8 Interesting Things You Don't Know About Guitar & Guitar History. |Facts.

in #music7 years ago (edited)

                                Number 1.

                        It's impossible to be perfectly in tune.

Guitar, like any other fixed tuning instruments such as a piano, can mathematically never be perfectly in tune with itself. Based on the way western tuning works, Using the harmonic series, if certain notes are perfectly in tune with each other, others will be way out. To compensate, people use something called equal-tempered tuning, which makes it so that each note is slightly and equally out of tune. That's a extremely quick way to gloss over a fairly complex subject if you want to  learn more about that, I've got a link to a video that can explain it in more detail :VIDEO

                                Number 2. 

                         Why the Fender logo changed in 1968.

Up until 1968, the Fender logo looks something like this.

           

however, that would change when Fender started using a larger headstock featuring a bigger and bolder deckle. In 1965 fender was sold to CBS, the same company you would know as a television network. They implemented this new headstock as a way to create space for the figure deckle, why ? A simple marketing decision, a larger logo stands out more especially in the age of black-and-white TV. More brand recognition, more guitar soul, it's all business.

                                   Number 3. 

                      The unfortunate fate of the hateful 8 guitar.

There's one scene in the Quentin Tarantino movie 'Hateful Eight' where actor Kurt Russell smashes an acoustic guitar, don't worry it's not a big spoiler, Martin had lent a priceless 150 year old guitar to the filmmaker.

 

This guitar was to be used until a cut in the scene where the authentic sixth string would be swapped out with a replica and the replica would be smashed to smithereens. Somewhere along the way, there was a communication breakdown and it turned out the priceless Martin was the one that ended up getting the Pete Townsend treatment. A fairly legendary TIMU(Today I Messed Up). Speaking of expensive axes, that brings us to the next fact.

                                  Number 4. 

The world's second most expensive guitar sold for two million dollars.

That's a decent chunk of change for this guitar, but it is arguably one of the most recognizable pieces of all time.

This 1968 white Stratocaster strung up for a lefty played by Hendrix at Woodstock was reportedly sold for two million dollars to Microsoft CEO Paul Allen, not a bad markup for a guitar that would likely have costed around $400 when it was originally bought. which brings us to our next fun piece of trivia 

                                  Number 5. 

The world's most expensive guitar sold for 2.7 million dollars in 2004.

A tsunami devastated Southeast Asia, as a means to raise funds for the disaster a white Stratocaster is signed by  Rocks biggest legends, was sold at auction for 2.7 million. 

The guitar was purchased by a woman who is known as the most influential person in the art, this is her name : Al-Mayassa bint Hamad bin Khalifa Al-Thani. Moving on to the next one. 

                                  Number 6. 

                                       The oldest known guitar. 

When most of us think of old guitars we think of Fenders and Gibson's. From the 50s, and maybe even those Beauty Martins from the 20s, but the oldest known guitar predates those by over 300 years. 

                

Believed to be built in 1590, this 10 string guitar was built by Portuguese luthier Belcher Diaz, a truly priceless piece of history and I would recommend that the owner take out a restraining order against Quentin Tarantino 

                                   Number 7. 

                                  The origins of the windmill. 

Pete Townshend of 'The Who' is not only known for his brilliant rock operas, but also his wild on stage antics.

Smashing his equipment and his signature windmill strumming technique were often on display at 'The Who' concerts. The origins of the windmill can actually be attributed to another British Invasion band, you may have heard of them 'The Rolling Stones'. 

               

Early in their' careers, 'The Who' were opening for 'The Stones' and one night, before the show, Keith Richards was swinging his arm around in the windmill motion, Townsend assumed that this was going to be part of a 'Stone' spectacle, as to him it looked extremely cool. 'The Rolling Stones' play their set and Keith Richards doesn't use this move, so the who guitarist asks them about it, apparently Keith says that he was warming up his arm and wouldn't be caught dead doing ballet on stage. The rest is history as Pete Townsend took the windmill for himself. 

                               Number 8. 

                          The first ever guitar recording. 

The first recording device was invented by Thomas Edison in 1877. 

                   

Some 20 years later the first guitar recording would be made sometime between 1897 and 1901 Release and Simon Ramirez recorded a number of songs. There isn't a lot of information out there about these two or this recording session, but it's really interesting hearing something that was recorded over a century ago. 

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I enjoyed your article. I wish I could play the guitar. But never managed. So I'll have to listen and read about it instead ;-)

Practice makes perfect XD

Nice writeup

great article

thank you so much !

Really enjoyed that post. Thanks for sharing

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