Joe Gore’s The Subversive Guitarist: Mastering Fingerstyle - Oct. '19 Ex. 6
The limited-edition Joe Strummer Masterbuilt Telecaster by Fender Custom Shop offers a faithful recreation of the Clash guitarist's 1966 Telecaster.
The Limited Edition Master Built Joe Strummer Telecaster | Fender Custom Shop | Fender
Fender Senior Master Builder, Paul Waller, said: “For me growing up listening to all of this music and then working for a brand like Fender to have access to instruments like these is pretty powerful and a full circle moment.
Building a guitar like this is both rewarding and difficult. I’m trying to be accurate and create a product that means a lot to so many people, which is why we always try and pair the right builder with the right artist.”
Limited Edition Joe Strummer Masterbuilt Telecaster ($20,000 USD)
As celebrated front man of The Clash and The Mescaleros, Joe Strummer’s raw, passionate stage presence and socio-political songwriting defined the punk rock movement that kicked off in the late-1970’s - all with his now infamous 1966 Telecaster by his side. To honour his legacy, Fender Custom Shop Senior Masterbuilder Paul Waller meticulously recreated every aspect of Strummer’s cherished instrument for a limited edition run. The resonant two-piece select alder body, impeccably worn mid-‘60s “C” profile neck and round-laminated rosewood fingerboard, gives players the feeling of holding a road-tested piece of punk rock history, mirroring all the features found on highly sought after 1960s Fender guitars. Finished in Super Heavy Relic Aged Black over Three-Color Sunburst lacquer— including a matching painted pickguard—all the wear and tear from decades of touring is perfectly recreated on this incredible limited edition. Loaded with a pair of Josefina Campos hand-wound ’67 Telecaster pickups, this guitar exudes all the same raw, expressive tones found throughout both The Clash’s and The Mescaleros’ widely celebrated discographies. Other premium features include 7.25” (184.1 mm) radius, 21 Jescar Vintage (45085) frets, Modern Tele wiring, 3-way switch, 6-saddle string-through-body Tele bridge with steel barrel saddles, Schaller M6 Mini Tuners, brass nut, wing string tree with tall metal spacer, replica touring case, limited edition Joe Strummer Strap and certificate of authenticity.
Limited Edition Joe Strummer 13’ Instrument Cable ($34.99 USD)
Punk icon, musician and composer, Joe Strummer spent his life smashing musical and cultural boundaries both as the singer of The Clash and as a solo artist. Celebrate Joe Strummer’s unparalleled style and substance with his signature cable. This eclectic instrument cable is designed to be unique -- with a 13’ length, pink PVC jacket with leopard print housing, and Joe’s very own signature on the cable’s shrink wrap.
Limited Edition Joe Strummer Guitar Strap ($39.99 USD)
Celebrate Joe Strummer’s unparalleled style and substance with this leopard print strap. Designed to match his legendary Telecaster, this strap features faux leopard print animal fur with a Joe Strummer signature leather badge and is backed by tubular nylon for maximum comfort.
Features:
- 2-Piece Select Alder body with Offset Seam
- Plain-Grain Maple neck with a ‘60s Oval “C” Back-Shape and 7.25” (184.1 mm) Radius
- 3A Rosewood fretboard
- 21, Jescar Vintage frets
- 6-Saddle String-Through-Body Tele bridge with Steel Barrel Saddles
- Custom Shop Hand-Wound ‘67 Single-Coil Tele pickups (Bridge & Neck)
Alongside the Telecaster, there will be a range of Joe Strummer accessories available to purchase that include:
- 13’ Pink Instrument Cable with custom leopard print housing and signed cable wrap
- Faux leopard print animal fur guitar strap
- Pink vinyl wrapped 3-ply hardshell wood case, with soft crushed acrylic plush interior lining in leopard print
- Limited Edition Joe Strummer Signature Telecaster Pickup Set
For more information, please visit fender.com.
The All-Pedal Microdose is a mind-altering experience, but it’s not for the faint of heart.
Endless sounds and tweakability, from subtle to brain-melting.
Expensive. Probably too much firepower for most users.
$325
All-Pedal Microdose
allpedal.com
When it comes to effects like phase, chorus, and vibrato, many of us tend to have a staple (and sometimes cheesy) sound in mind. But such preconceptions obscure the reality that these effects can be much more radical than their best-known applications.
If you’ve ever thought that phaser pedals are one-trick ponies, All-Pedal’s new Microdose, a digital phaser collaboration with Portland’s Spaceman Effects, will happily relieve you of that notion. The Microdose is to the MXR Phase 90 what the modern smartphone is to an old Nokia flip phone: It’s so feature-packed and overflowing with an embarrassment of tone riches that it feels barely related at all to its humble ’70s ancestor.
“It gets percussive, punchy, and juicy, turning single-note runs into intergalactic transmissions, and full chords into blasts of alien goop.”
Discoveries From the Outer Reaches of Space(man)
The Microdose is an evolution and expansion of Spaceman’s Explorer Optical Phaser. It’s maximalist in terms of both enclosure art and functionality, and can feel a bit cluttered as a result. Between eight knobs, two switches, two footswitches, and a groovy font and graphics vying for visibility there is a lot to take in. There are a lot of sounds too. The crowning achievement here is the collection of 16 wave forms—more than triple the Explorer’s five—all of which are selectable via an 8-stop rotary knob and a switch that moves between standard or alternative (and weirder) versions of each wave form. Each setting can be treated to two-, four-, or eight-stage phasing, and the level control provides a hearty boost for the effect to make sure that when its engaged, differences between settings won’t get lost.
Rate, multiplier, blend, and depth knobs all function as you’d expect them to, but the Microdose’s resonance and warp controls breathe new life into familiar sounds. Resonance controls phaser feedback, generating gentle, tried-and-true phase sweeps at low settings and more prominent, insistent phasing when cranked the other way. Coupled with the depth knob, it allows for precise tuning of intense phase sounds. The warp knob, meanwhile, does exactly what it says: At noon, the phase wave form remains unaltered, but turning it in either direction produces varied modifications to each wave form.
The Microdose’s tap tempo is a welcome addition that adds flexibility and more control over complex modulations—especially in live situations. But with such a vast expanse of sounds on tap and no preset functionality, the pedal’s usefulness on stage can feel limited. While dedicated phase jockeys will no doubt find a spot for it on their gigging boards, it sometimes feels more like a piece of studio kit.
Mind-Expanding Tones
The Microdose lives up to its name. It can give you a subtle, just-fun-enough, vintage experience if that’s what you’re after. But it can also blast way beyond that into sci-fi, psychedelic, and fearsome ghost-in-the-machine meltdowns that sound nothing like guitar.
Set for a classic, two-stage sine wave phase with all controls at noon, the Microdose is surprisingly unassuming, adding just a sliver of movement and dimension. This is where the pedal’s dense tweakability really shines. You can dial in a modest always-on sound that breathes life and unusual texture into rhythm or lead parts without overpowering your signal. Deep depth and blend will swing you well into Waylon Jennings territory, but that’s just the start.
Things get trippy in the best way possible as you add phase stages and explore the alternative wave form algorithms, which are a lot of fun on their own and even more so with a wiggle of the warp knob. With each bump up in stages, the effect gets waterier and three-dimensional, which feels like splashing around in some interstellar swamp. When you max out at eight, the effect is in the driver’s seat. It gets percussive, punchy, and juicy—turning single-note runs into intergalactic transmissions, and full chords into blasts of alien goop.
The Verdict
There’s a whole world of sounds here between the Microdose’s extremes. It can probably execute every single phase sound you’ve ever dreamed of—plus some wackier than what your puny human brain could come up with without lysergic inspiration. If you’re up for a phase experience, Microdose is a trip you’ll want to take. PG
As CNC machines have become more prevalent, how much have they changed the building process?
“The Ballad of John Henry” looms large in the annals of American folklore. Versions of it have appeared in a number of narratives, usually referring to Henry as a “steel-driving” man who dies from the effort of defeating a steam drill machine designed to replace his ilk. Henry, who cuts holes in stone for dynamite with his hammer and chisel or alternately pounds railroad spikes, represents a way of life threatened by a powered machine.
In this clash between man and rising technology we are reminded that the fear of progress is an age-old battle that humans have fought with every advance in tools. So goes the advent of computer numeric controlled machines. Commonly referred to as CNC, these machines can be routers, saws, welders, or any number of robotic machines programmed to do heavy, repetitive work—the kind that killed John Henry.
At first, these machines were so huge and expensive that only large companies could afford them. The software alone could run into five-figure sums, locking out even medium-size operations. In recent years however, the cost of smaller machines has dropped to the point where even hobbyist builders can afford to put one in their garage or basement shop. Yet in the minds of many guitarists, the purity of a handbuilt instrument elevates it to a higher standard. But what is really the difference?
A century ago, guitars were made primarily with hand tools. But by the 1940s, guitar factories used large cutting machines, like shapers and routers, to perform the basic forming of bodies and necks. A staple of the guitar-building trade was the overarm “pin” router. Along with its cousin the profile shaper, it simplified and accelerated the manufacture of instruments. The pin router is extremely flexible and can be used for hundreds of woodworking tasks. The tooling used to create repeatable parts can actually be made by the machine itself by copying an original form, such as an existing guitar body or pickguard.
Other advances in guitar manufacturing have included specialized machinery that followed physical templates to carve necks or create the archtops on bodies. Gibson famously used both these machines, which were originally conceived to make gunstocks and chair seats, respectively. Guitar factories employed multi-head drill presses to drill six tuner holes simultaneously, and mechanized glue spreaders replaced brushes and bottles. Each of these changes increased output and reduced the amount of hand skills required to make a profit. It also ushered in a new level of standardization that reduced human error. Today, a single CNC machine can do all of the above and more.
“Guitar factories employed multi-head drill presses to drill six tuner holes simultaneously, and mechanized glue spreaders replaced brushes and bottles.”
Just the same, there has always been a subset of guitar makers that rely mostly on hand tools. I find it to be the most satisfying part of what I do. For decades, small builders have existed alongside the behemoths as a way of providing the short run or custom work that a large factory couldn’t afford or be bothered to do. The rising success of small builders who focused on handwork paved the way for large companies to create their own in-house custom departments. Now, the versatility, lower cost, and smaller footprint of CNC milling machines allows both types of shops to do a variety of modifications easily and profitably. So, what does this mean for the customer? Do robot machines suck the soul out of an instrument?
The way I look at it, there is a similarity between all means of manufacture. In the case of the shaper and pin-router era, designs had to be drawn by pen and paper, then transferred using hand tools into physical templates. At that point, an operator loaded a wooden blank onto a fixture and muscled it against a spinning cutter along a path determined solely by the template. The creativity and craftsmanship ended before the wood ever saw the blade, and the operator was mostly muscle. In CNC manufacturing, the designer’s pen and paper is replaced by the mouse and computer screen. The nuance of the procedures are determined in the design and tool-path phase long before someone on the shop floor loads the blank and pushes the start button.
The truth is that every instrument is made using some kind of tool, and automated equipment only does a small part of the job. A seasoned builder can spot problems (and opportunities) before they occur, which machines can’t do yet. There is still a huge amount of handwork required to turn a CNC creation into a guitar. If you think that wood, plastic, and steel goes in one end of the machine and a finished instrument comes out of the other, you haven’t been paying attention. It’s just that now electric motors are the muscle instead of John Henry.