Fender

"A Sharp," guitarist for L.A.-based group Saint Motel, plays an amp with a family history. His 1957 Fender Tweed comes from his dad who played prog-rock in Mexico City in the 1960s.  

Bassist, singer, and neo-soul pioneer Meshell Ndegeocello's birth year has been reported as both 1969 and 1968. Fittingly, her main instrument is a Fender 1963 Jazz Bass with a neck from a 64 model. Meshell took some time to talk with GW about the latter matter.  

Katie Kerkhover hit the road from Illinois and headed to Nashville. She then actually commenced to playing MUSIC (rather than what most transplants to Nashville or L.A do, i.e. wait tables). These days Kerkhover is getting ready to hit the road in support of her first CD, Blister. She spoke with Gearwire about her main axe, a 2007 Fender Jaguar HH, and the rig she runs it through live.  

Doni Blair is a bassist. Geddy Lee is a bassist. Doni Blair likes Geddy Lee's signature bass. What else is there to say? Read on, Macduff!  

After years in music, Jon Langford has learned a few things. One thing might have arguably been obvious from the beginning. Namely, that a Fender Stratocaster is what you want when you dig loud, aggressive tone. And this guy sure does.  

Before a recent show at Chicago's Martyr's, Don Miggs sat down with Gearwire and declared his love for one Fender 1963 Telecaster. Despite the fear some might have to tour with such an item, Miggs admits that whether he's on the road or not, he is now a one-axe man.  

Blake Mills, guitarist for Cass McCombs, tells us a story of great effort expended for little gain. This time, the story revolves around a curiously refitted Fender Princeton Reverb... though it could also refer to any one of my previous relationships. Wait, did I just write that?  

Mike Abiuso of Kiss Kiss has a very specific notion of tone, so much so that he needs two amp heads to achieve it. The Soldano Avenger distorts how he likes, but the clean tone is a bit weak. For that, he turns to the Fender Jazzmaster Ultralight.  

When his Orange AD30 crapped out on him during a Dear Hunter gig, a Good Samaritan in another band lent Andy Wildrick a Fender Vibro King. He liked it so much, he bought one of his own and hasn't looked back since.  

Patrick Southern of the indie band Kiss Kiss knows more about the care and feeding of his Fender American Precision Bass than you might expect. Standing provocatively in front of a school bus after a local Chicago show, Southern tells us all that really matters is the neck and the pickups. Done!  

If you've been watching this Gearwire series with Jimmy Shaw, you know that at one point he admits to having studied classical trumpet. What? On the other hand, we are not that surprised to find that he is in love with his 1962 Fender Jaguar, which he rescued from a Kansas pawnshop.  

Howard Forman was doing some session work in Muscle Shoals during the 80s. Out perusing music shops nearby he came across this gem, a 1959 Fender Esquire. Some guys get all the luck.  

Yes, it has been almost 30 years since Sonic Youth formed in New York City and changed the freakin' world, and only now are the Fender Lee Ranaldo Thurston Moore Jazzmasters seeing the light of day. Better late than never, I suppose. These long overdue tributes at least coincide with the release of the new Sonic Youth album, The Eternal.  

Imagine a pedal so big and sturdy it makes you feel like you're driving a semi, combined with a cute little psychedelic lightshow that makes shoegazing even more fun than it is already. Add in the fact that it's also a functioning phaser pedal, and you have the Fender Classic Series Phaser. See and hear it in action, courtesy of Owen O'Malley's great big dogs, in this video.  

Ben Fargen repairs amps, makes his own Fargen Amplifiers, and now offer Fargen Hot Mods for productions amplifiers of various makes. Ben spoke with us about what goes into turning your off-the-rack amp into a fire-breathing, boutique combo-killer.  

Adam Juwig of Anarbor ducked out into the alley before a gig at Chicago's House of Blues, just to tell us about his Fender Bassman. Since he and his young posse have been on the road, Juwig has discovered that the Bassman could perhaps be excelled in certain areas. Find out just what they are in this secret little interview among the tour vans.  

Ever fall in love with a perfect body? How about a perfect body crafted from the torn apart and grafted together bits of other bodies? Well, we'll leave you to think about that one for a bit.

Meanwhile, let's look at Alex Necochea's unique guitar, an instrument he aptly nicknames the "Frankenstrat." His band Bang Camaro is anything but typical, and normally you might have a hard time seeing this axe through the sweaty bodies of the ten or twenty-odd singers they sometimes pack on stage.

 

Miles Zuniga plays an SG and he loves it. But he doesn't play through a Marshall or an Orange. He prefers using a Fender Bassman. Just likes the way an SG sounds through a Fender.  

Lou Barlow of True Nature recorded his most recent EP with some serious musicians, including Tony Levin, Aaron Comess (Spin Doctors) & Gerry Leonard (David Bowie). He was looking for a suitably serious guitar to record and tour with and he found it in a Fender 1962 Strat Reissue -- with some mild tinkering courtesy 30th Street Guitars in NYC.  

There's the gear you fawn over, and there's the gear you just need to perform dependably. If you can find a happy medium, you're golden. Noah Harmon of The Airborne Toxic Event feels this way about his trusty Fender P Bass. They're a working band, you see, and they need stuff to work.  

Ryan Fox of The Good Life talks about his '65 Fender Vibrolux. Despite its "moderate squirreliness" the amp is a keeper.  

When no less of a guitarist than Nils Lofgren (of the E Street Band) sees fit to tour stadiums with a pair of Fender Hot Rod DeVille combo amps, you know they're gig-worthy. James Walbourn only needs one DeVille, but he plays with a no-less-prominent band called. . . let's see here, OH YEAH: The Pretenders.  

As you can see above, I was able to use the word "Ween" thrice in this headline about Dean Ween's very own Fender Custom Shop Dean Ween Strat. That should put me in the running for the rarely televised "Headline Full Of Ween" Awards.  

Anyone can join a band before it gets famous, but once people know who you are, and you have to replace a band member, you can ensure that you pick up someone who knows what he's doing. For the Pretenders, that someone was guitarist James Walbourne, who tells us about some of the tools he uses on stage.  

We share a picture of a guitar shop in Southampton, England called The Guitar Store. Though it's name isn't the most creative, The Guitar Store makes up for it by turning into a giant Fender Super Champ when it locks down.  

Singer / Songwriter Steve Wynn will stop at nothing to get his hands on a Fender Jazzmaster as he recounts the multi-step process of trading up Fender guitars for different and better Fender guitars. I guess that's what people used to do before World of Warcraft was invented.  

The Fender Prosonic Junior may have only two knobs, but it still gets the job done at RaxTrax Recording in Chicago. There's an old, off-color Canadian joke about "two knobs try to get a job done," but I won't repeat that here.  

Finding the right amp can be an ordeal, especially when "matches the drapes" is one of the prerequisites. Steve Wynn talks about how he finally found the perfect amp for his Manhattan apartment. . . in Hoboken, no less!  

A Fender Jazz Bass devotee since the peak of the Wailers' fame, Aston "Family Man" Barrett has played other basses in his long career but always goes back to that classic J-Bass sound. He spoke with GW a little bit about what attracted him to the Jazz Bass in the first place.  

The Fender Band-Master Vintage Modified (or "VM" as they're calling it) was also introduced at NAMM, along with the Deluxe VM. The Band-Master is, in fact, the exact same amp as the Deluxe VM, but in head-form. Makes about as much nomenclature-sense as "Vintage Modified."