Obituary
Ace guitarist, singer, songwriter, producer,, Rick Derringer died yesterday. He was one of my heros from mid teens to, well, now. He had early pop success with the McCoys with Hang On Sloopy, made one of the best live albums ever with Johnny Winter And, did several tours of duty with Edgar Winter before launching a solo career with five solid albums which I bought on day of release. He was also an in demand session player, not least with Steely Dan on some classic tracks. Later on he did blues albums, reunion albums with Edgar with the White Trash as producer, guitarist on another brill live album then band member in the EW Group, got God, got Trump. Never less than 100%.
RIP Rick you were terrific.
Rick shines all over this album from funk chops, blues on Tobacco Road and scatting with Edgar, out Chucking Chuck on “Back in the USA”, here on his own song followed by Johnny fresh out of rehab doing one of Rick’s best songs.
loved his work on this fave
Yes though I prefer this one with Rick fronting the EWG doing “Rock n roll hoochie coo”, a great song. It makes me happy to watch it, he’s obviously having a ball.
The Johnny Winter And live album was one of the first records I bought with my own money as a pre-teen. Blew my mind from start to finish!
I can often be heard complaining about guitarists doing pointless, self-centered solos, but when a really good guitarist get into a solo, it adds to the song, sometimes it even makes the song.
He was one of the good ones.
Yes my favourite too.
The other great thing about that album is it sounds like they’re having fun, and it’s always on the edge – some live albums are so groomed. This one sounds like it could go horribly wrong at any moment but of course it doesn’t. Edgar’s “Roadwork” features Rick and for one track Johnny and has the same rhythm section and is magnificent.
My first real, large-scale rock concert was at the Albert Hall. Johny Winter And feat Rick Derringer. What a way to begin my gig-going career..
It was all breath-takingly exciting. That interplay between the two guitarists left me speechless.
I’d never see anything like that before. And never have since.
Rick was one of the greats.
You lucky man. I’d love to have seen the And band. There are alternative performances of the live ones which I’ve harvested from here and there.
There’s even a Rick/Beatles connection for those who have to know everything about the Fabs.
https://www.ultimate-guitar.com/articles/features/the_story_of_the_les_paul_known_as_lucy-152183
Thanks for that. A question for @Twang et al. Why would you remove the Bigsby?
Twang will have a reason, but I won’t. I added a Bigsby to my own Gibson!
I they’re tone sucking monstrosities. Look cool of that’s important, good for ol’ rock n roll but I wouldn’t have one and nor did Rick
We’ve had this discussion before – so I’ll just say you’re wrong Wrong WRONG!
FWIW, my 135 sounds better with it than it did without it.
I know we’ve discussed it. Guitars are very personal, as you know. I love Stratocasters but I could play 10 and probably not like 6 of them and only utterly love one. I don’t think much of Gretsch at all and have a sneaking suspicion people only like them for the look. Jaguars, Jazzmasters – don’t get me started. Obviously I’m wrong, but so is everyone else.
Ok take this a step back for the civilian. Is the argument as follows : the bigsby is a hunk of metal with a long handle that bolts onto the guitar down near the pickups where the strings start. By attaching that metal you will affect vibration which will alter the tone and sustain of the guitar’s sound. You may like the change in sound , you may not or you may not like it but reckon the bigsby has uses which makes it worthwhile to have it attached.
Is that the argument?
Yep. It’s the original (I think) vibrato arm. Some players don’t like vibratos on Gibsons but are happy to use the Strat whammy bar – some don’t like vibratos at all.
If Bigsbys are good enough for Duane Eddy, Micky Jones, John Cipollina, etc, etc…
Whammy bar , Bigsby , vibrato arm. They all do the same thing – correct?
Yes. Differing mechanisms – but yes.
It’s a Wang Bar!
How about Dan Hartman’s bass suit which he played in the Edgar Winter group with R Derringer?
Yes and the strings go over it rather than being actually attached to it as they are on a Les Paul or Strat, or through the body and over the bridge like a Tele. So the reason I’m not keen is the physical coupling of string to bridge to body is reduced which IMHO affects the resonance and so the tone. Also they are a bugger to keep in tune – see the plethora of YouTube videos about how to get your Bigsby to be in tune. Again, with a trem (what I call it even though it’s a vibrola/vibrato bar not a tremolo technically speaking). They can’t do anything you can’t do with a different design which is far more flexible, affect the tone and don’t stay in tune. That’s the case for the prosecution. But everyone agrees they look cool.
But there are as many opinions on guitar tone as there are guitarists so it only matters that you like your own tone, Bigsby, Strat style, Floyd Rose, hard tail or whatever you like.
Yes repeat no.
BTW, Twang, is your Strat a hard-tail?
I have two with a trem and an ancient copy with a hard tail I play slide on.
How do you get on with the trems? Do you use them? How’s the tone compared with the hard-tail?
I’m not a Strat player, so I’m interested.
I do use it. Usually people set them up to either float, i.e. you can bend up or down, or just dip down i.e. it returns to be flat on the body. I have mine set to dip by one semitone – you can “tune” how far it dips using the springs in the back. I use it a lot for bits of emphasis on chords, lead guitar tricks and stupid flashy feedback dive bombs at the end of rock songs. Fun for days. I don’t get any tuning issues having learned how to set it up and spending a satisfying hour getting it just how I want it.
On another guitar I have a Wilkinson power bridge which is more Floyd Rosey except it’s not locking, but you can go up or down in magnificent tastelessness and I love it. Again, great fun.
I can’t really compare the tones as the pickups in the hardtail are so different.
The other thing I’ve done is put a steel base plate on the bridge pickup which gives it a bit more of a Tele sound. And series wiring to optionally get a humbuckery sound – so it’s pretty much perfect for what I want.
Twang – if you can predict my next question, I’ll send you a ten bob postal order…
No I’m not selling it.
Arf! No. I like Teles but I don’t get on with Strats!
I was going to ask: if it takes an hour to get your trem set up and adjusted just how you like it, how would that be better/different to me adjusting the Bigsby and associated friction points to stay in tune?
Exactly the same Fitz old boy. Get your guitar playing how you like it. I like Teles too of course.
Don’t know why I don’t get on with Strats – arguably I haven’t spent enough time playing them. But a Tele just works – and I immediately feel at home with a Gibson or Gordon-Smith semi or hollowbody.
Maybe I should get a Strat and live with it for a bit – but your 6 out of 10 statistic above rather mitigates against taking the risk!
I played every Tele in our local high end guitar shop and compared them to mine. Inevitably I preferred mine.
I think I have pretty much every album up until his wrestling and religion era. Always had a real soft spot for the albums he did as Derringer with Vinny Appice and Kenny Aaronson and then DNA. Unfortunately whilst searching for live footage on YouTube I came across one of his interviews with the vile Alex Jones on Infowars which rather took the shine off things. Still love the music.
Loved the Derringer albums.
I’ve missed the interviews I’m glad to say. He got religion which is usually a gateway to intolerance.
For the curious there’s a nice little box set of his eponymous band Derringer for a modest 20 quid on Dodgers.
https://amzn.eu/d/bsoTiPc