Pretty good reading if you like The Beatles and their guitars

[johnnie]

I spent some time reading this site. It's pretty interesting if you dig the Beatles and vintage guitars. Check it out..
http://www.thecanteen.com/harrison1.html

[dbt]

1. Boy, THERE went half an hour!

And I only got through the Harrison part! MUST go back later and THANKS for the link, johnnie!

For amp heads, have a look at www.beatlesagain.com.

[johnnie]

3. Yeah..I spent quite some time on it to

I checked out the site you linked to. That place has been around since I started surfing the net. Thanks for reminding me of it. It has changed a lot since I have been there. They added a lot of cool stuff. Thanks again.

[ProfessorGAC]

2. Cool! Thanks Johnnie!

The Professor

[johnnie]

4. No problem

It's pretty good reading. I wonder why McCartney turned down a Rickenbacker 4001 that was offered to him in 65 or whenever. He eventually took it from them.

[ProfessorGAC]

5. Then Later, He Went Yamaha

But, i remember an interview back then (i'm guessing late 70's) where he admitted that the Yamaha bass he played was not the same as those one could buy at a music store. Different necks, different pickups, etc.

It's good to be the king.
The Professor

[johnnie]

6. It was good to be a Beatle too

The thing that surprised me most was Lennon's guitar info. He was more specific about what he wanted then I would think.
If you read that site, check out the 57 Les Paul that George had. It has a pretty wild history. From John Sebastian to George Harrison and beyond that. Pretty cool stuff.
As for Paul's Yamaha, I think a lot of their guitars were ones you wouldn't be able to buy in a store.
Speaking of and a little off subject: I went down to Memphis one year and met a woman named Cordell Jackson. She was an old lady who has a really interesting history. She couldn't get a record contract in the 50s so she started her own label (Moon records...the opposite of Sun records) and she produced her own records. She was the one who was in a Bud commercial with Brian Setzer back in the 80s. She passed away last October. Anyway, she was really interesting to talk to and she pulled out a Gibson, I think it was a Les Paul. She said that one day she was talking to the main man at the Gibson factory in Memphis and jokingly asked him when she was going to get a guitar designed for her. She didn't think anything of it until she got a cal from one of the people at Gibson and he asked her what she wanted on her guitar. She mentioned a few things and a while later she was presented with a one of a kind Gibson. I got to play around with it for a bit, but she had a broken string she didn't change out. She was known for her Hagstrom and I did get to play a few tunes on that. Here is a pic of her and I from then with me holding the Hagstrom:



For a bit about Cordell, check this out.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cordell_Jackson


I just thought I would tell that because of the "rare" guitar stuff I was reading about the Beatles gear. Sorry for the long post.

[ProfessorGAC]

7. Cool Stuff

Yeah, i think that's true about the guitars being different, but Paul admitted that you and i couldn't buy what he plays! Thought that was a good admission.

That's why, btw, i never buy anything by internet or magazine. I want to play it. Then i want to look it over. If the neck is good, i want to know whether i can do the adjustments and set-up work to make it perfect. Can't do that over the phone!

But, at some point, i'd like to have a neck cut EXACTLY to my specifications. I've got some guitars with WONDERFUL necks (my JS, for instance), but i'd just like to see what happens if i have a neck that's PERFECT. Then, i'd be like Paul!
The Professor

[johnnie]

8. I can appreciate a fine instrument but..

Coming from the old school, anything I play today will undoubtedly be 10 times better than the first guitar I had. The first guitar I had I got from the paper and the guy I bought it from was one of the guys from The Raspberries. He put it together and it was OK, but nothing like they make today.
Even though I have been playing for close to 30 years now, I consider myself a gunslinger more than a sharpshooter when it comes to guitar. I like certain things about the way a guitar players and feels, but for the most part, I make do. I have bought 2 guitars through Musicians friend and I was pleased with both. They are both Epiphones and although not as comfortable as my Tele, they aren't too bad. Sad to say, I have sold my Tele now and have to rely on my ESP Tele as soon as I clean it up. I like rosewood for the fretboard, but my ESP has maple and I have to get used to that again.
Anyway.. I guess I would like to see what would happen if I got to design my own specs for a guitar and see if I became a better player because of it. I'm sure that by playing whatever I could get my hands on instead of holding out for something I truly enjoyed playing has hurt my playing quite a bit, but that's just the way it happened. I gave up trying to be a technically superior guitar player when everyone else would be sitting at home every night and practicing for hours and I just wanted to party. I went into songwriting instead to at least stay in the game, but I'm not too bad at guitar. I have played with people who would just blow me away and I feel just fine being the "other" player. In fact I feel that I have crafted the art of rhythm guitar fairly well. A lot of people seem to concentrate so much on leads and licks and forget to work on chops, so that made room for me as a player.
OK, enough of my rambling. <---- Spinal Tap..lol
I still do like talking guitars though:)

[ProfessorGAC]

9. My Thoughts In Reply

I'm not as fussy as the last post sounded. My Tele, one of my Strats, the Jazzmaster, the JS, the Blackjack, and the acoustics are all stock. No tricks.

I've only got two customized instruments. But, that being said, i played multiple versions of the same instruments to find out either: I got the one that felt the best for me, or; that they were all the same. So, either accept what it is, or don't buy it if it doesn't play comfortably. Since i have them, they either played ok, or i found the best one for me. A little of both, actually.

The Martin i bought was in the latter category. It was different than any of the others i played and just played better. The JS i bought had a slightly slimmer neck than the other model i played, and it was a limited edition so i got a color that isn't available normally. The Blackjack i played had a slightly tighter radius than the other C-1's i played.

The Tele & Mexican Strat both fell into the "exactly the same as the other ones in that series" class, so i bought the guitars with the color i liked the best. (Full admission: I did a very Republican thing with the Strat. I bought the one i did, because the color matched my mint green walls in the rec room. I didn't need a second strat. I just wanted one, and bought it as decor.)

I'd just be interested, someday, not now, in having something fully custom. The neck, the pickups, the bridge, and finish, the whole shebang to my specs. It's superfluous, and may never happen. Just wishin'.
The Professor

[XNASA]

10. The Lennon section was really interesting.

I'd like to find a listing of the amps too. That'd be cool.

Thanks for the post, johnnie.

[johnnie]

11. You got it

I ran across this one the other day too. It is supposed to have the guitars, but they haven't gotten around to it yet. I don't know if it will ever show up, or if the person just stopped maintaining the site.
This is pretty interesting stuff on the site too. Check out Georges Fender Bassman amp. One of the last ones in "tan" covering. It says that a few weeks after the Beatles Fenders were made, Fender changed them to black.
Here's the site:
http://beatlesgear.com/