Marc Friedland
From:
Fort Collins, CO
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Posted 14 Aug 2003 5:03 pm |
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This afternoon I had the honor and privilege of performing on a 1970 Fender 400 that belonged to Jim Dunlop and was recently rebuilt by Tom Bradshaw.
Here’s the story:
Jim and Tom’s history goes back about 40 years. As a matter of fact it was Tom’s idea originally, for Jim to experiment with making different gauge picks, and we know where that idea lead to eventually, but that’s another story for another time perhaps.
Tom took on the project of rebuilding Jim’s old guitar, as Tom seems to love projects like this one. As a special tribute, Tom wanted to surprise Jim and present him with his rebuilt guitar at a barbeque luncheon event in Jim’s honor at the Dunlop factory. The idea was that we would find musicians who work there at the factory to perform a few tunes with me on Jim’s guitar.
For those that don’t know, as I didn’t, the guitar is a beautiful sunburst color with 8 strings with 4 pedals, and Tom added two knee levers. I don’t know how to post pictures on The Forum, but I can email them to you, if anyone would like to see the guitar. I was not used to playing a psg with only 8 strings, and compared to today’s new steels, the action seemed like battling a truck that lost its power steering while going down hill. Those are my shortcomings and no reflection on Jim’s beautiful guitar or Tom’s exquisite workmanship. The event went very well, and Jim was presently surprised when he saw and heard his guitar being played. After playing a couple of tunes on the Fender 400 I played a few on my own rig, which naturally I’m more comfortable on.
This was a very informal performance. In addition to me, the band was made up of a guitarist, drummer, and bassist who have never played together before. There was no country music played or implied at this event. Some of the songs that we played, I have never previously played on the pedal steel. To the best of my memory, these are the only songs we played:
Sleepwalk - C
Jam in E – Jimi Hendrix style
12 Bar Blues in G
Little Wing - Em
Unknown song - Am
My Girl – C (yes, the Temptations song)
The Thrill is Gone - Bm
Fast Shuffle type song - A
On the two Jimi Hendrix songs, I played with distortion and of course the Crybaby Wah Wah pedal. I think the song that probably sounded the best overall was B.B. King’s The Thrill is Gone, a slow blues in a minor key.
The guitar player was originally from near my home town of New Haven, CT, and we knew and had played with many of the same players from way back when.
After it was all over, my wife and a couple of friends, and about a half a dozen other nice people, took a tour of the factory. It was fun to see where and how all the picks, slides, capos, crybaby’s, etc. are made and or put together.
-- Marc
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Alvin Blaine
From:
Picture Rocks, Arizona, USA
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Posted 14 Aug 2003 9:45 pm
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That's a great story Marc.
I would love that chance to hang out at the Dunlop Factory.
I also think that at some point everyone should get to play on an old Fender. Its kind of like getting to drive a '49 Ford compared to a new car.They are cool and clunky, a little rough, but they sound great.
If you could I would love to see the pictures.
Thanks!! |
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