Monthly Motivation-Jim Hall
I love everything about this clip, the performance, the guitar tone, the camera angles… I can’t stop watching it. I hope it’s new to some of you.
1956 Gretsch 6128
Lately I’ve been wondering where my ’56 Gretsch 6128 ended up. It was in my possession for about six years from ’89 until ’95. During that time, I used it on Big Sandy’s ‘’On the Go’’ LP, and a few other Fly Rite Trio recordings. Of all the guitars I’ve bought and sold over the years, I wish I ‘d hung on to this one. Throughout the eighties I owned a couple of Duo Jets and a Jet Firebird, you could find them for around $600 to $1200. The one I ended up keeping I found at a place on Sunset Blvd called ‘’Guitars R Us’’. I think I paid $1100 for it. It was a ’56, the neck had been reset and the back was refinished. This guitar was nice because unlike the other beat up old Gretsch guitars that I had owned, I could use 13’s on it and not worry about the neck coming unglued. Of the few details I can remember about it, one is that the headstock had been drilled out for 3/8’’ tuners, so I stuck an old set of PMMH-015 Grovers on it. The guitar also had a push-pull pot on the tone control to put it in and out of phase. I used to have the S/N written down on a little piece of paper in my toolbox but it’s long gone now.
When I left the band in ’92 I didn’t play it much and thought it was a shame to have such a nice guitar just sit in a case under the bed. So around ’95 or ’96 I put it on consignment at a music store called Music Music down in El Cajon, Ca. I think it sat there for about a year before it sold. I know it’s a long shot, but if anyone has a clue as to where my Gretsch is now, I’d love to know.
More Hot Pickin’ from Down Under
Dan Nosovich from Brisbane, Australia just put up a great clip of ”Bee Byrd Bounce” played on one of my blade pickups mounted in a ’52 reissue. I’m really diggin’ his playing and tone, especially the bottom end. Check it out here.
Hiro Endo
Hiro’s guitar made it to Japan and here he is with a smokin’ rendition of 12th Street Rag.
Monthly Motivation-Take Off Guitar
When I heard The Rovers ‘’Passport to Summer’’, it was my first time hearing Roy Lanham play guitar. I can still remember coming home from the thrift store with my bag full of records and putting this one on. I could barley sleep for weeks, it pretty much changed the way I wanted to play.
Up to this point I was content trying to copy Scotty Moore, Cliff Gallup and a few others. From that point on, I wanted to learn how to improvise and play more like a Jazz musician. I’m still trying today. I soon learned the style I was obsessed with was called ‘’Take Off” guitar. I think a good definition for the ‘’Take Off‘’ guitar style would be… to solo as if you were half genius and half mentally insane! (Jimmy Bryant and Speedy West trading fours on Rock City Boogie, comes to mind.)
Around that same time I started hanging out with Robert Williams, aka Big Sandy. Robert, and another friend, Jason Goodman both had excellent record collections and were always finding new hillbilly and country records with hot ‘’Take Off’’ guitar solos. They were constantly making cassettes compiled of their latest record finds. I always looked forward to getting the latest cassette from them. They were some of the first recordings I’d heard with guys like Lanham, George Barnes, Jimmy and Speedy, Jimmy Wyble, Noel Boggs, Junior Bernard, Grady Martin, Thumbs Carlille, Buddy Emmons, and countless others, playing the “Take Off‘” guitar style. I still have most of those cassettes. Hope this recording inspires you too.
