Squier Affinity Starcaster Deluxe
The Starcaster broke the mold of semi-hollow guitar design with its offset body shape when it was introduced in the '70s, offering versatile sound and out-of-this-world styling for the most adventurous players. The Affinity Series Starcaster Deluxe features several player-friendly refinements such as a lightweight semi-hollow body, a slim and comfortable “C”-shaped neck with familiar Stratocaster headstock, an adjustable bridge with stop tailpiece for solid tuning stability and sealed die-cast tuning machines with split shafts for smooth, accurate tuning and easy restringing. Loaded with a pair of Squier humbucking pickups with 3-way switching for genre-defying sonic variety, this model is ready to accompany any player at any stage.
Squier Affinity Telecaster Thinline
A superb gateway into the time-honored Fender family, the Squier Affinity Series Telecaster Thinline delivers legendary design and quintessential tone for today’s aspiring guitar hero. This Tele features several player-friendly refinements such as a thin and lightweight chambered body, a slim and comfortable “C”-shaped neck profile, a string-through-body bridge for optimal body resonance and sealed die-cast tuning machines with split shafts for smooth, accurate tuning and easy restringing. Loaded with dual Squier single-coil Tele pickups with 3-way switching for genre-defying sonic variety, this model is ready to accompany any player at any stage.
Billy Gibbons and Keith Urban at BMI’s Troubador Awards ceremony on Monday night.
Rising blues star Christone “Kingfish” Ingram digs into his signature Tele as he delivers “Waitin’ for the Bus,” from the 1973 ZZ Top album, Tres Hombres.
The Troubadour Award, which has also been bestowed on John Hiatt, Lucinda Williams, John Prine, and Robert Earl Keen, recognizes songwriters who’ve made a profound impact on the creative community and who are substantially influential. At the private ceremony attended by many notable fellow guitarists, including Steve Cropper, John Oates, and Molly Tuttle, Gibbons was honored by a series of filmed and live testimonials, and, more vividly, by performances with a house band that included Nashville 6-string heroes Tom Bukovac and Guthrie Trapp.
Urban’s nuanced playing on “Rough Boy,” from ZZ Top’s 1986 album Afterburner, was one of the night’s highlights.
Performers included Keith Urban, who delivered a sensitive version of “Rough Boy,” replete with tightly controlled feedback melody lines; rising blues star Christone “Kingfish” Ingram, who tore up “Waitin’ for the Bus” on his signature Fender Tele; Chris Isaak singing “Sharp Dressed Man” while wearing the night’s spangliest Nudie-inspired suit; fellow Troubadour Keen, delivering “La Grange” (with especially ripping turns from Bukovac and Trapp); and Elle King singing “Gimme All Your Lovin’.” In typical Gibbons style, his acceptance speech, which focused on his more than four decades of visiting, playing, and songwriting in Nashville, also included references to gambling debts and sneaking beers while writing a tune for his wife’s teetotaling mother in Music City.
