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Post by northbankgooner on Sept 28, 2015 5:56:54 GMT
Also Winston wrote the lyrics to Lucky Lopez Evans song Chinaman's Door. Evans played with Howlin Wolf back in the 60's. I met Evans in 1988 when he was touring the UK & visited our house to request the use of the lyrics.
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Post by Pickers Ditch on Sept 28, 2015 8:38:57 GMT
Interesting thread, this one. Here's my take, FWIW, as someone who started playing in the early 1060s and has been involved in similar boozy discussions at gigs and pubs since. I always accept the comments about high actions, "that guitar is unplayable", "it was a pig", "it sounded awful" etc. The sound, as another has already posted, I believe is governed by the the amp and volume it's set at, but the over riding factor is from the heart and the fingers of the person who's playing it. Righto, now to the guitar and set up. In them heady days of the early 1960s, we did not know about the trick of stringing an electric guitar with a banjo string as the top E, throwing away the bottom E and dropping the strings down to make a light gauge set. We used to have tape wound 12s-56s that were tight as a tight thing, were almost unbendable and resulted in a high action on an electric guitar. You've all probably heard the terms telegraph wires, cheese graters... this was where these descriptions came from. I actually finally was able to play "Smokestack Lightnin'", with the bends, on my Framus Strato strung up in this manner - it bl**dy hurt big time. Then the epiphany - I was shown the banjo string trick and life became so easy. . Could it be that Huberts Italian guitar was set up with cheese grater strings and that was what he had been used to over decades of professional playing? To someone who was normally playing the banjo string system it would have seemed impossible. Just ask my Grandson. Whenever he picks up my Dobro or National he gives me a quizzical look and asks "How the heck do you play this thing, Grandad?" I smile and answer "One day, lad, one day...". Just my tanners worth. PD
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Post by Deleted on Sept 28, 2015 8:42:50 GMT
"It was really sort of cheap and nasty... It was the sort of thing you'd throw in the dustbin"
Yes, but what's the next line? Probably along the lines of "...and I'd never heard anyone sound that good"?
I take the above quote as fond hyperbole. And some of those Italian guitars were indeed wacky as hell. Check out the Wandres
Anyway, this discussion makes me think of this guy (and I'm not really sure WHAT to think of him):
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Post by Pickers Ditch on Sept 28, 2015 8:49:06 GMT
"It was really sort of cheap and nasty... It was the sort of thing you'd throw in the dustbin" Yes, but what's the next line? Probably along the lines of "...and I'd never heard anyone sound that good"? I take the above quote as fond hyperbole. And some of those Italian guitars were indeed wacky as hell. Check out the Wandres Anyway, this discussion makes me think of this guy (and I'm not really sure WHAT to think of him): I think he's great. Seen him live and got a CD.
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Post by Pickers Ditch on Sept 28, 2015 10:04:09 GMT
Those Wandres are used very effectively by a bloke called Buddy Miller.
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Post by Deleted on Sept 28, 2015 10:04:46 GMT
Yeah, he was just here in a town nearby, wish I'd known I would definitely have gone to see him. Gotta admire his commitment, if nothing else! And I love the Wandres... some of them are really quite beautiful. True art. Here's another of my favorite guitar makers (Chris Larsen/Girlbrand): www.guitarfritz.com/girlbrand-gallery/and this site seems to specialize in the oddball guitars: rebel-guitars.com/guitars/
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Post by bananafist on Oct 15, 2015 17:12:26 GMT
In a similar vein I remember when Wandre guitars first appeared in Jennings in Charing Cross Road. At age 15 I thought they were awful to look at and couldn't possibly sound as good as the Gibsons in Selmers or the telecasters in Lew Davis, none of which I could afford. I guess I was wrong, some people (Billy .... name escapes me - age,)seem to really rate them and they fetch quite a lot of money now. I'll stick with the makes I know and love, though.
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Post by blueshome on Oct 16, 2015 13:03:44 GMT
I met Hubert and asked him about the guitar he used on the '64 AFBF tour, he couldn't remember the name but said that Wolf had bought it for him.
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