So we all think all certain guitars when we hear the word – a guitar that just to us, symbolises what our favourite players uses to achieve that sound and look damn cool while doing it. These are the guitars that have turned mere men into rock gods.

The Fender Strat. When it was made back in 1954, no-one, least of all its creator Leo Fender, had no idea how iconic this guitar was about to become. There are hundreds of copies on the market, but people know a ‘proper’ Strat just from the tone. Thought of as a rock and blues guitar, many players have found it hard to go back to other guitars after playing a Strat. Hendrix, Clapton, all of Iron Maiden, Blackmore, Kosoff Buddy Holly and hundreds of other players. The legendary reputation of the Stratocaster proceeds it, ensuring it remains an icon for years to come.

The Fender Telecaster. Although it has its share of rock players, due to its twangy sound the telecaster has something of a ‘country’ guitar reputation. Jim Root of Iowain metallers Slipknot and John 5 (Marilyn Manson, Rob Zombie) are surprising Telecaster players. Created again by Leo Fender, but before the Strat, the Tele was originally known as the Broadcaster. A threatening law suit over the name saw it swiftly changed to Telecaster, amd the rest is history. Famous Tele players include Andy Summers (the Police), Joe Strummer (the Clash) and Keith Richards (the Rolling Stones) -showing the versitility of the guitar.

The Gibson Les Paul. Created by Gibson with Les Paul, the guitar was created in 1952. Originally the Les Paul had single coil pickups, which were changed in ’57 for the humbucker pickups that the Les Paul is famous for today. More players than you know have played a Les Paul at some stage -some may surprise you -Clapton, Hendrix and others. Notable Les Paul players are Slash of Guns and Roses and Zakk Wylde, Ozzy Osbournes main guitarist.

Gibson SG. in 1961 this was going to be a new Les Paul guitar -the only problem being that the man himself didnt like the design. So it was named the ‘SG’ -initials for solid body, its lighter than the Les Paul and has a slimmer neck. Its famous players include Angus Young of AC/DC and Tony Iommi of Black Sabbath.

In the mood for buying Fender Guitars? visit these guys.

The almighty Fender Stratocaster- the guitar most people think of when they hear the word ‘guitars‘. A mainstay in the music industry since its invention, and will continue to be for a long time. Lets look at the players who made this axe the legendary guitar that it is today.

• Iron Maiden. All three members of Iron Maiden have at one time or another played with a Fender Stratocaster. Other than Steve Harris, Dave Murray is the only other founding member of Iron Maiden that is still with the band. Throughtout the years he used a Fender Strat, which up untill 1990 he was using Paul Kosoff of the band ‘Free’s Stratocaster. Fender have released a signature model of the guitar, with Hotrail pickups and Floyd rose tremolo system, two items rarely seen on any Fender guitar. Murray’s guitar partner in Maiden Janick Gers also favours the strat and Adrain Smith, although usually photographed with many different guitars also plays Strats.
• Eric Clapton. Ol’ ‘slow hands’ as hes known, has played as many guitars as most people have had hot dinners, using everything from a Gibson Les Paul from his days in Cream and a Telecaster when he was in the Yardbirds. But he is most famous for using a Strat, namely the infamous ‘blackie’, which he used up until its retirement in 1985. ‘Blackie’ was sold at auction to raise funds for the ‘Crossroads’ rehab centre and the guitar was sold for just under a million dollars. Clapton swapped over to Fender Strats in 1969, and never looked back.
• Jimi Hendrix. Widely considered by most people to be the best guitar player ever and revolutionised the way we look at the electric guitar. Hendrix first started playing the Fenders in 1966, and used them mostly for recordings. Hendrix also tried out many different styles of guitars before choosing a Fender Strat, much like Clapton. Hendrix was left handed and took to stringing the guitars in reverse order and playing them upside down, as left handed guitars cost more and were difficult to find. As a birthday gift Clapton had bought Hendrix a left handed Strat, but Jimi sadly died before he could get the said gift. A strat was the guitar which Hendix set on fire on his 1969 Monterey international pop festival performance.

After a Fender guitar now? Visit these guys.

Guitarist can tune their guitar in different ways. There are some simplest ways of tuning but the results of each tuning are not similar. Beginners should follow the convenient way of tuning. Experts can easily discover the incorrect sound of the tune and adopt the method accordingly.

The strings are tuned in a standard way. The strings and frets are numbered serially from the lowest to the highest string. The first string is similar to the highest pitch and the last string to the lowest pitch. E-A-D-G-B-E is the standard tuning. So the sixth string corresponds to the Lower E, fifth string-A, fourth string-D, third string-G, second-B and first-High E.

Pitch pipes can set the pitch for all strings by matching them with each other.

Pitch pipes are cheap and beginners can easily use it. Electronic tuner is expensive

but it can bring exact tuning. It is better than pitch pipes. Electronic keyboard or well tuned piano can also be used to tune your guitar as they sound loud and clear. Tuning forks come in variety of types depending on the individual strings. It is cheap and easy to carry. Harmonics is the difficult method of tuning guitar but it brings a clearer and touchy sound.

The easiest method of tuning without the help of electronic tuner is called Basic Tuning. At first, place the finger on the fifth frets of the sixth string and play both the strings simultaneously so that the notes of the two strings sound similar. If the notes of the two strings sound different then adjust the tuning peg for the fifth string and play open to match it with the fifth fretted sixth string. You have to do the same thing with the third and fourth string. Place the finger on the fourth fret of the fifth string for adjusting the tuning of second string. Then play the fifth fret of the second string to adjust the final tuning. A used Ibanez acoustic is the guitar of a new package arranged for the new guitarist.

You have to tune your guitar frequently to check your guitar from going out of tune.

Some great guitar players have used Gibson guitars to tear up the fretboard and entertain the masses. Here’s afew of the players that have used Gibson guitars to bring rock & heavy metal to the people.

• Angus Young -AC/DC. Perhaps the most famous Gibson player on the planet, Angus Young has been donning the school uniform and strapping on the Gibson SG  ever since before most of us were born -and hes still doing it. Angus has rarley ever been seen without his Gibson SG, although he also owns a Gibson Firebird & a 335.
  Classic tracks: Highway to hell, back in black, let there be rock
• Slash. Slash, or better known as ‘Saul Hudson’, has been wailing away on a Les Paul since during the recording of rock band Gun and Roses most famous album ‘appetite for destruction’. But what isnt known is that the Les Paul on the album is a copy job, and not a Gibson model. It didnt matter, as Slash’s use of the instrument made the guitar even more iconic in the 80s and helped to increase sales in the instrument. Slash now has his own signature Gibson guitar, but still uses his 1987 Les Paul standard as his main guitar for live playing.
  Classic tracks: Welcome to the jungle, Sweet child of mine, Slither
• Tony Iommi. The father of the heavy metal riff, Tony Iommi and Black Sabbath shook the world with their arrival in the seventies. Iommi lost his middle & index fingertips in an industral accident and had to relearn to play guitar all over again -inspired by Django Rienhardt, who had limited use of his 3rd and 4th fingers. Iommi has been playing with a Gibson SG since the recording of the first Black Sabbath album when his Fender’s neck pickup broke and hasnt returned to them since.
  Classic tracks: Paranoid, Black Sabbath, War pigs
• Zakk Wylde. Ozzy bought Zakk into his solo band after being sent a tape of him playing, and Wylde has been playing with him on and off ever since. Wylde also plays guitar in his ‘side project’ band, the black label society, which has its own following. Wylde’s guitar certainly sounds out with its custom ‘bullseye’ paint job and signature range of Les Pauls, which recently added a flying v guitar crossed with an SG.
  Classic tracks:Suicide messiah, Still born, In this river

Metal has a huge string of guitar players who completely destroy and own the stage as though nothing else mattered. Lets talk about three guitarists who influenced the sound of heavy metal, and how they still impact on the genre even today.

• Randy Rhoads. Randy Rhoads was remembered more for his work with ex Black Sabbath singer Ozzy Osbourne rather than the LA band Quiet Riot. Rhoads helped write such classic Ozzy songs as ‘Crazy train’ and ‘Dee’. Randy’s classical influence and background can be seen on the first two solo Ozzy albums which he played on. 1979′s ‘Blizzard of Oz’ album and 1981′s ‘diary of a madmen’. Ozzy believed Randy would’ve gone on to leave the band and further study classical music, which seemed to be the direction he was going in. The specialist Jackson guitars made for Rhoads are a popular choice amongst guitarists today. Rhoads lost his life in a plane crash in 1982 and guitar playing and character has been paid tribute to numerous times throughout the years.
• Chuck Schulidner. ‘Death’s main axeman, vocalist and head songwriter. Hailed as the father of the death metal subgenre, a term he himself wasnt comfortable with, Chuck was a huge influence on many guitar players and extreme metal. ‘Scream bloody gore’, the first album from Death, was the template for the genre known as death metal, but with each album the style and directions changed. Death released four more albums before Schuldiner folded the band in 1999 to play guitar in a new band ‘control denied’, which released the one album ‘the fragile art of exsistance’. Chuck Schulidner died after a long battle with cancer in 2001, which saw the metal community unite many a time to try and raise funds for his surgery.
• Darrell Lance Abbott -’Dimebag’. Guitarist of the infamous Pantera later of Damageplan and also played guitar on the country band rebel meets rebel. Pantea began as a ‘glam metal’ band in Texas in 1981, but thier sound changed dramatically and 1989s ‘Cowboys from hell’ album saw them becoming heavier, with a groove in their sound. Thier next album 1992′s ‘Vulgar display of power’ was the band breakthrough album, featuring the songs ‘this love’,'walk’, and ‘a new level’. Next album ‘Far beyond driven’ jumped to the top of the US charts on its release, proving at the time that metal was still ‘alive’. Pantera brought out 2 more albums before a breakdown in communication split the band into two camps, never reconsiling before the guitarists death. While playing onstage with Damageplan in Dec 2004, Dimebag was shot and died instantly. His sound is still seen in alot of bands today- ‘Lamb of god’ are an example of this.

Inspired to get playing some electric guitars? Come to these guys to get a great deal on guitars