Great mistakes

[Robert****]

Interesting article about great "mistakes" in the world of guitars.

Well folks we all know what great guitars have been designed and created over the years, but there were some vessels of musical expression in the guitar world that were, lets say a stroke of mistaken genius.

http://www.ucdailynews.com/news/local/42608437.html

Know of any other good "mistakes"?

One thing I've always wondered is why Fender named their amp tremolo effect "vibrato"? It is not a vibrato (changing of pitch), it's a tremolo effect (changing of volume). Once they realized the misnomer, they didn't change the wording on future amps either. I guess it's not that important, but it has confused a lot of guitar players as a result.

[Tone2TheBone]

LMAO at your avatar.

Wow I'd have to think about this one. I'll do this today I bet I can find another "mistake" somewhere....

[Jimi75]

This is a very interesting article. I once read another article about the "great mistakes". The musical world would be a lot poorer wihtout this great mistakes. I can not add another great mistake concerning the construction or production of a guitar, although there are definitely more.

You can transfer this to playing technique, too. I've heard that Steve Vai for example came up with his string bending under the neck (where he pulls the high e-string unter the neck to create a crazy sounding effect and he uses it to play melodies) by mistake. Also Angous young created the "bell effect" while bending in such a quirky way that one string remained under another string and when picking the strings it souded like a bell - which might have been the inspiration to Hell's Bells....well maybe....
Joe Satriani touched his floating Floyed Rose (strings where bend up) and so he created the humming bee sounds by mistake, which a lot of players adopted for their playing later on, like a.m. Steve Vai for example or John Petrucci.

:

[wingsdad]

...
One thing I've always wondered is why Fender named their amp tremolo effect "vibrato"? It is not a vibrato (changing of pitch), it's a tremolo effect (changing of volume). Once they realized the misnomer, they didn't change the wording on future amps either. I guess it's not that important, but it has confused a lot of guitar players as a result.

Leo & company named their Stratocaster's vibrato effect system a Tremolo system.: to make up for their gaffe with the amp. There's a true story behind it instead of my leg-puller, but basically, it was just a goof...maybe from sniffing too much Dupont Auto Lacquer in the custom color paint shop?

Just kidding.

Actually, Paul Bigsby called his a vibrato and Doc Kaufman coined a related term for his that went on 50's Rickenbackers (vibrola).

Following jimi's points on 'good' mistakes that discovered clever technique, I s'pose pinch harmonics/picking technique may have been such an accidental discovery...but by whom?

Good find with the article, Robert, but it seems to have mistakes of its own...the bit about the harp tailpiece on 52 LP Goldtops making it impossible to mute? : That's news to me.... what about Gibson's originally calling the SG the Les Paul under the guise of redesign and discontinuing the original LP for about 6 years? The writer kinda missed that one, too.

[markb]

Leo & company named their Stratocaster's vibrato effect system a Tremolo system.: to make up for their gaffe with the amp. There's a true story behind it instead of my leg-puller, but basically, it was just a goof...maybe from sniffing too much Dupont Auto Lacquer in the custom color paint shop?

Just kidding.

Actually, Paul Bigsby called his a vibrato and Doc Kaufman coined a related term for his that went on 50's Rickenbackers (vibrola).

Following jimi's points on 'good' mistakes that discovered clever technique, I s'pose pinch harmonics/picking technique may have been such an accidental discovery...but by whom?

Good find with the article, Robert, but it seems to have mistakes of its own...the bit about the harp tailpiece on 52 LP Goldtops making it impossible to mute? : That's news to me.... what about Gibson's originally calling the SG the Les Paul under the guise of redesign and discontinuing the original LP for about 6 years? The writer kinda missed that one, too.

I think the truth might be that Leo Fender just didn't know the difference. He wasn't a musician.

On the very early Les Pauls the strings ran straight through the bridge/tailpiece in such a way that the bridge bar got in the way of your hand for damping. They fixed it pretty quickly so that the strings wrapped over and back through the bar. And it is true that the LP was never really a commercial success until some years after it had been discontinued. The 60s blues/rock guys really made them popular, Clapton and Bloomfield in particular. Personally I prefer Bloomfield with a tele (but I would, wouldn't I ).