Was he the best guitar player of the 1960s

[mihcmac]

Speaking of weight.... When I got out of the Army in the early 70's I decided to get a big amp, one that could handle wether I was playing guitar or bass. So still being influenced by the 60's I got an Ampeg SVT with two 8X10 cabinets, yep sixteen 10" speakers. The SVT used six 6550's and even though it had a split power amp it was best to run it with both cabinets, it was a lot to haul around. But I loved the sound and being in AZ at the time there were lots of opportunities to use it, including very large desert parties usually referred to as boondockers. At one of these I was setting up on a stage lifting my 300Lb head onto the cabinets and I lost my footing falling backwards with the amp head pinning my chest an knocked me out. My drummer was able to get it off me, from then on I left the head on the ground, great amp though.. Now I'm using two 26Lb amps...

I found a shot of my SVT with one cab playing my hot rodded Kalamazoo SG bass, this is 71 at Papago Park in AZ.

Micheal our Hendrix virtuoso playing a Weltron but also a Jaguar and a Strat using his Fender Twin head and a Marshall cab, Terry anything Baker using a set of Ludwigs, Me and Bob our Clapton expert on his Strat into a hot rodded Bassman head and a Fender 4X12 cab... There are several Gretsch PA cabinets scattered around like the staggered 4X12 cab.

Edited July 1, 2020 by mihcmac

[rct]

3 hours ago, 'Scales said:

Lord S - well put.

jdgm/rct - I popped into the local music store the other day and they had both the new Tonemasters on the floor. I picked them up and chuckled. 

 

I know man.  I pick mine up and almost throw it over my shoulder.

rct

[mihcmac]

 

[jaxson50]

5 hours ago, mihcmac said:

Speaking of weight.... When I got out of the Army in the early 70's I decided to get a big amp, one that could handle wether I was playing guitar or bass. So still being influenced by the 60's I got an Ampeg SVT with two 8X10 cabinets, yep sixteen 10" speakers. The SVT used six 6550's and even though it had a split power amp it was best to run it with both cabinets, it was a lot to haul around. But I loved the sound and being in AZ at the time there were lots of opportunities to use it, including very large desert parties usually referred to as boondockers. At one of these I was setting up on a stage lifting my 300Lb head onto the cabinets and I lost my footing falling backwards with the amp head pinning my chest an knocked me out. My drummer was able to get it off me, from then on I left the head on the ground, great amp though.. Now I'm using two 26Lb amps...

I found a shot of my SVT with one cab playing my hot rodded Kalamazoo SG bass, this is 71 at Papago Park in AZ.

Micheal our Hendrix virtuoso playing a Weltron but also a Jaguar and a Strat using his Fender Twin head and a Marshall cab, Terry anything Baker using a set of Ludwigs, Me and Bob our Clapton expert on his Strat into a hot rodded Bassman head and a Fender 4X12 cab... There are several Gretsch PA cabinets scattered around like the staggered 4X12 cab.

You probably started a fair amount of sand storms with that set up!

[jaxson50]

Talking about the Dual Showmans,  those could melt hair.  I saw Blue Cheer  with Eric Burdon and the Animals (that was what they changed the name to just before they broke up)  , at all places a drive-in theater in Palm Springs, it was an all day festival, the forerunner to what has become Coachella music festival.  This would be 1967 maybe 68,. We parked outside the Drive-in and sat on the rises next to the speaker posts, laid out blankets, and rocked out p, the headliners took the stage after dark and they was a light show on the screen, groovy stuff man!

One of the other acts was Sweetwater, they went on to play at Woodstock, I think they played the first night 

[merciful-evans]

9 hours ago, Lord Summerisle said:

Interesting that the thread began with George Benson. I'd have said the best guitarist of the 1960s was Wes, but then I wasn't born until the mid-70s by which time Wes Montgomery was long since in his grave. Do old records and grainy footage uploaded to Youtube provide enough evidence to make a judgment?

London in the 1990s (the place and time where I was young) had a greying, pot-bellied middle-aged geezer in every boozer with a pint of London Pride in his hand telling you about how Davey Graham was the greatest to ever pick up a guitar. Nowadays he's mostly remembered because he was roughly one half of where Jimmy Page nicked it all from - the other 50% being Bert Jansch.

I'd like to say these old geezers were right, but all that's left are old records and grainy uploads to Youtube. Besides, I doubt they saw him anyway. Davey Graham is like Nick Drake - long after the event it turns out he'd actually had live audiences of millions, all squeezed into the snug of a folkie pub one wet Wednesday evening.

 

 

[Lord Summerisle]

@merciful-evans

Yes, it's an interesting clip (from the early 1980s).

But I suspect it's a bit like listening to a solo Peter Green album (also from the 1980s). It likely doesn't contain the magic that made people excited in the first place. The Youtube comments tend towards pondering which particular drunken fracas might have caused the black eye.

If the time machine is available today, I'd prefer to go back to 1964 rather than 1981 to see Mr. Graham, whom I suspect was truly wonderful when on his game. Better than a 1964 BBC studio could capture.

 

Actually, if the time machine is available. I'd prefer to go back to 1964 than 1981, period.

Edited July 1, 2020 by Lord Summerisle

[Sgt. Pepper]

1 hour ago, Lord Summerisle said:

@merciful-evans

Yes, it's an interesting clip (from the early 1980s).

But I suspect it's a bit like listening to a solo Peter Green album (also from the 1980s). It likely doesn't contain the magic that made people excited in the first place. The Youtube comments tend towards pondering which particular drunken fracas might have caused the black eye.

If the time machine is available today, I'd prefer to go back to 1964 rather than 1981 to see Mr. Graham, whom I suspect was truly wonderful when on his game. Better than a 1964 BBC studio could capture.

 

Actually, if the time machine is available. I'd prefer to go back to 1964 than 1981, period.

That was bad a-ss. I've never heard of him till now. The string bending was cool. He has to be in an alt tuning.

Edited July 1, 2020 by Sgt. Pepper

[kidblast]

20 minutes ago, Sgt. Pepper said:

That was bad a-ss. I've never heard of him till now. The string bending was cool. He has to be in an alt tuning.

A little bit of Over The Hills and Far Away going on there.

From the fingrings I would say it's Open D or possibly DADGAD.  hard to say  the audio sounds really poor.

[Lord Summerisle]

DADGAD was his thing.

[Sgt. Pepper]

Just went to a downloading site and go some of his 60's stuff.

[Sgt. Pepper]

10 hours ago, jaxson50 said:

You probably started a fair amount of sand storms with that set up!

 

15 hours ago, mihcmac said:

Speaking of weight.... When I got out of the Army in the early 70's I decided to get a big amp, one that could handle wether I was playing guitar or bass. So still being influenced by the 60's I got an Ampeg SVT with two 8X10 cabinets, yep sixteen 10" speakers. The SVT used six 6550's and even though it had a split power amp it was best to run it with both cabinets, it was a lot to haul around. But I loved the sound and being in AZ at the time there were lots of opportunities to use it, including very large desert parties usually referred to as boondockers. At one of these I was setting up on a stage lifting my 300Lb head onto the cabinets and I lost my footing falling backwards with the amp head pinning my chest an knocked me out. My drummer was able to get it off me, from then on I left the head on the ground, great amp though.. Now I'm using two 26Lb amps...

I found a shot of my SVT with one cab playing my hot rodded Kalamazoo SG bass, this is 71 at Papago Park in AZ.

Micheal our Hendrix virtuoso playing a Weltron but also a Jaguar and a Strat using his Fender Twin head and a Marshall cab, Terry anything Baker using a set of Ludwigs, Me and Bob our Clapton expert on his Strat into a hot rodded Bassman head and a Fender 4X12 cab... There are several Gretsch PA cabinets scattered around like the staggered 4X12 cab.

Is that Pink Floyd Live in Pompeii?

[uncle fester]

19 hours ago, mihcmac said:

Speaking of weight.... When I got out of the Army in the early 70's I decided to get a big amp, one that could handle wether I was playing guitar or bass. So still being influenced by the 60's I got an Ampeg SVT with two 8X10 cabinets, yep sixteen 10" speakers. The SVT used six 6550's and even though it had a split power amp it was best to run it with both cabinets, it was a lot to haul around. But I loved the sound and being in AZ at the time there were lots of opportunities to use it, including very large desert parties usually referred to as boondockers. At one of these I was setting up on a stage lifting my 300Lb head onto the cabinets and I lost my footing falling backwards with the amp head pinning my chest an knocked me out. My drummer was able to get it off me, from then on I left the head on the ground, great amp though.. Now I'm using two 26Lb amps...

I found a shot of my SVT with one cab playing my hot rodded Kalamazoo SG bass, this is 71 at Papago Park in AZ.

Micheal our Hendrix virtuoso playing a Weltron but also a Jaguar and a Strat using his Fender Twin head and a Marshall cab, Terry anything Baker using a set of Ludwigs, Me and Bob our Clapton expert on his Strat into a hot rodded Bassman head and a Fender 4X12 cab... There are several Gretsch PA cabinets scattered around like the staggered 4X12 cab.

That's just a plain old cool photo!

[mihcmac]

15 hours ago, jaxson50 said:

You probably started a fair amount of sand storms with that set up!

We were able to move a lot of air...

4 hours ago, Sgt. Pepper said:

Is that Pink Floyd Live in Pompeii?

We found that when playing out doors with limited monitors that surrounding our drummer with our amps worked better apposed to setting up a wall.

1 hour ago, uncle fester said:

That's just a plain old cool photo!

Old school style for sure, what you can't see in that photo is that a bike group called The Dirty Dozen was chillin in the Ramada shelter as our immediate audience..

This park was fairly large and spread out with covered Ramada's that each had a concrete slab and AC power..

In this era Papago could have as many as 20 bands playing a day on the weekends.. Also there were several other parks, not mention building stages and using generators  out in the surrounding desert away from the prying eyes of the Gestopo.

Also in the center of the park is a rock formation called Hole in the Wall that formed a natural amphitheater, just needed to get power up there..

Edited July 1, 2020 by mihcmac

[merciful-evans]

4 hours ago, Sgt. Pepper said:

Just went to a downloading site and go some of his 60's stuff.

 

I had his 'Folk, Blues & Beyond' (1965) album when I was learning to fingerpick.

'Cocaine' & 'Moanin' were the two that became part of my early repertoire. 

[Sgt. Pepper]

49 minutes ago, merciful-evans said:

 

I had his 'Folk, Blues & Beyond' (1965) album when I was learning to fingerpick.

'Cocaine' & 'Moanin' were the two that became part of my early repertoire. 

That was one of the two I got.

Edited July 1, 2020 by Sgt. Pepper

['Scales]

His version of White Summer is pretty cool 

[mihcmac]

Live at Candlestick Park in 1966, notice the absence of monitors or seemingly any PA close by..

 

[Sgt. Pepper]

5 minutes ago, mihcmac said:

Live at Candlestick Park in 1966, notice the absence of monitors or seemingly any PA close by..

 

It would have been cool to say I saw them, but who wanted to listen to 1000's of girl scream.

I was born October of that year. Never had the chance.

Channel 2 KTVU out of SF. I used to live in San Jose.

Edited July 1, 2020 by Sgt. Pepper

[mihcmac]

7 minutes ago, Sgt. Pepper said:

It would have been cool to say I saw them, but who wanted to listen to 1000's of girl scream.

I was born October of that year. Never had the chance.

There were a couple of nondescript boxes on the corners of the stage.

They were just too early for this type of concert, we do have the tech to do it now, thanks to them..

[jaxson50]

10 hours ago, mihcmac said:

We were able to move a lot of air...

We found that when playing out doors with limited monitors that surrounding our drummer with our amps worked better apposed to setting up a wall.

Old school style for sure, what you can't see in that photo is that a bike group called The Dirty Dozen was chillin in the Ramada shelter as our immediate audience..

This park was fairly large and spread out with covered Ramada's that each had a concrete slab and AC power..

In this era Papago could have as many as 20 bands playing a day on the weekends.. Also there were several other parks, not mention building stages and using generators  out in the surrounding desert away from the prying eyes of the Gestopo.

Also in the center of the park is a rock formation called Hole in the Wall that formed a natural amphitheater, just needed to get power up there..

Looks like snake eyes 

[Gibson Artist]

 

[mihcmac]

On 7/2/2020 at 1:36 AM, Gibson Artist said:

 

Albert defiantly got the Blues in his fingers and  I think all of the Three Kings are excellent, I really love his V...

Edited July 3, 2020 by mihcmac

[Marky Forrest]

On 6/30/2020 at 3:50 PM, mihcmac said:

Speaking of weight.... When I got out of the Army in the early 70's I decided to get a big amp, one that could handle wether I was playing guitar or bass. So still being influenced by the 60's I got an Ampeg SVT with two 8X10 cabinets, yep sixteen 10" speakers. The SVT used six 6550's and even though it had a split power amp it was best to run it with both cabinets, it was a lot to haul around. But I loved the sound and being in AZ at the time there were lots of opportunities to use it, including very large desert parties usually referred to as boondockers. At one of these I was setting up on a stage lifting my 300Lb head onto the cabinets and I lost my footing falling backwards with the amp head pinning my chest an knocked me out. My drummer was able to get it off me, from then on I left the head on the ground, great amp though.. Now I'm using two 26Lb amps...

I found a shot of my SVT with one cab playing my hot rodded Kalamazoo SG bass, this is 71 at Papago Park in AZ.

Micheal our Hendrix virtuoso playing a Weltron but also a Jaguar and a Strat using his Fender Twin head and a Marshall cab, Terry anything Baker using a set of Ludwigs, Me and Bob our Clapton expert on his Strat into a hot rodded Bassman head and a Fender 4X12 cab... There are several Gretsch PA cabinets scattered around like the staggered 4X12 cab.

What a great picture. Man good thing your drummer was around to help you out.

I vaguely remember the days of having a young, strong back. You sure needed one with that very cool rig. I bet you sounded awesome. Yeah and I think you probably stirred up some dust devils too. Thanks for the great picture. I love to reminisce.