Rotosound Music Strings

Steve ‘The Deacon’ Hunter is one of rock’s most celebrated guitarists (the reaction when it was announced that he’d be joining Alice Cooper on his 2011 tour was nothing but effusive), and he’s had a colourful career to date. Best known for his collaborations with Lou Reed (The Velvet Underground) and Alice Cooper, he’s appeared on no less than 5 Alice Cooper Albums including Million Dollar Babies, Muscle of Love and Welcome to My Nightmare (alongside Dick Wagner, forming a formidable guitar duo), as well as Lou Reed’s Rock ‘n’ Roll Animal among others. Aside from Alice Cooper and Lou Reed, Steve’s also played with David Lee Roth and Tracy Chapman, and appeared in Blame it on the Night, a film co-written by Mick Jagger. Steve’s a committed Rotosound endorsee and has used Roto Yellows for years.

A new addition to our ever-expanding range of accessories , we’re proud to launch our new spring loaded Guitar Capo, designed to be used with one hand for ultra quick changes while you’re playing on stage.

Made from magnesium alloy, our capo is small and light – you’ll barely know that it’s on your guitar. With the spring loaded mechanism it stays put and you’ll have complete control over where it’s positioned.  Rotosound AC01 Guitar Capos are designed with all types of guitar players in mind, from flamenco, to Irish Traditional music, folk and blues and rock. Our new model helps guitarists to play in a different key by adjusting the length of the fret board quickly and easily. As with all things Rotosound, our Guitar Capos are made to an exacting standard and are priced at an affordable £17.95. Get yours via your local dealer.

Trawling through our media archives, we came across this little beauty – an ad from a magazine called ‘Beat Instrumental’ from February 1976. At the time, Queen’s John Deacon was using our RS77 Jazz Bass strings and Brain May was using our Gauge Selection stainless steel guitar strings. Rotosound strings were used on all of Queen’s albums through the 70′s and 80′s, and given their incredible range of styles they’d regularly request a varied range of strings (including banjo and ukulele strings) from us before they went into the studio to record an album. All the best rockers use Rotosound, you know…

Native Italian Alex Lofoco is relatively new to the London music scene, which makes his quick progress up the ranks all the more impressive. He’s got the rare combination of agility, taste, groove and power which will make all aspiring bassists totally jealous – and has achieved professional recognition with a string (no pun intended) of endorsements from Hartke amplification, EMG pickups, Evidence Audio, and us at Rotosound. He’s also been asked to hold a masterclass on the double thumbing and two hand tapping techniques that form part of his armoury of skills by the renowned Tech Music School in London. Having played in various styles from metal to jazz-funk with some well known Italian bands, Alex has collaborated with a number of UK artists since moving to London (including fellow Rotosound endorsee, Charlie Savigar) and holds clinics and workshops across Europe. When he’s not mad busy doing all of the above, he contributes to Bass Musician Magazine and Jazzitalia with lessons and articles.

We’re hitting the road over the next couple of days to run string change days in a number of music stores. We’ll be in Belgium today (Friday 25th November) at Euromusic in Antwerp, and will be at Van Gorp, Roosendaal on Saturday 26th. Looking forward to meeting new people and offering some great deals! If you’re nearby, it’d be great to see you.

Eva’s not only one of our endorsees (she uses our Nexus 45 strings, since you asked), she’s a firm friend of Rotosound. You might know her as P!nk’s bassist/ Kim Gardner’s daughter (bassist for The Creation)/ bassist with Telstar. Whichever hat she’s wearing, Eva’s a bona fide superstar on the bass. Her latest band, Telstar (Eva Gardner, Chris Unck, Stew Heyduk), took flight in the spring of 2011 in the City of Angels, where it’s member’s now reside. Collectively, they have performed for over 3 million people around the globe in over 50 countries as band members for artists such as P!nk, Butch Walker, Veruca Salt, Feist and the Mars Volta. With years of extensive touring and recording with these various artists, Chris, Stew and Eva decided to embark on an adventure and join forces as a rock n roll 3-piece. Telstar’s members draw from many influences, including the music of pioneer songwriter and producer Joe Meek. Their debut release, the Hot Knives EP, was released in June 2011. Catch Eva talking to Bass Frontier magazine about her career (look out for the nod to Rotosound in Part 2 at 6.51) by clicking here.

The good people at Music Trades have recently been down to our factory in Sevenoaks to find out more about how we make our world famous British strings. Catch a bit of the article below, or click here for the full article…

On The Who’s 1967 album The Who Sell Out, there’s a hidden track between the sixth and seventh songs on side 1. Written to sound like an ad spot from British “pirate radio” broadcasts of the day, the six second jingle goes, Hold your group together… with Rotosound strings! This was Who bass player John Entwistle’s tribute to Rotosound, the U.K. string maker that had custom-engineered his favourite strings just one year before. Rotosound’s breakthrough electric bass strings would later be used by Sir Paul McCartney, Roger Waters of Pink Floyd, and John Paul Jones of Led Zeppelin, among other key artists from the late British Invasion period. Founded by Londoner James How, an engineer who built all his own string-winding machines, the company is credited with a litany of ‘firsts’ in the history of fretted instruments.

Four decades later, Rotosound has remained the quintessential British string maker- though not without overcoming a few mortal threats to its existence. Under James How and later under his sons Jason and Martyn, Rotosound has steadfastly refused to outsource production, setting up a constant struggle with high labor costs and international competitors. At one point in the early 90’s, the combined toll of external factors and outdated infrastructure brought Rotosound to the brink of insolvency. After James’s death in 1994, it fell in large part to Jason How, now CEO, to rethink the entire operation. The history of Rotosound since the mid-90’s is mainly the story of how he did it…

It’s that time of year again and preparations are well underway for NAMM 2012 in January. For those not in the know, NAMM (National Association of Music Merchants) is the biggest group of music traders internationally. Music retailers from all over the world make the annual pilgrimage to the states for their massive 4 day event, where the best and brightest from the music world convene to share knowledge, show off their latest gadgets and try the latest gear new to the market. Among the various seminars, demos and performances, you’ll always find some well known faces – this year, we’ll have long term friends and Rotosound endorsees, Billy Sheehan and Duff McKagan with us at our booth. We’ll keep you up to date as the show gets closer…