1. Jimi Hendrix
2. Django Reinhardt
3. Jimmy Page
4. Steve Vai
5. Prince
6. Mark Knopfler
7. Gary Moore
8. David Gilmour
9. Kurt Cobain
10. Yngwie Malmsteen
11. Frank Zappa
12. George Harrison
13. Stevie Ray Vaughan
14. Chuck Berry
15. Alex Lifeson
16. Joe Satriani
17. Randy Rhoads
18. Eddie Van Halen
19. Jerry Garcia
20. Kirk Hammett

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Read More At: http://songwriter101.com/articles/entry/Tales_From_the_Top_Van_Halens_Van_Halen_1978/

Two guys sitting in a bar having a great time and very much intoxicated, they amusingly mimic a girl singing on stage. They are very humored by this form of entertainment while completely suspended from sensibility. Next thing they know one of them is pinned to the ground and gets the beating of his life! His best friend, John Lennon, tries to defend him the best as he could and even gets his wrist broken in the process. Bludgeoned and almost covered in blood, Stuart Sutcliffe gets kicked in the head extremely hard, which many believed is what triggered the brain hemorrhage that lead to his death in 1962. The Beatles will never be the same again.

Born on the 23rd of June, 1940, Stuart Ferguson Victor Sutcliffe was a quiet, good looking, but very shy lad. He had personal charisma and looks comparable to James Dean. He would often reserve away from the female gender, but still would not have any trouble having them as companions. His passion for art was not just a hobby but more of a way of life. Every stroke of paint that he put onto a canvass was an expression of a different aspect of himself. By the age of 19, he was already considered as one of the most promising and talented students at the Liverpool College of Arts. While Sutcliffe was a gifted artist, he also had an interest with music; this was mainly influenced by his friendship with John Lennon. Stu would hang around with John’s group during gigs and rehearsals while doing his work. This almost brought a concern to his fellow artists that he might abandon his first love, painting. But nevertheless, he was still just as interested in art as he always had been.

As Stu and John’s college years progressed, they developed a remarkable friendship that would be envied almost by everyone around at that time (who wouldn’t!) they would rely on each other for anything anytime. Stu would influence John to express his creative side while John on the other hand, would tell Stu to relax a bit more and teach him how to connect with others. Both of them cherished this and became the best of friends. As Stuart further expounded his skills for art he decided to enter some of his paintings for the John Moore exhibition which was regarded as one of the best around for its type. John(Lennon) was so excited for Stu that he even brought his Aunt Mimi to the exhibit to flaunt his best friend’s work. This also caught the attention of the host (John Moore) and even bought one of Stu’s paintings for an unheard sum of 65 pounds! Having received this large sum of money, Stu didn’t exactly knew what to do with it. Sure he had a few debts here and there or maybe he should buy more painting materials to further support his craft, but instead John convinced him to buy a bass guitar (Hofner President) and join his group, Johnny & the Moondogs. Although Stu didn’t really know how to play and had to turn down John a couple of times, he finally decided to give it a go and this would turn out to be one of the most important decisions that he would make in his life. Never mind that he couldn’t play he would eventually pick it up by self-teaching and “with a little help from his friends.”

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Sam Phillips is not just one of the most important producers in rock history. There’s a good argument to be made that he is also one of the most important figures in 20th-century American culture. As owner of Sun Records and frequent producer of discs at his Sun Studios he was vital to launching the careers of Elvis Presley, Carl Perkins, Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis, B.B. King, Howlin’ Wolf, Rufus Thomas and numerous other significant artists. Although he first made his mark (and a very deep one) with electric blues by Black performers, he will be most remembered for his rockabilly stars, particularly Elvis Presley.

Sam Phillips was born January 5, 1923, the youngest of eight children and was raised on a farm just outside Florence, Alabama. In high school Phillips conducted the school band. His onstage presence impressed the manager of local WLAY radio that he was hired as a part-time announcer. The Phillips were a typical middle class family until the Great Crash of 1929. Sam’s father died in 1941 just after Pearl Harbor. He then dropped out of high school to help support his mother and deaf mute aunt. He worked first at a grocery and later a funeral home. It was while at the funeral home that Phillips learn how to handle people tactfully in emotional situations, a skill that later would serve him well.

Originally Phillips wanted to study law, but because of circumstances decided to go into radio. He went to Alabama Polytechnical Institute in Auburn, Alabama where he majored in engineering, including audio engineering for radio. In broke into radio in 1940 when he conducted and emceed the band for a college concert. This impressed Jim Connally the station manager at WLAY enough that he hired Phillips.

In 1942 he married Rebecca Burns. Phillips next radio job was for three years at WMSL in Decatur, Alabama and then to WLAC in Nashville, Tennessee and finally in June, 1945 to WREC. At WREC he hosted the “Songs of the West” show daily at 4 PM. There he was able to put his engineering skills into use. In those days many programs were prerecorded on 16 inch acetate discs which were often duplicated and passed to other stations. Thus the radio engineers were also recording engineers and thus Phillips was able to develop his recording skills. He also took care of the station’s sound effects and found records for its library.

While at WREC he hosted “Saturday Afternoon Tea Dance” where he played jazz, blues and pop from the Skyway Room of the Peabody Hotel. The shows were broadcast nationally over the CBS radio network In October 1949 Phillips signed a lease on a small storefront located at 706 Union Avenue near downtown Memphis. The rent was $150 a month. With the help of two year loan from Buck Turner a regular performer at WREC he installed recording equipment. The Memphis recording studio opened in January 1950 with the slogan “We Record Anything-Anywhere- Anytime.” With a Presto five-input mixer board and Presto PT900 portable tape recorder in the Trunk of his car, Phillips would whatever weddings, funerals or religious gatherings he could book.

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G&L is a guitar design and production company founded by Leo Fender, George Fullerton, and Dale Hyatt in the late 1970s. Fender sold his company named Fender in 1965. He designed and produced instruments for Music Man in the 1970s through his company CLF Research. When relations with Music Man soured, G&L was created to continue operations outside of Music Man. The G&L name comes from the initials of George (Fullerton) and Leo (Fender).

G&L instruments are similar to the classic Fenders, but with some modern innovations. They are built at the same facility on Fender Avenue in Fullerton, California that produced the early Music Man instruments. G&L instruments are not widely distributed but are highly regarded by many musicians and collectors. The relatively small scale of production further allows for more custom options than are possible on larger production lines.

After the death of Leo Fender in 1991, Fender’s wife, Phyllis Fender, passed the management of G&L to John C. McLaren of BBE Sound. George Fullerton remained a permanent consultant until his death on July 4 2009, and Leo’s wife Phyllis remains as Honorary Chairman of G&L. In a print advertisement for G&L, Leo Fender claimed the G&L line of instruments were “the best instruments I have ever made.

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The strange, atmospheric and unassuming song was recorded in two versions, wasn’t meant to be the first single and was a delayed hit in the US. So what’s the appeal of Love Me Do?

It was 50 years ago today. There in the Parlophone schedule, next to the King Brothers, Shane Fenton and the Fentones, Matt Monro, the Temperance Seven and James Brown (Shout and Shimmy: a future Mod perennial, later covered by the Who) is the Beatles’ first single for the label. Out of the 11 records in those particular “Latest Releases”, only two were hits, Monro’s My Love and Devotion (29) and Love Me Do – which after a tortuous 12-week journey through the darker reaches of the charts eventually hit No 17 in the last week of December.

The Beatles had the biggest hit of that week’s releases – a fact which did not reflect the label’s confidence in their new act. The story of their audition with George Martin and their signing to EMI in June 1962 is common knowledge, of course. The Beatles’ story has been told and retold so many times and it would be easy to write off Love Me Do as a stale tale, a simplistic stepping stone to future glory. But that would be ahistorical, and would serve to deny this strange, atmospheric single its due.

Listening to it with fresh ears, Love Me Do sounds unlike anything else in the charts of the day – only the prominence of the harmonica in the arrangement recalls Bruce Channel’s soulful Hey! Baby, a No 2 hit in the UK in spring 1962. Autumn that year was dominated by Elvis, Frank Ifield and the Tornados’ Telstar. The biggest British act of the time was Cliff Richard; the biggest producer Norrie Paramor (Cliff, Ifield, the Shadows) who had 26 weeks at No 1 that year.

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The guitar is an ancient and noble instrument, whose history can be traced back over 4000 years. Many theories have been advanced about the instrument’s ancestry. It has often been claimed that the guitar is a development of the lute, or even of the ancient Greek kithara. Research done by Dr. Michael Kasha in the 1960’s showed these claims to be without merit. He showed that the lute is a result of a separate line of development, sharing common ancestors with the guitar, but having had no influence on its evolution. The influence in the opposite direction is undeniable, however - the guitar’s immediate forefathers were a major influence on the development of the fretted lute from the fretless oud which the Moors brought with them to to Spain.

The sole “evidence” for the kithara theory is the similarity between the greek word “kithara” and the Spanish word “quitarra”. It is hard to imagine how the guitar could have evolved from the kithara, which was a completely different type of instrument - namely a square-framed lap harp, or “lyre”.

It would also be passing strange if a square-framed seven-string lap harp had given its name to the early Spanish 4-string “quitarra”. Dr. Kasha turns the question around and asks where the Greeks got the name “kithara”, and points out that the earliest Greek kitharas had only 4 strings when they were introduced from abroad. He surmises that the Greeks hellenified the old Persian name for a 4-stringed instrument, “chartar”.

The earliest stringed instruments known to archaeologists are bowl harps and tanburs. Since prehistory people have made bowl harps using tortoise shells and calabashes as resonators, with a bent stick for a neck and one or more gut or silk strings. The world’s museums contain many such “harps” from the ancient Sumerian, Babylonian, and Egyptian civilisations. Around 2500 - 2000 CE more advanced harps, such as the opulently carved 11-stringed instrument with gold decoration found in Queen Shub-Ad’s tomb, started to appear.

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Introducing a new twist on a legendary guitar. Over 20 years ago, Ned Steinberger revealed the Steinberger GL guitar, the first all graphite composite electric guitar. With its unusual headless design, it was quite a hit for years. The LBG guitar is the next generation of carbon graphite guitar, and at 4.5 pounds it is almost half the weight of the 8 pound Steinberger GL. As with the GL, the LBG’s body and neck is a single slab of carbon graphite, with a cover plate to keep the pickups from falling off.

The LBG guitar has a clear and airy resonance that is even on all notes across the fretboard. The sound of the GL is very “accurate” and “defined”, with lots of control over the vowel effect after the note is picked; the LBG guitar is more resonant, and sounds less “dense”. When holding chords, the notes seem to bloom over time. Put another way, if you blend a GL with a Parker, you will get an LBG, with the Parker adding the “ariness” to the GL sound. The neck profile is like a Moses but a tad wider, not like a Newburgh GL/GM.

The guitar has an ergonomic knee contour that helps angle the neck to a comfortable playing position when sitting. When standing, there is no neck hang: the guitar is very evenly balanced. It has similar edge contours as the GL so you don..t end up with any uncomfortable feeling with your right arm/hand.

Musician Dave Rowe had this to say about them:

When Jon first pulled out the guitars at my studio, I was immediately taken by the resemblance to the GL, but with the modified bottom bout—hey look mom, no leg rest! I’ll never forget the first time I picked up an L series Steinberger and was astonished by the heft of the instrument relative to its diminutive size. This experience was exactly the opposite of that! When Jon first handed the guitar to me, I believe the words out of my mouth were, “Holy-sh*t, what’s this thing made of?” The guitar is incredibly light, at 4.5 lbs. it really doesn’t seem like it could possibly be taken seriously…until you plug it in. From lightweight guitar to heavyweight tone. It can sparkle and growl. With a list of possible pickup configurations longer than my arm, Jon’s guitars will surely be a prized part of any guitar arsenal.

One of the buyers had this to say about the guitar:

Tonal quality of the guitar is excellent. I’m a mid and high person so the lighter low end of this guitar, even with a powerful JB, fits my taste. I once put a P-rail on my wooden-bodied headless but gave up after 30 minutes as it sounded unclear. The graphite body make this pickup sound surprisingly airy with clear contour even in the front. In fact P-90 setting of P-rail sounds so sweet on this guitar!

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Master violin maker Karl Hofner founded Hofner in Schonbach, Germany in 1887. Hofner quickly gained a reputation for quality, craftsmanship and innovation. Hofner’s Son Joseph joined his father in 1919 and brother Walter joined the family business in 1921.
In 1955 Walter Hofner invented an amplified short scale semi-acoustic bass. This bass evolved into the famous 500/1 Hofner bass which was launched at the 1956 Frankfurt Music Fair. Hofner was relatively unknown outside Germany until the late 1950′s when a UK Distributor, Selmer began promoting Hofner. Hofner’s awareness grew exponentially after Paul McCartney and the Beatles became 60′s music icons. McCartney bought his first Hofner bass in a music shop in Hamburg Germany. The Beatles appeared on the Ed Sullivan show in 1964 and millions saw Paul McCartney’s Hofner 500/1 bass. Fans nicknamed the 500/1 violin bass the “Beatle Bass”. McCartney’s 500/1 Violin bass was used on many Beatles songs and became a 60′s pop culture icon.
Today, Hofner continues to build high quality basses and guitars using old school quality craftsmanship. New generations of players now appreciate Hofner hollow body guitars and basses.

(Source: hofner.com)

Of the many solidbody guitar models produced in the last 60 years, few have enjoyed the popularity and longevity of the Fender Telecaster. Shortly after its invention, the Telecaster became a main staple of blues, country and rock musicians alike. The instrument has endured the test of time as the electric guitar of choice by players worldwide.
The first Telecaster, actually called the “Broadcaster,” and was designed by Leo Fender in California. Initially, Gretsch owned the rights to the instrument, but Fender improved his design and re-released the first Telecaster in 1951. It has been known by its nickname, the “Tele,” ever since.
As the world’s first mass-marketed solid body electric guitar, the Tele has gained so much favor with musicians because of its light weight and body-friendly contours. It is extremely easy to play and handle from a sitting or standing position. Telecasters feature two pickups, and the body is a single cutaway with an eight-screw pick guard.
In the 1970s, when Telecasters were manufactured in Mexico and Japan, the company began making them with two humbuckers. Minor cosmetic changes have come and gone over the last 60 years, but the basic Tele design remains the same as Fender’s prototype.
Fender manufactures various types of Telecasters, including the Artist series, the Vintage series, American Deluxe, American Standard, the Classic, and a few Special Issues. New Telecasters range in price from about $690 to $2,500, direct from the manufacturer. Vintage model prices can be lower or even higher.
The Telecaster sound has been described as “twangy,” hence its popularity with blues and country artists. The solid body of the Tele prevents feedback problems, and creates a clean, electrified tone.
During his 1960s stint with the Yardbirds, Eric Clapton played a Tele. Chrissy Hynde of the Pretenders is also a Telecaster player. Other famous Tele aficionados include Jeff Beck, Jeff Buckley, Bob Dylan, Waylon Jennings, George Harrison, Freddie Mercury, Paul McCartney, Jimmy Page, Tom Petty, Keith Richards and Pete Townshend.

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