The Gibson Marauder was an
electric guitar
An electric guitar is a guitar that requires external amplification in order to be heard at typical performance volumes, unlike a standard acoustic guitar (however combinations of the two - a semi-acoustic guitar and an electric acoustic gui ...
model produced by
Gibson
Gibson may refer to:
People
* Gibson (surname)
Businesses
* Gibson Brands, Inc., an American manufacturer of guitars, other musical instruments, and audio equipment
* Gibson Technology, and English automotive and motorsport company based
* Gi ...
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.
History
The Marauder was introduced as an attempt to break into the
single coil
A single coil pickup is a type of magnetic transducer, or pickup, for the electric guitar and the electric bass. It electromagnetically converts the vibration of the strings to an electric signal. Single coil pickups are one of the two most po ...
pickup bolt-on neck
Bolt-on neck is a method of guitar (or similar stringed instrument) construction that involves joining a guitar neck and body using screws or bolts, as opposed to glue and joinery as with set-in neck joints.
Methods
The "bolt-on" method is u ...
guitar market, which was dominated by
Fender at that time. To design the pickups, Gibson tapped
Bill Lawrence, who had joined in 1972 and had already produced the
L6-S. His design was reminiscent of the
Fender Telecaster
The Fender Telecaster, colloquially known as the Tele , is an electric guitar produced by Fender. Together with its sister model the Esquire, it is the world's first mass-produced, commercially successful Les Paul had built a prototype solid bo ...
, though it in fact it had two
humbucker
A humbucking pickup, humbucker, or double coil, is a type of guitar pickup that uses two wire coils to cancel out the noisy interference picked up by coil pickups. In addition to electric guitar pickups, humbucking coils are sometimes used in d ...
pickups.
[
The Marauder was officially introduced in 1974 and began shipping in 1975, supported by endorsements from ]Ace Frehley
Paul Daniel "Ace" Frehley (; born April 27, 1951) is an American musician, best known as the original lead guitarist and co-founding member of the hard rock band Kiss. He invented the persona of The Spaceman (a.k.a. Space Ace) and played wit ...
and Paul Stanley
Paul Stanley (born Stanley Bert Eisen; January 20, 1952) is an American musician who is the co-founder, frontman, rhythm guitarist and co-lead vocalist of the hard rock band Kiss. He is the writer or co-writer of many of the band's most popular ...
. Minor modifications were made in 1976 and in 1978. The model was cancelled in 1979 though some were still made until 1982. In all, only 7,111 were ever made.
Description
The Marauder sports a contoured single cutaway Les Paul
Lester William Polsfuss (June 9, 1915 – August 12, 2009), known as Les Paul, was an American jazz, country, and blues guitarist, songwriter, luthier, and inventor. He was one of the pioneers of the solid-body electric guitar, and his prototype ...
-shaped body, and a bolt on a maple
''Acer'' () is a genus of trees and shrubs commonly known as maples. The genus is placed in the family Sapindaceae.Stevens, P. F. (2001 onwards). Angiosperm Phylogeny Website. Version 9, June 2008 nd more or less continuously updated since http ...
neck with a headstock
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 pegs or mechanism that holds the strings at the ...
similar to the Flying V
The Gibson Flying V is an electric guitar model introduced by Gibson in 1958. The Flying V offered a radical, "futuristic" body design, much like its siblings: the Explorer, which was released the same year, and the Moderne, which was designed ...
's. Marauders were made with alder
Alders are trees comprising the genus ''Alnus'' in the birch family Betulaceae. The genus comprises about 35 species of monoecious trees and shrubs, a few reaching a large size, distributed throughout the north temperate zone with a few sp ...
, maple, or mahogany
Mahogany is a straight-grained, reddish-brown timber of three tropical hardwood species of the genus ''Swietenia'', indigenous to the AmericasBridgewater, Samuel (2012). ''A Natural History of Belize: Inside the Maya Forest''. Austin: Unive ...
bodies. The fretboard
The fingerboard (also known as a fretboard on fretted instruments) is an important component of most stringed instrument
String instruments, stringed instruments, or chordophones are musical instruments that produce sound from vibrating s ...
was produced both in the traditional Gibson rosewood
Rosewood refers to any of a number of richly hued timbers, often brownish with darker veining, but found in many different hues.
True rosewoods
All genuine rosewoods belong to the genus ''Dalbergia''. The pre-eminent rosewood appreciated in ...
, or a more Fender-like maple, both with 22 frets. Most had dot markers, "though some may have had trapezoid." In fact, rosewood fretboard could be bound and have typical to Gibson trapezoid markers. Such can be seen, for instance, in th
Paul Stanley
an
Kiss
Gibson advertising materials.
Every Marauder featured custom-designed Bill Lawrence pickups sealed in clear epoxy. The guitar had a regular-sized humbucker pickup in the neck position and a small humbucker, in a blade style resembling a single coil, was mounted at an angle by the bridge (similar to a Telecaster
The Fender Telecaster, colloquially known as the Tele , is an electric guitar produced by Fender. Together with its sister model the Esquire, it is the world's first mass-produced, commercially successful Les Paul had built a prototype solid bod ...
or Stratocaster
The Fender Stratocaster, colloquially known as the Strat, is a model of electric guitar designed from 1952 into 1954 by Leo Fender, Bill Carson, George Fullerton, and Freddie Tavares. The Fender Musical Instruments Corporation has continuously ...
). This arrangement resembled the Fender Telecaster Custom
Fender Telecaster Custom is a model of electric guitar made by Fender.
History
During the 1950s and early 1960s, Fender's twangy single-coil sound enjoyed considerable popularity. This began to wane by the mid-1960s as new stars like Eric Clap ...
and the resulting tone was closer to the Fender sound than that of most Gibson guitars, with more higher frequencies than regular Gibsons.[
Early Marauders had a three-way ]toggle switch
In electrical engineering, a switch is an electrical component that can disconnect or connect the conducting path in an electrical circuit, interrupting the electric current or diverting it from one conductor to another. The most common type of ...
on the treble side of the upper bout of the body (opposite the location on Les Pauls and ES-175s, similar to a Gibson Byrdland
The Byrdland is an electric guitar made by Gibson. Its name derives from the names of guitarists Billy Byrd and Hank Garland for whom Gibson originally custom-built the guitar.
Thinline series
The Byrdland is the first of Gibson's Thinline se ...
), to select either one or both pickups. In 1976, a rotary potentiometer
A potentiometer is a three-terminal resistor with a sliding or rotating contact that forms an adjustable voltage divider. If only two terminals are used, one end and the wiper, it acts as a variable resistor or rheostat.
The measuring instrume ...
was introduced which allowed a range of blends between the two pickups. In still later Marauders, the potentiometer was positioned between the volume and tone knobs, now with a "chickenhead" knob to avoid confusion with the "speed" knobs used for the volume and tone.
All Marauders had a Schaller-made "Harmonica" tune-o-matic" style bridge and the standard Gibson "stopbar" tailpiece
A tailpiece is a component on many stringed musical instruments that anchors one end of the strings, usually opposite the end with the tuning mechanism (the scroll, headstock, peghead, etc.).
Function and construction
The tailpiece anchors th ...
. They had enclosed "Gibson Deluxe" tuners and typical Gibson strap buttons.
Most common was the natural satin finish on 4,758 of the Marauders. 1,368 were finished in the colour wine-red, 460 were finished in Ebony, and 240 in tobacco sunburst. 202 Marauders without specified finish were mentioned in Gibson's shipping lists, and 83 Marauder Customs were made only in the tobacco sunburst finish. A handful more were built until 1982.
Notable players
Sum 41
Sum 41 is a Canadian rock band from Ajax, Ontario. Originally called Kaspir, the band was formed in 1996 and currently consists of Deryck Whibley (lead vocals, guitars, keyboards), Dave Baksh (lead guitar, backing vocals), Jason "Cone" McCas ...
lead vocalist and guitarist Deryck Whibley's first guitar was a walnut Marauder and he famously can be seen playing it in the music videos for "Fat Lip
"Fat Lip" is a song by Canadian rock band Sum 41. It is the fourth track on their debut album, ''All Killer No Filler'' (2001), and was released as the lead single in April 2001. It is the band's most successful single to date, topping the '' B ...
" and " In Too Deep".
Asian Kung-Fu Generation
(stylized as ASIAN KUNG-FU GENERATION) is a Japanese alternative rock band formed in Yokohama in 1996. For its entire career, the band has consisted of vocalist Masafumi Gotoh, guitarist Kensuke Kita, bassist Takahiro Yamada, and drummer Kiyo ...
Vocalist and guitarist Masafumi Gotoh
(December 2, 1976) is the lead vocalist, main songwriter and rhythm guitarist of the Japanese rock band Asian Kung-Fu Generation. Masafumi met fellow band members Kensuke Kita and Takahiro Yamada while attending a music club of Kanto Gakuin Uni ...
Using Marauder In the video clip of the song, " Rewrite " and " After Dark " Also used in several video clips and live shows
Adam Jones from Tool
A tool is an object that can extend an individual's ability to modify features of the surrounding environment or help them accomplish a particular task. Although many animals use simple tools, only human beings, whose use of stone tools dates ba ...
used it on their 2019 album ''Fear Inoculum
''Fear Inoculum'' is the fifth studio album by American rock band Tool. It was released on August 30, 2019, through Tool Dissectional, Volcano Entertainment, and RCA Records. It is the band's first album in 13 years, due to creative, personal, ...
''.
Also used for many years by Angelo Flies of Massive Attack. David Keegan from The Shop Assistants is pictured holding his Marauder on the cover of their LP "Will Anything Happen" in the bottom right corner.
Notable users: Walter Schreifels of Rival Schools, Lee Ranaldo and Thurston Moore of Sonic Youth, Fox Amato of Horace Green, Mac McCaughan of Superchunk, Pete Shelley of Buzzcocks, Ricardo Mastria of Dead Fish, Josh Homme of Queens of the Stone Age, Mick Taylor and Hugo Ali of Shitsunami. Paul Stanley of Kiss claimed to have never actually played the Marauder but would bring one out for every encore and then smash the guitar in several pieces then throw them into the audience, Jeff Lynne.
See also
*Gibson S-1
The Gibson S-1 is a solid bodied electric guitar, made by the Gibson Guitar Corporation. Notable players include Carlos Santana, Ronnie Wood, Keith Richards, and Angel Olsen.
Only 3,089 of them were sold before the model was discontinued in 198 ...
* Gibson Sonex
*Gibson Guitar Corporation product list
This is a list of Gibson brand of stringed musical instruments, mainly guitars, manufactured by Gibson, alphabetically by category then alphabetically by product (lowest numbers first). The list excludes other Gibson brands such as Epiphone.
Gu ...
References
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