Who resurrected the burst?

[Bram]

Honestly I don't care who resurrected 'the burst'.

 

I remember an interview with Snowy White about

the original '59 Les Paul from Peter Green...Snowy

White said it became just an ordinairy guitar when

Peter Green stopped playing it. The magic came from

Peter Green, not the guitar.

 

This applies to all Les Pauls. Of course they all have

their unique character and tone, but it's the player

that makes the guitar truly special or not. A good Les

Paul is a good Les Paul, nothing more, nothing less.

[pippy]

...Snowy White said it became just an ordinairy guitar when

Peter Green stopped playing it. The magic came from

Peter Green' date=' not the guitar.[/quote']

 

Crikey! I sincerely hope Gary Moore didn't read that interview..........

[dp71]

Now, let's see...

 

 

Album cover 1961, Hideaway, which Clapton covers on Beano

 

 

The supposed photo he was referring to, with a goldtop.

 

 

From the flipside of beano album cover, it's easy to see it's a sunburst

 

 

onstage during the Mayall era, 1965-66.

 

For let's not forget that most of the other players actually saw him

on stage with this guitar, and a marshall behind him, rather than relying on a photo.

 

Photos worked! Thanks alot Howlin4Hubert and AXE!

 

Anyway, I think it wasn't about the look, it was about the sound he created. This album gave birth to:

The guitar-hero

The marshall amplifier

Guitar Player magazine

Gibson eventually have to start building LP's again.

 

That's no mean feat!

[charlie brown]

Clatpon! Mike Bloomfield was known for his "Telecaster" work, prior to being a "Burst LP" player. I'd even go so

far as to say the "Beano" album was THE catalyst, for the resurrection of the enormous popularity, of Les Paul's

in general, and "Bursts" in particular. That's not to take away from any Bloomfields impact, musically, or any of

the other's mentioned. But, EC was, without a doubt, the main catalyst, in this regard.

 

CB

[pippy]

Now' date=' let's see...

 

[img']http://i557.photobucket.com/albums/ss20/danilop71/ecblues2a.jpg[/img]

 

For let's not forget that most of the other players actually saw him

on stage with this guitar, and a marshall behind him, rather than relying on a photo.

 

Just to be pedantic the snap showing the front of the guitar wasn't used on the reverse of the original LP sleeve. That picture was taken at the same time but was only used when the album was repackaged.

 

The other point is, however, very important; it wasn't the punters listening to the Bluesbreakers who were most impressed by the LP/Marshall combination ; it was the other blues players who, going to see and then emulating Clapton, were to become effectively the pressure group behind the survival of the LP as we know it.

[gateway]

The resurrection of the Gibson Les Paul: Eric Clapton.

He was of course not the first person to own a Les Paul' date=' but he was the first to plug it into a Marshall, crank it up, and play pentatonic leads with a stunning mastery of phrasing, string bending and vibrato. This is what caused 'the resurrection'. It was a new style of guitarplaying, or rather: guitar-tone. Listen to guitar solos before 1966 (ie before Beano), and they are dry, staccato-ish, twangy, whereas after 1966 they are sustained, singing, fat. And before Beano, the guitars where ES-335, Gretsch, Rickenbacker, Fender, but after 1966 everyone seemed to play a Les Paul.

So regardless of who's who's favourite, it just happened to be Clapton who put a Marshall and a Les Paul together, and the modern electric guitarsound was born!

And the followers were Hendrix, Green, Taylor, Bloomfield, Beck, Page and almost everyone else...

[/quote']

 

Spot on dp71.

It was Clapton using an instrument in a way which had never been envisaged in the fifties.

It was Clapton using a 50 watt Marshall amp in a way that had not been envisaged.

ie overdriven. At this point in time: Overloaded = Broken.

It was Clapton who had rows with the engineers on the Bluesbreakers sessions because they insisted that his shattering volume levels could not be recorded. He won.

 

As for ditching the instrument - it was stolen. Perhaps there were another 10 hanging on the walls in Denmark Street, and he simply didn't spot them when he went out to buy another Gibson............

[cistec]

AS much as I would like to say JP it has to be Clapton and the marshalls..why the Hell he decided to go Fender is beyond me??? He gave up the chance to be imortalised in the Gibson domain..Ahhhh...but Clapton has been his own man for as long as I can remember so fame is not part of his rush!...as for Keith Richards he may have played the burst before Clapton but as a rhythm player only but Clapton...boy! he pulled magic from them Gibsons (335 /LP/SG) and hence "Clapton is God" was born....yes it was Clapton and any body who thinks otherwise should do a little reasearch and remember the question! WHO RESURRECTED THE BURST? not who played it, Held it, looked at it, but he took up where Les Paul left it and gave it world wide appeal to all young players and lets be sure about this the British players from that time gave back to the world what most Americans did not want...THE BLUES!!!and in my opinion better crafted to suite to the western market...Long live Clapton, Page, Beck, Mayer, and many other great British players to who we all owe a great musical debt including the past greats. IMO of course!

 

cistec

[sok66]

Now' date=' let's see...

 

[img']http://i557.photobucket.com/albums/ss20/danilop71/Let27s_Hide_Away_and_Dance_Away_wit.jpg[/img]

 

Album cover 1961, Hideaway, which Clapton covers on Beano

 

 

The supposed photo he was referring to, with a goldtop.

 

 

From the flipside of beano album cover, it's easy to see it's a sunburst

 

 

onstage during the Mayall era, 1965-66.

 

For let's not forget that most of the other players actually saw him

on stage with this guitar, and a marshall behind him, rather than relying on a photo.

 

Photos worked! Thanks alot Howlin4Hubert and AXE!

 

Anyway, I think it wasn't about the look, it was about the sound he created. This album gave birth to:

The guitar-hero

The marshall amplifier

Guitar Player magazine

Gibson eventually have to start building LP's again.

 

That's no mean feat!

 

All good thoughts, but don't prove your point. No doubt Clapton was influenced by Freddie King, he's said so a zillion times in interviews and it's written all over his playing. However, the photo you point out of EC with the Burst didn't appear on the original Beano album (which I wore out several copies of I'm sure). There was just the side shot of him tuning the Burst, with the Marshall combo in the background. Having been around at the time the album was released there were few mags in the US that even mentioned the Bluesbreakers album, much less EC. It became something of a cult thing to have the album at all. OTOH, Butterfield was huge around Chicago, Bloomfield was legendary, and by '66 everyone knew he was playing a Les Paul. The Burst came later, but Les Paul mania was alive & well in the USA by summer '66.

 

Clapton is indeed the seminal guitar hero, yes, he launched the Les Paul / cranked Marshall sound and he was ONE of the major influences that led to Guitar Player magazine. But, Gibson Sales & Marketing was based in Chicago (CMI). Their sales & marketing VP at the time was my homeboy, young Bruce Bolen, and he was the one who brought back the original Les Paul, chiefly on the influence locally of our other homeboy, Mike Bloomfield. That Clapton had also played one early on helped it along, but even Bruce cited Mike as a major influence on the resurrection of the Les Paul line.

[dp71]

Thanks for pointing out that the photo only appeared on reissues! I didn't know that, as I had a reprinted LP-version in the late eighties.

 

I can't find the quote now, but I remember reading that Bloomfield said something about the impact beano had on him. However, I found some other nice quotes from Clapton himself:

"Q:When did you find your voice on guitar?

A:When I was in the John Mayall band (Bluesbreakers, 1965-66) I really found my stride. I knew I was playing with my own resources and not piecing together other people’s stuff, not just emulating someone."

 

"Q:Did you have any sense of competition or rivalry with your peers on the British scene?

A:I only got to know two or three guys that play that style. There was Peter Green, and I can’t think of anyone else who played from the same origin, same root of influence as I did. The other guys mentioned like Jeff Beck and Jimmy Page were much more from a rockabilly sensibility. There were very few people drawn to Chicago blues and country blues the way I was and Peter Green was. I suppose because we were so rare, there wasn’t a rivalry. It was more of a nurturing. We’d be starving, and if you run into another of your kind, it’s something to feed on."

 

" I can remember meeting Mike Bloomfield, even before I met (Jimi) Hendrix. The guy in America at the time was Mike Bloomfield. There was no one else. You know why? He was serious. There was no bull involved. He was an academic musician, he knew his stuff, he knew his roots, he knew where it came from and he knew where he belonged in it. It didn’t have anything to do with being on TV or show-biz or commerciality or popularity. He knew about me too."

 

The whole interview is here: http://www.popmatters.com/pm/feature/down-at-the-crossroads-an-interview-with-eric-clapton/

 

I think some points have been made in posts above, which are very true, and these quotes say something about that too: Clapton must be given credit for discovering the LP/Marshall combination, and unleashing it's potential. The others soon did the same, but not necessarily trying to copy Clapton, but rather taking the inspiration to other places. And it's of course these people, together with fans, that started buying Les Pauls en masse, and Gibson soon saw the renewed sales-potential (like we see today in all these 'vintage reissue' models).