The British Amp Invasion


Book Description

Although rock 'n roll is America's all-time leading cultural export, half of the classic rock sound – hard-hitting, skintight, audacious, and vibrant – was born across the pond. Musician, journalist, and writer Dave Hunter's The British Amp Invasion: How Marshall, Hiwatt, Vox, and More Changed the Sound of Music charts the forty-plus year confluence of British industrial ingenuity and popular culture that grew a minor “also-ran” offshore industry into a true world leader. Art inspired engineering, engineering influenced art, and, as both evolved at breakneck speed, the finest amplifiers in the world were devised and refined on the British Isles. The symbiotic relationship born of this partnership produced the most powerful music ever known to mankind – a sound that still resonates today in the most literal sense possible. Hunter's original account provides a ground-level perspective of the simultaneous development of an adolescent audio industry and a nascent musical style, documenting their twin struggle to find their footing and stride forward. Rich with behind-the-scenes accounts and high-resolution images of the era's greatest (and highly collectible) amplifiers, many of which have never been told or seen before, this book is a welcome addition to the libraries of audio aficionados, guitarists, bassists, and other musicians, classic rock fans, collectors of vintage gear, and anyone with an eye for fine photography and an ear for compelling histories.




The Guitar Amp Handbook


Book Description

The Guitar Amp Handbook: Understanding Tube Amplifiers and Getting Great Sounds, Updated Edition brings fresh information to the table to help guitarists understand everything about what makes their amps tick and how to use them to sound better than ever. It builds on the popular original edition of the book, first published in 2005. Central to the book's success is the way it walks musicians through the significance of each crucial circuit stage and component of a great number of classic and modern tube amp designs, helping guitarists get the most from the amps they already own or choose new amps that are best suited to their needs. The Guitar Amp Handbook reveals many of the tips and tricks used by today's top designers and builders, and it debunks the hype used by the marketing departments at large manufacturers keen on selling specific amps that might not be right for particular players. The book is designed to help guitarists understand what really goes on inside tube amps and where the tone comes from. This new updated and expanded edition adds further knowledge to the foundation, ensuring it continues as the most thorough and authoritative publication on the subject to be found anywhere.




Guitar Rigs


Book Description

(Book). The sound of rock, blues, country and jazz is not just the sound of electric guitars. It's the sound of electric guitars through amplifiers. For the first time, Guitar Rigs examines the great guitar/amp combinations that have created more than 50 years of fantastic music. Each section includes a full history of guitar and amps and details the construction, components, performance, qualities and drawbacks of each combination. Guitar Rigs is not just a celebration of the collectable treasures of the guitar and amp world. Along the way it evaluates many more instruments, amps and effects, offering alternatives for those trying to conjure great sounds from less-exalted equipment. And it comes with a CD that demonstrates these and many more combinations so you hear them for yourself.




Amped


Book Description

Guitarists love amps—really love them. Amplifiers may look dull to the rest of the world, but to guitarists they are full of mystique, romance, and rockin' sound. And while there are many strong-selling electric guitar histories available, here's the first illustrated history of the electric guitar’s best friend, the amp. World-famous guitar and amp historian Dave Hunter tells the story of 60 of the greatest amps ever built, including classics from Fender, Marshall, Vox, the bizarre EchoSonic that created Elvis' sound, and the ultimate esoteric $75,000+ Dumble amps. The story is illustrated with hundreds of technical photos, rare machines, catalogs, memorabilia, and the amps of the stars, from Jimi Hendrix to Stevie Ray Vaughan to Eric Clapton. This is a book guitarists will drool over.




Jim Marshall, the Father of Loud


Book Description

And so Marshall's tone obsession began, with Jim constantly improving his amp designs, listening to players' needs, and inventing new ways to satisfy them. Since the '60s, his amps have attracted some of the greatest guitarists in rock history, from Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck, and Jimmy Page to Billy Gibbons, Eddie Van Halen, Slash, and Zakk Wylde."




The History of Marshall


Book Description

Marshall amps have defined the sound of rock for a generation, boasting such notable users as Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck, Ritchie Blackmore and Jimmy Page. This book explores the British company responsible for that sweet overdrive sound - the company that originated the amp "stack" - tracing the impressive lineage of its valve ("tube" to us Yanks!) guitar amps. Doyle is the acknowledged authority on the subject, and here he combines detailed chronologies of the various model and serial numbers, straightforward explanations of their features and construction, and aesthetic evaluations of the results. The book is dotted with the names of rock luminaries and peppered with photos - well over 100 black-and-white ones, plus a 32-page color section and a 32-page full-color appendix that reproduces all of the Marshall catalogues of the sixties.




The British Amp Invasion


Book Description

THE BRITISH AMP INVASION: HOW MARSHALL HIWATT VOX AND MORE CHANGED THE SOUND OF MUSI




Fender 75 Years


Book Description

Gorgeously illustrated and authoritatively written, Fender 75 Years is the officially licensed celebration of the legendary brand's landmark anniversary, covering all of Fender's iconic guitars, amps, and basses.




Fender Telecaster and Stratocaster


Book Description

Celebrate of the history and significance of both the Fender Telecaster and Stratocaster for the company's 75th anniversary in this combined edition of Dave Hunter's two best-selling books! The Fender Telecaster, created in Les Fender's Fullerton, California, workshop and introduced in 1950, is a working-class hero and the ultimate blue-collar guitar. It wasn't meant to be elegant, pretty, or sophisticated. Designed to be a utilitarian musical instrument, it has lived up to that destiny. In the hands of players from Muddy Waters to James Burton, Bruce Springsteen to Joe Strummer, the Telecaster has made the music of working people—country, blues, punk, rock 'n' roll, and even jazz. Fender’s Stratocaster is arguably the number-one instrument icon of the guitar world. When introduced in 1954, its offset space-age lines, contoured body, and three-pickup configuration set the music world on its ear—it was truly unlike any guitar that had come before. In the hands of the world’s most beloved players, such as Buddy Holly, Eric Clapton, Ike Turner, and, yes, Jimi Hendrix, the Stratocaster has since become a popular instrument of choice among rock, blues, jazz, and country players and, not coincidentally, is also one of the most copied electric guitars of all time. In this authoritatively written, painstakingly curated, and gloriously presented combined edition to celebrate Fender's 75th anniversary, author Dave Hunter covers both of the guitar’s histories from concept, design, and model launch through its numerous variations and right up to the present. The story is richly illustrated with archival images, musicians in action, studio shots, memorabilia, and profiles of over 50 Tele and Strat slingers through the ages. With its unprecedented level of detail and stunning visuals, Fender Telecaster and Stratocaster is the only book tribute worthy of the world’s two greatest guitars.




Blood and Bronze


Book Description

The Benin Bronzes are among the British Museum’s most prized possessions. Celebrated for their great beauty, they embody the history, myth and artistry of the ancient Kingdom of Benin, once West Africa’s most powerful, and today part of Nigeria. But despite the Bronzes’ renown, little has been written about the brutal imperial violence with which they were plundered. Paddy Docherty’s searing new history tells that story: the 1897 British invasion of Benin. Armed with shocking details discovered in the archives, Blood and Bronze sets this assault in its late Victorian context. As British power faced new commercial and strategic pressures elsewhere, it ruthlessly expanded in West Africa. Revealing both the extent of African resistance and previously concealed British outrages, this is a definitive account of the destruction of Benin. Laying bare the Empire’s true motives and violent means, including the official coverup of grotesque sexual crimes, Docherty demolishes any moral argument for Britain retaining the Bronzes, making a passionate case for their immediate repatriation to Nigeria.