Giff's Guitars

16/10/2024

Howdy! The time has come to move on. We are having a monster clear-out/ garage sale this weekend. There is all manner of musical gear.....guitars, speakers, amps, guitar bodies, and all manner of pickups, and various guitar parts up for sale...There's also motorbike bits, toolboxes, hand tools, electric tools, spanners, garden tools, a lawnmower, aircons, a white Commodore VZ wagon low k;s, great A/C, roadworthy till feb25..... the list goes on!! Opening 9am on Saturday 19th October. Come on down to 5 Thorak Rd Knuckey Lagoon, and grab yourself a bargain.

28/08/2022

Here's another article from Reverb.com. It's worth a look to see the oddball models that Fender have made, alongside the most useful Strat's, and Tele's that we all use as standard weapons in the armory!!

From should-have-beens to sleeping giants, from starter solids to high-end hollows, here's a selection of lesser-known Fender to explore.

13/05/2022

It took Leo four years to patent this single-coil pickup, The patent must be for the Jaguar range, with the sawtooth outer metallic shield supposedly directing magnetic traffic.

: Fender Pickup
Clarence Leonidas Fender was awarded a patent on February 22, 1966 for an “electromagnetic pickup for electrical musical instruments.” It was a design for a single-coil under-string pickup that he’d applied for nearly four years earlier on May 11, 1962--60 years ago. Thanks, Leo.

11/04/2022

Here's an article from Reverb.com that covers the invention of the "first" electrically amplified guitar. There's plenty of conjecture here, the electric guitar is more likely a group effort. with several different approaches made by inventors to end up somewhere near the designs we all know and love today Happy reading! Thanx Reverb.com

Was it Bigsby? Rickenbacker? An unknown US Navy officer? The origin story of the electric guitar is a tangled one.

06/04/2022

You can thank this guy for at least half of the overdriven guitar solos you ever heard!! Sure, that's a made-up factoid, but closer to the truth than you might think. Thanx for the wringing in my ears Jim....!!

: RIP, Marshall.
Legendary amp builder Jim Marshall died ten years ago today on April 5, 2012 at age 88. A drummer and drumshop owner, Marshall began selling guitar gear in his UK store after inquiries from musicians like Pete Townshend and Ritchie Blackmore. Jim decided to build a louder amp than those produced by Fender, and in 1962 created Marshall Amplification. The idea of separate head and speaker cabinets was appealing to guitarists who were waging volume wars with their bassists and drummers on stages all over London.

The JCM remains a legendary amplifier (the acronym stands for "James Charles Marshall") due to its combination of volume and overdriven crunch, something that Marshall purposely built into amps at a time when other manufacturers were trying to get cleaner tone for country, pop, and surf bands. Nearly 50 years later, the term "Marshall stack" still stands for unbridled guitar power. Marshall's biographer Rich Maloof has a fitting tribute over at http://www.richmaloof.com/index.php/2012/04/goodbye-jim/

RIP, Mr. Marshall.

13/11/2021

This article gives a very detailed description of the early days of operations at Leo's Fender Factory.

Karl Olmsted shares how he mass-produced Leo Fender's unique bridges, tuners, and other hardware in this archival interview.

27/10/2021

Here's a fairly detailed rundown on Fender amps. Enjoy, and thanx Reverb.com

Breaking down the differences between vintage Fender Black Panel and Silver Panel models.

26/10/2021

Goodonya Harry. without Mr De Armond's efforts, the electric pickup might have taken a lot longer to appear, retro-fitted to jazz guitars of the day.

BEFORE THE PICKUPS WERE BUILT IN . . . 72 Years Ago
Harry DeArmond was one of the people who ushered in the age of electric guitars by making pickups that could be fitted into archtop and flat top acoustic guitars. For a time, his pickups were standard accessories for jazz players competing with the noise of other big band instruments. Here's a patent awarded to Harry on October 25, 1949--72 years ago--that featured a volume control before either the Les Paul or Stratocaster were introduced. Thanks, Harry.

09/10/2021

EVH was a hell of player, here's some of the guitars he played that you may not be aware of.

A new book features rare stories of Eddie's undersung gear: a sawed-off SG, a Floyd Rose LP, and more.

23/09/2021

Don't want to drill holes in your Black Beauty LP??. Sick of re-tuning every time you touch your Bigsby vibrato/whammy/dive-bomber??Tired of dragging your g-string back in tune every time you touch your strat's trem arm? This new toy may be the answer.....a digital whammy that is a 'no drilling' installation. After listening to this device's capabilities [way more than just a whammy]there seems, to me, to be no downsides. Have a listen, you might be surprised. I didn't check the price..........