Message Board Archive: Thread Number 52

I play a DobroLectric, an electric-acoustic resphonic guitar which is
great for both bottleneck and fingerpicked stuff. I also play a takamine
12-string - love those Atlanta bluesmen from the early years.

I'm wondering what other guitars are popular out there. And also
preferred amplification systems, tricks and routines for medium sized
clubs.

Doc John

Date: Fri, 12 Dec 1997 15:22:46 -0500 (EST)
From: cathbad@ix.netcom.com (Paul McNamee)
Subject: Re: which guitars?
Message Number: 52.1

Well, there's what I like, and then there are what I currently own ;)

For real blues, nothing beats my Silvertone. Yes, it's the real mccoy,
my father catalog ordered it back in the 50s. The thing is - I can't
tune it any higher than open D or it goes out! But, it's great for that
stuff - open tuning slide work - nothing else sounds like it.

For standard tuning, a have a fairly inexpensive Epiphone. It's
lightweight, but projects very well (I have a friend who has a similar
Fender acoustic, but you just can't hear it).

I also have a Yamaha 12-string which is nice, too.

I want to get a Dobro someday.

-- Paul McNamee

Date: Mon, 3 Aug 1998 14:33:33 -0400 (EDT)
From: MTu1538159@aol.com (Monte Turner)
Subject: Note: What Kind of Guitars
Message Number: 52.1.1

Well, I'm not a performer of any type but I love Martins, but I love the
sound of a National. I would love to have one of each but, I haven't won
the lottery yet.

Date: Fri, 12 Dec 1997 22:34:44 -0500 (EST)
From: Owner-HyperNews@ComCAT.COM (Billy)
Subject: Ok: 24.75-inch-scale Gibsons!
Message Number: 52.2

Perfection! Right now, I'm playing a '62 Country Western (essentially, a
fancy J-45, a natural-top cherry back and sides SJ), but I played a
recent J-45 for several years. Older J-45's are great; old J-35's RULE.
The shorter scale lessens the string tension, making for easier bends
and vibrato and more responsive tone than can be gotten from a
25.5-inch-scale guitar. Little Gibsons like L-00's are great, too, as
are the LG series. If they work for Paul Geremia (for my money, the
greatest white acoustic blues guitarist who ever lived), how could you
go wrong? :>)

Date: Thu, 18 Feb 1999 19:36:26 -0500 (EST)
From: eduard@mail.dma.be (eddy van gasse)
Subject: Feedback: Gibson L 1 & request for 12-string TAB
Message Number: 52.2.1

I have a reissue Gibson L-1 (yes, the Robert Johnson one) and I love it
for acoustic blues & ragtime. It's a small hourglass shaped guitar and
although the bass sounds a bit thin it sounds real bluesy. I'm a big
Geremia fan too. I have an acoustic Stella-copy made by English luthier
Ralph Bown. Anyone has TAB of Barbecue Bob of Willie McTell 12-string
stuff?

Date: Thu, 25 Dec 1997 01:24:26 -0500 (EST)
From: zeppa@earthlink.net (Frank Basile)
Subject: Feedback: the elusive "blues" guitar
Message Number: 52.3

Hi all.

Although I can't put my finger on exactly what it is that makes a guitar
a blues guitar, I usually know one when I hear one (I also know nothing
of statistics, but I know a standard deviant when I see one). I have a
few guitars perched in the house at various points, but the one I find
most convincing for blues is a 1930's era Kalamazoo. The tone is
straightforward and percussive, especially good for things like Patton's
"Pony Blues" or Ramblin' Thomas' "Hard Dallas Blues".

I have a recent Martin that I find too polite for blues. It's nice for
styles that benefit from a more complex tonal palette but for blues or
ragtime, it seems to me to be a little too sweet. I've used it for
playing out mainly because it's much easier to amplify but I always get
the feeling that blues on that guitar sounds like "ear potpourri".

Ari, on the other hand, has a most swingin' 60's J-45. I've thought many
times of nudging him into the insane traffic on 69th Street and then
bolting off gleefully into the night, guitar in tow... ;)

Frank

What's another word for thesaurus?

Date: Sun, 28 Dec 1997 14:31:08 -0500 (EST)
From: ari@secondmind.com (Ari Eisinger)
Subject: Feedback: Re: Which guitars?
Message Number: 52.4

Blues, of course, is really one name for many different styles. I tend
to like different guitars for different styles. For Blind Boy Fuller and
Rev. Gary Davis's 1935 sessions, I like a National Steel guitar. For
Blind Blake, I think an old Gibson L-00 can't be beat. (If anyone is
selling one, please let me know!) For Leadbelly, anything but a
12-string sounds horrible. I won't even THINK of playing Papa Charlie
Jackson until I get a 6-string banjo.
In addition to using different guitars for different styles, I like to
use different right-hand technique for different styles. Some styles
seem to sound better with picks, others without. Davis's material
generally sounds right with picks to me, while playing Blake with picks
sounds just terrible--it has to be done with bare fingers. Blind Lemon
Jefferson also has a kind of subtle right-hand technique that demands
fingers.

Date: Tue, 30 Dec 1997 10:25:51 -0500 (EST)
From: rivnrev@memphisonline.com (Andy Cohen)
Subject: Feedback: Another Country Heard From on the Subject of Blues Guitars
Message Number: 52.4.1

Yo, Let's remember that the instrument used is just that, an instrument,
the way a scalpel is a surgical instrument and a hammer is a carpentry
instrument. Jim Brewer was very happy with his D-28 Martin, but he was
also happy with an old K-200 that I gave him, since it was the best
guitar he'd ever owned. Until then, he was playing some piece-of-shit
cheap two dollar stella, but not by choice.

The old guys made their music on whatever guitars came to hand. Archie
Edwards had a Gene Autry model Kay, and Guitar Shorty had a similar one-
they are essentially a cheap ladder-braced copy of a Gibson 00-sized
guitar. Charlie Patton recorded on a Gibson, probably ladder braced L-0
series for his 1930's sessions, and Blake's single picture appears to
have either an 0-28 or a Washburn in it. Consider also that the Old Ones
had only Black Diamond (YUK) or Bell Brand strings to choose from,
normally played with only one finger and didn't, for the most part, have
much in the way of instruments to choose from at their level of ability
to pay. What would blues have sounded like had they been for the most
part, say, union artisans with upper middle class pretensions, college
educations and with the leisure time to make a slow choice about what to
buy?

I agree, Martins generally sound too "polite" for blues, but remember
also that when Mance Lipscomb was able to replace his Harmony Sovereign,
he got a new (!) J-200; Sam Chatmon played an L-4 arch top round hole
Gibson, BECAUSE HE COULD BLOODY WELL AFFORD IT; Skip James recorded on
an old J-45, but posed with Bill Barth's J-185, and when the Newport
folks bought him a guitar, he tried out several hour's worth of them at
Izzy Young's Folklore Center, finally settling on a Gibson (I think),
narrowly rejecting a Yamaha! John Hurt liked his Guild F-30, and for
Gary Davis, who was as picky as any collector, "Miss Gibson" was only
one of six or seven J-200's he had in his lifetime, along with any
number of Washburns, Kays, and God knows what else.

The point to remember is that the Old Ones come from a different time,
place and condition, and had much different expectations than we do. If
picking cotton for a dollar a day brought you the guitar to celebrate
Friday with, there were other considerations along with the guitar, like
eating, feeding your family and tending to your mule, not to mention
whiskey and craps. My opinion is that the Old Ones bought the best
instruments they could afford, and that they knew what good was, they
just couldn't afford it most of the time.

Date: Tue, 30 Dec 1997 17:11:34 -0500 (EST)
From: ari@secondmind.com (Ari Eisinger)
Subject: Feedback: Re: Blues guitars
Message Number: 52.4.1.1

I agree that the sound produced by a given guitarist depends more on the
guitarist than the guitar, but I still think that the choice of
instrument is an important one. I don't think everyone needs an
expensive guitar, but I do think it helps to have one that's suited to
the style of the music. Just as one carpentry instrument is better
suited to a given task than another, I think one musical instrument is
better suited to a given style than another. In neither realm is the
choice of a less-than-ideal instrument fatal; in both it can make a big
difference.
My theory about the styles of the old guys is that alot of them
developed their styles on the guitars they had, and thus they ended up
playing styles that suited their instruments perfectly. Thus the style
and the guitar were suited to each other in the absence of the luxury of
a wide range of instruments to choose from.
I don't even want to THINK about what blues would have sounded like had
all the players been middle class, but I don't think that this really
bears on the point: some styles sound much better on some guitars than
others. Again, it really doesn't have to do with expense, but guitars do
have personalities of their own, and the music doesn't sound as good if
the personality of the guitar clashes with the feel of the music.

Date: Wed, 31 Dec 1997 01:01:16 -0500 (EST)
From: zeppa@earthlink.net (Frank Basile)
Subject: Feedback: The Task <-> Tool Relationship - Blues and Guitars
Message Number: 52.4.1.2

Let's not forget that within the general category of say, scalpels,
there is a healthy variety of shapes and sizes; all geared toward making
certain tasks easier. The surgeon I'd like to have when I go under the
knife will NOT be using the bone saw when he wants to remove a section
of intestine.

Or suppose that someone handed you tools at random. If you were handed a
hammer, would you try to tighten up a few floorboards with it or slice a
tomato? The point is that there is a definite dialogue between the Task
and the Tool. Even if the instrument choices of the Old Ones _was_
largely conditioned by economics, this doesn't prevent their choice from
contributing to the development of their style in some way. They were
complex human beings with a broad range of concerns, worries and
reponsibilities. On top of that, they were also artists (although, no
doubt few of them would be inclined to describe themselves as such).
Even a cursory listen to Blind Blake or Charley Patton or Rev. Gary
Davis will confirm their artistic convictions. The had a _sound_.

No doubt the range of choices they could have made was in part
conditioned by economics just as it was by availability and yes, their
ears. If they could expend so much effort in developing such remarkable
personal styles, how could they not spend even a fraction of that effort
in choosing the right tool for the job? So what if it isn't the choice
the tonewood worshipping geeks on rec.music.makers.guitar.acoustic would
make. So what if it's a "crappy" instument? So what if it's a "great"
instrument? So what if their preferences changed over time? My point
here is that the "crappy" - "great" continuum is largely a function of
hype. Your ears and the requirements of the song or style tell you
what's good, not a price tag, marketing or misguided owner of the local
guitar-micro-brewery music store. If the song you're trying to play was
originally played on a dogshit-two-buck Stella, then maybe you should
try to find one and get yourself some insight into what the original
artist had at his/her disposal as a tone palette.

That being said, let me just emphasize that a musician's sound is 99.05%
in the fingers and less than .5% instrument, the remainder being some
undefinable quality that will always baffle the rest of us saps. I do
not in any way endorse the idea that an instrument can make you play
better, only that certain instruments are better for certain styles.

Frank

Date: Tue, 30 Dec 1997 17:17:53 -0500 (EST)
From: ari@secondmind.com (Ari Eisinger)
Subject: Re: Which guitars?
Message Number: 52.4.2

I agree that the sound produced by a given guitarist depends more on the
guitarist than the guitar, but I still think that the choice of
instrument is an important one. I don't think everyone needs an
expensive guitar, but I do think it helps to have one that's suited to
the style of the music you're playing. Just as one carpentry instrument
is better suited to a given task than another, I think one musical
instrument is better suited to a given style than another. In neither
realm is the choice of a less-than-ideal instrument fatal; in both it
can make a big difference.
My theory about the styles of the old guys is that alot of them
developed their styles on the guitars they had, and thus they ended up
playing styles that suited their instruments perfectly. Thus the style
and the guitar were suited to each other in the absence of the luxury of
a wide range of instruments to choose from.
I don't even want to THINK about what blues would have sounded like had
all the players been middle class, but I don't think that this really
bears on the point: some styles sound much better on some guitars than
others. Again, it really doesn't have to do with expense, but guitars do
have personalities of their own, and the music doesn't sound as good if
the personality of the guitar clashes with the feel of the music.

Date: Thu, 15 Jan 1998 09:04:13 -0500 (EST)
From: OneWent@AOL.com (Tom)
Subject: Feedback: Guitars of country blues players
Message Number: 52.4.2.1

I'd like to compile an informal list of country blues players and which
guitars he/she favored at which point in his/her career. For example,
Blind Lemon's only photo shows him with an O size Martin or Washburn.
What can you add to the list? Include guitar, time period, and your
source of info. Maybe in a month I'll post my list in this forum.
Thanks.

Date: Tue, 6 Jan 1998 15:09:59 -0500 (EST)
From: Owner-HyperNews@ComCAT.COM (Tom W.)
Subject: Untitled
Message Number: 52.5

It's true what you'all say about specific guitars for certain blues, and
appropriate right hand technique. I play an early '30's L-00 12 fret,
and keep working on that right hand technique. I also like my guitar
better when the strings are really dead and grungy. The guitar "thumps"
better, and loses that "polite" sound of new strings.

Date: Tue, 29 Dec 1998 16:14:45 -0500 (EST)
From: mannbr@aol.com (Bradley R. Mann)
Subject: Feedback: Re: Which guiatars for blues??
Message Number: 52.6

I play a OOO-16 and a OOO-28EC. Both great little guitars. The OOO-16 is
not one of Martins new "T" designated 16's but one made prior to their
new technical designs. It is very plain, but elegant looking instrument
with mahogany back and sides. Great for piggy back (no fingerpicks) that
I do.

My OOO-28EC (#1278) is my most prized instrument. Favorite features are
the short scale length and the 1" 3/4 fret board.

Needless to say, I have the two instruments that will take me to my
grave. No need to buy more.

V/r B. R. Mann

Date: Mon, 15 Mar 1999 23:16:58 -0500 (EST)
From: Owner-HyperNews@ComCAT.COM (Scapegoat Slim)
Subject: Feedback: '52 Gibson CF100...single cutaway, short scale...
Message Number: 52.7

Leon Redbone plays one too! I've played this guitar for twenty years.
Small voice, but sweet. Wonderful for open tunings, but I play it in
standard too. Great all-around guitar.