Les Paul and the Birth of Solid Body Electric Guitars
By Bryan Hillebrandt
It’s hard to adequately approximate the effect that the birth of the solid body electric guitar has had on popular music. This innovation, born of a few players’ desire for new sound possibilities, is the main catalyst that made possible everything from the lyrical solos of Pink Floyd’s David Gilmour to the driving metal assault of Slayer, from Jimi’s wailing solos to the chicken pickin twang of James Burton. And if we look at the pioneers of the solid body electric–those who were responisble for its development–one name is inextricably linked: Les Paul.
The first electric guitars were nothing more than acoustic arch-top guitars with pickups on them. Popular with jazz players, these guitars would feed back if turned up too loud. Playing at lower volume was fine if you were playing a small club, but if you wanted to play larger venues—and be able to make more money per gig—you wouldn’t be able to turn your guitar up loud enough to be heard in the back of the room. Another problem was acoustic guitars rely on string vibration for volume. This decreases sustain, that is, the length of time that a note sounds.
These are the problems that Les Paul and others faced. The original Rickenbacker “Frying Pan” lap steel was built to deal with these same issues. And while the solution for the Rickenbacker was to cast the guitar in solid aluminum, Les Paul decided to stick with wood. Taking a 4×4 piece of railroad tie, Paul made what is now called “The Log.” He is famous for having said that you could pluck a note on it, go out to lunch, come back and the note would still be sounding.
Apparently audiences didn’t much like watching a guy play a piece of wood with strings on it. So Paul took an Epiphone archtop, sawed it down the middle and mounted the two halves on either side of the log. This made the instrument far more recognizable as a guitar and, one would imagine, a little more comfortable to play.
In the early fifties, Gibson Guitar Company produced a solid-body electric guitar based on suggestions that Paul had given. This guitar received his endorsement and became the guitar to bear his name. The Les Paul model has seen many changes since that time. When sales declined, Gibson redesigned the Les Paul (without Paul’s endorsement) into a thinner, double cutaway guitar. Paul didn’t want his name associated with it and it thereafter became known as the SG (get it, Solid Guitar?).
When the original Les Pauls gained more popularity due to being seen in the hands of several rock luminaries, Gibson started making them again, with the blessing of Les Paul, and it has been a consistent seller since then. It is an instantly recognizable shape that shows up in popular culture and art and seems to be a visual signifier linked forever to Rock and Roll.
So next time you pick up your Les Paul, whether it be a 52 Goldtop or a budget knockoff version you bought at a yard sale, be grateful for the guy whose name is on your guitar. Then turn it up, that’s what he made it for.
The Gibson EDS-1275 Double Neck
by Bryan Hillebrandt
Perhaps few guitars adequately express the true spirit of classic rock excess like the Gibson EDS-1275 double neck. During the 1970s, you could find an EDS-1275 in the hands of many legendary guitar players—most notably, Led Zeppelin’s Jimmy Page. Played on some of the most enduring classic rock opuses, this huge slab o’ guitar stands with many other signifiers of arena rock icons: the gong, the flash pots, and the Jack Daniels bottle filled with harmless iced tea.
The first double neck Gibsons were produced in 1958 and were actually similar to the Gibson ES-175 model which was popular with jazz guitarists. These guitars, like the ES-175s were actually hollow body guitars with both six string and twelve string necks and dual cutaways. In 1962 the EDS-1275 became a solid-body guitar resembling the Gibson SG. This is the model that Page and others brought into the spotlight.
The EDS-1275’s body is made of a solid block of mahogany and its necks are made of maple with rosewood fretboards. The 12-string neck is on top. There is a three-way selector switch to switch between the two necks. Interestingly, this makes it possible to set the guitar to have both guitars on at the same time. John McLaughlin, the guitarist who played on Miles Davis’ groundbreaking Bitches Brew album, used an EDS-1275 and has said that he would leave both necks on to take advantage of the sympathetic vibrations and overtones that the unused guitar would pick up. The guitar also has two volume and two tone controls. The pickups are traditionally the 490R Alnico humbuckers.
The EDS-1275 is perhaps most closely linked to Jimmy Page of Led Zeppelin. Scenes of him wielding his 1275 in The Song Remains the Same are some of the most exciting classic rock moments captured on film. The story goes that he started playing the double neck guitar due to necessity. When the band were working out how to perform Stairway to Heaven in concert, Page needed a way to play both the quiet beginning part (the part played on acoustic in the studio recording) and the searing solo and ending. He decided that the 12 string part of the guitar would allow him to do the beginning and then allow him to switch seamlessly to the 6 string for the blistering ending.
Of course Page is not the only rock god to strap one of these beasts on. The Eagles have used them, most notably on Hotel California where Don Felder played a white 1275 during the famous duet solo with Joe Walsh. Other notable 1275 wielders are Alex Lifeson of Rush and Steve Howe of Yes. (Of course, we should mention that Slash has played one as well, but he came later and I think we can all agree that he probably only used one because all of his heroes did.)
So what are your options if you want to go double neck? Well, you can shell out a ton of cash for a vintage one or you can spend the same and buy a new one (the Gibson custom shop still makes a limited amount of these every year). If you don’t want to drop a ton of coin on a real Gibson, you can of course get a brand new Epiphone copy of the EDS-1275 at a fraction of the price. Of course, if you’re looking for an even more recession friendly option, there are about a million knock off models at bargain prices. I can’t personally speak to the quality of these guitars, but more often than not, you get what you pay for.
And if you’re hell bent on being as excessive as the most excessive classic rock acts, you may just have to go all out and get one of these slabs to go with your gong. (Remember what I said about the iced tea in the whiskey bottle though, that’ll get you into a lot of trouble.)
June’s giveaway from Guitar Tricks courtesy of Sweetwater, the Digitech HarmonyMan!
Tune in as we demo and give away a DigiTech HarmonyMan to one lucky guitarist. Every month we have a prize to offer, this one might just be yours!
Click here to enter
Site Update
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Hello Guitar Players!There’s a lot of great stuff to tell you about this week, but let’s start off with the winner of this month’s Sweetwater Giveaway. The winner of the Ebow electronic bow is, drum roll please, MiahMinister! Congratulations MiahMinister and thanks again to Sweetwater for making our monthly giveaway possible.Next month we’ll be giving away a Digitech HarmonyMan intelligent pitch shifter. It’s super easy to sign up for the Sweetwater giveaway so watch this space next week for more details.We’re also working on a special promo right now and while we can’t let you in on what it is just yet, we should be able to tell you about next week. Watch this space for more next week.We’ve got two new tutorials that we’d like to tell you about. Ben Lindholm has got a great tutorial on diatonic intervals. This is a great tutorial for beginners. It introduces several key terms and concepts that you’ll use as you continue to learn more. You can find Ben’s tutorial here.For you more advanced players, Hanspeter Kruesi has an excellent new tutorial on advanced rock improvisation concepts. The seven lessons will give you a good basis to get into creative improvisation work in a very easy way. If you’ve already worked through Hanspeter’s basic and advanced rock licks and have mastered his basic improvisation lessons, this is the next step. The tutorial will get you to the point where you can start to be creative with the minor pentatonic scale over the entire fretboard. Click here to start the tutorial.As always, thanks for reading and keep on pickin.
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Lucinda Williams – It’s a Long Way to the Top
By Hunter60
“You should put time into learning your craft. It seems like people want success so quickly, way before they’re ready.” –Lucinda Williams As someone who has been tagged with the some what uncomfortable moniker of “late bloomer”, Lucinda Williams seems to have stuck by the idea of learning her craft and learning it well. At 51 years old, Williams is finally beginning to be discovered by others than her adoring cult-ish fans and it appears that it’s not just for her wonderfully smoky and yet piercing vocals or the hypnotic music she coaxes from her guitar but she is finally receiving the proper acknowledgment from music fans for her incredible songwriting skills. A number of critics have placed her near the very top of contemporary American songwriters and they do that for a good reason. Lucinda Williams writes songs that can touch the hidden parts of your soul to make you smile at the light moments of your life or to resurrect and soothe the pain of a broken heart from the graveyard of your mind.
The daughter of poet and literature professor Miller Williams (he read one of his poems at President Bill Clinton’s second inauguration), Lucinda, a native of Lake Charles, Louisiana, grew up in a very literate atmosphere. In various interviews she has said that she was fascinated by her fathers students who would stop by the house to discuss their poetry. “Poets don’t hold back. They write about everything from a cat sleeping in a window to a wreck on the highway – from, you know, suicide to going to the grocery store to get tomatoes for a casserole to trying to meet a guy in a bar … you try to say something important and in a way that is different.”
As a young woman, she discovered the Southern gothic writers like Flannery O’Connor and Eudora Welty and devoured their works, finding a muse in their words. Other major literary influences on her were the likes of Charles Bukowski, John Ciardi and Kenneth Patchen. But it was music that took hold in her life. Williams has said that her father not only passed along his love or language but his deep appreciation for the Delta blues and country singers like Hank Williams. Her mother introduced her to the music of Joan Baez, which, coupled with her other influences like Joni Mitchell and Leonard Cohen, inspired Lucinda to pick up a guitar and try her hand at song writing. But it was one of her fathers’ students that inadvertently set her on her musical journey when he brought by Bob Dylan’s album Highway 61 Revisited by the house. She was captivated by the lyricism of Dylan and how his words could “cut you to the bone”.
Her first real foray into the music business was in the early 70’s in the clubs in Austin and Houston, making her way along in the same fashion as the majority of young musicians. “You could work a few days a week, play a few clubs, share a house with a few friends, and get by on $125 a week. Nowadays you have to work 40 hours a week and squeeze music into what’s left over. It’s really hard for young kids just starting out today.” She relocated to Jackson, Mississippi in 1978 where she made her first recording were for Folkways Records. Her debut album Ramblin’ On My Mind, recorded in one day, was released later in 1978. Her follow up Happy Woman Blues was released in 1980. Although her first album was all covers, Happy Woman Blues consisted of all songs written by Williams. Neither album garnered much attention.
Williams relocated again in the 1980’s to Los Angeles where she was briefly married to Long Ryders drummer Greg Sowders. In 1988, Williams self-titled album was released on Rough Trade Records. The single “Changed the Locks” did get a little radio play around the country but more importantly, it brought Williams some attention from fans and folks in the music industry. It also caught the attention of Tom Petty who later recorded the song himself.
In 1992, Williams, having moved once again, this time to Nashville, Tennessee, released Sweet Old World on Chameleon Records. This album was a more melancholic affair with its underlying themes being suicide and death. Although the album barely made it to #25 on the Billboards Heatseekers chart (a weekly chart that tracks new and developing artists), it established her reputation as a songwriter. Mary Chapin Carpenter had a smash with her cover of Williams’ “Passionate Kisses” from the Sweet Old World disc. Not only did Chapin receive a Grammy for her recording, Williams earned her first Grammy for Best Country Song – 1994 for the effort. Emmy Lou Harris recorded a cover of the title track “Sweet Old World” on her 1995 album Wrecking Ball.
A perfectionist by nature and an almost tortuously slow artist when it comes to recording, it took six years for her next release. But the wait was well worth it. Her follow up was 1998’s Car Wheels On A Gravel Road, which according to most critics and fans alike, is the best album in her catalogue so far. Rolling Stone, notoriously tough on folk artists, gave it a near perfect rating, calling it a “country-soul masterpiece” and SPIN called it a contender for Album of the Year. It won her a Grammy for The Best Contemporary Folk Album and was part of the soundtrack to the Robert Redford film The Horse Whisperer. Singles “Still I Long For Your Kiss” and “Can’t Let Go” were widely played on radio stations around the country and the album quickly went gold. In support of the album, Williams opened for an early icon of hers, Bob Dylan, on a national tour.
Her next disc, Essence released in 2001, was a clear shift for Williams as she moved from her somewhat solid fan base in the country music genre to a more mainstream adult alternative crowd. She scored another Grammy award for Best Female Rock Performance with the single “Get Right With God” (which featured Ryan Adams on the Hammond organ).
Williams continues to experiment with various styles in her later recordings. World Without Tears brought Williams back to a blues base while her 2007 album “West” seemed to echo the pathos of Sweet Old World revealing a cathartic release about dealing with the death of her mother and a rather nasty breakup of a relationship.
Her latest, Little Honey, is pure Williams with her soulful lyrics and powerfully touching voice – covering blues, folk and country but all with a rock undertone including a rather unique cover of AC/DC’s “It’s A Long Way To The Top”.
There are a lot of truths about Lucinda Williams but one that will never change is her desire to stay true to her own vision even if it has slowed down her almost certain arrival at world-wide acclaim. She does things the way she wants to do them. This attitude has won her a legion of fans and has made her into a critics favorite but it has also caused more than a few run ins with record companies. But it is her fiercely held independence and vision that allows Lucinda to stay true to what it is that she wants to do.
A good example of her independence was seen in the fall of 2007. Williams announced a set of shows in Los Angeles and New York where she played five nights in each city. The idea was to perform her complete catalogue over consecutive nights. The second set of each night featured guests to perform along with Williams. The guest list was a varied as you might expect with performers like Steve Earle, Mike Campbell, David Byrne, Ann Wilson, Yo La Tengo and Chuck Prophet. Going one step further, each performance was recorded and made available to the audience the night of the show.
Lucinda Williams is moving, quickly now, from the fringes of cult adoration to a more main stream acceptance while keeping in step with the adoration of critics and music insiders. Her music is evocative and captivating, her voice, now, is mellow at times and a truly pained expression of heartbreak and loss at others but it is her lyrics that truly elevate her to an almost iconic level.
Her lyrics seem like they could be the soundtrack to an Edward Hooper canvas and they have a tendency to bring back memories of Springsteen in his Ghost Of Tom Joad and Nebraska period. The characters are real people, living real lives, laughing at the joys in life or reeling from the pain. It’s not formulaic by any stretch and it works.
When it comes to how Lucinda plots her career, she answers thoughtfully. “You’ve got to look at the big picture. I’m not willing to make certain compromises. The only thing that lasts is your art and your principles and staying true to them. Finding the musical mainstream shouldn’t be the end all be all of your existence. Tastes change quickly. Some want to go for it and get it quickly. Do you want a long, slow ride or a short, quick one?”
Guess which ride Lucinda Williams chose. __________________
“All I can do is be me … whoever that is”. Bob Dylan
From: www.guitartricks.com
The Seattle Sound: The Evolution of Chris Cornell — Temple of the Dog and Solo Work
by wildwoman1313
Chris Cornell Montreux Jazz Festival, 2005
When Andrew Wood died of a heroin overdose in 1990, a day after Chris Cornell came off tour with his band Soundgarden, Cornell dealt with the grief at the loss of his friend and vocalist for the band Mother Love Bone by writing a couple songs in Wood’s honor. “Reach Down” and “Say Hello 2 Heaven” had a softer, more melodic sound than the music Soundgarden was putting out, so Cornell approached Wood’s former bandmates, Stone Gossard and Jeff Ament, with the idea of a one-off collaboration as a tribute to their mutual friend. With the addition of guitarist Mike McCready, backing vocalist Eddie Vedder, and Soundgarden drummer Matt Cameron, Temple of the Dog was formed. Named after a line in the Mother Love Bone song “Man of Golden Words”, the band released the self-titled album Temple of the Dog, which included the aforementioned singles as well as “Hunger Strike”, a duet between Cornell and Vedder that still receives regular airplay. Released in 1991, Temple of the Dog was praised by critics but failed to catch on until a year later, when Vedder, Ament, Gossard, and McCready broke commercially with Pearl Jam. At that time, A&M Records re-released Temple of the Dog, realizing that what they had in their catalog was essentially a Soundgarden/Pearl Jam collaboration. The album has gone on to sell more than a million copies. Temple of the Dog didn’t tour as a band but performed short sets together on a handful of occasions when both Soundgarden and Pearl Jam shared a concert bill.
The Stevie Ray Vaughan Tone: Free Video Lesson
The Stevie Ray Vaughan Tone: Free Video Lesson |
Free Guitar Lesson!
 Ron Sayer This week we’re featuring a free lesson by Ron Sayer that looks at how Stevie Ray Vaughan got his signature tone. If you’ve often tried to wrangle that certain sound out of your strat but find a certain something missing, this is the lesson for you. Ron looks at the effect of SRV’s guitar and amplifier settings and clues you in on another unexpected element of his tone. Click here to find out more : |
