 |
Bruce Watson | |
|---|---|
 Bruce Watson in 2016. | |
| Background information | |
| Birth name | Bruce Watson |
| Born | June 4, 1959 Los Angeles, California, U.S. University of Southern California |
| Genres | |
| Occupation(s) | Musician |
| Instrument(s) |
|
Bruce Watson (born June 4, 1959) is an American guitarist best known for playing in the rock band Foreigner. He also sings, plays mandolin, bass guitar, and slide guitar.
Watson is a third generation Los Angeles native whose love affair with rock n' roll began at the age of 10 when he heard Creedence Clearwater Revival’s "Born on the Bayou". Soon after, he convinced his father to buy him a Yamaha 12-string guitar that he played in front of his first audience, the local church group. [1] It was not long until he discovered The Beatles, Led Zeppelin, The Allman Brothers Band, and Joni Mitchell. [2]
In the early 1990s in Los Angeles, Bruce began recording guitar tracks for music in commercials, films & television shows, and quickly thereafter, artist sessions. Following studio and road dates with the likes of B.B. King, Patti Smyth, Rod Stewart, Elton John, and others. After graduating from Notre Dame High School in Sherman Oaks, California then earned his B.S. Degree in Business Administration from the University of Southern California. [3] When he is asked what he listens to in his studio, he admits to “never not listening to Joni Mitchell.” [4]
After being recommended by drummer Mark Schulman, Watson joined Foreigner full time in 2011 to play alongside founding member, guitarist Mick Jones. Watson is self taught and plays by ear. He employs improvisation while striving to achieve “that Foreigner sound” usually with a Gibson Les Paul guitar. Watson is nostalgic about his guitar collection. His childhood dream guitar was the Gibson Les Paul. At the age of 16, he saved $50/week to buy a Gibson Les Paul Gold Top guitar on lay-away. Watson's other favorites are his Fender 1968 12-string, a 1973 Fender Telecaster and his Teisco Audition made in Japan in the 1960s, a gift from composer W. G. Snuffy Walden, which he played on Sara Bareilles’ "Love Song" and the 1976 Herringbone Martin D-28 he played on Christina Aguilera's "What a Girl Wants". [5]
Watson is a Cicerone Certified Beer Server. When touring with Foreigner he hosts V.I.B. ‘Very Important Beer’ meet-and-greet craft beer tastings along with Foreigner bandmate Michael Bluestein. [6] An admitted long-time Guinness drinker, he has a passion for craft beers and a deep respect for the art of brewing. Watson enjoys traveling the world tasting local & regional beers and sharing them with Foreigner fans. [6]
When touring with Foreigner, his equipment list reads: Friedman BE-100, Matchless C-30, 70's Marshall JMP 50, multiple Gibson Les Pauls, 335s, Nash Telecasters and Stratocasters. Gold Tone resonators and Banjitar, Kentucky Mandolin, Martin backpacker, Bedell Coffeehouse Dreadnaughts and Strymon pedals. [4] [5]
The bass guitar, electric bass or simply bass is the lowest-pitched member of the guitar family. It is a plucked string instrument similar in appearance and construction to an electric or acoustic guitar, but with a longer neck and scale length. The bass most commonly has four strings, though five- and six-stringed models are also relatively popular, and basses with even more strings or courses have been built. Since the mid-1950s, the bass guitar has largely come to replace the double bass in popular music due to its lighter weight, the inclusion of frets in most models, and, most importantly, its design for electric amplification.
An electric guitar is a guitar that requires external amplification in order to be heard at typical performance volumes, unlike a standard acoustic guitar. It uses one or more pickups to convert the vibration of its strings into electrical signals, which ultimately are reproduced as sound by loudspeakers. The sound is sometimes shaped or electronically altered to achieve different timbres or tonal qualities from that of an acoustic guitar via amplifier settings or knobs on the guitar. Often, this is done through the use of effects such as reverb, distortion and "overdrive"; the latter is considered to be a key element of electric blues guitar music and jazz, rock and heavy-metal guitar-playing. Designs also exist combining attributes of the electric and acoustic guitars: the semi-acoustic and acoustic-electric guitars.
Robben Lee Ford is an American blues, jazz, and rock guitarist. He was a member of the L.A. Express and Yellowjackets and has collaborated with Miles Davis, Joni Mitchell, George Harrison, Larry Carlton, Rick Springfield, Little Feat, and Kiss. He was named one of the "100 Greatest Guitarists of the 20th Century" by Musician magazine.
A humbucker, humbucking pickup, or double coil, is a guitar pickup that uses two wire coils to cancel out noisy interference from coil pickups. Humbucking coils are also used in dynamic microphones to cancel electromagnetic hum. Humbuckers are one of two main types of guitar pickups. The other is single coil.
Victoria Anne Theresa Peterson Cowsill is an American rock musician and songwriter. She has been the lead guitarist for the Bangles since their foundation in 1981. After their first disbandment in 1989, she has returned to the band for all subsequent reunions. In intervening years, she has performed with other artists, most extensively with the Continental Drifters.
The Gibson Marauder was an electric guitar model produced by Gibson between 1975 and 1979. Designed to compete with guitars made by Fender, it had limited success and was discontinued after only 7,111 had been sold.
The electric mandolin is an instrument tuned and played as the mandolin and amplified in similar fashion to an electric guitar. As with electric guitars, electric mandolins take many forms. Most common is a carved-top eight-string instrument fitted with an electric pickup in similar fashion to many archtop semi-acoustic guitars. Solid body mandolins are common in 4-, 5-, and 8-string forms. Acoustic electric mandolins also exist in many forms.
Christopher Aubrey Shiflett is an American musician. He is the lead guitarist for the rock band Foo Fighters, which he joined in 1999 following the release of the band's third album There Is Nothing Left to Lose (1999). Shiflett was also previously a member of the punk rock bands No Use for a Name (1995–1999) and Me First and the Gimme Gimmes (1995–2019).
A headstock or peghead is part of a guitar or similar stringed instruments such as a lute, mandolin, banjo, ukulele and others of the lute lineage. The main function of a headstock is to house the tuning pegs or other mechanism that holds the strings at the "head" of the instrument; it corresponds to a pegbox in the violin family. At the "tail" of the instrument the strings are usually held by a tailpiece or bridge. Machine heads on the headstock are commonly used to tune the instrument by adjusting the tension of strings and, consequently, the pitch of sound they produce.
A B-Bender is a guitar accessory that enables a player to fluidly alter the pitch of a guitar's B-string. This works by mechanically bending the B-string through the use of a series of levers and/or pulleys attached to an external lever that is controlled by the player.
A solid-body musical instrument is a string instrument such as a guitar, bass or violin built without its normal sound box and relying on an electromagnetic pickup system to directly detect the vibrations of the strings; these instruments are usually plugged into an instrument amplifier and loudspeaker to be heard. Solid-body instruments are preferred in situations where acoustic feedback may otherwise be a problem and are inherently both less expensive to build and more rugged than acoustic electric instruments.
Electric guitar design is a type of industrial design where the looks and efficiency of the shape as well as the acoustical aspects of the guitar are important factors. In the past many guitars have been designed with various odd shapes as well as very practical and convenient solutions to improve the usability of the object.
A vintage guitar is an older guitar usually sought after and maintained by avid collectors or musicians. The term may indicate either that an instrument is merely old, or that is sought after for its tonal quality, cosmetic appearance, or historical significance.
Penco was a brand of guitars owned and manufactured by the Hoshino Gakki Co. in its factory of Nagoya, Japan. Ibanez guitars was another brand owned and manufactured by Hoshino Gakki. In the United States, Penco guitars were distributed by the Philadelphia Music Company.
The Fender Telecaster, colloquially known as the Tele, is an electric guitar produced by Fender. Together with its sister model the Esquire, it was the world's first mass-produced, commercially successful solid-body electric guitar. Its simple yet effective design and revolutionary sound broke ground and set trends in electric guitar manufacturing and popular music.
Berke Hatipoğlu is an architect, musician, and lead guitarist for the Turkish rock band, Redd.
Bob Bain was an American guitarist mainly known for his film music contributions, including “Dr. Zhivago” (1965), where he played the balalaika in the score for certain scenes where “Lara’s Theme” is heard.