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Post by phobia on Jun 17, 2008 17:14:44 GMT -5
I thought he said he was in LA...lost it on the flight from SF to LA and had to go on TV right away... Shindig maybe... And Ray said in XRay that was when they met James Burton and Ray hooked up with the dancer that he found out must have been Burton's girlfriend...which cooled his jets pretty good! JB
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Post by franklima on Jun 17, 2008 19:04:53 GMT -5
maybe I was thinking of the acoustic Martin Dave had with him in Westbury 1995 at the last US KinKs show, I think he had got that in Manny's the night before and had Les Paul sign it...
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Post by kinkfrank49 on Jun 17, 2008 19:52:28 GMT -5
Great articles and background on the Flying V. I haven't read as much as many of you have about Dave's recording axes, but I know his appearances on TV made the V a big hit in the mid '60s after Lonnie Mack's career cooled off. When the band put out Kontroversy with a single cutaway F hole model on the cover, I figured the Flying V was mainly for show, since by then I had heard about the little green amp. It made a big comeback in the '70s with metal bands and players, especially Michael Schenker. It is a difficult guitar to play, with the bridge located at the edge of the two cutaways makes muting unplayed lead strings hard and the top fin gets in the way of some chord playing.
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Post by phobia on Jun 17, 2008 20:46:30 GMT -5
FurryFreak Frank,
It's really fun to scour the web for this great material... Always the skill and heart of the player is the thing isn't it?
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Post by HollyH on Jun 17, 2008 21:21:55 GMT -5
Kinkfrank, that's very interesting about how hard the Flying V is to play. I wonder if it made certain artists lean towards chords and fingering that were easier.
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Post by franklima on Jun 18, 2008 8:25:31 GMT -5
Ask Kevin from the Warning Label, he has one
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Post by complicatedlife on Jun 18, 2008 12:44:32 GMT -5
I thought he said he was in LA...lost it on the flight from SF to LA and had to go on TV right away... Shindig maybe... I had heard in an interview with Dave (God knows where or when I heard it) that the guitar was missing when they arrived at JFK Airport. They went to Manny's and Dave noticed it tucked away in a corner of the store. They Sales staff really did try to talk him out of buying it.
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Post by kinkfrank49 on Jun 18, 2008 14:50:56 GMT -5
Phobia/Holly: My former boss's head-banger son bought one about 10 years ago, a replica of the '58 V. The thing weighs more than a Les Paul or a Telecaster (VERY heavy), and is almost four feet long. It has string pull throughs that are V-shaped and these and the top fin get in the way of most players conventional lead picking position. The guitar is body-heavy and imbalanced, but it LOOKS great. Most players I have seen play strap it high (Dave among them) and play chords from between the fins, holding the guitar out to the left to balance it. Albert King managed to play it left-handed and upside down, with the bass strings on the bottom.
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Post by phobia on Jun 27, 2008 13:27:19 GMT -5
OK-- I found the passage in KINK about the lost guitar and buying the Flying V:
"My stay in LA could have been ruined altogether. Before the American tour, someone had loaned me a custom-built Guild guitar that had once been owned by George Harrison. In those days we carried our own instruments, and when we arrived at the airport in LA all the bags arrived except that guitar. We were slated to do the TV show Shindig, and a runner from the show took me to a guitar store that he knew. I looked at all the new guitars and then noticed a bunch of dusty old cases stacked away at the back, including a trianglular-shaped one.
'Let me have a look at that one,' I said to the proprietor. 'No,' he replied, 'you don't want that old thing.' That 'old thing' turned out to be a Gibson Futurist, also known as a Flying V. I asked how much it was. 'Two hundred dollars,' he said. I peeled off two hundred-dollar bills and bought it.
I used the Flying V for the first time on Shindig. It had been built in the fifties, but these guitars didn't become popular again until the early seventies. For Shindig we recorded back tracks to 'All Day' and 'Long Tall Shorty', which we sang live on the show. Also on the show were Bobby Vinton and Sonny and Cher. Because of union rules we had to use the house band. They were called the Shindogs and their guitarist was James Burton, one of my favourite guitar players, who played with Rick Nelson and many others. I couldn't believe I was recording a session with James Burton in the back-up band. I think my solo on 'Till the End of the Day' was inspired by that meeting."
Page 81
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Post by kinkfrank49 on Jun 27, 2008 20:07:00 GMT -5
I always had a feeling the V was kind of a prop, but it's good to hear Dave talk about the background of how it came to be on so many of those early videos, and that it was actually played. James Burton was and still is one of the most famous session guitarists in rock history. He was Elvis' tour guitarist after Scotty Moore and during most of his television concerts, as well as on most of his later singles and albums. I think he's in the R&R Hall of Fame, and there aren't too many session guys who are. It's nice to see Dave giving him his props.
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Post by phobia on Jun 29, 2008 22:49:09 GMT -5
I don't know why, but I always had the feeling that difficulty never held back Dave from doing anything he felt attracted to doing ... including playing that hefty and unwieldy V... You see him repositioning it in some videos from arm between the V and arm above the top... without losing a second.... and he KNEW how cool he looked !!!! Maybe that was the little extra reason to put up with the difficulty?
As I said above:
Always the skill and heart of the player is the thing isn't it?
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Post by phobia on Jul 2, 2008 13:51:26 GMT -5
Couldn't resist adding this sweet pic!
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Post by kinkfrank49 on Jul 3, 2008 21:50:04 GMT -5
Here is a link to what is supposed to be the earliest Hendrix video available, a YouTube of him playing in a backup band to 'Shotgun' in 1965. JH to my knowledge never recorded a note on a Flying V but it makes a great photo prop. He did record 'Red House' on a Japanese-made off-brand guitar he had from his road days because he liked the tone. I spoke last week to by former boss's son who still has his V, actually a replica of the '64 model, and he now has switched to a Gibson SG because it is too heavy.
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Post by phobia on Jul 4, 2008 15:38:10 GMT -5
Love that performance... he looked happy!
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Post by phobia on Jul 14, 2008 13:09:27 GMT -5
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