Glossary: Flick Action Console

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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z 0-9

Flick Action Console: Here in America, we've always been used to toggle switches, blade switches, and sometimes a rotary switch for selecting pickups. But over in Europe, with its rich history of building fine accordions and melodeons, manufacturers were suddenly asked to build guitars beginning in the 1950s and '60s. Though they did have the wisdom to more-or-less stick with the the body styles of popular hollowbody and solidbody guitars (though often with some unusual artistic touches all their own), they had boxes full of various switches and buttons, so why not adapt those for selecting pickups or tone presets? A prime example is Hofner, the company that built Paul McCartney's iconic "violin bass." On hollowbody models that had interesting names like the President, Committee, Club 50, and the top of their line, the Hofner Golden Hofner (yes, the Hofner name is used twice), the company routinely used a setup it called the "flick action console." This is clearly seen on Sir Paul's basses of the 1960s. There is a plain or pearloid rectangular panel, with volume controls on knobs at either end. In between were three switches, which you could "flick on or off" to access tone colors and pickup combinations. Simple but effective. Though the company has modernised most of the controls on their current line, their variations on the hollowbody violin bass all appropriately continue to feature the unmistakeable "flick action console."

F-Hole

F-spacing

Factory Preset

Fade

Fade In

Fadeout

Fader

Fairlight CMI

Fake Book

Falsetto

Fan-out

Fan Strutting

FAQ

Farad

Faraday Shield (or Faraday Cage)

Far Field

FAT

Fat-32

FDDI

Feathering

Feedback

Feedback Compressor

Feedback Eliminator

Felt

Fender "Woodies"

Fender Bass

Fender Blender

Ferrite

Ferro Fluid

Ferrule

Field Effect Transistor (FET)

Fibre Channel

Fiddleback Maple

Fidelity

Field

Field Coil

Field Coil

FIFO

Figure/Figuring

Figure 8

Figured Koa

Filament

File

File Server

Fill

Film Capacitor

Filter

Filter Capacitor

Filter Slope

FilterTron

Finale

Finalize

Finder

Fingerboard

Fingering

Fingerstyle

FireWire

FireWire 400

FireWire 800

FireWire Repeater

Fir Filter

Firmware

First Wavefront Law

Fixed Bias

Fixed Bridge

Fixed Hard Drive

Fixed Head

Fixed Point

Flam

Flame Maple

Flamenco

Flange/Flanging

Flash

Flash Card

Flash Drive

Flash Frame

Flat

Flat-picking

Flat Response

Flat Sawn

Flat Top Guitar

Flatwound

Fleck

Fletcher-Munson Curves

Flick Action Console

Flitch-Matching

Float/Floating

Floating Bridge

Floating Pickup

Floating Point

Floating Sound Unit

Floating Unbalanced Line

Floating Vibrato

Floor Tom

Floppy Disk

Florentine Cutaway

Flutter

Flutter Echo

Flux

Fly

Fly Point

Frequency Modulation (FM)

FM Synthesis

FOH

Foil Shield

Fold-Down

Foldback

Folder

Foley

Fool

Footboard

Footswitch

Forearm Cut

Formant

Format

Formatted Capacity

Former

Fortepiano

Forward-shifted Bracing

Forward/Reverse Bias

Found Sound

Four-on-the-Floor

Fourier Analysis

FPGA

FPU

Fractal

Fragmentation

Frame

Frame Count

Frame Rate

Free Field

Free Lossless Audio Codec (FLAC)

FreeMIDI

Free Reed

Free Reed

Freeware

Freeze

Frequency

Frequency Agile

Frequency Doubling

Frequency Range

Frequency Response / Frequency Range

Frequensator

Fret

Fretboard

Fret Buzz

Fret Crown

Fret Dress

Fretless Wonder

Fret Tang

Frondose

Front Address

Front Loaded

Front of House

Fs

FSB

FSF (Free Software Foundation)

FSK

FTP

Full Code

Full Duplex

Full Normal

Full Range

Full Scale

Full Space

Full Track

FUN

Function Generator

Fundamental

Funky Drummer

Fuse

Fusion

Fusion Zone

Futurama

Fuzz

Fuzz Face

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