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Bau
Lokahi
USA
226 Posts |
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rendesvous1840
Ha`aha`a
USA
1055 Posts |
 Posted - 02/11/2011 : 12:45:28 PM
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Pretty cool stuff. I never saw that site before.
Unko Paul |
"A master banjo player isn't the person who can pick the most notes.It's the person who can touch the most hearts." Patrick Costello |
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Bau
Lokahi
USA
226 Posts |
Posted - 03/03/2011 : 11:57:54 PM
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a video with a bit about the first electric steel and old albums, this cites Rickenbacker as the first maker, I tought it was Les Paul.. ?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mlA9WfQryNE |
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hwnmusiclives
`Olu`olu
USA
580 Posts |
Posted - 03/04/2011 : 03:53:49 AM
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quote:
Originally posted by Bau
this cites Rickenbacker as the first maker, I tought it was Les Paul.. ?
The video is right. If anything, Les comes in a close fourth among pioneers.
Many cite Les as having invented the electric guitar. Not true. Rickenbacker is the first maker of an electric guitar. It was simply a lap steel. So this was not useful to jazz and country players who were playing standard guitar. Later, Gibson, Harmony, and other makers put make-shift pick-ups - more like microphones - on acoustic guitars - especially the archtops used by jazz players like Charlie Christian, Barney Kessel, and Herb Ellis. Then Fender actually produced the first solid-body electric guitar - the Telecaster. And then the Gibson Les Paul.
If Les Paul was pioneer in anything about the electric solid-body guitar, it was in the design. I love both the Telecaster and the Les Paul, but you will never get the sustain out of a Telecaster (at least, not without a bevy of pedals) that you will get out of a Les Paul. A Les Paul truly is "solid." If you purchase a Les Paul, put away a little extra dough for the chiropractor you're going to need.
Les Paul was a very sweet, kind, and funny, funny man. I only had the pleasure of meeting him once. It was how I spent my 21st birthday - because I was finally old enough to go to an over-21 club such as Fat Tuesday's in Greenwich Village, NYC where Les held forth every Monday night for years. He was very much taken for granted by fans there - by which I mean that people just showed up on Mondays and expected Les to be there. They never made reservations, never called to make sure Les was in good enough health to even show up. But me? It was my 21st birthday, and so I made reservations, and when you do, you get the seat up front because nobody else is fighting you for it. There was no stage at Fat Tuesday's; the band just played up against the side wall, and they lined up tables cruise ship-style against the perimeter of the band's area. So we were at pretty much eye level with The Master. His stool was about two feet from my table, and he comes out with a box of tissues and asks my girlfriend to hold them because "I've got a bit of a case of the sniffles tonight." He launches into a first tune, and then a second, and I must have had my eyes glued to him. I mean I was simply fascinated. He counts off the third song and launches into a lightning fast "Dark Eyes." Before he finishes the first chorus, though, he stops the band abruptly - "Stop, stop, stop, hold the hell up a minute" - and he looks me dead in the eye. He does not have a microphone. So he shouts at me despite that he is only 36" away from my face. "Son, you are a goddamnned guitarist, aren't you?" And now I am frightened as hell, so I answer his question with a question. "How can you tell just by looking at a guy?" And Les starts in again, "Because you're burning a %&*% @ $~!% hole through my hands with your eyes." The audience laughs, and now I laugh because I get it now. And Les goes on, "You think you're going to come in here and take the front table and stare at my hands all goddamned night long and steal all of my licks? I won't make it that easy for you." And he counts off "Dark Eyes" again at breakneck speed, and before he plays a single note, he spins around 180 degrees in his swivel stool so that his back is to me and plays a most incredible 8 bars. The band keeps playing, but Les stops. He turns back to me and says, "Wanna see that again?" And he turns the stool around again and plays the same lick again - with his back to me. He did this from time to time throughout the night, and I become his running gag. Afterward, I chatted with him for a good 20 minutes. He signed a few Decca 78s that I had brought with me while I told him a true story of a few weeks earlier... I had picked up a 1979 Les Paul at a pawn shop for $300, and I hung it in my music room on slot wall with my other guitars. Then only a few days later, I hear a crash in the middle of the night. The slot wall comes clear out of the wall, and my guitars come crashing to the floor - most in several pieces. The Les Paul snapped at the headstock and then a little more along the grain on the back of the neck - exposing about 2" of truss rod. Les picks up a napkin and his pen and proceeds to draw me a diagram of how the headstock meets the neck and fretboard on a Les Paul, tells me what kind of glue to buy, where to glue it, and where to put the clamps. He tells me to glue it, clamp it, and, "Don't %$ @ #% with it for at least three weeks. You'll just make it worse."
And I still play that guitar today. Whereas I can't tell you the last time I changed the rusty strings on my Strat.
~ Bill
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Edited by - hwnmusiclives on 03/04/2011 03:57:30 AM |
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thumbstruck
Ahonui
USA
2173 Posts |
Posted - 03/04/2011 : 05:14:03 AM
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| One of the 1st electric basses made was by Bud Tutmark in Seattle back in the '30s. |
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markwitz
`Olu`olu
USA
841 Posts |
Posted - 03/04/2011 : 07:49:07 AM
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If anyone is interested in online sites that contain vintage music you might be interested in the following two sites.
http://www.jazz-on-line.com
and
http://78records.cdbpdx.com
On this site take note of the case sensitive username and password log-on requirement.
There is lots of very old Hawaiian music from the 20's 30's and 40's to be found here plus tons of other stuff. You can spend days at these sites if you wish to. |
"The music of the Hawaiians, the most fascinating in the world, is still in my ears and
haunts me sleeping and waking."
Mark Twain |
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slipry1
Ha`aha`a
USA
1511 Posts |
Posted - 03/04/2011 : 12:52:51 PM
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| I've remared extensivly about the rise of the electic guitar somewhere else on this site, most likely on the steel page. The electric guitar was an idea whose time had come in the ealy 1930's. It arose almost simulteneously in Seattle (Paul Tutmarc), Wisconsin (Lester Polfus, better known as Les Paul) and Los Angeles (George Beauchamp and Adolph Rickenbacher), with the Rickenbacker hitting the street first, in 1933. |
keaka |
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Bau
Lokahi
USA
226 Posts |
Posted - 03/05/2011 : 9:20:05 PM
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| thats a very entertaining story Bill thanks for sharing. Too bad about those guitars though, ouch! |
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Vintage music
