Dig it! Restoring Buddy Hollys Stratocaster
- Thread starter Mark Wein
- Start date
Denverdave
Resident Ragamuffin
Great article.....
John Watt
Banned
I'd like to point out the aluminum foil around the pots and switch, how Fender Stratocasters began.
By 1960, Fender was using a thin aluminum sheet that covered the back of the pickguard,
showing up front as a thin silver line around the edge. And that still didn't make Strats noiseless with a loud Marshall.
I'd also like to point out the bogus retro take on Stratocaster construction, and what extent this article goes to create content.
Fender was never known for floating bridges. All Fender tremolo units had tremolo blocks that butted up against the body, to regain tuning.
The only other option was on a Jazzmaster, where you could depress the tremolo arm and a movable button would keep it down a fret, supposedly.
Now they're saying Fender got into floating bridges in the sixties, when I never heard that even once back then.
Fender bridges weren't designed to be floating, and taking off springs or loosening the string retainer, only helped make the guitar unplayable.
And if the famous guitarists named as knowing Strats through Buddy Holly fessed up, they'd explain why they used them onstage only after Jimi passed away.
Fender finds it too easy to rewrite their own history, and from 1965 on, have lost any credibility as an innovative manufacturer.
Even I got better than Fender. But it is nice to see that sunburst.
By 1960, Fender was using a thin aluminum sheet that covered the back of the pickguard,
showing up front as a thin silver line around the edge. And that still didn't make Strats noiseless with a loud Marshall.
I'd also like to point out the bogus retro take on Stratocaster construction, and what extent this article goes to create content.
Fender was never known for floating bridges. All Fender tremolo units had tremolo blocks that butted up against the body, to regain tuning.
The only other option was on a Jazzmaster, where you could depress the tremolo arm and a movable button would keep it down a fret, supposedly.
Now they're saying Fender got into floating bridges in the sixties, when I never heard that even once back then.
Fender bridges weren't designed to be floating, and taking off springs or loosening the string retainer, only helped make the guitar unplayable.
And if the famous guitarists named as knowing Strats through Buddy Holly fessed up, they'd explain why they used them onstage only after Jimi passed away.
Fender finds it too easy to rewrite their own history, and from 1965 on, have lost any credibility as an innovative manufacturer.
Even I got better than Fender. But it is nice to see that sunburst.
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Explain what? George Harrison, as one of the examples named, was influenced hugely by Buddy Holly. He was playing the Strat with the Beatles beginning in 1965, long before Hendrix was widely known.
John Watt
Banned
Are you serious? About George Harrison playing a Strat as a Beatle? I never saw that.
"While My Guitar Gently Weeps" is the only Beatle song I still play for myself,
but that refinished red Les Paul Clapton had is the "classic" guitar from those recordings.
I saw "The Concert for Bangladesh", but don't remember any Stratocasters.
I wanted a Strat in '68, saw Jimi in '69, and got a '64 in '70. I've been a Strat observer ever since.
Back then, George Harrison was the one Beatle associated with Les Pauls, instead of an English guitar.
Credits: they were bad then, and entertainers love to rewrite their own history to be "relevant" now.
Who is the only musician to play live and on records with both the Beatles and Rolling Stones?
Someone whose name never appeared on a Beatles album.
"While My Guitar Gently Weeps" is the only Beatle song I still play for myself,
but that refinished red Les Paul Clapton had is the "classic" guitar from those recordings.
I saw "The Concert for Bangladesh", but don't remember any Stratocasters.
I wanted a Strat in '68, saw Jimi in '69, and got a '64 in '70. I've been a Strat observer ever since.
Back then, George Harrison was the one Beatle associated with Les Pauls, instead of an English guitar.
Credits: they were bad then, and entertainers love to rewrite their own history to be "relevant" now.
Who is the only musician to play live and on records with both the Beatles and Rolling Stones?
Someone whose name never appeared on a Beatles album.
Coda
Not John Watt
...your memory sucks then...
...both Harrison and Lennon picked up a pair of '61 Strats in LPB when they were on tour in the US in the summer of '64...they were used extensively on Rubber Soul (the solo to Nowhere Man was a strat with all the treble in the studio on ten)...Harrison eventually gave his Strat a Psychedelic paint job in 67 some time, and thus was born "Rocky"...
...you can still see the LPB finish around the edges there...anyway, Harrison used a stat a lot in the later days of the Beatles, especially on Abbey Road (the Octopus' Garden intro is a great example)...
...in fact, before he had a proper strat, Harrison played a Futurama...a guitar that was modeled on a strat...Strats were REALLY rare in England, and damn expensive. (Hank Marvin played the first strat imported to England, he inspired a bunch to pick up a strat too, including David Gilmour, and Mark Knopfler...they both played Red Strats at some point, just like Hank Marvin)...Jimmy Page had a Futurama too, cause he couldnt get a proper strat...
...back to the OP...Buddy Holly was a big influence on me...the first real "solo" I learned was the one from That'll Be The Day...Im a big fan, and always will be...
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That'd be Billy Preston. Keef had to threaten him backstage with a knife to get him to stop drowning out the rest of the band during the shows.
reverend1
Kick Henry Jackassowski
You make me hate Jimi Hendrix. By the way Clapton didn't play a strat on While My Guitar Gently Weeps.
(Eric Clapton, who was a good friend of Harrison, played lead guitar on the album version of the song with a Gibson Les Paul guitar.)
John Watt
Banned
Sorry to provoke any animosity, but I'd sooner help people get over Jimi Hendrix. The Axis has turned, a little.
I mentioned "the red Les Paul" that was used on "While My Guitar Gently Weeps", and remember a lot about that.
Clapton got it, assumed to be refinished, with serial numbers that aren't in Gibson records. Yeah, that and more.
It's valued at what, $750,000? I still like DiMarzios better than authentic P.A.F.'s.
How can you call a star-sucker like Clapton a good friend of George Harrison, if he steals his wife,
and gets so wasted about it he has to let Duane Allman put his album, and the song about her, together for him?
I mentioned "the red Les Paul" that was used on "While My Guitar Gently Weeps", and remember a lot about that.
Clapton got it, assumed to be refinished, with serial numbers that aren't in Gibson records. Yeah, that and more.
It's valued at what, $750,000? I still like DiMarzios better than authentic P.A.F.'s.
How can you call a star-sucker like Clapton a good friend of George Harrison, if he steals his wife,
and gets so wasted about it he has to let Duane Allman put his album, and the song about her, together for him?
paulskirocks
Blue Zone Compliant
Whatever... I will always dig Jimi Hendrix, regardless of how far out John Watt gets... However, I will never worship Hendrix, anyone else, or any guitar, for that matter... You could give me a $750,000 Strat that belonged to whatever icon, and I still wouldn't like it for the same reason I don't like any other Strat...