Big Guit tars and Big Guards

[TommyK]

Big Guard: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3yVvJvm-KZo&feature=related

Right off Little Jimmy Dickens's right shoulder. There's more sound board that is guarded than ain't.

Look carefully, you'll see none other than Chet Atkins playin' back-up on a Country Gentleman... not sure if a Gretsch or Gibby.

 

Big Guit tar: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ah0v0lOr698&NR=1

Actually made to look bigger by a picker, short of stature. Probably why he picked it.

Conversely, it is said,... okay David "Stringbean" Akeman said it, Stringbean borrowed a pair of Dickens's pants, that would only pull up to just above his knees. Tucked in a knee length shirt into it, to accentuate his height. It worked out well, so he kept it in his act for years.

 

Here's "Strang" in his Dickens pants:

 

 

btw Dickens is still alive and kickin'. He showed up on the ACM awards a couple weekends back.

[Gitfidl]

I could be wrong but I don't think Gibson made orange guitars -- must have been a Gretsch, I think Gibson was cherry red. Beautiful L-5 CES hes got in the 2nd (gosh he IS little!). That guitar makes him look like a kid. Stringbean was ahead of his time -- that's what they all look like today to the point of wearing them around their knees. Good memories.

[TheLiveSoundGuy]

I could be wrong as well, but I think Gitfidl is right. I froze and zoomed the vid, but it's too pixelated to tell for sure. Not only is the color wrong, but the fret inlays are wrong for the Gibby version.

 

 

 

 

 

I think it's this guitar.

 

 

 

 

... and for what it's worth, I thought Stringbean was cool on Hee-Haw. I always thought him to be a first rate banjo picker. Better than most I had ever seen. I remember when he died. I was a teenager. It really affected me.