Rock Guitar Advance III *Wireless* for PS2

Rock Guitar Advance III *Wireless* for PS2

A real heavy metal guitar for rock /guitar games on Playstation 2! Nice metallic color and metal look and fully compatible with the Guitar Hero serie of games. And all this with wireless 2.4GHz connectivity, no cable, just pure play!



Rock Guitar Advance III for PS2

A real heavy metal guitar for rock /guitar games on Playstation 2! Nice metallic color and metal look and fully compatible with the Guitar Hero serie of games.



Dance Performance-W Dance Mat *WIRELESS*

Play all dancing games without the mess of connecting cables with this wireless dance mat compatible with both PS2 and PS1. It supports 2 players mode with a special select function, and requires only 2 AA batteries.



Wireless Rock Guitar II

Enjoy Guitar Hero and Guitar Hero II games in total rock style with this wireless guitar controller.



Rock Guitar II

Compatible with guitar game such as Guitar Hero or Guitar Hero 2, the Rock Guitar features a smart design with all buttons for gameplay and a shoulder strap to secure it in intense game action!

Parts of the electric guitar:

Head and tuning pegs

Most electric guitars have 6 tuning pegs located on the same side of the headstock (some however have 3 on each side of the head). Turn the pegs to tune the guitar. Turning the pegs either tighten or loosen the strings resulting in a higher or lower pitched tone.


The Nut

The nut is designed to lead the strings from the fret board to the tuning pegs through the slots in the nut. It is usually made of plastic, brass, bone or graphite.



Many guitarists prefer a nut made of bone as they claim it produces the best sound. In any case, if you use the vibrato arm a lot or play your guitar in a rough way, a nut made out of a lowThe Electric Guitar



This page will provide you with information about this type of guitar, explaining the most common parts and how they work.






Parts of the electric guitar:

The Electric Guitar

The electric guitar and its parts


Head and tuning pegs

Most electric guitars have 6 tuning pegs located on the same side of the headstock (some however have 3 on each side of the head). Turn the pegs to tune the guitar. Turning the pegs either tighten or loosen the strings resulting in a higher or lower pitched tone.


The Nut

The nut is designed to lead the strings from the fret board to the tuning pegs through the slots in the nut. It is usually made of plastic, brass, bone or graphite.



Many guitarists prefer a nut made of bone as they claim it produces the best sound. In any case, if you use the vibrato arm a lot or play your guitar in a rough way, a nut made out of a low friction material would be preferred as it wouldn't cause your strings to "snap at the nut" so frequently.


Guitar neck and Fret board

The guitar neck itself is most commonly made out of rosewood or maple or variations of those types of wood. Necks can also be made out of ebony or mahogany.

Some players choose their guitar necks carefully as it is a factor in the overall sound of the guitar.

The neck is either bolted to the guitar body or made as one part with the guitar body.



The fret board on this guitar type consists of fret wires place into the guitar's neck. Between these wires are the frets where you place your fingers. A standard electric guitar usually has 21-24 frets. Each fret represents one semitone so a fret board with 24 frets is spanning 2 octaves (24 semitones).

The Pickups and the Pickup Selector Switch

You can think of the pick ups as microphones on your electric guitar. Most electric guitars have 2-3 pickups and their placement is important. Located close to the neck the pickup will produce a soft rounded sound, while located close to the bridge it will produce a sharper, more pointy sound.



When speaking of electric guitars and pickups we are usually talking about magnetic pickups, as they use magnets to convert the vibration of the string into an electric signal, and these can be divided into 2 main types: The Humbucker (Double-coil) and the single coil pickup. Double-coil pickups are basically single coil pickups mounted side by side and the sound they pick up is "integrated" through to the output.



Experimenting with pickup placement on the guitar can produce some interesting variations in the sound.



The pickup selector switch toggles between the pickups (or combination of pickups) the guitar uses to pick up the sound.



The picture above displays single coil pickups.


The bridge and the vibrato arm

The bridge can be divided into 2 main types: Tremolo and non-tremolo (hard tail) bridges. The tremolo bridge has an extension arm (a.k.a. vibrato arm) which the player can push (and in some cases pull) to decrease or increase the string tension causing a tremolo or vibrato effect in the sound.


The Body and pick-guard

The guitar body is commonly made of maple, mahogany or ash wood and comes in a wide variety of shapes and sizes. The choice of wood here will also be a contributing factor to the overall sound of the guitar.



The white part of the guitar body in the picture above is the pick guard. It is there to protect the wood finish of the guitar body from being struck or scraped by the pick when picking the strings.


Volume and tone controls

The volume control adjusts the volume (big surprise!! ;-)) on the signal picked up by the pickups.

The tone controls adjusts the treble on the sound. There are usually 2 or more tone controls each referring to the pickup selected with the pickup selector switch.


Output Jack

A cable with a 1/4" male jack plug in both ends is used to plug the guitar into an amplifier or a mixing unit.


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Acoustic Guitar ElectricGuitarParts Electric Guitar Parts & acustic Guitar Lessons

There are three main sections zoomed in the picture; the Headstock, the Neck, and the Body. The headstock holds the Tuner Posts around which the strings are wrapped and terminated. The Tuners are knobs that (or this, or whatever) increase or decrease the tension on the string wrapped around the tuner posts (tuning the sound made by the strings). Note that some electric guitars may have different looking tuners, and some may even have three tuner keys on opposite sides. Even though they may look different, they work in the same manner. The Nut guides the strings to the tuner posts and maintains the height of the strings. Electric
The length of the Neck depends on the scale of the guitar and the number of frets it has. The back of the neck could be "C" shaped, or "V" shaped (sideways < if you compare it to the letter C). The front of the neck is the Fingerboard or Fretboard, that contains the Frets embedded in notches along its surface. The Strings run down the neck over the frets. The height of the strings over the frets is called the Action; if the action is too high the strings are harder to press down, if the action is too low the strings may rattle against the frets muffling the notes. The neck usually has "dot" markers on the top and the side facing the player, showing the position of the 3rd, 5th, 7th, 9th, 12th (which has two dots), 15th, 17th, 19th, 21st, and 24th (which also has two dots) fret. Note that like not all electric guitars have 24 frets. Those guitars that do have 24 frets will have smaller spacing between all the other frets, which is may make things a little difficult for large hands and fingers. Parts
The body of the electric guitar has one, two or three Pickups under the strings. These electro-magnetic coils "pickup" the vibration from the strings and send it to the amp. There are two varieties of pickups, single-coil and humbucker (dual-coil), and electric guitars have different combinations of these pickups in the three possible positions - closest to the neck, in the middle, and furthest from the neck. A Pickup Selector Switch allows you to choose which pickup will be active, some models even allow you to select combinations of pickups for unique sounds. The strings terminate in the Bridge, some versions also have a Whammy Bar to create Tremolo effects (by rapidly pushing the bar in and out, changing the angle of the bridge). Volume and Tone control knobs are also present on the body, allowing you to make minor changes to your guitars sound without having to fiddle with the amp. A Cable Connector allows you to connect a cable from your electric guitar to your amplifier or effects pedal.

How to Play Electric Guitar:

So you're interested in learning how to play electric guitar? No problem. These series of lessons will take you step by step. If you're just starting out, you should find these lessons pretty useful. For the purpose of our first lesson, I shall make things very simple and assume that you have never played a guitar before and probably don't even own one. Although this section focuses primarily on how to play the elctric guitar, it really doesn't matter if you're gonna be playing any other type of guitar (electric-acoustic, acoustic, or classical).

How to play electric guitar - parts of an electric guitar

The first thing I want you to learn are the parts of the guitar. Check out the diagram below for an overview.

DiMarzio DP138 Virtual Acoustic Acoustic Guitar Pickup

The Virtual Acoustic uses the same technology as the Virtual Vintage line to create a pickup that's practically noise free, even in comparison to humbuckers patent applied for.

DiMarzio DP136 Super Natural Plus Acoustic Guitar Pickup The Super Natural Plus is just what it's name implies it goes beyond ordinary sounding pickups with incredibly crisp treble and tight bass response, and patented 60 cycle hum reduction. This combination allows acoustic players to deal with real world

DiMarzio DP420 Virtual Solo Single Coil Pickup DiMarzio has combined the best qualities of the Virtual Vintage Solo and Solo Pro high output and a full, warm sound and pushed these qualities even further. Treble response is smoother, the lows are tighter, and there is more pick attack. Play hard,

DiMarzio DP197 Virtual PAF Bridge Position Humbucker Pickup The Virtual PAF captures the finest qualities of 50's and early 60's humbuckers to create a great sound. Patented Airbucker and Virtual VintageTM technology permit the use of an Alnico 5 magnet to generate the same low string pull that an Alnico 2 or

Seymour Duncan SA1 Acoustic Tube Acoustic Guitar Pickup The Tube was designed to provide a flat, true acoustic response for natural sound. It uses a Stack hum canceling design and it's extremely feedback resistant. The impedance is lower than other passive acoustic pickups, so it can go straight into a va

		DiMarzio DD3242 Italian Leather Acoustic Guitar Strap There is no danger of this strap marking the finish of a prized acoustic guitar because DiMarzio uses no metal parts in it. Adjusts from 49 in. to 55 12 in. 125 141 cm, and comes with a matching tie string. These straps are beautiful, comfortable and

Comments:

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DiMarzio DP138 Virtual Acoustic Pickup For Acoustic Guitar.

Welcome to the guitar pickup department of the GFB Guitar Store.

We're sure you'll be surprised at the incredible price available. DiMarzio DP138 Virtual Acoustic Pickup For Acoustic Guitar. DiMarzio Virtual Acoustic DP138 model guitar pickup. From our selection of, comes the DiMarzio DP138 Virtual Acoustic Pickup For Acoustic Guitar. The Virtual Acoustic uses the same technology as the Virtual Vintage line to create a. DiMarzio DP138 Virtual Acoustic Guitar Pickup.

Humbuckers

One problem with single coil pickups is that — along with the musical signal — they also pick up mains hum. Mains hum consists of a fundamental signal at a nominal 50 or 60 Hz, depending on local alternating current frequency, and usually some harmonic content. The changing magnetic flux caused by the mains current links with the windings of the pickup, inducing a voltage by transformer action.
To overcome this effect, the humbucking pickup was developed, concurrently and independently by Seth Lover of Gibson and Ray Butts, working for Gretsch. Who developed it first is a matter of some debate, but Seth Lover was awarded the first patent (U.S. Patent 2,896,491). Ultimately, both men developed essentially the same concept.
A humbucking pickup, shown in the image on the right, is comprised of two coils. Each coil is wound reverse to one another. However, the six magnetic poles, are opposite in polarity in each winding. Since Ambient hum from power-supply transformers, radio frequencies, or electrical devices reaches the coils as common-mode noise, and induces an electrical current of equal magnitude in each coil. The sine wave signals in each pickup, created by the electro-magnetic interference, are equal, and are 180 degrees out of phase to one another. This is due to the reverse winding of the pickup coils. And leads to the two signals canceling each other, once they meet on the signal path. However the signal from the guitar string is magnified, doubled, due to the phase reversal caused by the out of phase magnets. The magnets being out of phase in conjunction with the coil windings being out of phase, put the guitar string signal from each pickup in phase with one another. When the two in phase guitar string sine wave signals meet, the amplitude of the wave doubles, and doubles the signal strength.
One side-effect of this technique is that, when wired in series, as is most common, the overall inductance of the pickup is increased, which lowers its resonance frequency and attenuates the higher frequencies, giving a fatter and less trebly tone than either of the two component single-coil pickups would give alone. A second side-effect of the technique is that, because the two coils are wired in series, the resulting signal that is output by the pickup is larger in amplitude, thus more able to overdrive the early stages of the amplifier. This is the essence of the "humbucker tone."
An alternative wiring places the coils in buck parallel. The equal common-mode mains hum interference cancels, while the string variation signal sums. This method has a more neutral effect on resonant frequency: mutual capacitance is doubled (which if inductance were constant would result in a lowering of resonant frequency), and inductance is halved (which would raise the resonant frequency without the capacitance change). The net is NO change in resonant frequency. This pickup wiring is rare, as guitarists have come to expect that humbucking 'has a sound', and is not neutral. On fine jazz guitars, the parallel wiring will produce significantly cleaner sound however, as the lowered source impedance will drive capacitive cable with lower high frequency attenuation.
A side-by-side humbucking pickup senses a wider section of the string (has a wider aperture) than a single-coil pickup. This affects tone.[1]by picking up a larger portion of the vibrating string more lower harmonics are present in signal produced by the pickup resulting in a "fatter" tone. Stacked humbuckers have the narower aperture of a single coil and sound closer to one.

Pickup sound

The turns of wire in proximity to each other have an equivalent self-capacitance which, when added to any cable capacitance present, resonates with the inductance of the winding. This resonance can accentuate certain frequencies, giving the pickup a characteristic tonal quality. The more turns of wire in the winding, the higher the output voltage but the lower this resonance frequency. The inductive source impedance inherent in this type of transducer makes it less linear than other forms of pickups, such as piezo-electric or optical. The tonal quality produced by this nonlinearity is, however, subject to taste, and may therefore also be considered by some to be aesthetically superior to that of a more linear transducer.
The external load usually consists of resistance (the volume and tone potentiometer in the guitar, and any resistance to ground at the amplifier input) and capacitance between the hot lead and shield in the guitar cable. The cable capacitance has a large effect and must not be neglected. This arrangement of passive components forms a resistively-damped second-order low-pass filter. Pickups are usually designed to feed a high input impedance, typically a megohm or more, and a low impedance load will reduce the high-frequency response of the pickup because of the filtering effect of the inductance.

Magnetic pickups

A magnetic pickup consists of a permanent magnet such as a AlNiCo, wrapped with a coil of a few thousand turns of fine enameled copper wire. The pickup is most often mounted on the body of the instrument, but can be attached to the bridge, neck and/or pickguard, as on many electro-acoustic archtop jazz guitars and string basses. The vibration of the nearby soft-magnetic strings modulates the magnetic flux linking the coil, thereby inducing an alternating current through the coil of wire. This signal is then carried to amplification or recording equipment via a cable. There may also be an internal preamplifier stage between the pickup and cable. More generally, the pickup operation can be described using the concept of a magnetic circuit. In this description, the motion of the string varies the magnetic reluctance in the circuit created by the permanent magnet.

GUITAR & PICKUPS

A pickup device acts as a transducer that captures mechanical vibrations (usually from suitably equipped stringed instruments such as the electric guitar, electric bass guitar or electric violin) and converts them to an electrical signal, which can be amplified and recorded.



[edit] Pickup sound
The turns of wire in proximity to each other have an equivalent self-capacitance which, when added to any cable capacitance present, resonates with the inductance of the winding. This resonance can accentuate certain frequencies, giving the pickup a characteristic tonal quality. The more turns of wire in the winding, the higher the output voltage but the lower this resonance frequency. The inductive source impedance inherent in this type of transducer makes it less linear than other forms of pickups, such as piezo-electric or optical. The tonal quality produced by this nonlinearity is, however, subject to taste, and may therefore also be considered by some to be aesthetically superior to that of a more linear transducer.

GUITAR HEROS

Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock was released in late 2007 for the PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Wii, PC, and Mac platforms. The title is the first installment of the series to include wireless guitars bundled with the game and also the first to release a special bundle with two guitars. The game includes Slash and Tom Morello as playable characters in addition to the existing fictional avatars; both guitarists performed motion capture to be used for their characters' animation in the game.
On September 4, 2007, Billboard announced that the band Aerosmith was "working closely with the makers of Guitar Hero IV, which will be dedicated to the group's music."[17] On February 15, 2008, Activision announced that Guitar Hero: Aerosmith, an expansion game to the series, would be released on June 29, 2008.[18][19][20] Guitar Hero: Aerosmith is developed by Neversoft for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 versions, while the Wii version of the game is developed by Vicarious Visions and the PlayStation 2 version is developed by Budcat Creations.[21] The game features a track selection composed of 60% of Aerosmith songs, with other songs from Joe Perry's solo work or artists that have inspired or performed with Aerosmith, including Run D.M.C..
Guitar Hero World Tour, previously named Guitar Hero IV, is the fourth full game in the series and was released on October 26, 2008 for PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and Wii. Analysts had expected that future Guitar Hero games in 2008 would include additional instrument peripherals to compete against Rock Band;[22] Guitar Hero World Tour was confirmed as in development following the announcement of the merger between Activision and Vivendi Games in December 2007.[23] Activision's CEO Bobby Kotick announced on April 21, 2008 that Guitar Hero World Tour will branch out into other instruments including vocals.[24] Guitar Hero World Tour includes drums and vocals, and can be bought packaged with a new drum set controller, a microphone, and the standard guitar controller.[25] A larger number of real-world musicians appear as playable characters, including Jimi Hendrix, Billy Corgan, Hayley Williams, Zakk Wylde, Ted Nugent, Travis Barker, Sting, and Ozzy Osbourne. Guitar Hero World Tour also features custom song creation that can be shared with others.[25]
Activision's 2008 SEC filings cited that they plan to release Guitar Hero: Metallica by the first quarter of 2009, according the Wedbush Morgan Securities.[26] Guitar Hero: Metallica is based on the full band experience of World Tour while offering similar features on Metallica's history and music as found in Guitar Hero: Aerosmith.[27] In addition, Metallica's album, Death Magnetic, was available as downloadable content for Guitar Hero III simultaneously with the release of the album, with the content being forward-compatible with Guitar Hero World Tour and Guitar Hero: Metallica.[27][28]

GUITAR ELECTRIC PEDAL

An effects pedal (or stomp box) is an electronic effects unit housed in a small metal or plastic chassis used by musicians, usually electric guitar players, to modify their instrument sound. Musicians playing electronic keyboards, electromechanical organs, the electric bass, or electric violin also use effects pedals. These devices alter the sound quality or timbre of the input signal, adding effects such as distortion, fuzz, overdrive, chorus, reverberation, wah-wah, flanging, phaser or pitch shifting. The sound of a guitar or other instrument that is played without an effects pedal is described as "clean", "straight" or "dry."

The TS9 Tubescreamer from Ibanez, a widely-imitated pedal adding a vacuum tube-like overdrive sound using op-amps.
Users refer to them as pedals because they sit on the floor and have large on/off switches on top that are activated using the foot. Some pedals, such as wah-wah or volume pedals, employ what is known as an expression pedal. Expression pedals are manipulated while in operation by rocking a large foot-activated potentiometer (pot) back and forth.[1] The relative position of the expression pedal changes some parameter of the effect, such as a filter response in a wah pedal.
Effects pedals permit the musician to activate and deactivate effects while playing an instrument. Some musicians use rack-mounted effects processors controlled using MIDI instead of or in addition to effects pedals, since the greater size of the rack form factor usually allows more flexibility and processing power. Others prefer only using a few analog effects pedals, to avoid sending the instrument signal through multiple stages of analog-to-digital conversion, as occurs in more complicated and powerful

A guitar pedalboard is a flat board or panel which serves as a container, patch bay and power supply for effects pedals. Some pedalboards contain their own power supply, in order to power many different pedals. Pedalboards assist the player in managing multiple pedals. The entire pedalboard can be packed up and transported to the next location without the need for disassembly.
Pedalboards often have a cover or case which protects the effects pedals during transportation. Some boards use soft cases or gig bags, and some use hard-shell or ATA cases. Hard shell pedalboard-cases have foam padding, reinforced corners, and locking latches which protect the pedals during transport. Like the pedals they carry, pedalboards can be self-assembled, or purchased from manufacturers such as Gator, SKB, and Pedaltrain. Many major touring musicians employ a technician or contractor to custom-build a pedalboard to suit their needs, such as the elaborate custom pedalboards Pete Cornish built for David Gilmour and other artists

Many other musical instruments, among them the piano, pipe organ, drums, and harp, also make use of pedals to achieve tonal, dynamic, or other effects. The piano's mechanical sustain pedal is one well-known example. Pipe organs and electromechanical Hammond organs have one or more expression pedals and sometimes a crescendo pedal, which the organist can use to achieve dynamic (or "expressive") changes. Some large church and theater organs also have push-buttons for the feet, so that the player can activate different stops. These are neither considered nor called effects pedals. Pipe organs and Hammond organs also use another type of pedals on their bass pedal keyboard, which is a 20- to 32-note keyboard operated with the feet.
One major exception appears on modern electronic organs and synthesizers, which usually include a volume pedal similar to that of a guitar. The electronic organ pioneered this kind of pedal, not the guitar. Some advanced models also include an additional effects pedal that may be programmed to serve several of the functions described in the preceding section. The operation of each is similar to those on guitars; the organist places an entire foot on the pedal and, while playing, gently pumps up and down with heel and toe pressure to achieve the desired effects. Because the organist is usually seated and thus has better balance than the guitarist, the pedals are designed to have a wider range of motion. The organist can thus bring about more pronounced changes than the guitarist with only slight changes in foot pressure.
Some pedals, in fact also have switches on the end that enable still other effects by "scrunching" the toes to the left or right on the pedal, either in isolation or while pumping the pedal up and down, leading to far more flexibility than most guitar pedals.
Another stompbox found in solo music is the foot drum-style stompbox. These are small wooden boxes that the musician taps with the foot to create a percussive sound. The unit will commonly connect to a Public Address system via an XLR jack or guitar jack and provide the main "Front of House" speakers with a kick or bass drum sound which can add rhythm to solo acoustic music. Some musicians use homemade stomp boxes which consist of a wooden box and a microphone. Wooden stomp boxes are often used in folk-related genres and by "one man bands".

GUITAR SCHALLER ELECTRONIC GMBH

Schaller Electronic GmbH, generally known as Schaller, is a high-end German manufacturer of components for musical instruments, most famous for their fully-enclosed machine heads which are standard on many top-of-the-line guitars and available as an extra cost option on many others.
Schaller also manufactures machine heads for many other instruments, and also components and accessories including mutes, bows, pickups, tailpieces, bridges and tremolo arms, including Original Floyd Rose designs. In the past Schaller was also a guitar amplifier manufacturer.
The company was founded by Helmut Schaller in the 1950s in order to provide quality hardware for rock and roll performers such as Les Paul, who Schaller personally met

The B-Bender was invented by Gene Parsons and Clarence White of Nashville West and The Byrds, and was originally called the Parsons/White Pull-String, later changed to StringBender. Their early prototypes included multiple bending devices for the E, B, G and D strings, but White decided he preferred a single B string bender in the final design. The B string is bent up a full tone by pulling the guitar neck down. This puts pressure on the strap, which is attached to a spring-loaded lever at the base of the neck. The lever arm passes through the body of the guitar and is connected to the B string behind the bridge (Figure A).[1] White's 1956 Telecaster with the first Pull-String is now owned and regularly played by Marty Stuart.[2] Parsons and White licensed the StringBender to Leo Fender at Fender Musical Instruments Corporation, who made some changes to simplify the design for mass production.[3] However, this model never went into production.
Parsons made and installed StringBenders from 1973 to 1989, when demand overtook his production capacity. He then partnered with Meridian Green to outsource the production of the kits, develop a network of authorized installation shops and write an instruction manual for the installers.[4] In the mid-1990's, Fender decided to begin offering the StringBender in their Nashville B-Bender Telecaster, and began production in 1996 using an updated design by Parsons and Green.[5]

Another type of B-Bender is activated by the picking hand, like the Bigsby vibrato tailpiece. Unlike the Parsons/White model, this type does not require any structural modifications to the guitar body, and simply installs with a few screws. Examples are the Bigsby Palm Pedal, the Hipshot Palm Lever, and the Duesenberg Guitars Multibender. Each of these can bend multiple strings using different levers.
The Hipshot B-Bender, developed by David Borisoff, also mounts to the tailpiece end of the guitar without requiring any modifications. A lever extends behind the guitar and rests against the player's body. The bender is activated by moving the whole guitar against the player's body.[6] While this version bends the string up, James Hennessey developed a version that can bend the string either up or down, although mounting it requires modification of the guitar body (Figure B.)[7]

Fig. C The Glaser design bends one, two or three strings independently
The same type of mechanics can be applied to other strings besides the B, with the G string being the most common. Brad Paisley is a well-known proponent of the "G-Bender" and uses a model from Charlie McVay. "Double Benders" can bend both the B and G strings independently. The B string pull operates like the Parsons/White design, by pushing the neck down against the strap. The G string pull uses a push-away motion of the neck and depends on a lanyard attached to the player's belt.
A variation developed by Joseph Glaser can bend up to three different strings independently. Like the Double Benders, Glaser's design uses a downward pull of the guitar neck to bend the B string and a push-away against a belt lanyard to bend the G string. The third bend for the low E string uses a backward pull of the neck toward the player's body (see Figure C.)[8] Jimmy Olander of Diamond Rio has Glaser Double-Benders (B & G) in his instruments and, unlike most bender players, uses them more as a stylistic enhancement than for a steel guitar sound.

GUITAR THE SLICKEE BOYS

The Slickee Boys were a Washington, D.C. area punk-psychedelic-garage rock band whose most-remembered lineup consisted of guitarist Marshall Keith, guitarist Kim Kane, singer Mark Noone, and drummer Dan Palenski. The band has become sn underground legend in the D.C. punk community. They were known for their wild costumes and graphics.

History
The band was founded in the mid-1970s by guitarists Kim Kane and Marshall Keith, with Kane as principal songwriter, and featured Martha Hull on vocals. The band released its first EP, "Hot and Cool", in 1976 — an event documented by members of the new wave community as the third DIY new wave record ever recorded.[citation needed]
In 1978 Mark Noone replaced Hull as the singer, with the band benefitting from Noone's showmanship as well as his songwriting. In 1983, a music video for their song "When I Go to the Beach" placed second in MTV's Basement Tapes competition. This resulted in the video being shown regularly as well as garnering the band the distinction of being first from the D.C. area to get airplay on the then-new video channel.[citation needed]
In 1988 after a short European Tour, founding member Kim Kane departed to focus on his band Date Bait. The band soldiered on with long-time roadie, John Hansen, taking over on rhythm guitar until they called it quits in 1991.

GUITAR HEROS

The original Guitar Hero was released on the PlayStation 2 in November 2005 and was developed by Harmonix. Harmonix had been previously known for developing music video games such as Frequency and Amplitude for the PlayStation 2, both of which were praised for enabling players to perform and create music using a DualShock controller as if it were a musical instrument.[4]
Guitar Hero is notable because it comes packaged with a controller peripheral modeled after a black Gibson SG guitar. Rather than a typical gamepad, this guitar controller is the primary input for the game. Playing the game with the guitar controller simulates playing an actual guitar, except it uses five colored "fret buttons" and a "strum bar" instead of frets and strings. The development of Guitar Hero was inspired by Konami's GuitarFreaks arcade game, which at the time, had not seen much exposure in the North American market; RedOctane, already selling guitar-shaped controllers for imported copies of GuitarFreaks, approached Harmonix about creating a game to use an entirely new Guitar controller. The concept was to have the gameplay of Amplitude with the visuals of Karaoke Revolution, both of which had been developed by Harmonix.[5][6][7][8] The game was met with critical acclaim and received numerous awards for its innovative guitar peripheral and its soundtrack, which comprised 47 playable rock songs (most of which were cover versions of popular songs from artists and bands from the 1960s through modern rock). Guitar Hero has sold nearly 1.5 million copies to date.[9]
The popularity of the series increased dramatically with the release of Guitar Hero II for the PlayStation 2 in 2006. Featuring improved multiplayer gameplay, an improved note-recognizing system, and 64 songs, it became the fifth best-selling video game of 2006.[10] The PlayStation 2 version of the game was offered both separately and in a bundle with a cherry red Gibson SG guitar controller. Guitar Hero II was later released for the Xbox 360 in April 2007 with an exclusive Gibson X-Plorer guitar controller and an additional 10 songs, among other features. About 3 million units of Guitar Hero II have sold on the PlayStation 2 and Xbox 360.[11]
The final game in the Guitar Hero series to be developed by Harmonix was Guitar Hero Encore: Rocks the 80s for the PlayStation 2, which was released in July 2007.[12] The expansion reskinned the visuals from Guitar Hero II, and featured a shorter track list with no bonus songs, and was not as well received as the previous two games. Some reviewers considered Rocks the 80s as Harmonix's contractual obligation, given that, as described below, Harmonix would no longer be working on the Guitar Hero series.[13]

GUITAR BASS

The first fretless bass guitar was made by Bill Wyman in 1961 when he converted an inexpensive Japanese fretted bass by removing the frets.[15][16] The first production fretless bass was the Ampeg AUB-1 introduced in 1966, and Fender introduced a fretless Precision Bass in 1970. In the early 1970s, fusion-jazz bassist Jaco Pastorius created his own fretless bass by removing the frets[17] from a Fender Jazz Bass, filling the holes with wood putty, and coating the fretboard with epoxy resin.[18] Some fretless basses have "fret line" markers inlaid in the fingerboard as a guide, while others only use guide marks on the side of the neck. Tapewound (double bass type) and flatwound strings are sometimes used with the fretless bass so that the metal string windings will not wear down the fingerboard. Some fretless basses have fingerboards which are coated with epoxy to increase the durability of the fingerboard, enhance sustain and give a brighter tone. Although most fretless basses have four strings, five-string and six-string fretless basses are also available. Fretless basses with more than six strings are also available as "boutique" or custom-made instruments. Yves Carbonne conceived the first 10 and 12 string fretless sub-bass guitars. These extended range sub-basses, Legend X YC and Legend XII YC, were built by luthier from Barcelona Jerzy Drozd. The 12 string Legend XII YC uses a new B string tuned at 15,4 hertzs

J/ Jazz" pickups (referring to the original Fender Jazz Bass) are wider eight-pole pickups which lie underneath all four strings. J pickups are typically single-coil designs, although there are a large number of humbucking designs. As with the halves of the P-pickups, the J-pickups are reverse-wound with reverse magnetic polarity. As a result they have hum canceling properties when used at the same volume, with hum cancellation decreasing when the pickups are used at unequal volume and altogether absent when each pickup is used individually. 'J' Style pickups tend to have a lower output and a thinner sound than 'P' Style pickups making it perfect for most rock music. Many bassists choose to combine a 'J' pickup at the bridge and a 'P' pickup at the neck, to be 'blended' together for a unique sound.
"P/ Precision" pickups (the "P" refers to the original Fender Precision Bass) are actually two distinct single-coil pickups. Each is offset a small amount along the length of the body so that each half is underneath two strings. The pickups are reverse-wound with reversed magnetic polarity to reduce hum. This makes the 'P' pickup a [humbucking] single coil pickup; something which is almost unique to the 'P' style pickup. Less common is the single-coil "P" pickup, used on the original 1951 Fender Precision bass.[32]

The standard design for the electric bass guitar has four strings, tuned E, A, D and G, in fourths such that the open highest string, G, is an eleventh (an octave and a fourth) below middle C, making the tuning of all four strings the same as that of the double bass. This tuning is also the same as the standard tuning on the lower four strings on a 6-string guitar, only an octave lower. String types include all-metal strings (roundwound, flatwound, groundwound, or halfwound), metal strings with different coverings, such as tapewound and plastic-coatings. The variety of materials used in the strings gives bass players a range of tonal options. In the 1950s, bassists mostly used flatwound strings with a smooth surface, which had a smooth, damped sound reminiscent of a double bass. In the 1960s and 1970s, roundwound bass strings similar to guitar strings became popular, though flatwounds also continue to be popular. Roundwounds have a brighter timbre with greater sustain than flatwounds.
A number of other tuning options and bass types have been used to extend the range of the instrument. The most common are four, five, or six strings:

In contrast to the upright bass (or double bass), the electric bass guitar is played horizontally across the body, like an electric guitar. When the strings are plucked with the fingers (pizzicato), the index and middle fingers (and sometimes with the thumb, ring, and pinky fingers as well) are used. James Jamerson, an influential bassist from the Motown era, played intricate bass lines using only his index finger, which he called "The Hook." There are also variations in how a bassist chooses to rest the right-hand thumb (or left thumb in the case of left-handed players). A player may rest his thumb on the top edge of one of the pickups or on the side of the fretboard, which is especially common among bassists who have an upright bass influence. Some bassists anchor their thumbs on the lowest string and move it off to play on the low string. Alternatively, the thumb can be rested loosely on the strings to mute the unused strings.
The string can be plucked at any point between the bridge and the point where the fretting hand is holding down the string; different timbres are produced depending on where along the string it is plucked. Some players are known for plucking near the bridge where the string is most taut, such as jazz fusion bassist Jaco Pastorius, whereas other bassists prefer the "looser" part of the string nearer to the fingerboard.
Bassists trying to emulate the sound of a double bass sometimes pluck the strings with their thumb and use palm-muting to create a short, "thumpy" tone. The late Monk Montgomery (who played in Lionel Hampton's band), Bruce Palmer (who performed with Buffalo Springfield), Sting and progressive rocker Geddy Lee use thumb downstrokes. The use of the thumb was acknowledged by early Fender models, which came with a "thumbrest" or "Tug Bar" attached to the pickguard below the strings. Contrary to its name, this was not used to rest the thumb, but to provide leverage while using the thumb to pluck the strings. The thumbrest was moved above the strings in 1970s models and eliminated in the 1980s.
The pick (or plectrum) is used to obtain a more articulate attack, for speed, or just personal preference. Although the use of a pick is primarily associated with rock, picks are also used in other styles. Jazz bassist Steve Swallow uses a pick for upbeat or funky songs. Picks can be used with alternating downstrokes and upstrokes, or with all downstrokes for a more consistent attack. The pick is usually held with the index and thumb, with the up-and-down plucking motion supplied by the wrist (one exception is tremolo picking, in which the whole arm is used to play a note very rapidly). Some bassists use their fingernails to play flamenco-style, such as the late John Entwistle, Geddy Lee, the late Cliff Burton and Les Claypool.
There are many varieties of picks available, but due to the thicker, heavier strings of the electric bass, bassists tend to use heavier picks than those used for electric guitar, typically ranging from 1.14 mm – 3.00 mm (3.00 is unusual). Different materials are used for picks, including plastic, nylon, and felt, all of which produce different tones. Felt picks are used to emulate a fingerstyle tone

Popular music bands and rock groups use the bass guitar as a member of the rhythm section, which provides the chord sequence or "progression" and sets out the "beat" for the song. The rhythm section typically consists of a rhythm guitarist and/or electric keyboard player, a bass guitarist and a drummer; larger groups may add additional guitarists, keyboardists, or percussionists.
The types of basslines performed by the bass guitarist vary widely from one style of music to another. Despite all of the differences in the styles of bassline, in most styles of popular music, the bass guitarist fulfills a similar role: anchoring the harmonic framework (often by emphasizing the roots of the chord progression) and laying down the beat (in collaboration with the drummer). The importance of the bass guitarist and the bass line varies in different styles of music. In some pop styles, such as 1980s-era pop and musical theater, the bass sometimes plays a relatively simple part, and the music forefronts the vocals and melody instruments. In contrast, in reggae or funk, entire songs may be centered around the bass groove, and the bassline is usually very prominent in the mix.
In traditional country music, folk rock, and related styles, the bass often plays the roots and fifth of each chord in alternation. In Chicago blues, the electric bass often performs a walking bassline made up of scales and arpeggios. In blues rock bands, the bassist often plays blues scale-based riffs and chugging boogie-style lines. In metal, the bass guitar may perform complex riffs along with the rhythm guitarist or play a low, rumbling pedal point to anchor the group's sound.

Bassist Robert Trujillo performing with thrash metal band Metallica
The bass guitarist sometimes breaks out of the strict rhythm section role to perform bass breaks or bass solos. The types of basslines used for bass breaks of bass solos vary by style. In a rock band, a bass break may consist of the bassist playing a riff or lick during a pause in the song. In some styles of metal, a bass break may consist of "shred guitar"-style tapping on the bass. In a funk or funk rock band, a bass solo may showcase the bassist's percussive slap and pop playing. In genres such as progressive rock, art rock, or progressive metal, the bass guitar player may play melody lines along with the lead guitar (or vocalist) and perform extended guitar solos

1930s
In the 1930s, inventor Paul Tutmarc from Seattle, Washington, developed the first guitar-style electric bass instrument that was fretted and designed to be held and played horizontally. The 1935 sales catalogue for Tutmarc's company, Audiovox, featured his "electronic bass fiddle," a four-stringed, solid-bodied, fretted electric bass guitar with a 30½-inch scale length.[7] The change to a "guitar" form made the instrument easier to hold and transport, and the addition of guitar-style frets enabled bassists to play in tune more easily and made the new electric bass easier to learn. However, Tutmarc's inventions never caught the public imagination, and little further development of the instrument took place until the 1950s.

[edit] 1950s–1960s
In the 1950s, Leo Fender, with the help of his employee George Fullerton, developed the first mass-produced electric bass.[8] His Fender Precision Bass, introduced in 1951, became a widely copied industry standard. The Precision Bass (or "P-bass") evolved from a simple, uncontoured "slab" body design similar to that of a Telecaster with a single coil pickup, to a contoured body design with beveled edges for comfort and a single four-pole "single coil pickup." This "split pickup", introduced in 1957, appears to have been two mandolin pickups (Fender was marketing a four string solid body electric mandolin at the time). Because the pole pieces of the coils were reversed with respect to each other, and the leads were also reversed with respect to each other, the two coils, wired in series, produced a humbucking effect (the same effect is achieved if the coils are wired in parallel).
Monk Montgomery was the first bass player to tour with the Fender bass guitar, with Lionel Hampton's postwar big band.[9] Roy Johnson, who replaced Montgomery in Hampton's band, and Shifty Henry with Louis Jordan & His Tympany Five, were other early Fender Bass pioneers.[8] Bill Black, playing with Elvis Presley, adopted the Fender Precision Bass around 1957.[10]

A Rickenbacker 4003; note the distinctive shape of the headstock.
Following Fender's lead, Gibson released the violin-shaped EB-1 Bass in 1953,[11] followed by the more conventional-looking EB-0 Bass in 1959. As with Fender's designs, Gibson relied heavily upon an existing guitar design for this bass; the EB-0 was very similar to a Gibson SG in appearance (although the earliest examples have a slab-sided body shape closer to that of the double-cutaway Les Paul Special).
Whereas Fender basses had pickups mounted in positions in between the base of the neck and the top of the bridge, many of Gibson's early basses featured one humbucking pickup mounted directly against the neck pocket. The EB-3, introduced in 1961, also had a "mini-humbucker" at the bridge position. Gibson basses also tended to be smaller, sleeker instruments; Gibson did not produce a 34" scale bass until 1963 with the release of the Thunderbird, which was also the first Gibson bass to utilize dual-humbucking pickups in a more traditional position, about halfway between the neck and bridge.

Gibson EB-3.
A small number of other companies also began manufacturing bass guitars during the 1950s: Kay in 1952, and Danelectro in 1956;[10] Rickenbacker and Höfner also produced models. With the explosion of the popularity of rock music in the 1960s many more manufacturers began making bass guitars.
First introduced in 1960, The Fender Jazz Bass was known as the Deluxe Bass and was meant to accompany the Jazzmaster guitar. The Jazz Bass (often referred to as a "J-bass") featured two single-coil pickups, one close to the bridge and one in the Precision bass' split coil pickup position, and was designed by Leo Fender to be an easier bass for a guitarist to play than the existing Precision Bass, due to the narrower nut (noted later). The earliest production basses had a 'stacked' volume and tone control for each pickup. This was soon changed to the familiar configuration of a volume control for each pickup, and a single, passive tone control. The Jazz Bass' neck was narrower at the nut than the Precision bass (1½" versus 1¾").

70's Fender Jazz Bass with maple neck
Another visual difference that set the Jazz Bass apart from the Precision is its "offset-waist" body. Pickup shapes on electric basses are often referred to as "P" or "J" pickups in reference to the visual and electrical differences between the Precision Bass and Jazz Bass pickups.
Fender also began production of the Mustang Bass; a 30" scale length instrument used by bassists such as Tina Weymouth of Talking Heads and Bill Wyman of The Rolling Stones ("P" and "J" basses have a scale length of 34", a design echoed on most current production electric basses of all makes).
In the 1950s and 1960s, the bass guitar was often called the "Fender bass", due to Fender's early dominance in the market for mass-produced bass guitars. The term "electric bass" began replacing "Fender bass" in the late 1960s, however, as evidenced by the title of Carol Kaye's popular bass instructional book in 1969 How to Play the Electric Bass[12] . The instrument is also referred to as an "electric bass guitar", or simply "bass".

[edit] 1970s

Music Man Stingray Bass. Notice the pick-up placement that is ideal for slapping.
The 1970s saw the founding of Music Man Instruments by Tom Walker, Forrest White and Leo Fender, which produced the StingRay, the first widely-produced bass with active (powered) electronics. This amounts to an impedance buffering pre-amplifier on-board the instrument to lower the output impedance of the bass's pickup circuit, increasing low-end output, and overall frequency response (more lows and highs). Specific models became identified with particular styles of music, such as the Rickenbacker 4001 series, which became identified with progressive rock bassists like Chris Squire of Yes, while the StingRay was used by Louis Johnson of the funk band The Brothers Johnson.
In 1971, Alembic established the template for what would subsequently be known as "boutique" or "high end" electric bass guitars. These expensive, custom-tailored instruments featured unique designs, premium wood bodies chosen and hand-finished by highly skilled luthiers, onboard electronics for preamplification and equalization, and innovative construction techniques such as multi-laminate neck-through-body construction and graphite necks. In the mid-1970s, Alembic and other "boutique" bass manufacturers such as Tobias, and Ken Smith produced 4- string basses and 5-string basses with a low "B" string. In 1975, bassist Anthony Jackson commissioned luthier Carl Thompson to a 6-string bass tuned (low to high) B, E, A, D, G, C.

[edit] 1980s–2000s

An early 1980s-era Steinberger headless bass
In the 1980s, bass designers continued to explore new approaches. Ned Steinberger introduced a headless bass in 1979 and continued his innovations in the 1980s, using graphite and other new materials and (in 1984) introducing the Trans-Trem tremolo bar. In 1987, the Guild Guitar Corporation launched the fretless Ashbory bass, which used silicone rubber strings and a piezoelectric pickup to achieve a "double bass" sound with a short 18" scale length. In the late 1980s, MTV's "Unplugged" show, which featured bands strumming acoustic instruments, helped to popularize hollow-bodied acoustic bass guitars amplified with pickups.
During the 1990s, as five-string basses became more widely available and more affordable, an increasing number of bassists in genres ranging from metal to gospel began using five-string instruments for added lower range. As well, the onboard battery-powered electronics such as preamplifiers and equalizer circuits, which were previously only available on expensive "boutique" instruments, became increasingly available on modestly priced basses.
In the 2000s, some bass manufacturers included digital modelling circuits inside the instrument to recreate tones and sounds from many models of basses (e.g., Line 6's Variax bass). Traditional bass designs such as the Fender Precision Bass and Fender Jazz Bass remain popular in the 2000s; in 2006, a 60th Anniversary P-bass was introduced by Fender, along with the introduction of the Fender Jaguar Bass.

[edit] Design considerations
Instruments handmade by highly skilled luthiers are becoming increasingly available. Bass bodies are typically made of wood although other materials such as graphite (for example, some of the Steinberger designs) have also been used. While a wide variety of woods are suitable for use in the body, neck, and fretboard of the bass guitar, the most common type of wood used for the body is alder, for the neck is maple, and for the fretboard is rosewood. Other commonly used woods include mahogany, maple, ash, and poplar for bodies, mahogany for necks, and maple and ebony for fretboards.
Other design options include finishes, such as lacquer, wax and oil; flat and carved designs; Luthier-produced custom-designed instruments; headless basses, which have tuning machines in the bridge of the instrument (e.g. Steinberger and Hohner designs) and several artificial materials such as luthite. The use of artificial materials (e.g. BassLab) allows for unique production techniques such as die-casting, to produce complex body shapes. While most basses have solid bodies, they can also include hollow chambers to increase the resonance or reduce the weight of the instrument. Some basses are built with entirely hollow bodies, which changes the tone and resonance of the instrument. Acoustic bass guitars are typically equipped with piezoelectric or magnetic pickups and amplified.