Cherry Gibson Acoustic

[bram99]

I am really loving the small body Gibson sound, so i have been spending a lot of time on youtube looking at banner LG-2s....But along the way stumbled across this and for the last few days I have been pretty mesmerized by it...thought I would put it out there....a beautiful human moment captured on film I think.

 

 

At first i thought this was a B25, but now i think its bigger body....Not sure what he is playing here and can't quite tell ....might be a J45.... I have not seen this l cherry(burst?) pattern and multi-ring rosette so I have no clue what the guitar is, but in other clips the Gibson headstock is clear.....

[MissouriPicker]

I'm not sure what the guitar is. It's been decades since I had my B25, but I remember it as maybe being a bit smaller than the guitar Townes is playing. BUT, as in most situations, I might be completely mistaken........Regarding the video--I've always enjoyed it. I suspect as most music industry videos, it was planned and rehearsed, and if it was they did a great job on it. The people don't seem like professional actors. Besides, even if it was rehearsed, it's still much like literally all of Townes Vand Zandt's music: real, somewhat disorganized--like his life.....Townes was a tortured soul. Maybe that was part of his genius. Had numerous problems, both emotionally and physically. Alcohol and heroin were his worst demons (perhaps aside from himself), but he was into a lot of substance abuse. Just reading about his life can be a real downer. The guy often couldn't get or even buy a break in life. While many of his issues were self-inflicted wounds, I always felt kind of sorry for the guy. I never got pissed at him. He wasn't some arrogant celebrity, etc. He was just a guy who had a tough time getting-up when he was knocked down. Even when "Pancho and Lefty" hit big and The Stones did a couple of his songs, he continued playing in little bars and dives. In the 80's he was setup for three meetings with Cash's producer, but only showed-up for one of them. He made some TV appearances, recorded some albums, but outside of songwriter circles, no one knew him. Same thing today. He has a "cult" following, but very, very few people listening to mainstream music have ever heard of him. Many of his fans, including me, like his worst albums the best. Worst because he was either drunk or high when the albums were recorded "live." He misses words, chords, verses, slurs a lot of words, but he's who he is and above all else he's real. And of his albums that were done in the studio, some of them were the victim of really poor mixing, etc. Again, Townes just had too much working against him and he didn't seem to be very concerned about helping himself. Sad story for him.....Anyway, I like a lot of his music. Some of it I cannot understand, but the ones I can truly touch the proverbial "chord" in me. His songs can be airy and flighty or darker than most places we want to go.

[flatbaroque]

Good summary MP of your TVZ experience.

I think this clip of "Waiting round to die" may be taken from a movie? called Heartworn Highway as the clip is titled. Not sure if that would be a real movie with a storyline etc or some quasi documentary...i'm sure someone knows.

[Mojorule]

Mojo's Sunday crypt-ic code horror. The instrument of Fort Worth's renowned guitar-stroker which interests the forum's very own Stoker is a B25 + 8/20. It is also likely >61. Hence the burst of blood-red and the mysterious double ring. Were it not for the blood it could be a <61 freak product of the Kalamazoo Frankensteins, but the rings and the blood together suggest the higher number. Bram has one, though his was made for the television and not for the big screen. He got his fangs into the thing earlier.

[jrplefty]

Thanks for the YT clip. Definitely a good watch. It definitely does come from a documentary, and the focus is on the Outlaw Country movement of the time. I'm thinking it might be worth trying to find and watch. Seems like it could be very entertaining.

 

Heartworn Highways

[iwalktheline]

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Gibson-B-25-6-String-Acoustic-Guitar-Serial-265893-w-Case-/400479485638?pt=Guitar&hash=item5d3e6ffec6

 

Beautiful guitar, seems to be the same.......

[zombywoof]

I the early 1970s he was playing a red J-45/50. So maybe that is it.

[JuanCarlosVejar]

looks like the said red J 45 :

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

JC

[mountainpicker]

The place Townes would "escape" to in Colorado when he would split Texas was Crested Butte and I used to see him in the summertimes back in the '70's, usually riding a horse without a shirt on is my visual recollection. Crested Butte in those days was about the closest thing you could get to being back in the 1880's and still be in the 20th century, and we all wanted it that way and revelled in the freedom and the illusion. There were only about 350 people living here then and we all knew one another, at least by sight, and so the drug scene was very safe from what little law there was, and prevalent, and as accepted as alcohol probably was back in the gold mining days. Some of us made it through and some of us didn't. Townes wasn't the only one living out on that edge. One night years ago I asked some of the guys I play with now if they ever played with Townes and the only recollection one of them had was waiting for over an hour for Townes to tune his guitar (pre-electronic tuner days)and him never getting it together to play. He was too out of it on acid. But I think he wrote a lot of songs here from talking to other locals of those times. I seem to recall someone even telling me that Pancho and Lefty was sketched out here, but that's a vague remembrance. MissouriPicker sums him up, and sums up the times in general for a lot of people in about the best way I've ever read. Makes me think you lived here back in the day, man.?

[ParlourMan]

Why is the old dude at the back crying, has he been on the Gin? Never understood people drinking that stuff, smells like a granny's perfume and makes people cry like an old lady. Crazy business.....

[Mojorule]

Why is the old dude at the back crying, has he been on the Gin? Never understood people drinking that stuff, smells like a granny's perfume and makes people cry like an old lady. Crazy business.....

 

A drink for haggard old lesbian peddlars of R&B, I suspect. They pretend to drink JD, but really Keef keeps a bottle of Gordon's stashed in the back of his amps for when Mick and he need a gargle.

[Versatile]

Gin is medicine...

 

Therefore comes into a different category...

 

V

 

[ParlourMan]

A drink for haggard old lesbian peddlars of R&B, I suspect. They pretend to drink JD, but really Keef keeps a bottle of Gordon's stashed in the back of his amps for when Mick and he need a gargle.

 

You're on the money there, I bet Mrs Jagger drinks Bombay spice though. A twist of lemon madam? yes if you've any haggard ones... I bet Oprah's got her on speed dial...

[Mojorule]

You're on the money there, I bet Mrs Jagger drinks Bombay spice though. A twist of lemon madam? yes if you've any haggard ones... I bet Oprah's got her on speed dial...

 

I think you are right about Mrs J's preferences, she's a pretentious one and no doubt, even if the gin you mention is most commonly associated not with haggard lesbians, but with an old queen:

 

 

I bet Mrs Richards gives her quite a ribbing over choosing something quite so poncey though.

[blindboygrunt]

what ARE you two talking about ?

[j45nick]

what ARE you two talking about ?

 

 

They've clearly been drinking gin. I understand it turns you into a blithering idiot.....

[Mojorule]

what ARE you two talking about ?

 

It's not so much talking as what Mrs Richards calls the 'fine art of weaving'.

[Mojorule]

They've clearly been drinking gin. I understand it turns you into a blithering idiot.....

 

Oh and less of the blithering, Nick.

[j45nick]

looks like the said red J 45 :

 

 

 

JC

 

That top color and rosette design scream "late 60's" for a J-45. It's also the same rosette that has been on the SJ pretty much since day one in 1942-'43, with some exceptions. Here's the same rosette on the 1968 top on my 1948 J-45, which also came back from Gibson that year with a bright cherry sunburst top finish (which disappeared very quickly). I was definitely not into red guitars back then.

 

[struma6]

TVZ was brilliant and troubled and one of my all time favorites.

 

That's all.

[BluesKing777]

TVZ was brilliant and troubled and one of my all time favorites.

 

That's all.

 

Yeah! Classic tortured muso..

 

 

The guy in the back is in tears because it's his Gibson TVZ is playing and when he first lent it to him, it was a beautiful sunburst and TVZ got tanked and painted it red......

 

 

Made that up - there was a longer clip getting around of the song somewhere and they were all sitting around talking before the song about friends dying, if I remember correctly.

 

 

BluesKing777.

[bram99]

That top color and rosette design scream "late 60's" for a J-45. It's also the same rosette that has been on the SJ pretty much since day one in 1942-'43, with some exceptions. Here's the same rosette on the 1968 top on my 1948 J-45, which also came back from Gibson that year with a bright cherry sunburst top finish (which disappeared very quickly). I was definitely not into red guitars back then.

 

 

Nick....not sure if I got this right....you have a 42-43 SJ that had a new top put on in 1968? ....and when Gibson refinished it, it came cherry sunburst and then you had it redone into what it is in the picture?....just asking cause I got to tell you ....what you have now is one fine looking guitar. What is the story on that pickguard....very nice warm looking...original or replacement? Looks like pretty nice pieces of Brazilian for the bridge and board as well.....When i look at my 4 year old J45TV I still marvel at the sunburst, but when I see ones like yours I realize that a well cared for guitar that has all those years behind it, can take it to the next level.

[j45nick]

Nick....not sure if I got this right....you have a 42-43 SJ that had a new top put on in 1968? ....and when Gibson refinished it, it came cherry sunburst and then you had it redone into what it is in the picture?....just asking cause I got to tell you ....what you have now is one fine looking guitar. What is the story on that pickguard....very nice warm looking...original or replacement? Looks like pretty nice pieces of Brazilian for the bridge and board as well.....When i look at my 4 year old J45TV I still marvel at the sunburst, but when I see ones like yours I realize that a well cared for guitar that has all those years behind it, can take it to the next level.

 

 

It's a story that's been told here a number of times, so here's the abbreviated version. What you are looking at is my 1948 (or '50: FON 3644) J-45, owned by me since 1966. The top you see was put on by Gibson during repairs in 1968. The fretboard was replaced at the same time, hence 20 frets instead of the original 19, and the 60's-style frets. The guitar came back from Gibson with an adjustable bridge, a bright cherryburst finish, and a large pickguard. That was 1968, after all. I removed the big pickguard and cherryburst top finish in about 1970. The guitar lived as a "J-50" until 2010, when Ross Teigen put it back to its original configuration insofar as possible, including the new Brazilian bridge shown here, chosen to match the fretboard.

 

Ross made the pick guard as well, which is celluloid, and is clearcoated over like the original was. He also sprayed the new 'burst, working from old photos of the guitar before the top was replaced.

 

Ross is a fastidious craftsman, and did a superb job. He did a bunch of other work on this guitar at the same time, all of it to a very high standard. He's done work on other guitars of mine as well, both Gibsons and Martins, both acoustics and electrics. He is one of the best, and is fanatical about reproducing original detail, if that's what you want.