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Post by geoff738 on May 23, 2020 12:08:39 GMT -6
A friend posed this question to me, and I’m stumped.
Les Paul seems like he could be the first major player of a solid bodied electric. The early Strats and Teles weren’t designed to use more than one pickup at a time in any event.
While we’re here, if you have a favourite middle position tone, throw it out here.
I don’t really know the big band guys or arch tops from the 40s. I suspect somebody there may predate Les, but I really don’t know.
Let me know what you think.
Cheers,
Geoff
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Post by Ward on May 23, 2020 17:12:38 GMT -6
Merle Travis on a custom Paul; Bigsby guitar circa 1946.
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Post by geoff738 on May 23, 2020 19:03:15 GMT -6
Merle Travis on a custom Paul; Bigsby guitar circa 1946. Yeah the Travis Bigsby came up as a possibility. The guitar book I have been looking into this has a pic of a Travis Bigsby but it only has one pickup. I will have to do a bit more digging here. I t also seems like double, or triple pickup Gibson arch tops came out before the Les Paul, but not by much. Another guitar book had a picture of Chet Atkins circa 1950 with a jazz box with two pickups. Pre Gretsch obviously. That could predate Les. The log had two pickups, but I don’t think it had a selector switch, at least not in the pic in the book as far as I could tell. Les was holding it so I couldn’t see anything. Anyhow a fun bit of time wasting guitar sleuthing. Cheers, Geoff |
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Post by johneppstein on May 26, 2020 13:56:36 GMT -6
Merle Travis on a custom Paul; Bigsby guitar circa 1946. Yeah the Travis Bigsby came up as a possibility. The guitar book I have been looking into this has a pic of a Travis Bigsby but it only has one pickup. I will have to do a bit more digging here. I t also seems like double, or triple pickup Gibson arch tops came out before the Les Paul, but not by much. Another guitar book had a picture of Chet Atkins circa 1950 with a jazz box with two pickups. Pre Gretsch obviously. That could predate Les. The log had two pickups, but I don’t think it had a selector switch, at least not in the pic in the book as far as I could tell. Les was holding it so I couldn’t see anything. Anyhow a fun bit of time wasting guitar sleuthing. Cheers, Geoff I had a friend back in Oklahoma who owned a gorgeous 1949 ES-5 (pre-Switchmaster) that had 3 P-90s, 6 knobs, and no switch, so you could get any combination you wanted. |
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Post by geoff738 on May 26, 2020 14:00:26 GMT -6
Ooooh, that would be gorgeous. I ve seen pictures but don’t think I have seen one in the flesh.
Cheers,
Geoff
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Post by jakeboy on May 30, 2020 8:39:04 GMT -6
My fave tone on a Tele and maybe on buckers too....love the chime. Fave example? Joe Perry’s solo on The Other Side from the Aerosmith album Pump. He plays the crunchy rhythm on Whitford’s P90 Les Paul but then gets clean, sparkly, and heavily chime on the solo.He was favoring a Guild T250 at that time and I believe it is that guitar on the solo. Amp sounds like a Vox to me but who knows?
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Post by geoff738 on May 30, 2020 12:46:18 GMT -6
Isn’t ZEP I mostly the middle position on a Tele? Could be Wong but a lot of it sounds like that to me.
Cheers,
Geoff
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Post by EmRR on May 30, 2020 15:22:28 GMT -6
I'm wondering about the various Bob Wills guys.
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Post by Ward on May 31, 2020 6:22:27 GMT -6
Merle Travis did play one of these:  And Merle's picking buddy Grady Martin's custom Bigsby guitar from Chasing Guitars. . . CLICK ME  So . . . it's a little foggy, just like my memory sometimes. |
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Post by geoff738 on May 31, 2020 22:48:51 GMT -6
Grady Martin added to the list of possibilities.
Will check out the Bob Wills.
And just trying to figure out which guitars came out when that allowed for this. A couple Gibson’s predate the Les Paul. But not by a lot.
Cheers,
Geoff
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Post by geoff738 on Jun 3, 2020 14:14:53 GMT -6
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