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Ever since George Beauchamp and Paul Barth worked out the mechanics of pickup design, the device has been subjected to seemingly countless improvements and updates. We've counted at least 33 major innovations in pickup design that have taken place in the 84 years since Beauchamp and Barth debuted their horseshoe pickup. Take a spin through our gallery and see how far the humble pickup has come in less than a century's time.
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IN THE BASSMENT
Wow! Before Clarke, Pastorius, Wooten or Miller, there was Arvell Shaw. Here's a fantastic video of Louis Armstrong handing the spotlight over to Arvell for a bass feature on "How High the Moon," from a 1963 performance in Sydney, Australia. Shaw pulls out all the stops during the nearly 7-minute romp. "Show business," he says, just before breaking out his bow to play all the way up into the stratosphere. Armstrong and the band come back in for the big finish, and Shaw finishes it with a bang. Awesome!
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WATCH THIS
Pencil Guitar
Salavat Fidai is an experimental artist with a flair for carving up pencils. Pencils are his medium for all sorts of miniature sculptures, ranging from airplanes to men in hats to Big Ben. He is also a painter who works on canvas as well as matchboxes, pumpkin seeds and other objects. In this time-lapse video, Fidai is shown carving a tiny guitar with an X-ACTO blade and an impressive level of attention to detail, wonder if it plays Lead Zeppelin . . .
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If you've ever wanted a handy guide to scales, you can't do much better than this video by Sinisa Cekic. It demonstrates a wealth of common and unusual scales, including major and minor, diminished and harmonic scales, as well as exotic Hungarian minor, Balinese, Ethiopian Tizita minor, Spanish 8-tone scales and many more. Each scale is played over a backing track, allowing you to hear how the scales sounds with the chord being played. Best of all, it provides fretboard diagrams for all the scales and breakdowns of each section where you can see exactly what he's playing and practice along. Tab is also available for this lesson.
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GREAT GEAR
Here is a list of delay pedals. Whether you are looking for the inspiring warmth of analog delays or you need the precision and versatility of digital delays, you can find what you want in this list. As expected, there are delay pedals that blur the lines between the two, utilizing genuine analog circuits while employing digital controls. They offer the best of both worlds, albeit with some minor compromises like loosing the straightforward plug and play capability of analog pedals to achieve digital flexibility. Have fun, Have fun, Have fun, Hav . . .
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ARTIST AWARENESS
"Late Late Show With James Corden" has a new house band that includes Hagar Ben Ari on bass. Behind leader and wild man Reggie Watts, Hagar Ben Ari anchors this combo with grace and authority. Poke around the internet to learn and hear more Hagar . . .
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