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Famous Gibson acoustic artists


Tim35

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This is so cool...

I just bought tickets to see Billy Bragg in NYC. City Winery. 10/16. Maybe I'll see you there...

 

Ah Sal I only do UK and Europe with BB! What a shame as it would have been great to meet you. He uses a US based TM who he's worked with for a long time (Adie I think his name is) mainly because the logistics are so much more long-winded for US tours and I juggle TM work with my own touring so I don't have the time to do US as well as UK/Europe.

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Jinder besides being very talented...you are one modest dude.I remember the post about " the artist" you were tour managing who lost his J-45.You didn't mention who it was.Turns out it was Billy Bragg.

I learnt how to play "Way over yonder" from a youtube clip where he plays it on his J-45 in a breakfast radio studio.Super!Good luck with the tour and the guitar replacement.

 

Thanks FB! Way Over Yonder is one of my favourites too. BB currently plays it on electric with CJ Hillman on steel, it sounds fantastic! We just got back from the Musikhaus in Linz as it happens, we only have two dates left of this leg of the European tour and I've tracked down the J45 to Rome, where it's being shipped back to England from, so we didn't go big budget for the stopgap guitar. We bought an all-Hog Fender dread with a Fishman Presys system in it. I've never been keen on Fender acoustics previously, but this one and a couple of others we tried sound great and play very well indeed. €360 all in including a hard case! Ren is obviously doing something right at Fender.

 

I also played a Sigma OM28VS, for around €400 I don't think there's a better acoustic out there, I was gobsmacked at how good it was. I also spent some time with an Epi Masterbilt slope which was heavy but sounded superb.

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Remember, that Ralph McTells famous Gibson is a 45, not a 50.

At some point it had it top refinished.

RM says...

 

"My Gibson J-45 that I have had since I was 20 years old. I traded it in against a Harmony 12-string and £45 at Pan Music on Wardour Street.

It was the best trade-in I ever had, and my hand and fingers grew round that instrument.

"90 per cent of all my writing has been done with that guitar and, although I rested it for several years, i

t will be with me till the drop. I now have at least six more J-45s and only one of them gets close to this beloved guitar.

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Remember, that Ralph McTells famous Gibson is a 45, not a 50.

 

Do pictures of the young Ralph with the pre-natural top exist ?

Here's an early one after the refinish -

https://phonybeatlem...alph-mctell.jpg

 

And here's an even earlier -

https://images-na.ss...O4QKM6%2B5L.jpg

Perhaps here -

https://images-na.ss...tv%2BBoFltL.jpg

Finally -

http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5202/5369438919_aaeea05f8d.jpg

 

 

 

 

Apropos pictures, what will you folks recommend now that Photobucket has changed policy ?

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Their Gibson periods were short lived. Martin's and Martin style (Franklin) were more typical of these guys. Martin Cathy too. ,

 

Not that short-lived. John Renbourn played his famous Gibson J-50 on all but the first of his solo LPs from 1967 up to "The Hermit" in 1976 and right though the first incarnation of Pentangle. It was retired only after being damaged by an airline. The J-50 was repaired and is still around today owned by a guitarist named Remy Froissart and can be seen at the annual John Renbourn Guitar Workshops, which have continued after John's death.

 

Likewise Davy Graham used his J-50 on all his Decca LPs from 1964 to 1969.

 

After playing a J-50 on his first LP in 1968, Ralph McTell STILL uses a modern custom shop J-45 or J-50 today.

 

Wizz Jones has played Epiphone Texans from the 60s right through to the present day.

 

Martin Carthy has always used small-bodied Martins, never Gibsons.

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Do pictures of the young Ralph with the pre-natural top exist ?

Here's an early one after the refinish -

https://phonybeatlem...alph-mctell.jpg

 

And here's an even earlier -

https://images-na.ss...O4QKM6%2B5L.jpg

Perhaps here -

https://images-na.ss...tv%2BBoFltL.jpg

Finally -

http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5202/5369438919_aaeea05f8d.jpg

 

 

 

 

Apropos pictures, what will you folks recommend now that Photobucket has changed policy ?

 

The last picture shows Wizz Jones (centre with glasses) playing an Epiphone Texan. As I've mentioned several times in this thread Wizz still uses Texans, although he favours natural finish examples these days. The picture was taken in 1967 at the Folk Cottage, a famous folk club in Cornwall

 

http://kernowbeat.co.uk/folkcottage.html

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The picture was taken in 1967 at the Folk Cottage, a famous folk club in Cornwall

 

 

Oooooh those days when modern folk was born. So much fresh new consciousness, protest and hope under that mushroom-shadow.

The times when small groups of people could lean seriously on dreams of a better realm without being regarded as fools, , , ,

at least by approximately half of the rest.

 

No, I wasn't there, too young - btw. neither were my parents.

 

Notice there are at least 2 Levins in those pics. Have the feeling they were pretty hip. I played a 1965'er not so long a go. Not bad at all.

And it seems McTell got retopped quite early.

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Oooooh those days when modern folk was born. So much newborn consciousness, protest and hope under that mushroom-shadow.

The times when small groups of people could lean seriously on dreams of a better realm without being regarded as fools, , , ,

at least by approximately half of the rest.

 

No, I wasn't there, too young - btw. neither were my parents.

Notice there are at least 2 Levins in those pics. Have the feeling they were pretty hip. I played a 1965'er not so long a go. Not bad at all.

And it seems McTell got retopped quite early.

 

I wonder if that's a borrowed sunburst J-45 Ralph is playing in the Folk Cottage pic? He was only a year away from his first LP in 1967 by which time the guitar had been re-finished.

 

In the UK Gibsons were the stuff of dreams in the 60s. Most people couldn't afford them and even if you had the money, they were hard to find, especially outside London. So cheaper brands like Harmony, Hagstrom and Levin were popular. They weren't nearly as good as Gibson or Martin, but they were perfectly serviceable for folk club use.

 

Growing up in the UK in the 60s, I was always amazed and insanely jealous whenever I saw footage of American students on campus. Whenever a guitar appeared it was invariably a Gibson or Martin, something we could only dream of in Britain. It seemed like great guitars were cheap and freely available to 50s/60s kids in America.

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  • 4 years later...
On 8/13/2017 at 9:06 PM, mojoworking said:

 

I wonder if that's a borrowed sunburst J-45 Ralph is playing in the Folk Cottage pic? He was only a year away from his first LP in 1967 by which time the guitar had been re-finished.

 

In the UK Gibsons were the stuff of dreams in the 60s. Most people couldn't afford them and even if you had the money, they were hard to find, especially outside London. So cheaper brands like Harmony, Hagstrom and Levin were popular. They weren't nearly as good as Gibson or Martin, but they were perfectly serviceable for folk club use.

 

Growing up in the UK in the 60s, I was always amazed and insanely jealous whenever I saw footage of American students on campus. Whenever a guitar appeared it was invariably a Gibson or Martin, something we could only dream of in Britain. It seemed like great guitars were cheap and freely available to 50s/60s kids in America.

No matter what era they were expensive for the time. Martin and Gibson didn’t just give them away.

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