When did Fender start exporting gear to the overseas market? I wondered this while watching the Sullivan rock and roll archieves on PBS. Just about all the British bands had no Fender gear-a lot of Vox, Hofner, and big hollowbody guitars and basses. Didn't see any amps. The first time Fenders were seen on the show was with the Beach Boys.
What was the attraction of these british bands? They all sounded the same, and some even looked alike. The musical talent was minimal to say the least.
Makes me wish I could go back in time, with the skills I have now on the guitar. I could be a big name player, a major artist or at least a monster on the guitar, even using the limited gear that was available back then.

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Life is like a sh*t sandwich. The more bread you have, the less sh*t you have to eat.

Thats definately arguable, take the beatles, kinks, who and stones as some examples of brit invasion artists, theres not an awful lot of similarity going on between them.

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Rated "M" for meaty.

Let me re-phrase it-most of them sounded the same. Ones like Gerry and the Pacemakers, Troggs, Animals, Herman's Hermits, etc.

The exceptions would be The Beatles, Stones, Doors, Who, (plus the obvious ones)

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Life is like a sh*t sandwich. The more bread you have, the less sh*t you have to eat.

There were a lot of great guitar players players back then too, ever heard of Les Paul?(The man, not his signature guitar).
Many others too.
The point was that rock'n'roll was not about being a virtuoso musician.
Sort of like when Punk came along, or when Grunge showed up.

The Doors were not British and were not part of the invasion (63-64) also Gerry Marsden of Gerry and the Pacemakers had one of the best and most identifiable voices of the day,Lennon and McCartney liked him so much that they wrote several songs for him.The Troggs were also unique with their primative at times jungle like beat Reg Presley was an excellent song writer with songs such as Gonna Make You,Night of the Long Grass,I Can't Control Myself,Love is All Around,I Want You,and Chris Britton the lead guitarest had an agressive hard-driving style that was emulated by many other guitarests especially when the punk scene came along.As for The Animals they too had an inimitable sound with Eric Burden's blues wailer voice and Allen Prices dexterious organ work.They helped in the resurgence of blues to the younger generation.Their rearrangement of House of The Rising Sun is undeniably a rock classic and their anti-war Sky Pilot was one of the earliest songs to use flanging.Peter Lekenby the lead guitarest of Herman's Hermits was one of the unsung great guitarests of the British invasion,he had a great sense of rhythym and could pull off some pretty tricky riffs Peter Blair Dennis Bernard Noone was also one gifted with a unique voice although their music was looked upon as too light and "poppy"to be taken as seriously as the Yardbirds,Moody Blues,The Zombies one could hardly say they sounded like everyone else.Sure there were bands that sounded like clones but they weren't among the ones you mentioned.

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'65 Strat,65 Mustang,65 Jaguar,4 more Strats,3 vintage Vox guitars,5 Vox amps,'69 Bassman with a '68 2-15 Bassman cab,36 guitars total-15asst'd amps total,2 vintage '60s Hammond organs & a myriad of effects-with a few rare vintage ones.

Well stated and I think exactly what many many others were thinking after reading the first post.

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The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government.

Thomas Jefferson

Being a guitar virtuoso wouldn't make you any more then than it does now. It's about the right group, the right presentation, and most of all the right song. The British Invasion brought the blues to white America and it was good.

I bet 20 to 30 years from now, kids would be saying he same thing about music of today. "All sounding the same".




btw...would you post a youtube of your playing?

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http://www.youtube.com/user/gmlasam

guitslinger, thanks Bro did not know most of that stuff, as a gigging musician at the time I thought"new songs to learn and a haircut, maybe". MH, caught the beach boys, Fender gear looked mighty pretty! Not sure when but once the British Invasion had access to American gear they used it.

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you can save the world with your guitar one love song at a time it's just better, more fun, easier with a fender solid body electric guitar or electric bass guitar.