There were several threads recently that I thought Jerry might be interested in reading to take his mind off of some of his medical problems and give him something to do also so I sent them to him. He had some comments he wanted me to put up on the forum about a few of them. Rather than hunt the threads that they pertain to I have decided to put them in a new thread, that way his response will not get buried in the original threads. At least this way his response is easily identified in the subject title. So here it goes.
DUNLOP BARS.
When I started teaching I could find nobody that made a bar like I used. So I wrote to Jim Dunlop and asked him if he could make some and he agreed to do them according to my specifications and I’ve been using them ever since. How they are made or what they are made of doesn’t matter to me. The type of metal, and so on doesn’t have a thing to do with learning how to play. You need to learn how to use whatever kind of a bar you are using. Drilling holes and adding weight and all of that kind of stuff is beside the point I think.
PICK UPS.
Concerning the pick-ups in my Sho-Bud and the fry pans I can say this. When Shot Jackson wanted to build a guitar for me, I told him he was going to have to build it according to my spec’s, which he agreed to do. So he had to make up a short scale fret board, all of his were long scale. The pick-ups I wanted to have a certain sound with so many turns on the coil and all of that, and I went with what I knew about the Rickenbacher pick ups. So he made three prototypes on the frypans and I could tell when I laid one on my lap and playing it without even plugging it in, I could feel it and the third one he made was the one that met my expectations. So I told him to make them all like that one which he agreed to do and did as far as I know. Shot and I argued like hell all the time he was making these guitars gripping because he had to do them my way. I said well if you put my name on them that’s what your’e going to have to do. The story of these guitars has been told previously on the forum as many of you know.
TWEAKING MY OLD RICKENBACHER.
Some wanted to know if I tweaked the pick-ups in my old Rickenbacher. I don’t know what they are talking about. I NEVER messed with the pick-ups at all. What is not realized is that I was playing day-to-day. I put whatever kind of strings I had- not having to go buy them. If I had the guitar with the first three strings all 16 gauge and most likely I did that at times because I used what I had on hand and probably didn’t have a 15 gauge string. It may not have sounded as good but I used them anyway. We just made do with what we had on hand at times.
EBB TIDE.
There is an old Hawaiian song called Ebb Tide. It was written and recorded before the instrumental one called Ebb Tide came out. The title of it was “You Were in Tahua With Me” You were in Tahua with me just watching Ebb Tide flow out to the sea. That was the first line. So if I was going to play the instrumental Ebb Tide I would say to the others just “Ebb Tide” If I was going to do the other Ebb Tide I would Say “You Were in Tahua”. That told whomever I was playing with which on I was going to play. In my arrangements catalog I have the vocal Ebb Tide listed with You Were In Tahua, etc. In parentheses . That was the way we distinguished between the two. They are two different songs and the vocal was written long before the instrumental was. Webley Edwards put his name on a lot of songs. He never wrote a song, he was an announcer but they would steal these songs from the writers over here (Hawaii) that didn’t know anything about the publishing business. So they screwed the musicians good. Al Kealoha Perry and Webley Edwards would take these old Hawaiian songs, change the title and use the same melody and record it with the Hawaii Calls group and they would collect the royalties. That was done a lot in Hawaii. It was done also in country music. The country boys got smart. Most of them opened up their won publishing companies just for their own songs like Marty Robbins who had two or three publishing companies.
BIILLY WALKER
The song Charlie’s Shoes is not a song that I remember recording with him. The one that I remember doing with him is one on which I manufactured a unique intro on and it was a song about a telephone call. I don’t remember the title. I played a major 7th chord and that song was recorded on the tapes that were played in a lot of hotel lobbies and elevators back then and a lot of orchestras recorded it and they all used my intro on their arrangements of the song. That is all I can remember.
FERLIN HUSKEY
The Waltz You Saved For Me was out of an album I did with him. The song I did with him as a single is considered a master piece also is called Next To Jimmy. The break that I played on that song a lot of the guys still think that is the best that I ever did. This was covered previously on the forum.
[This message was edited by Jack Byrd on 14 October 2004 at 08:37 AM.]
[This message was edited by Jack Byrd on 14 October 2004 at 08:38 AM.]
[This message was edited by Jack Byrd on 15 October 2004 at 07:41 AM.]
