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Post by petermontague on Nov 7, 2014 20:36:23 GMT
Just been re-reading "Moanin' at Midnight - The Life And Times Of Howlin' Wolf" By James Segrest & Mark Hoffman ( well worth a read ) and was struck by one of the comments made by one of the British musicians who backed Wolf on one of his British tours.
Not only did these guys obviously want to play with Wolf they were also huge fans of his main guitarist Hubert Sumlin.
One of them, Winston Weatherall of the T-Bones was shocked when he saw Hubert's guitar..
"It was really sort of cheap and nasty.
It was made of all sorts of pearl and plastic with about six pick-ups on it - as many pick-ups as you could squeeze on a guitar.
I think it might have been Italian or something, and the action was almost unplayable.
It was the sort of thing you'd throw in the dustbin"
If he could play like he did with something like that it makes you wonder about our obsession with new bits of kit and GAS.
Have we got our priorities wrong or do we just have more money than sense?
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Post by zak71 on Nov 7, 2014 20:53:02 GMT
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Post by Michael Messer on Nov 7, 2014 22:00:29 GMT
I met Hubert a couple of times and spent a few hours in his company. He was a sweet man who was very proud of his history. I think he sounded a lot better playing his Bartolini than he did in later years playing Gibson Les Pauls and Fender Strats.
Shine On
Michael
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Post by zak71 on Nov 7, 2014 22:11:36 GMT
Best I ever heard him sound was 20-some years ago when he was up here with Pinetop Perkins, playing my friend Andrew's telecaster through a Fender Twin reverb that he'd brought (but no guitar!). The Twin stood on its side both nights. After the first night a bunch of guitar geeks were discussing the superior sound dispersion of a Twin standing on its side and how much better it sounded. I asked "Hubert, why's your amp sitting sideways?" Hubert said "When I put it the right way the mother***ing tubes rattle." So much for superior sound dispersion hahaha. I have lots of other great Hubert stories but most of them are probably best not repeated here hahaha. He was a GREAT guy, a real blast spending time with him. He also cooked the best fish gumbo I ever tasted. Great memories.  |
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Post by Deleted on Nov 7, 2014 22:15:33 GMT
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Post by zak71 on Nov 7, 2014 22:27:00 GMT
Hubert didn't play "crap" guitars - he was a professional musician, and took his gear seriously. In the early days with Wolf's Chicago band, Hubert and Jody Williams used top-of-the-line Kay 'Thin Twin' models, then he used a goldtop Les Paul with P-90s, a Fender Stratocaster, various Gretsch hollowbodies, then in the 70s a Les Paul Custom, a Rickenbacker, a few other Strats, a Gretsch Tennessean, etc. He knew his guitars and gravitated to good quality instruments (he was a sharp dresser, too, and didn't wear cheap clothing, either).
I've never heard of "Winston Weatherall" before, but I suspect his account of Hubert's Bartolini (which Hubert bought on his first European tour in '61 or '62) was GREATLY romanticized by someone who'd previously bought Big Bill Broonzy's "Mississippi mud still on my overalls" self-made mythology hook, line, and sinker. Hubert liked low action and light strings, and both were integral to his playing style. I spent a lot of time talking to him about guitars and amps and he KNEW his stuff.
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Post by Deleted on Nov 7, 2014 23:07:17 GMT
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Post by Michael Messer on Nov 8, 2014 0:16:12 GMT
I have met very few professional musicians from anywhere who are not serious about their choice of instruments and their sound. Too much mythology surrounds this area, especially in the blues.
Shine On
Michael
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Post by mitchfit on Nov 8, 2014 14:19:15 GMT
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Post by petermontague on Nov 8, 2014 15:41:22 GMT
I am really surprised that my post seems to have been misconstrued by so many people.
It was in no way intended as a criticism of Hubert Sumlin,but exactly the oposite; a criticism of our obsession with getting the latest bit of kit and how much better we think we are going to play when we get it.
Sumlin was a great guitarist whatever guitar he played and personally I would rather listen to a great guitarist play a mediocre guitar than a mediocre guitarist play a "great" one.
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Post by pete1951 on Nov 8, 2014 16:38:39 GMT
I think 90% of the sound of an electric guitar is the amp. Sure, a Les Paul will sustain more than a Bartoloni , but sustain isn`t everything . Lot of guitar players have got great sounds from cheap guitars through good amps. It is a shame that since the mid. `60s lots of bad amps have been made by people who should know better.
PT
Hubert was one of the most original electric players and could have got a good sound out of a Watkins Rapier through a `68 master volume Twin Reverb (I think that was the silver face 100watt with a fixed/cathode bias)
There are some great sounding cheap amps out there, listen to Chickenbone John on the `North Mississippii` (too many of something ,but I`m sure what)thread, as he gets a great sound from a `cheap` guitar through a `cheap` solid state amp!
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Post by bod on Nov 8, 2014 17:07:38 GMT
deuce, read through wiki-link, missed Weatherall reference. (?) ....... mitchfit "Wrong" T-Bones, Weatherall was with UK band Garry Farr and the T-Bones... I am really surprised that my post seems to have been misconstrued by so many people. It was in no way intended as a criticism of Hubert Sumlin,but exactly the oposite; a criticism of our obsession with getting the latest bit of kit and how much better we think we are going to play when we get it. Sumlin was a great guitarist whatever guitar he played and personally I would rather listen to a great guitarist play a mediocre guitar than a mediocre guitarist play a "great" one. I don't imagine anyone thought you were criticising Sumlin (I certainly didn't), but I do think a variety of reasons have been put forward for doubting Weatherall's claim that Sumlin's Italian guitar was a piece of crap... P'raps the problem isn't with wanting and seeking good equipment, so much as being able to recognise it? |
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Post by zak71 on Nov 8, 2014 18:03:11 GMT
I am really surprised that my post seems to have been misconstrued by so many people. It was in no way intended as a criticism of Hubert Sumlin, I didn't see your post as "criticism" of Hubert, I just doubt that this Winston Weatherall guy got close enough to Hubert's guitar to make an assessment of whether or not it was "crap" - he probably saw a gaudy pearloid-covered and pushbutton-festooned piece of 60s Italian accordion-influenced weirdness and made an assumption. Personally, I welcome any posts talking about Hubert. |
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Post by Deleted on Nov 8, 2014 23:52:15 GMT
Ah yeah Bod / Mitchfit. Sorry - me all over - half right.
As for the guitar, it was probably great for playing overdriven blues. But it would probably sound awful for playing pink floyd tunes.
TT
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Post by Deleted on Nov 9, 2014 6:31:16 GMT
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