We’ve been doing plank spanking wrong all this time, apparently. Stop thinking and wear a hat. Play to a bush. No mention of electricity though.
Captain Beefheart’s Ten Commandments of Guitar Playing
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On Restringing a Rickenbacker 12-String Guitar
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Restringing a Rickenbacker 12-string is not for the fainthearted.
If you do a Google search on the topic, one of the first hits you’ll get is titled “Restringing a Rickenbacker 12-String: How to become an alcoholic”. I’ve owned my Rickenbacker 360/12 Fireglo for about 20 years and in that time I’ve sold it and re-bought it twice and listed it for sale another 3-4 times, each occasion following the ritual of restringing.
For a bit of context, restringing and doing a quick set-up on any of my other guitars is a 5-10 minute job. Yesterday I spent five hours accomplishing the same on my Rick. Like any tool developed during wartime (it was an invasion, in case you don’t know) the original Rick 12 design was rough and ready, thrown together to present to the Beatles during their first US tour. This first contact is actually captured on audio, as George was sick in bed conducting a radio interview (with his sister) when the presentation party arrived. Unlike most tools of war, however, the Rickenbacker 12 has been frozen in time since, apart from an early design change that actually made it less user-friendly. Restringing a guitar was only » Continue Reading.
Rubbish Guitar Solos of Our Time
As opposed to the current Greatest…. thread, please add your shockers. This conjures up the verb Wonky. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PJ0ofmCUQ8g
Solos you can sing.
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This week’s Friday Night Is Music Night thread is about those guitar players who make your heart sing. I’m not talking the million miles an hour merchants, the shredders, the let’s see your fingers bleed brigade. I’m after those melodic players who think about the song, who get in and get out, not outstaying their welcome.
No surprise that I’ll start with Tin Renwick I love Rennie’s playing – full of melody but spare, short solos with plenty of attack. I saw him with The Suths, in 1974, and he was Les Chiens.
So come on you lovely lot. Hit me with videos of your favourite pickers who fit the bill.
Happy 70th Richard Thompson!
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If the Afterword has a patron act it must surely be Richard Thompson. Even the fact that there are cloth-eared fools among us who dispute his brilliance fosters discussion and so is in keeping with the ethos of the site.
Today he reaches 70 years of age, and as anyone who has seen the trio format band recently will attest he can still rip up a stage with the best of them. I like to think that some people who haven’t been keeping up think that buying a ticket for an elderly ex-Fairporter will guarantee an evening of mellow acoustic folkiness. Those same people presumably stumble out two hours later with fixed, glazed expressions and whistling ears. He can deliver masterful mellow acoustic folkiness too of course, and I would be hard pressed to pick which version of his show to see if I was given a straight choice.
We spend a lot of time here celebrating the greats once they have gone, but here’s the chance to share your favourites from one of the all time best while he is still giving superb performances on record and stage.