One of the most original-sounding guitarists to emerge from the post-punk/new wave movement of the late ’70s was Gang of Four’s Andy Gill. While he didn’t take many solos, his slashing, funky playing on classic albums like Entertainment! stood out – and inspired acts like the Red Hot Chili Peppers (Gill produced that band’s debut album). Gang of Four recently released Live… In the Moment.
How did you develop a guitar style?
“It’s complicated yet simple” is the sort of dumb answer, because there were so many types of music I loved. When I was young, Hendrix was a big obsession, with his flowing, soloing, colorful, expressive style. But there were more groove-orientated things that got me quite excited – a lot of Motown things which are not guitar-driven at all. With Motown, the way the grooves were put together really got under my skin. And people like Steve Cropper, who is an amazing, underrated rhythm guitarist. Nile Rodgers is a descendent of Cropper in a way – someone who totally knows their chords but has got an incredible rhythmic feel. That very-rhythmic thing, abstract feedback, and those drones, again – a bit on the Hendrix side of things; if you like, a very “paint-ily” approach to making noise on the guitar. And then reggae and that feeling for space – it’s the antithesis of all those rock guitarists who are throwing as many notes as possible in their solos. Reggae is the kind of antidote for that. I didn’t really like any punk guitarists at all, but the great pre-punk Dr. Feelgood – Wilko Johnson was an enormous influence on me. Listen to “Damaged Goods” and you know where that kind of vibe comes from. It’s all over the place.
Gang of Four remains a unique-sounding band.
The guitar within Gang of Four is very unlike traditional rock, where there’s a hierarchy where you have the lead vocal at the pinnacle, and under that are the guitars, then the keyboards, and below that you’ve got the bass and the drums. The way that I put together Gang of Four was the opposite – everything was side-by-side. So the vocals worked around the guitar, the guitar worked around the bass and drums… it was in a horizontal line where everything relates to everything else.
I think of the Gang of Four approach as the band is the instrument. The guitar isn’t the instrument; the band is the instrument being played. Many of the guitar parts in those songs, if you try and play it on its own, for the most part, it doesn’t make a whole heap of sense. It’s completely dependent on a symbiotic relationship with the other elements.
What are your go-to amps, effects, and guitars?
I’ve always had a bit of a love for transistor amps – basic solidstate amps of the ’70s. People have forever gone on about the warm sound of valves. I used to find it ever so slightly irritating, so I was instinctively drawn a bit to transistorized amps – there’s a brand in the U.K. called Carlsbro. It’s a 2×12 combo, and it had a very detailed, pristine, clear but aggressive sound. I’ve had various models, but I’ve still got one from the early ’80s, the time of the second album (Solid Gold) and I still use it. The other amps I really like are Peavey – I like the 4×10 open-back combo. When I play live, I usually have one of each.
I’ve never been big-time into pedals. I sometimes use the built-in tremolo on the Carlsbro, but in more recent years I was using a Peavey rack unit for a while. These days, I’ve been using a laptop; basically, the guitar goes in the interface, through some stuff in the laptop – various plug-ins – and into the amp.
The guitar I return to again and again is a Strat, and the one that I use most is from the late ’80s with Lace pickups I particularly like because they tend to be less buzzy than some Fenders can be. I also have a Gibson 335 I used a lot in the ’90s. It’s a different sound, very cool character. I also had a Burns, but it got stolen, and there’s a guitar I got fairly recently, a Reverend that I really like. I’ve been doing some songwriting at the moment using that, and I’m pretty impressed with it.
This article originally appeared in VG January 2017 issue. All copyrights are by the author and Vintage Guitar magazine. Unauthorized replication or use is strictly prohibited.
It’s difficult enough to be a member of one metal band, let alone two. But Pepper Keenan is pulling double-duty as a member of both Corrosion of Conformity (as singer/guitarist) and Down (as guitarist). The former’s reunion certainly makes sense, as the Keenan-fronted lineup enjoyed the biggest commercial success.
We spoke with him about how CoC is going about picking up where it left off in 2006.
How did the idea come up to reunite with CoC?
Just being on tour and hearing a lot of people asking, “When are you going to get back together?” That kind of thing. It had been a long time since I’d spoken to Reed [Mullin, drums] and then they started doing the three-piece thing. People just kind of kept the band alive and were really curious about the possibility of us playing again. We talked about it. We said, “Let’s just go to Europe, play some shows, and feel it out.” It was like riding a bike. It was really fun. And the songs really do stand the test of time. It was awesome to play them – some we hadn’t played in 20 years. It went great, so it just started rolling from there, and everybody seemed to dig what we were doing.
How is it playing in the band now compared to the first time around?
We’ve all matured a bit. We’re not necessarily better (laughs), but we’re playing better. It’s just really fun. It’s bizarre when you go back and play songs you wrote a long time ago, and you wonder, “How the hell did we write this thing?” It’s always fun to go back and do that. Playing-wise, it’s been a blast.
What can fans expect from the forthcoming CoC studio album?
It’s a tall order, because the last record I did with CoC was In the Arms of God, which in my opinion is about as good as I could do it. That was us at the top of our game. So, our standards are very high and we don’t take this opportunity lightly, so we’re putting a lot of energy and time into making the correct record for where we’re at right now, but going backward a little bit, too. We’re not scared to do that. I know which parts work – and how – for us. We just want to make what’s in our head – a killer classic CoC record. And with John Custer working with us, who produced all those records. He’s super-excited, too.
How would you say your guitar playing differs from when you play with CoC compared to Down?
Down is a little more ham-fisted, if that makes any sense. The CoC thing, obviously, I’m singing. It’s just two different animals. The Down stuff, I’m more focused on ripping guitar stuff because I don’t have to sing. And the CoC stuff is really more song-oriented.
Which guitars, effects, and amplifiers do you use?
Right now, live, I am using two Orange Thunderverb 50-watt heads, Orange cabinets, and minimal pedals. I got your wah, delay, a Phase 90, and an overdrive, and I can pretty much get anywhere I need to go with that small setup. And then I’ve got two ESP custom-made guitars that are like SGs. I’ve used them forever, they’re bulletproof and beat to s**t, but still play great. They’re based on one of my favorite Gibson SGs, just made thicker – as thick as a Telecaster. There are only two of them.
What does the thickness add to the instrument?
It’s just sturdier, and I really wanted to put the jack upside-down on the side of the guitar, so it came up by the strap. I had them use a Strat-style input jack, so it goes up and over the strap. On some of the Gibsons, it comes out the front, and I break them all the time. I played SGs so long and thought, “How can I make it better for me?” We also moved the pickup selector out of the way and put the Volume knob in a different spot – closer to the strings, like a Stratocaster.
Which album of your entire career is your favorite from a guitar-playing standpoint?
It would be two of them. In the Arms of God, guitar-playing-wise, is pretty damn epic. And the Down stuff… Down II has some pretty crazy guitar s**t on it.
This article originally appeared in VG December 2016 issue. All copyrights are by the author and Vintage Guitar magazine. Unauthorized replication or use is strictly prohibited.
Lance Lopez is a guitar-slinging blues machine that burns like Texas hot sauce in August. He has scorched the festival circuit for years with an enviable body of work and inspired musicianship. His latest project brings together bassist/producer Fabrizio Grossi, drummer Kenny Aronoff, and Billy Gibbons. The band is called Supersonic Blues Machine and the name of the album is West Of Flushing, South Of Frisco. It’s packed with rootsy compositions, stellar playing, and some of the finest guitarists in blues.
How did this all come together?
Fabrizio Grossi and I have mutual friends in Europe; I’d been touring there like crazy. A lot of cats there were saying, “You guys need to hook up and work together. He’s a killer producer and engineer.” They kept going on about it and after touring slowed down, I reached out to Fabrizio.
When I got out to L.A., we started recording. I had written some songs and Fabrizio and I started working on them. We blocked out two or three days and, lo and behold, the next day, Billy Gibbons called Fabrizio about working on a project. Billy asked, “What are you doing?” He said, “I’m working with this cat, Lance Lopez.” Billy was like, “What?! I’ve known Lance since he was a kid!”; I’ve known Billy since I was 15. Billy said, “You guys should form a band. Let’s do something and I’ll be on it.” So that’s what we did.
How did the songs come together?
“Running Whiskey” was a track Billy had been working on for the La Futura album with ZZ Top. It was never finalized. We had other songs from Nashville that we took and made our own. It was easy for me because I spend so much time writing, producing, and doing everything on my own for my solo albums. This was a freeing opportunity to sit back, play guitar, and sing. I could play and sing on great songs that I’d gathered from great writers from Nashville, New York, and L.A.
West Of Flushing, South Of Frisco has a lot of variety.
I wanted to work with great songwriters. For me it’s usually balls-to-the-wall ripping. I’m used to playing Texas roadhouses for four hours of straight shredding. So it was nice to be in a band with great songs as opposed to me standing in front of a trio all night.
How did Kenny Aronoff become attached to the project?
I met him through Fabrizio. They worked with Steve Lukather and did the Leslie West record together. When Billy said “Put something together,” the first person Fabrizio thought of was Kenny. He loved the tracks that we’d been working on.
The album has guests Robben Ford, Warren Haynes, Eric Gales, Chris Duarte, and Walter Trout. What’s your response to what they brought to the record?
I’m in absolute awe of everything! I would cut several guitar solos to choose from, then leave holes for them. With Warren, I played a Stratocaster because nine times out of 10, he’ll be playing a Les Paul. I wanted something to contrast the track. “Remedy” has that smooth, creamy, Les-Paul-neck-pickup sound. I needed something that didn’t sound identical.
With Robben Ford, we knew he was going to have epic God-like tone (laughs). What are you gonna do there? Eric Gales and Chris Duarte and I have been friends for a long time. We’ve recorded together so many times that we know how to play together and make it work. We played Stratocasters. Billy, Chris, and Eric and I go back 20-plus years. We’re long-term friends. That was the great thing about having them on this album. Chris is such a big guitar hero here in Texas that there was no way not to have him on the record.
You and Billy Gibbons have great chemistry on “Running Whiskey.”
I’m playing rhythm and singing all the backgrounds. Billy and Tal Wilkenfeld wrote the song. Billy is playing all the leads and I’m using a Fender Esquire through a Deluxe and playing a Keith Richards/Ronnie Wood style. Billy played an SG through a big, hot-rodded Marshall.
Any shows to support the record?
We’re going to have as many guests from the record as we can. We’ll have some dates and prep to go to Europe. We’ll be doing some playing and really growing as a band with our guests. Aside from that, I’ll be out with my own trio, playing blues festivals and clubs. I’ll be doing the same thing I’ve been doing – beating down roadhouses here in Texas (laughs).
This article originally appeared in VG August 2016 issue. All copyrights are by the author and Vintage Guitar magazine. Unauthorized replication or use is strictly prohibited.
Manhattan native Paul Nelson has been influenced by many great guitarists – some of whom gave him lessons, gigs, and/or recording opportunities. But that hasn’t kept him from recording two solo albums on his own terms.
While attending Berklee School of Music intent on a career in the field, Nelson focused on expanding not only his skills, but his knowledge of music in all forms.
“I knew I’d have to listen to as many guitarists as possible, including jazz, country, rock, and pop artists, and everything in-between,” he said. He also took lessons from Steve Vai, Steve Khan, and Mike Stern. His 2001 solo debut, Look, was a nod to fusion.
“I love players like Eric Johnson, Joe Satriani, and Jeff Beck,” he said of it. “I was very pleased with how well it was received. I tried to create a fusion record with song structure and melody, along with stretching the technical boundaries of the guitar.”
His recent group effort, Badass Generation, is full of straight-on rock guitar.
Given his serious attitude from an early age, he developed a preference for serious guitars.
“My first real instrument was a Telecaster, followed by a Firebird,” he recalled. “Soon after, I made an effort to play everything I could get my hands on. Plus, I’ve always been fascinated by the construction of a guitar and the elements that go into it. That has helped me get the tones I look for.”
His career has included work with many of his heroes; a 10-year affiliation with Johnny Winter is the highlight of his sideman ventures. And yes, he recognizes the irony in the fact that he, a Texas guy in a blues band, has an affinity for – and capabilities within – fusion.
“My role didn’t change at all,” Nelson said of his tenure with Winter. “He was a fan of my playing, as well, and let me do my thing. Johnny appreciated my ability to complement his playing in such a way as to not conflict with how he played. On several occasions, he told me how it was ‘a constant guitar battle’ with his past players. He told me, ‘I know you can play as well, even better than them. But I really like the way we play together without stepping all over each other.’”
These days, Nelson counts on numerous guitars to ply his trade.
“Right now, I play everything under the sun, depending on the recording situation; I’m involved in so many projects,” he said. “I mostly play Stratocasters and Les Pauls, along with Taylor acoustics. I really like the guitars sent by GJ2, and I’m very excited about my new signature model that Delaney Guitars is building.”
Badass Generation is credited to the Paul Nelson Band rather than being presented as a solo effort, and he described the difference between it and his ’01 album as “night and day.” Also, its direction away from straight blues was very intentional.
“It’s a mix of many influences from blues to rock, jam, pop, Southern rock. I feel we’re at a good point in music now where one can mix it up more on a single recording and not just be stuck in one style. I think it shows the diversity of an artist or band and gives the listener more.”
Unusual tones include what sounds like a slide on “Please Come Home.”
“Many times, I play slide style without a slide; it’s kind of my own invention. I’m a big fan of the Duane Allman and Johnny Winter style of slide playing, as well, so that might come into play now and then.”
As for personal favorite solos on Badass Generation, Nelson was ambivalent.
“I was really happy with all my solos, as I really tried to make them part of the song,” he said. “Even songs within themselves. If I had to pick one, it would be in ‘Goodbye Forever.’ There’s a little nod to Johnny in there, as well.”
Nelson and the band began touring in May, and in addition to its efforts, Nelson has more than one collaboration on the horizon.
“My good friend Jimmy Vivino and I are on a Paul Butterfield project coming out soon,” he said. “I’m also producing and playing on a Junior Wells album with a great list of artists.”
This article originally appeared in VG August 2016 issue. All copyrights are by the author and Vintage Guitar magazine. Unauthorized replication or use is strictly prohibited.
Storming the stage like King Conan The Biker, former Ozzy Osbourne guitarist Zakk Wylde was one of the highlights of the Tony MacAlpine Benefit Concert at the Wiltern Theater in Los Angeles last December, laying waste to screaming guitar maniacs with a ferocious onslaught that included Black Sabbath and Allman Brothers classics.
Wylde has been stunning audiences for years with his inimitable combination of fretboard intensity and classic-rock musicality. His new album, Book Of Shadows II, continues this tradition with acoustic singer/songwriter compositions that explore the depths of his artistry.
What made you finally decide to do a sequel to Book Of Shadows I?
It’s been almost 20 years, but I was like, “Chinese Democracy took 15 years. Let’s break that record (laughs).” So that’s why when we got to 18 years, I said, “Let’s go two more and make it 20.” This way, the record will be secure. The only other person that can possibly beat this 20-year mark will be maybe Richard Branson if he was going to make a record (laughs).
I still can’t believe it’s 20 years. When we’re on tour with Black Label Society, people always ask, “Hey Zakk, you ever going to get around to making another Book Of Shadows record?” I’m like, “Oh yeah. In between putting together world peace, splitting the atom, cleaning the dog, and changing diapers, I’ll get around to that (laughs).”
We did a short run and it was definitely cool. We’d been supporting Catacombs Of The Black Vatican for the last two years – doing the heavy thing. So I thought, “Why don’t we see if we can knock something out to coincide with the 20-year anniversary?”
What was the motivation behind Book Of Shadows?
After doing Ozzmosis with Ozzy, I was in limbo. We’d track all day and then I’d go out drinking all night. I’d end up at this one bar and the jukebox would be playing The Band, Bob Seger, The Allman Brothers, The Stones, Elton John, The Eagles, Van Morrison, Percy Sledge, and Sam Cooke. I’d be hearing all that and just get inspired. At 6 or 7 o’clock in the morning I’d be rolling into my room. I’d take out an acoustic guitar and start writing stuff in that vein. I had all these songs, so I tracked it. That’s how that record came about.
Most people think of you as a wailing metal guitarist, but acoustic singer/songwriting is a big part of your repertoire.
It’s always been there, even with Ozzy – “Mama, I’m Coming Home,” “Road Back Home,” and “Time After Time.” The mellow stuff has always been around, and it’s been there with Black Label since the beginning, like “Spoke In The Wheel.” The last album had “Angel Of Mercy,” “Scars,” and stuff like that.
Book Of Shadows II sounds very personal.
The lyrics have to have depth and weight. They’re either things that have happened to me or things that I’ve seen happen to friends. Sometimes, I approach the same topics in three different ways. I’m of the whole process of songwriting from the beginning of starting a song, where it’s going, and writing the lyrics using different metaphors and words of how you’re going to say something. I just sit and start writing until I get what I like.
Were there specific guitars that inspired the writing?
I’m using some of my buddy Garren Dakessian’s Loucin guitars. He made me two – one with a bullseye finish, one with a buzzsaw. I used his guitars and the new prototypes that my company, Wylde Audio, makes. Those are the acoustics on the record. All the electric guitars were Wylde Audio.
What’s your philosophy in regard to designing guitars?
Just make things good. If you’re making a cheeseburger, just make it good! It’s the ingredients that you’re using, too. If it’s s**t, it’s going to be terrible. Same thing goes with the amps. You gotta use good components. Don’t skimp, just make it good. And make it affordable. Don’t make it if you have to be in a seven-figure tax bracket to buy the thing. There’s no reason why you shouldn’t be able to make something good. There’s no excuse for making s***ty anything.
You recently finished the Experience Hendrix Tour. What’s next?
After the Generation Axe tour, I go to London, then I’ll be touring until 2017, when we’ll make another Black Label album. Then we’ll be out doing festivals. We got pretty much the next three years wrapped up.
This article originally appeared in VG August 2016 issue. All copyrights are by the author and Vintage Guitar magazine. Unauthorized replication or use is strictly prohibited.
Cummings with his Les Paul Special and Peavey T-60.
George Cummings is best known as the original guitarist for Dr. Hook & the Medicine Show. Born in Meridian, Mississippi, his father’s amateur picking set a course.
As a teenager in the late ’50s, he was playing clubs along the Mississippi Gulf Coast and into Mobile, Alabama. In the early ’60s, he began attending college on a football scholarship, earning a degree in ’64. Afterward, he continued gigging and within a few years gained regional notoriety as a member of the Chocolate Papers, which ventured as far as Chicago and Charleston, South Carolina. Perhaps its important gig was a residency at the Gus Stevens Supper Club, in Biloxi.
“We backed many of the acts Gus booked,” Cummings remembered. “Lavern Baker was one of the most famous. Her shows were the most challenging – and the most fun.”
That band evolved into Dr. Hook & the Medicine Show, which became protégés of songwriter Shel Silverstein and broke through after appearing in (and on the soundtrack of) the 1971 movie Who Is Harry Kellerman And Why Is He Saying Those Terrible Things About Me? Fame and fortune with hits like “Cover of the Rolling Stone” and “Sylvia’s Mother” allowed Cummings to acquire instruments including a Gretsch Chet Atkins Nashville and a four-neck Fender Stringmaster.
Remembered today primarily for “Cover of the Rolling Stone” and its goofy guitar-lead break, Cummings recalled how the band presented it onstage complete with a “freakout,” noting, “Some nights, I’d jump off the amps, get super feedback and sustain… the crowd would go wild.” The song’s “wolf whistle,” he added, was done with the Gretsch’s pickup selector in the middle position.
Fatigue, egos, and finances frustrated Cummings, and the band crumbled.“I stayed on the road for five years until severe bronchitis almost did me in, (but I) never missed a show,” he said. Still, he has remained active and recently played the New Jersey area in a blues band called Mudbelly.
Cummings (right) in the Chocolate Papers. A bandmate (left) holds the Gibson lap steel that was on loan from Hartley Peavey.
“I’ve made trips to Germany, working with good bands there, and when I’m back in Meridian, I hook up with good players and we do local gigs.”
As a kid in Meridian, Cummings befriended a young tinkerer named Hartley Peavey, and spent time helping building speaker cabinets and exploring electronics.
“I just helped him glue and screw things together,” he noted, relating how he once traded a Fender Strat for a mid-’50s Les Paul Special that Peavey had refinished white; it remains in his collection today.
The same can’t be said for a lap steel that’s now at the Hard Rock Café in Berlin. “I wish I still had that Gibson Hartley loaned me… that I forgot to give back to him,” he chuckled. Other guitars in his stash include a Yairi gut-string, a National lap-steel, a ’52 Gretsch, a Gibson acoustic, Peavey Wolfgang, an ESP, and a Vega seven-string lap steel, but his go-to instrument these days is an early Peavey T-60.
“I was living in Biloxi in ’77 when Hartley sent it, and I still play it more than my other electric guitars. It sounds great, stays in tune, and looks good.”
This article originally appeared in VG August 2016 issue. All copyrights are by the author and Vintage Guitar magazine. Unauthorized replication or use is strictly prohibited.
In the eyes of many, there’s quite a difference between arena rock and blues rock. But not to Phil Collen, guitarist for one of the biggest acts in the former category as well as a recently launched effort in the latter; most are familiar with Def Leppard, while Delta Deep – Collen with singer Debbi Blackwell-Cook, bassist Robert DeLeo, and drummer Forrest Robinson – has just one studio album to its credit along with its latest, West Coast Live. We recently spoke with him about the similarities – and differences.
As a guitarist, how was it to adapt to playing in Delta Deep?
So easy I don’t have to think about it. I use the same guitars, same amps. On the newest Def Leppard album, I used Guitar Rig software and I defy anyone to say, “This is an amp, this isn’t.” So, I also used it on the Delta Deep album except for two tracks.
Even playing… only the song structures are different. That said, Delta Deep reminds me of almost Zeppelin/Hendrix/Stones stuff that was very blues-based; Def Leppard was hugely influenced by Led Zeppelin. So, it’s all the same when you use it as an expression. The only big difference is recording Def Leppard has to be more precise because we do a lot more tracks, especially vocals. If I lay down a backing vocal, I have to get it perfect – timing, tuning – because I have to do 30 more, and then two other people have to do 30 tracks. In Delta Deep, I do one take on four tracks, then the backing vocals. That’s the difference in the structure, really.
Who are some of your favorite blues rock guitarists?
I started off listening to Ritchie Blackmore and Jimi Hendrix, then Jimmy Page. Hendrix had played the Chitlin’ circuit, and on those bills were him, the Isley Brothers, Little Richard, James Brown, Etta James, B.B. King. So I got a lot from that. The style I play is based on that, really. When you ask kids, “Who were you influenced by?” and they say, “The Sex Pistols” or “Nirvana” – guitar-driven rock music – it comes from a different place. So, the stuff I came from was very much blues-based. Page and Keith Richards were pure disciples of blues, so I got it second or third-hand from them, really.
Which guitars do you usually use and what’s your setup?
The Jackson PC1 is my signature model and favorite guitar of all-time. I’ve used Jacksons for 30 years now, and I still tour with my first one. I’m playing this crazy neck-through version – a hybrid Strat that does everything a Les Paul does and everything a Strat does, and more. It’s full-on hot rodded, has a sustain switch, and is just a joy to play.
Amp-wise, for Def Leppard, for years I’ve been using a Marshall JMP1, and I have an ’80s Randall solidstate power amp that has only gone down once, and that was just a fuse. This thing goes around the world; you can throw it upside down and it survives.
For Delta Deep, on West Coast Live I used a Blackstar ID:60, which is a programmable combo that sounds like a valve amp, but it’s not. You can pick it up with one finger. For recording, I mainly use Guitar Rig on my Mac, and it gets the best sounds ever.
This article originally appeared in VG August 2016 issue. All copyrights are by the author and Vintage Guitar magazine. Unauthorized replication or use is strictly prohibited.
Though Diamond Head never achieved the same worldwide commercial success enjoyed by some of its fellow New Wave of British Heavy Metal compadres (namely Iron Maiden and Def Leppard), their influence on one of metal’s biggest bands is undeniable. Metallica has covered four of the band’s tunes, and while members have come and gone, guitarist Brian Tatler has remained a constant from the beginning – and is featured once more on the band’s first new album in eight years, Diamond Head.
The new album sounds reminiscent of the band’s early work.
I think it was kind of a conscious decision. It’s difficult to imagine yourself back in the old days, and try and write something like the first album, Lightning to the Nations, but it does seem to be the one people like the best. And of course, you’ve got the “Metallica connection” – the four songs they covered were all from our first album. So there is a bit of thought behind the new album, that it should sound like a Diamond Head album and not like we’re trying to sound like anybody else or trying to be modern. The way I write and the chords I use and the riffs I come up with… we had a discussion about it and thought that would be the way to go, to make that kind of record.
From a guitar standpoint, which are your favorite songs?
I like the opening track, “Bones.” It’s got great riffs and I thought that would be a good opener to the album. And then I think my second favorite track would be “All the Reasons You Live,” which is a slower track, and that’s detuned – that’s in C#. I think it grooves and the [Rasmus Bom Andersen] vocal is fantastic on there.
What do you recall about writing “Am I Evil?,” from Nations?
It started with the riff, as they so often do. So I had this big, heavy riff – which I suppose is a little bit like a Black Sabbath riff – and we decided to work on it. We would have been in my bedroom; we used to have a weekly rehearsal there, and we built it until it grew to be seven minutes and 40 seconds long. We’d stick a bit on the end and a bit on the intro, and the solo evolved over time. We got very good at working on arrangements, rather than it just be a simple verse/chorus, three-minute song.
We somehow got into the idea of making long, epic songs, that kept the listener’s interest for six or seven minutes. I find it very difficult to do now, but at the time, we were brimming with confidence, and you’re on this journey to see what’s possible, and anything goes.
What was your initial impression of Metallica’s cover?
I was flattered. I knew Lars [Ulrich] because he had come to see us. So to me, it was, “Lars’ band has covered ‘Am I Evil?’’’ They weren’t what they are today – the biggest metal band of all time. They were on a little label, Music for Nations. I hadn’t seen them yet; this was 1984, and it was a B-side to “Creeping Death.” When I listened to it, I thought, “They’ve gone through so much trouble to learn it and play it properly and work out the solo.” I thought it was more aggressive than our version. James [Hetfield] has got more of an aggressive style of singing than Sean.
What was your setup then?
In the early ’80s, I had the white Gibson Flying V, which is always my main guitar, and that would be going into a Morley Power Wah Boost and a Marshall – probably an early Master Volume JMP-1 from ’77. Lightning to the Nations is recorded with just that – it was all we had.
Do you give guitar lessons?
Yeah, I’ve been giving lessons for eight years. I do them from home, and a lot of times it’s young kids coming after school. You have to start with an E chord and build from there. Sometimes, it’s older guys, and they’re in a rut, and they want to get out of the rut. Sometimes they say they don’t know how to play all over the neck. It’s very interesting to see other people’s styles and to analyze your picking style and the way you hold your hand and fingers. It’s taught me quite a lot, teaching.
This article originally appeared in VG August 2016 issue. All copyrights are by the author and Vintage Guitar magazine. Unauthorized replication or use is strictly prohibited.
In early 2009, VG columnist Peter Stuart Kohman turned his focus on Burns, the pioneering British guitar builder. We’ve compiled installments 9, 10, and 11 for this special edition of VG Overdrive. See the complete history.
Many who own Burns and Baldwin guitars are curious to date their instrument, and wonder just how rare these guitars really are. While no official records appear to have survived, there is enough information available to make educated guesses. Most (but not all) Burns and Baldwin guitars made from 1961 to ’70 carry serial numbers progressing in a single series. The early Artists, Vibra Artists, and Sonic series never bore serial numbers and can only be roughly dated by features. The Artists were phased out in 1962, and the Sonics in early ’64.
With the introduction of the original Black Bison, serial numbers come into use starting at 01 and were applied to the many subsequent bolt-neck models. This series appears to run up to just over 22,000 during the next seven to eight years. It’s possible that not all numbers were used when new, and many leftover pre-numbered plates are reportedly still extant.
The Shadows “S” bass.
Burns serial numbers are much like Fender’s; they were engraved by an outside supplier, presumably in order, but were not applied to instruments in sequence. The digits are found on the plastic plate covering the neck-mounting screws on the back (except for the earliest Black Bisons, which carry theirs in the vibrato cradle). This neck plate (which bore an ever-increasing plethora of patent numbers) is easily removed, exchanged, lost, or broken, so sometimes, the number is missing. The situation is further complicated because, by ’64, there were several different-sized neck plates in use, and they were not interchangeable. As these were engraved before installation, different instruments’ production schedules got out of sync, resulting in the series not progressing in an orderly manner. The guitars do tend to cluster in batches, especially the more popular models. If a certain number is found on a Jazz Split Sound, many adjacent ones will be the same model – or at least one using the same size plate. They often progress in batches of 100 but seem to often switch at the “XX50” point in a sequence. Remember that by mid ’66, instruments were being assembled both in the U.K. and in the U.S., so by that time even the hope of a cohesive order was gone!
Various forms of Burns neck plates.
Many Burns and Baldwins from 1963 through ’67 carry a signed inspection tag with a stamped date inside. While useful, the date is not the day the guitar was assembled – it’s the date the pickup rig was wired up and tested. Many of early Baldwin-logo’d instruments from fall ’65 carry stamps dating back as much as six months; or more obviously, production of components and the guitars being assembled was seriously out of synch by 1965! Some stamps have faded to illegibility or are missing altogether, but those still visible give a useful (if unreliable) correlation to the serial number series. Numbers 01 to approximately 1,200 appear to have been used in 1962 through early ’63. By the end of that year, Burns was up to about 4,000, though ’63 numbers often run wildly out of sequence within this grouping. By the end of ’64, the series showed a huge uptick in production, with numbers in the 9,500 to 9,800s appearing before January ’65. As the un-numbered Sonic budget instruments were discontinued by early/mid ’64, the increase in factory output was not as dramatic as it appears, but still impressive! 1965 numbers progress from the last of the 9,000s up through around 13,000 – the sequence of transition to the Baldwin logo is far from strict. 1966 dates appear in instruments numbered way up through 19,000, but again the sequencing seems wildly out of order by this point – the transition to the newer Baldwin styles (i.e. mid ’66) occurs on many models around 15,000. Instruments with numbers from 18,000 to 22,000 sometimes carry 1967 dates, but the stamped dating becomes haphazard by this point, and it appears production slowed. Some production – or maybe just assembly of existing parts – reportedly continued through around 1970.
Among production Baldwin models, only the 700 series hollowbodies built with Italian components do not follow this sequence. They debut in late ’66 and carry two number series, neither of which correlate with the main line. The first examples use four digits, which may begin at 1000 or possibly 0100. Someone soon figured out that these numbers duplicate those issued earlier by Burns, so this was changed to a more commonly seen new series starting at 71,000. These guitars were built from 1966 to ’69, and pretty much date themselves! The 700s are fairly common, and must have been made quickly in some quantity. Overall, the most common guitar from the Burns era is the Jazz Split Sound, which maintains its preponderance until ’66, when the re-styled Baldwin Vibraslim was also sold in comparatively large numbers. Marvins, Bisons, and the like are much rarer, with only occasional batches assembled after the Baldwin takeover. Adding up the outside possible total figure for the serially numbered run of 22,000, a few thousand early un-numbered Sonic and Artist instruments and possibly several thousand 700-series models yields a highest total probable production estimate for the entire ’60s of 25,000 to 30,000 instruments total – but that’s a guess. The figure represents only a fraction of what Fender or Gibson could produce in a single year of the 1960s, so by those standards any Burns/Baldwin instrument is fairly rare!
So now, here are some serious rarities!
Baldwin’s doomed Model 601.
An interesting example of a serial number/date mismatch, the Shadows S (Special) Bass shown here emerged earlier this year in a pawn shop in Maine. Two matching Marvins are known in the same style, reportedly built for The Shadows in mid ’66 as an experimental Mark II version of their regular instruments. The bodies are flat-topped with bound edges and hollow acoustic pockets, while the necks feature the original Burns scroll, not the newer “lump” Baldwin version. A Marvin S guitar featured in Per Gjorde’s Pearls and Crazy Diamonds reportedly belonged to Hank himself; this bass matches that guitar in all its specific eccentricities, including the bound/green-finished body, lack of headstock logo, laminate black scratchplate, and apparently leftover 1962-’63 serial number plate only a few digits apart. It’s not known for sure if this bass was actually made for or used by John Rostill, of the Shadows. Some accounts say the set was supplied to the band and used on their ’67 Australian tour, but footage shows a pair of differently appointed (but equally odd) white Baldwin prototypes in the hands of Marvin and Welch, and Rostill playing his normal solidbody bass. Whatever its history, the bass shows signs of use, but remains in excellent condition except for typical Baldwin-era heavy checking in the heavy polyester overcoat, which is practically peeling off in spots.
“The Shadows S bass is wonderful and a real find,” said Burns guru Paul Day. “I mentioned it to Barry Gibson (head of Burns U.K.) and he, too, was surprised and impressed.”
Around the same time as these Romford-built artist one-offs, a uniquely American line of Baldwin models was designed in Arkansas, but not produced in quantity. Still, some interesting prototype examples have surfaced. This would have been the 600 series, a Baldwin concept using some Burns parts. As reported several years ago by Michael Wright in VG, “About this time… Baldwin hooked up with a luthier by the name of Clyde Edwards, and hired him to design a line of U.S.-made guitars at the Booneville plant… sometime in late ’66. They never appeared in Baldwin catalogs or advertising. Basically, the Edwards was a single-cutaway hollowbody with a pair of f-holes and one of those shoulder profiles where the upper bout made an S-curve through the neck into the pointed Florentine cutaway. Despite the fact these models never entered production, the company was apparently pleased with Edwards, because he went on to work for the Gretsch division as their ‘Master String-Instrument Designer.’ In fact, the S-curve shoulders showed up again in Edwards’ designs for Gretsch.”
The 600 series designation makes sense; existing Burns models got 500s numbers in Baldwin’s catalog, while the subsequent Italo-Baldwins were the 700s. The Edwards design was likely the earlier attempt at a non-Burns made Baldwin guitar line.
The Prismatone prototype.
Oddly enough, an interesting Edwards prototype turned up recently in the U.K., labeled Baldwin Model 601 and with serial number 628012, which fits no Burns series. The flat-topped body is fully hollow, in the unique Edwards shape. Pickups are the Burns bar magnet units used on most guitars by ’66. The neck looks like the flat-scroll Romford-made Baldwin style but has a center laminate and different carving pattern unlike any known Burns-made neck. It is mounted with an unusual three-bolt triangular plate, with an open access hole in the middle for the geared truss rod. The Vibrato is from the recently discontinued Nu-Sonic guitar, while the adjustable bridge was used on several Burns hollowbody models. The knobs are standard “catalog” parts in the U.S., similar to those on some Coral guitars. The pots are U.S. components – the wiring is set up with a master Volume on the cutaway, individual Volume for each pickup, and a master Tone in the middle. This control scheme is very “un-Burns,” but the multi-volume knob set up oddly Gretsch-like. The pickguard with the engraved Baldwin logo appears to be made of the traditional laminated hard plastic used by Burns, unlike the few other extant 600s that have a clear plastic fitting. Glen Forde, in Scotland, recently purchased the guitar from the daughter of the original owner. She remembers her father, John Johns-Hunt (born in Willenhall, England, in March 1925), bought it new in the ’60s and played it in bands until he died in January ’08. Despite having been gigged for 40 years, this unique Baldwin is in exceptional condition and still plays perfectly. The only modification is a new switch tip – a child’s rubber toy! How this apparently Arkansas-made guitar ended up being originally sold in the U.K. is anyone’s guess; it may have been sent to Romford as a sample, or displayed at a trade show and disposed of afterwards
Another unique and interesting guitar from this prototype batch is in Temecula, California – a Baldwin 600 series Prismatone. This guitar carries a Baldwin paper label inside that reads (peering through the upper f-hole) “Model 113301” and “Serial number 606006.” In this case, the Edwards body is fitted out with one Burns Tri-Sonic pickup at the neck, and the old Burns Mk. 9 vibrato. It also has an unusual neck with a block-inlay fingerboard and conventional truss rod that bears no resemblance to any Burns style, but constructed with a three-way laminate like the previous Style 601. The headstock logo is a raised-style, also unique to this guitar, while the knobs are the same style as the previous example.
The rare “600” label.
The most fascinating component is the Prismatone bridge. This under-saddle pickup uses piezo-electric crystals encased in a ceramic damper, and would have been very advanced for 1965… If Baldwin had marketed it aggressively, they could have beaten Ovation to the punch! Jim Burns was working on an electrified classical guitar in ’65 (to be called The Elizabethan), but the Prismatone was a pre-existing Baldwin USA project. A patent application for a bridge/pickup assembly nearly identical to this was filed in August ’65 by Robert C. Scherer, assignor to the D.H. Baldwin company, Cincinnati. While this was just before the Burns purchase was finalized, it shows that development of this unit had been underway for some time. The patent also shows a flat-topped cutaway electric guitar not unlike this prototype, and the bridge/pickup appears intended for conventional electric guitars. The patent mentions only in passing that the system is suitable for nylon strings. This begs the question why Baldwin, a company with no guitar operation, was apparently paying someone to design guitar pickups! The patent was granted in August ’68, almost three years after the application. The ’68 Baldwin Electric Classic which finally made use of a version of this pickup was the last guitar marketed by the company, and this 600-style Prismatone prototype was never developed. The Prismatone pickup is remembered today primarily because of a single player’s career-long affection for it… one still resides inside Willie Nelson’s battered Martin classical.
The Prismatone bridge.
“I was blown away when the guitar got here and it was like made yesterday mint,” said Chance Wilson, who owns this Baldwin. “Everything on it said ‘Pat Pend’ or ‘PAF.’ I was also surprised at the HZ response and the setup – this is a pro-grade guitar with excellent fit and finish, much nicer than the Fender semi-hollows from the same period. The Prismatone looks just like Willie’s, with a white ceramic chunk, except it’s inside an adjustable bridge. And the Tri-Sonic is an amazing-sounding pickup – especially combined with the Prismatone.”
While Baldwin is generally remembered as having done little with its guitar division, these three instruments show that both in the U.S. and the U.K., the company was capable of creating interesting concepts. Hopefully, we’ve shed light on the sometimes quixotic – but always creative – world of Burns/Baldwin, and bring these often under-appreciated fretted curios a little overdue respect!
This article originally appeared in VG December 2009 issue. All copyrights are by the author and Vintage Guitar magazine. Unauthorized replication or use is strictly prohibited.
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In early 2009, VG columnist Peter Stuart Kohman turned his focus on Burns, the pioneering British guitar builder. We’ve compiled installments 9, 10, and 11 for this special edition of VG Overdrive. See the complete history.
Electric guitars date back less than a century, but the stories of their development sometimes seem as lost as those of antiquity! Then a forgotten closet will open and out will tumble dusty skeletons of wood and wire, offering new insights, and often posing new questions.
Just over a year ago, a basement in Cheltenham, England, yielded a box of mostly uncompleted guitars that had lain forgotten for almost 50 years, opening a window into the beginnings of Jim Burns’ career, and the birth of solidbody guitars in the U.K.
Guy Mackenzie and the lost Supersounds.
By ’58, solidbodies were common in the U.S., mostly due to Fender. In Europe and the U.K., though, they were a rarely-glimpsed rumor and players stuck with the electrified archtops introduced after World War II. Jim Burns was one of the few home-grown visionaries working to change that…
Early details of Burns’ guitar-making activities are obscure. A Hawaiian-style player, he was a solidbody convert from the beginning. No hand-built Jim Burns guitars from the ’50s are known to exist. The first serially produced instruments of his design are from 1958-’59 and carried the Supersound brand name – not his trademark, but that of an electronics firm founded by Alan Wootton in ’52. Even more than the substantiation of Burns and Wootton’s pioneer status in the development of electric guitars in the U.K., the instruments have proved, at least theoretically, to be a veritable Rosetta Stone, unlocking the mysteries of the earliest English solidbodies.
While Burns was a former pro guitarist and cabinet maker, Wootton was a gifted electrical engineer. Supersound began as a home business in Wilmington, near Dartford, Kent. Besides building custom-made amps, radios, and the like, Alan worked in Dartford with Tom Jennings (founder of JMI, future maker of Vox amps) working on the Univox keyboard. By his wife’s account, he became disenchanted when his design work on an amplifier went unrewarded, and they decided to make their small company a full-time concern. They did contract work for Jennings but found that getting paid was less than certain, and broke with JMI. With several of Alan’s ex-Jennings colleagues onboard, Supersound found success building amplifiers for the U.K.’s first generation of electric guitarists. A subsequent product was proprietary electric pickups, so the next logical step for Supersound was to market complete instruments.
This led to a brief and apparently not particularly happy association between the Woottons and Burns, who Alan’s wife, Mary, remembers with little fondness. Jim was hired in mid ’58 to supply finished and fretted body/neck assemblies Supersound would fit with electronics and scratchplates made in-house. Alan would fetch Jim back to the factory with the semi-completed guitars, as Jim had no car!
The only Supersound ad.
The Supersound/Burns connection may have come about because Jim had built an instrument for pro guitarist Pete Dyke, who knew the Woottons and had them equip the guitar with electronics.
Interviewed by Paul Day in 1977, Dyke recalled, “I first met Jimmy Burns in 1946 or ’47, when he working behind a bar, hashing food, lunchtime nosh, and all that business! Then much later, I saw him in Jennings’ shop, Charing Cross Road; he said he was interested in making solidbody guitars, and I fell over laughing! No way, we were all playing big hollowbodied guitars with screwed or strapped on pickups. Jim said, ‘I’ll make you a guitar.’ And he did… the late Alan Wootton made the electronics. That was the original Supersound Company of Wilmington, just outside Dartford. A very advanced engineer for his day and he had these incredible pickups. Jim built a short 22 3/8” scale guitar, solid bodied and it was an absolute gorgeous instrument to play. Two pickups, I think it cost me about £25 around 1957. No adjustable truss rod; single cutaway Les Paul sort of basic configuration – no one had heard of a Les Paul in those days. Two Tone and Volume controls, a single selection switch, a natural finish, and it had a Perspex back… Jim built it with a Perspex back!”
This description is similar to the one “production” guitar credited to Supersound, the Ike Isaacs Shortscale Model, named for one of Britain’s top players in ’58.
The first Supersound guitar and bass were played on U.K. TV in mid/late ’58 on the “Jack Jackson Show” by Teddy Wadmore and Bob Rogers of the Ted Taylor Trio, who were already using the company’s amps. Unfortunately, the glued-in neck of the guitar came loose almost immediately, and Wootton got an earful of feedback as a result! Subsequent Supersounds had the glued neck joint reinforced by four screws under the fingerboard – a method carried through in the Burns-Weil, Fenton Weill, and early Burns instruments, including the first Black Bisons. Even the Burns Vibraslim of 1964 still hid this legacy under its neckplate. After this embarrassing mishap, Jim Burns seemingly never trusted glue again! This minor disaster strained relations between Jim and the Woottons. In Mary’s recollection, they had given Jim “a lot of money” to build that first guitar, and its failure in action was a personal affront. Still, plans were laid for serial production. A solitary Supersound advertisement appeared in Melody Maker in December, 1958, picturing the Ike Isaacs Short Scale signature model. “Another Supersound First,” it trumpeted – a “New all-British shortscale guitar.” A “Standard Scale” guitar and bass were listed as available “shortly.” Perhaps a handful of these models were actually sold; Jim Burns years later claimed to have made “about 20,” but none have surfaced.
Boxed in a dusty basement.Guy Mackenzie and the brown prototype.
The story then gets rather murky… Supersound moved from London to Hastings in June, 1959. By all accounts, the liason with Jim Burns was by then history. The Woottons continued their successful line of amps, echo units, and other products sold under their brand, and by others like Rosetti and B&H under the names Lucky 7, Zenith, and Ivor Maraints. The guitar line seems to have been stillborn; how many were actually assembled or sold being an unresolved question. A website detailing the history of Supersound (trevormidgley.com) includes commentary from Mary Wootton. In her recollection, Supersound built “hunderds” of guitars from 1959 to ’62, yet virtually none are known to exist. These 12 basement relics are the only known survivors, and despite memories to the contrary, may well represent the bulk of production. They remain in mostly unfinished condition, with hardware partially or wholly unfitted, as if abandoned in progress. Four identical basses await their tuners and simple aluminum block bridges and tailpieces. Mary herself claims Jim Burns left after making just one guitar, but this is strongly contradicted by accounts from Pete Dyke and Jim Burns. These instruments – which definitely bear Burn’s aesthetic signature – were never completed. Perhaps each was finished only if there was an order, or the line simply fell by the wayside and it was not considered worth the effort.
At least one escaped into the outside world – a double-cutaway Supersound bass is known to have been bought in Cardiff, Wales, in 1959 by 19-year-old Brian “Rockhouse” Davies. He was pictured playing it in the local newspaper with his group, The Raiders, alongside the guitarist – a very young Dave Edmunds! Davies later sold the bass and it has never resurfaced, but proves some Supersounds got as far as a retail shop! No catalog listing for the guitars has ever been found, though Supersound amplification and accessories were commonly offered by U.K. jobbers. Whatever the truth about guitar production, Supersound soon changed focus. Finding it harder to turn a profit in the competitive music industry of the early 1960s, Supersound moved into film sound, and despite pioneering work in equipping the pre-beat electric guitarist was soon a forgotten name in guitar industry. Alan Wootton died suddenly in 1973 and the firm closed down the next year, its status as a musical innovator seemingly lost forever. To the family’s later annoyance, the Supersound name became remembered primarily a footnote in the Burns story!
There it might have stayed, but for an unlikely series of circumstances last year. Guy Mackenzie, one of the U.K.’s most avid acquirers of oddball guitars, heard through the guitar grapevine that some Supersound guitars had been located, but nobody seemed particularly interested.
A highly enthusiastic lover of fretted arcania, Guy is not a dealer; his collection is entirely a hobby. “I collect because I love their shapes and styles, in the same way that people collect paintings,” he said. “I found a love of guitars that I could never quite understand – because I can barely play one! But for me, that’s a bonus – I can appreciate them without being hampered by the sound or action or whatever. I have some guitars that no player would ever think of buying other than for a wall decoration! My other interest is the part they play in the history of popular music. So with that, how could I resist becoming a guitar collector; they give me great pleasure!”
Basses in a row.The unique single-cutaway bass.
It should be noted that Guy is a lifetime musician, having drummed in rock bands since ’64. His discovery and “rescue” of the lost Supersounds was motivated by pure curiosity, not profit, but has landed him and the guitars on TV and in the national press in the U.K.
“After Supersound folded in ’74, the guitars ended up in Alan Wootton’s son’s garage. Years later, he was preparing a move to Spain, and sold off the stuff he didn’t want to take. By chance, he sold an old Höfner guitar Supersound had used to test its amps, and the person who bought them was told about the Supersounds. I had to meet the owner… he’d bought them years before and kept them virtually untouched. They were stored in cardboard boxes in the basement, despite this, they’d stood the test of time surprisingly well. I couldn’t leave without buying the lot; a dozen examples in various stages of completion.”
One guitar had been sold to a well-known Burns collector prior to Guy’s intervention, but otherwise the stash was complete and undisturbed. “There is one complete six-string and two complete basses – one with a single cutaway and one with a twin-cutaway. I’d like to leave them as found, as they are a real piece of history. I did get three boxes of parts – machine heads, knobs, scratchplates, pick-ups, etc. So perhaps two or three more could be completed.”
The instruments in this musty time capsule show signs of ongoing experimentation. Most are visually striking, especially for ’58, with dramatic sharp contours on their single or double cutaways. Several have a headstock too thick to mount the imported tuners without countersinking, while on others the problem is corrected. Some unfinished guitars have a cutout in the lower waist, mounting a bank of pushbutton switches; this is likely a Wootton install, as any guitarist would point out that if you attempted to play this instrument sitting down, they would rest on the leg and you’d constantly be turning things on and off! The pointy “horns” on the bodies are typical of Jim Burns’ aesthetic, as seen on the Black Bison several years on. The lower bouts are nearly identical in contour and thickness to the Burns Vibra-Artist of 1960, another “family resemblance.” The only complete guitar – the “Brown Prototype” – is much different from the rest, appearing more handmade, with different woods. This appears to be the earliest of the bunch, most similar to the Ike Isaacs model. The unfinished double-cutaway models are far more dramatic in appearance.
The bass guitars – both complete and left in progress – are particularly interesting. They appear to be not only the first solidbody basses in the U.K., but some of the most advanced basses available in ’58. The double-cutaway models, in particular, show the direct influence of the Fender bass. The anecdotal story is that Supersound endorsers Wadmore and Rodgers saw a Precision in use at a U.S.A.F. base and were able to borrow it for a day and demonstrate it to Supersound, asking for a similar design! The only electric basses in Europe at the time were hollow archtops from Höfner and Framus; essentially guitars with four-string necks. The only other solidbody bass available in the England by ’59 was the Dallas Tuxedo, a cheap and rather shoddy instrument with a lumpy single-cutaway body that is far less appealing, visually and sonically, than the Supersound basses.
By any standard, these are the most progressive basses in Europe in 1958/’59, and look modernistic, even now! With their single pickup placed in Leo Fender’s “sweet spot” and simple wiring they are quite practical, although the European standard 30″ short scale is the one distinctly “non-Fender” feature
“In nearly 50 years of playing and writing about the electric guitar, this is the first time I have actually seen one Supersound instrument, let alone 12!” said Paul Day. “Thinking about the bass in particular it’s more of a first than I initially realized. If it pre-dates the Dallas Tuxedo as I believe, then it must have been designed before any other solid bass available in the U.K., regardless of origin! I think it’s worth emphasizing the pioneering status of Supersound’s design in the solidbody field, as I’m not aware of any imported or U.K.-made competition, which makes it that much more important.”
With the evidence of these newly-discovered Supersounds in-hand, Paul has developed a theory about the relationship between all these early U.K. solidbodies. While fairly crude, the Supersounds do not appear handmade by Jim; rather they look designed by him, but built in a workshop. After carefully examining examples of each, Day believes the early instruments by Supersound, Burns-Weil, Fenton Weil, and Dallas Tuxedo were all made in one factory – Stewart Darkins & Co. Woodworking, known also as Empire Works. This obscure Essex cabinetry firm may be the lost connection between these seemingly unrelated brands, which on close inspection reveal similar traits. “The place looked like a bomb site,” laughs Day, who has found workplace photos. “You can see Dallas and Fenton-Weil bodies stacked up next to each other, like rubble.”
The Darkins firm may well have been the only workshop in London set up to accept this sort of contract work. It appears likely that finding his relationship with the Woottons souring, Jim Burns simply approached (or was approached by) another electronics provider – Henry Weill and entered into a more lucrative formal partnership, using the same contractor for the woodworking. Under their oval metal covers, the Weill-supplied pickups even look very much like Supersound units, and a certain unusual brass fretwire on the Supersounds – reportedly specially ordered by the Woottons – appears to have been also used on the first Burns-Weill guitars! All have the Burns “glued and screwed” neck joints, the legacy of that nearly televised “collapsing” guitar! Neck contours and heel profiles also establish a common lineage, as well as confirming Burns’ hand in construction of the Supersounds.
While this unlikely surfacing of “lost” Supersound instruments after 50 years in some ways poses more questions than it answers, for anyone interested in the history of the solidbody guitar, this is an intriguing glimpse back to the time when it was a new and imperfect concept, at least in Europe. American guitarists in ’59 could choose between a sunburst Les Paul or a Stratocaster, while the U.K. player struggled with the limits of cottage industry, seemingly cut off from modern developments. The efforts of small-time visionaries like Wootton, Burns, Jennings, and others helped set the stage for the guitar explosion that became the Beat Era, and left behind a fascinating – if eccentric – trail of artifacts.
Guy Mackenzie’s delightfully eccentric instrument stash can be seen at: theguitarcollection.org.U.K.
This article originally appeared in VG November 2009 issue. All copyrights are by the author and Vintage Guitar magazine. Unauthorized replication or use is strictly prohibited.
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