T Bone Posted July 10, 2012 Share Posted July 10, 2012 Anyone know what guitar Link is playing here? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x9mGNJ7WSEc&feature=youtube ETA: For some reason, I cannot get it to come out as a video here, click the link. It is Link Wray appearing on Conan O'Brian sometime after the release of Shadowman, '97 CD. Great stuff. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rct Posted July 10, 2012 Share Posted July 10, 2012 That is some kind of Yamaha, but I don't remember the number of it, SG in the name though. rct Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CoreyT Posted July 10, 2012 Share Posted July 10, 2012 You have to get the full link under the "Share" area on the video page. If they have the . between the u and the b, it will not embed here or on most forums. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x9mGNJ7WSEc Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jdgm Posted July 10, 2012 Share Posted July 10, 2012 Yeah - a 60s Yamaha...or...could it be a Teisco from the same era? Mr Link Wray was and still is 'the business'. Time to get the reference books out! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rct Posted July 10, 2012 Share Posted July 10, 2012 Yeah - a 60s Yamaha...or...could it be a Teisco from the same era? Mr Link Wray was and still is 'the business'. Time to get the reference books out! Teiscos' sucked. He wouldn'ta used one I don't think. rct Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
T Bone Posted July 10, 2012 Author Share Posted July 10, 2012 Teiscos' sucked. He wouldn'ta used one I don't think. rct Yes they did, and I'm sure he wouldn't use one. I do see why he said that though, I noted the similarity when I was trying to figure what kind it was, there is a slight resemblance in a few places to the 60's Teisco's. You have to get the full link under the "Share" area on the video page. If they have the . between the u and the b, it will not embed here or on most forums. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x9mGNJ7WSEc Thanks. I actually did that on the second edit, but it still didn't take. I was wondering if they'd disabled embedding somehow. Anyway, good to know about the . between the u & b, I'll edit that out and see if it fixes it. And yes, he was the Man! Credited with "inventing" the power chord, a huge influence on many of Rock's early big stars, and stars of the 60's. And still a star himself at that time. One of the more or less "unsung" heroes of Rock & Roll. Unfortunately, he passed away in 2005. Didn't know that until I tried to piece together when that Conan clip was from (Conan refers to Shadowman as his "new" album though, and it came out in '97, so near there I'd imagine). That still puts him at near 70 in the video (!! born in 1929) and he looks phenomenal for someone of that age! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
T Bone Posted July 10, 2012 Author Share Posted July 10, 2012 Odd, finally got it edited in. I snagged the complete address from the browser bar (same way I got the other links, but this time the whole thing showed up! But nothing was in the post. So I edited it again and removed the . between the u & b, and viola, it worked (didn't work when I tried removing that . in the shorter link, got a page not found msg. that time). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rabs Posted July 10, 2012 Share Posted July 10, 2012 Anyone know what guitar Link is playing here? ETA: For some reason, I cannot get it to come out as a video here, click the link. It is Link Wray appearing on Conan O'Brian sometime after the release of Shadowman, '97 CD. Great stuff. Even the MAN himself quoted this tune as one of his infulences.. :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
milod Posted July 10, 2012 Share Posted July 10, 2012 AS I recall, Rumble was kinda the sort of ad hoc thing just to fill time that turned into some more than its parts. I've hollered on this here for years. It's the mind that does it. Link Wray was what amounted to being a competent saloon musician who hit lucky on one piece so special that it's still seen today as some sort of an epiphany for rock guitar as much as the whole body of work for Chuck Berry. Neither were as skilled, I don't think, as many current rock pickers - but they had something quite special for a time and place when rock, and electric guitar styles in general, were just evolving. Chuck, I think, did the far better job of having his material join a "rockabilly" and "blues" schtick to create what could be considered the foundation of a huge body of rock standards that young guys are still using today even when they think they're creating their own stuff and don't think they even "studied" Berry. But Link and Rumble? That's something more unique and perhaps educational for all of us. In rock music history terms, it's as though everybody saw a flying saucer as big as Connecticut taking a slow cruise from Des Moines to Nashville in 1957 and then disappearing. It would be a game changer even when it didn't seem to be relevant to anything that followed - but was always in the shadow of memory for the whole culture. The problem for Link was, how to you follow up that act? m Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kaleb Posted July 10, 2012 Share Posted July 10, 2012 What other guys his age use a Marshall stack and an overdrive pedal? None! That's where Page got it from. Page then passed it on to Frehley (that's definitely an influence. Listen to the "She" solo from Alive!.), who then passed it on to EVH, who then passed it on to Dimebag. This guy is the boss. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
milod Posted July 10, 2012 Share Posted July 10, 2012 Originally you've gotta consider that there were NO overdrive pedals in the '50s, nor stacks used in saloons where Link developed his sound. What you're hearing is an intentionally damaged speaker on a relatively small amp (compared to monster stacks) that Link messed with (cut/tore) to get that funky sound. Then add some reverb and trem. Later performances brought some changes in technique, some longer plays, etc., etc., etc. But the starship had been seen and brought some major changes in thinking for electric guitar that took a different fork in the road than what Les Paul was doing about the same time. Although Wray never really had a super followup, Rumble kinda kept him going the rest of his life. May he continue somehow, somewhere, with whatever trips his trigger, guitar or otherwise. I think it may be hard for some of "you young guys" to understand in ways, but the electric guitar and rock both were new - very new. The guitar band was just getting going. Much of the "lead guitar" stuff came from country, blues and jazz guys adjusting to a new, post-war world. There were batches upon batches of "war surplus" electronics and pent up demand for this new amplified music that let a three to five piece of any style put out enough sound for a dance hall as well as saloon. Guys back from WWII and then Korea wanted a chance to go out and dance and have some fun they hadn't had at the tail end of the depression and off in the military. Add a few bucks in their pockets, changes in media and nicer places available and combos being louder - and cheaper? Also the crossover of "black" and "white" musical styles had become ingrained and both "sides" overlapped more than ever before. Black guys were functionally doing "country," the "Country" folks were tossing in jazz chords and with such as Chet Atkins, jazz leads and stuff as well as increasing "blues" lead guitar... "Rock" was being invented almost by accident by these new louder combos... It may sound awfully dumb at times to some young guys if they could listen to a 1956 radio station but, believe me, music was making awfully rapid steps into a new electronic age. m Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CowboyBillyBob1 Posted July 10, 2012 Share Posted July 10, 2012 SG-3 Yamaha SG-3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
surfpup Posted July 11, 2012 Share Posted July 11, 2012 I used to have this old Harmony amp that killed "Rumble". It sounded like a$$ on everything else, mind you, but "Rumble" sounded spot on. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rocky4 Posted July 11, 2012 Share Posted July 11, 2012 What other guys his age use a Marshall stack and an overdrive pedal? None! That's where Page got it from. Page then passed it on to Frehley (that's definitely an influence. Listen to the "She" solo from Alive!.), who then passed it on to EVH, who then passed it on to Dimebag. This guy is the boss. Uhhh... no Marshalls or pedals in the 50s........... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kaleb Posted July 11, 2012 Share Posted July 11, 2012 Uhhh... no Marshalls or pedals in the 50s........... No ****? I was referring to his rig in the video. Looked like a JCM900 half stack (maybe an SL-X) and some run-of-the-mill dirt box on the floor. Not many guys from his time would plug into a Marshall stack, let alone use pedals. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
milod Posted July 11, 2012 Share Posted July 11, 2012 With all due respect... Link was a bit more than 15 years older than I am, but I think I can speak for the "older" set in that at least some of "us" will do what's fun if we're physically capable. Wray was among the folks I was listening to in the '50s who were responding to changes in technology, music and our general culture. If, then, it seems strange to today's younger generation that he was experimental and a bit of a rebel - what that says is that he was in half decent physical and mental condition and simply was doing his thing exactly as he had done pretty much his whole life. Kids think they know their parents; they think they know their grandparents. They think they even know other "old people" around them. That's baloney. They simply think they do. Most "old people" are the same folks they were when they were teens; they just have responded and reacted to oodles of experiences along the way that have helped to form them - and helped to form the face they put forth into the world. To be rather blunt, what 20-year-old can really imagine that his great grandma was a wild child in the 1930s and 40s and that his grandma was pretty much the same in the '60s and - still is among those of her own age group? Or... that great grandpa got great grandma really angry in the 1950s when he was playing music and would flirt and ... stuff ... while playing combo versions of top swing tunes? Or... the great grandma who was singing in a band and...??? You think either will get into specifics as they might for their contemporaries? Not all that likely. Again, I think kids - myself definitely included when I was that age - in their 20s may be incredibly bright, talented and even insightful (or maybe dumb as rocks, but still insightful). But they ain't got a clue about those old people and what's in their heads. They won't, either, until they've become "the old people" themselves. "Old people" tend to recognize the difference, if only intuitively, and respond differently to "kids" even as "kids" intuitively respond differently to "old people." For example, I could easily play in a band with a bunch of "kids," and care for them as much as any of their contemporaries care for them as friends; and they might care for me as much as I for them. But they and I would all be quite aware that off stage I'm still "grandpa," who almost literally is from another world. That's Link Wray and a lotta other folks... In fact... been there, done that. m Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
T Bone Posted July 12, 2012 Author Share Posted July 12, 2012 AS I recall, Rumble was kinda the sort of ad hoc thing just to fill time that turned into some more than its parts. I've hollered on this here for years. It's the mind that does it. Link Wray was what amounted to being a competent saloon musician who hit lucky on one piece so special that it's still seen today as some sort of an epiphany for rock guitar as much as the whole body of work for Chuck Berry. Neither were as skilled, I don't think, as many current rock pickers - but they had something quite special for a time and place when rock, and electric guitar styles in general, were just evolving. Chuck, I think, did the far better job of having his material join a "rockabilly" and "blues" schtick to create what could be considered the foundation of a huge body of rock standards that young guys are still using today even when they think they're creating their own stuff and don't think they even "studied" Berry. But Link and Rumble? That's something more unique and perhaps educational for all of us. In rock music history terms, it's as though everybody saw a flying saucer as big as Connecticut taking a slow cruise from Des Moines to Nashville in 1957 and then disappearing. It would be a game changer even when it didn't seem to be relevant to anything that followed - but was always in the shadow of memory for the whole culture. The problem for Link was, how to you follow up that act? m Pretty much it, actually it seems to have been more or less improvised on the spot (on stage). Here's a short interview (under 3 minutes) with Link recalling the beginnings of the song. Sort of the original Rock and Roll jam tune. SG-3 Yamaha SG-3 Thanks! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kaleb Posted July 12, 2012 Share Posted July 12, 2012 Pretty much it, actually it seems to have been more or less improvised on the spot (on stage). Here's a short interview (under 3 minutes) with Link recalling the beginnings of the song. Sort of the original Rock and Roll jam tune. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kKjjb8RmcgA&feature=related Thanks! In that video, it looks like he has EMGs in his Mustang! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FirstMeasure Posted July 12, 2012 Share Posted July 12, 2012 Oh my, such an enlightening (and embarrassing) moment. "Rumble" was one of the first songs my Dad ever showed me, and for the last 25 years or so I thought it was Duane Eddy . The heaviest, dirtiest, clean tone ever! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
T Bone Posted July 12, 2012 Author Share Posted July 12, 2012 Oh my, such an enlightening (and embarrassing) moment. "Rumble" was one of the first songs my Dad ever showed me, and for the last 25 years or so I thought it was Duane Eddy . The heaviest, dirtiest, clean tone ever! Well, he did cover it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
milod Posted July 12, 2012 Share Posted July 12, 2012 Yeah, I'd seen the interview vid too. Nowadays it seems a lotta folks in rock and other types of music have all kinds of formal education in music and whatever - and I don't think we can forget that in the '50s, a lotta rock came from guys like Link and Elvis and such, the lower blue collar economic bunch who saw the newly-electrified combo as a way out. As for covers... heck, I think everybody did Rumble one way or another. m Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FirstMeasure Posted July 12, 2012 Share Posted July 12, 2012 Well, he did cover it. Whew! I thought I'd completely lost it! Yeah, I'd seen the interview vid too. Nowadays it seems a lotta folks in rock and other types of music have all kinds of formal education in music and whatever - and I don't think we can forget that in the '50s, a lotta rock came from guys like Link and Elvis and such, the lower blue collar economic bunch who saw the newly-electrified combo as a way out. As for covers... heck, I think everybody did Rumble one way or another. m True, but don't forget Scotty Moore and James Burton. Those guys knew their onions and made 50's rock guitar what it is. Folk Musicians have always been a combination of self taught and schooled. And by the strictest definition, Rock and Roll is folk music. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
milod Posted July 12, 2012 Share Posted July 12, 2012 No argument on the folk thing. In fact, the 50s and early '60s were kinda interesting in how so many "folk" and "country" pickers by today's standards were making a shift into electric guitars and "rock" or "rockabilly" or even the jazz sorts of progressions that made inroads into electric country of the era. Imagine a 19-year-old me playing Rumble on a classical guitar with a girlfriend playing rhythm on her classical guitar until deciding to stand up and dance... <grin> Ah, youth, certainly too wonderful to be wasted on the young. On a more serious side, I keep thinking that I'm a self-taught musician - but then being forced by more realistic memories to edit that belief by playing piano from age 4 until 4th grade, then trumpet in bands - and even a bit of music theory in college. Oops. So, is I, or isn't I? I dunno. m Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zigzag Posted July 12, 2012 Share Posted July 12, 2012 ...And by the strictest definition, Rock and Roll is folk music. Please enlighten me. By what definition is R&R folk music? I could possibly accept that some folk music might in some way qualify as soft rock. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jdgm Posted July 12, 2012 Share Posted July 12, 2012 Imagine a 19-year-old me playing Rumble on a classical guitar with a girlfriend playing rhythm on her classical guitar until deciding to stand up and dance... <grin> Ah, youth, certainly too wonderful to be wasted on the young. What an image that conjures up! Please enlighten me. By what definition is R&R folk music? I could possibly accept that some folk music might in some way qualify as soft rock. The last word on this is from Mr Louis Armstrong: "Man, all music is folk music. You ain't never heard no horse sing a song, have you?" Sorry ZZ, couldn't resist that one! Of Link Wray, I can also recommend the "Wray's shack/3-track" and "Be What You Want To" albums from the 1970s. Good rockin' stuff. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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