaster was still the same guitar as always, with some (as enthusiasts contend) cosmetic changes, some of which were esthetically pleasing, minute at the time, but all eventually changed the 50's 'Strat. Some say it changed for the better, some argue it changed for the worse, but we will let that dog chase its tail on its own.

So what were some of the changes? Well, first to come to mind was the fretboard - Fender went from a maple fretboard to a rosewood fretboard ,with the maple as an option, the Rosewood which throughout the 1960's got progressively thinner, and in late 1962 even had a bottom radius to match the arch of the neck's top radius. The black fret position markers were also changed to clay dot markers on the fretboard face. Also, the trussrod which was placed through the backside of the neck, and gave us the skunk stripe inlay was placed via under of the rosewood fretboard, thus eliminating the skunk stripe itself and doing away with the pegheads plug inlay. As a result, I am probably correct to assume that it also facilitated speed in production and less articulation on the builder's part - remember, Leo was a "bottom line" kind of guy. But being cost conscious why go from an 8 screw to an 11 screw pickguard cover that was now introduced? ( obviously for better coupling) and Fender replaced the thinner one-ply pickguard with a triple-laminated (the mint green coloration, according to Fender, was a mistake) and often a shielded one. Yes Leo was known to shave a dollar here and spend a dime there all the while listening to his field of test players in the trenches, the raves and the complaints were all a grand part in Leo's quest for perfecting his "girl" the Stratocaster.

The 3 color "bursts" were phased in over the standard 2 color s( although some 3 color one do appear as early as the later half of 1958) Some of the production models in the earlier 60's had a strange combo of older and newer parts (again Leo saving a dime) until all the old inventory was used up and production was ramping up. Also we see on dealers charts of the day an array of colors appearing and disappearing, choices such as Lake Placid Blue, Sonic Blue, Sherwood Green, Foam Green, Shoreline Gold Metalic, Olympic White, Surf Green, Burgandy mist, Black,Blonde, and The Sunburst were some of the custom color choices as a customer you would have had. Interestingly enough Shell Pink was one that was discontinued and Candy Apple Red was introduced.

Because of undercoat "primer" changes from silver to gold in 1965 / 1965 we can also see a wide array of coloration discrepancies all within the same known colors of a particular guitar.(especially within the reds) At times due to a lack of guitar for a customers color order, a desert sand or sunburst that didn't quite take well was over sprayed the custom color, again to save inventory and probably speed thing up a notch, we will never really know. So by 1964 Leo and the gang was kicking out some mighty fine guitars, progress was being made, expansion was constant and changes were taking place. Then another turn in the house of cards was to take place. In 1965 the sale of Fender to CBS, making what some argue the most highly desirable (PRE CBS) and prized guitars in the market as we know it today.

VH1:Classic in Concert Review - ZZTOP

ZZTop Still Has It

ZZTop is not dead. Just checking them out in a recent concert on VH1. I remember the "Little Ole Band From Texas" in the 70's and they are still the same. The live album, Fandango, is still a kick-ass record. As a matter of fact, think I'll dig it out right now...

'60 Gibson Les Paul Grainger SunBurst - What a Beauty!

News Release: VintageGuitarpedia teams with Ebay. If you can't beat'em, join'em. But this is a good thing, because you can't beat the opportunity to buy a real find. That's the beauty of Ebay. That's why it's so popular.

Welcome to the new site...

I would like to say hello to all my good friends I've collected through the years in the music industry. Please check them out on tour and buy their music soon.

All the boys at:
38 Special- (Haley Johnson-Guitar Guru, Comet Guitar Worx)
Lynyrd Skynyrd
Shawn Mullins
The FIXX
The New Cars
Cheap Trick(Rick Neilson's famous guitar collection coming soon to this blog)
Peter Frampton
Jackyl
Ultradrive(Tommy Thompson, Atlanta, Ga.)
NickelBack
3 Doors Down
Collective Soul
TLC
Edwin McCain

Welcome the the Guitarpedia!

Add your guitar(s) photos, videos, history or anything you want...