Ed. Note: Joe passed away December 14th, 2018, he was 81.

Joe Osborn. His face has never been on a record jacket or album cover. Odds are most have heard his name, but have no idea what his musical accomplishments have meant to contemporary pop music. If you listened to the radio or owned a record player in the ’60s, you heard Joe Osborn picking out bass lines for the Association, Ricky Nelson, Scott McKenzie, The Grass Roots, Mamas & Papas, Simon and Garfunkel, Carpenters, Monkees, Herb Albert and the Tijuana Brass, Gram Parsons, Helen Reddy, Johnny Rivers, Richard Harris, America, Fifth Dimension, and countless other bands and soundtracks. When teamed up with drummer Hal Blaine and keyboardist Larry Knechtel, the trio was known as part of the California Rock Explosion, a.k.a. “the best damn rhythm section on the planet.”

Born August 28, 1937, in Mound, Louisiana, Osborn started picking guitar at age 12. By age 20, he’d recorded a hit song with Dale Hawkins before spending a year on the Las Vegas strip with country singer Bob Luhman.

Since ’57, Osborn has racked up over 200 Top 40 hits, with 18 of them climbing all the way to the top slot on the pop charts. Not bad for a guy who started playing bass because Roy Buchanan knew more standards on guitar. We’ll let Osborn finish the story.

Vintage Guitar: What was the music scene like in Louisiana when you were a kid?
Joe Osborn: We only stayed in Louisiana until I was in the third grade. We moved to south Texas and stayed there until I was in high school. Then I moved back to Shreveport to live with my aunt and uncle. I had just started playing guitar and picked up a few jobs in Bossier City. The biggest thing in music was the television show “Louisiana Hay Ride,” and it had just gone off the air. I believe the reason everyone left because we never had a recording facility. The only place to cut a record was at the local radio station, KWKH. The first recording I worked on was done there with Dale Hawkins.

Any relation to Ronnie Hawkins?
Dale was Ronnie’s cousin. Dale wrote “Suzie Q” and “La Di Da Da,” which was the first hit song I played guitar on.

Are you a self-taught player?
Yeah.

Do you remember your first guitar?
Oh, yes! It was a Silvertone acoustic with an f-hole, it cost $15. Then I moved up to a Harmony, which was a little bit better. Then I bought a Gibson ES-175. When I got back to Shreveport, I traded it in for a Fender Telecaster. I played the Telecaster until I started playing bass.

How did you get from Shreveport to the West Coast?
Dale’s brother, Jerry, had a band and I was playing guitar with them. Roy Buchanan was the other guitar player in the group, and off to California we went. It was tough in the beginning. We were so broke we couldn’t afford to get our laundry clean. Then we got mixed up with Bob Luhman, a county singer who was well-established on the West Coast. Bob was on the “Town Hall Party” with Joe Maphis and Tex Ritter. He was putting a new band together to work in Vegas at the new Showboat Hotel. Roy and I auditioned for Bob and off to Vegas we went. Roy knew more of the guitar standards, so he was in as the guitarist. That’s when I started playing bass. Roy had borrowed an old electric Kay bass, but I didn’t like the way it played, so I went down to the local music store and bought a Fender Precision.

How long did that gig last?
We played there for almost a year, and then I headed back to Louisiana. At the same time, Ricky Nelson was putting a new band together for their television show. James Burton mentioned it to me, and the next thing I knew, I was back on the West Coast playing with Ricky.

What was that like?
We had a four-year run. It was great. Let me tell you a little story. When I first got there, they asked me to mail back all of the demos people had sent for consideration. There were hundreds of them. I was supposed to just mail them back. I started listening to a few, and that’s when I heard “Travelin’ Man.” I told Ricky we should keep this one and he agreed. We recorded it, and it turned out to be a number one hit for us. In ’64, Ricky decided he didn’t need a band anymore, and took all of us off retainer.

What did that mean for you?
I had already started working with Johnny Rivers. In ’62, we opened the Whiskey A-Go-Go. I’d known Johnny from Shreveport; he used to sit in with us a lot. When he got to Los Angeles, he looked me up and I recorded both live albums at the Whiskey with him. What started out as a two-week gig lasted almost two years.

After Johnny Rivers you were primarily working in the studios, weren’t you?
Yeah. I was working almost exclusively with Lou Adler at Western Recorders’ Studio 3. That’s when Hal [Blaine] and Larry Knechtel and I started working together. I think the first sessions we did were a couple of demos for P.F. Sloan and Steve Berry. The Turtles eventually released them. Back then we’d just do the music track, and later on the vocals were added. Half the time we didn’t know who the final artist was going to be.

Lou Adler liked our sound and used us on everything he produced. The engineer on all of that stuff was Bones Howe. Years before, when I was with Ricky Nelson, Bones had inquired about me because “Travelin’ Man” was the first song he had ever heard that had a noticeable bass line throughout the entire song.

From ’64 on, you three did all those sessions coming out of the West Hollywood Studios.
We were what was known as “first call” musicians. It wasn’t hard for the producers to figure out we played well together, so we did quite a bit, but we did a load of sessions individually, as well.

You and Hal were so tight as a rhythm section.
Yeah, we were. Hal was always a little on top of the beat, so I learned to watch his foot on the kick pedal. The way we were set up in the studio at that time, I sat right next to Hal with my amp behind me. I could watch him and play at the same time.

Was all that early stuff played off the top of your head?
Yes. In the beginning I couldn’t read a chord sheet; I would just get in the studio and learn the song. Often, I just got to play what I wanted to play. Other times, someone would try to explain what they wanted from me. One night, Papa John Philips hummed a bass line to me for 25 minutes. Note for note, he went through it. The guys in the booth were taking bets on if I would remember what John wanted. I got it down, note-for-note. Your memory – especially short-term – is really honed when you don’t read music.

What started you learning charts?
Tommy Tedesco told me that if I really wanted to make it as a studio player, learning to read was essential. So I did. I got some books and learned how to read charts and eventually how to read all the sections. Tommy also told me that once I did learn how to read, I would be twice as busy. He was right. I got a lot of *@#! sessions out of learning how to read.

*@#! sessions?
When you play note-for-note, just how it is written.

How much leeway did producers and arrangers give you during other sessions?
It depended on the producer. Some of them said, “Play whatever you want to play.” Most of the arrangers would come in with a part already written, but if I was struggling with a certain line, they would always tell me to play what I wanted. One arranger told me the only reason he included a bass part was because he never knew who he was going to have in the studio.

So for the most part you would just tweak what they wrote and find your own groove?
That’s right.

Was the bass line in “Aquarius” off the top of your head?
For the most part. They had a rhythm chart and I just filled it up with what I thought sounded the best. We would usually take about three hours to cut a track, so there was plenty of time to work something like that out.

Just three hours?Sometime we’d get three or four tracks done in three hours. There was a time when a musician was expected to be able to do six songs in a three-hour session. Then there were times when you were working on one track well into the night and early next morning. It all depended on who was producing the session.

Getting back to “Aquarius.” There was a bass line written and the producer told be just make it busier.

You played your ass off on that track!
We never rehearsed that particular part; I just played it while the tape was rolling.

Did things in the studio ever get too crazy?
At times. Once this one artist brought in a pound of marijuana and just threw it on top of the piano and told us to enjoy it. We were serious studio musicians. You couldn’t be on drugs and work as hard as we did. That’s not to say our doctor didn’t prescribe legitimate medication to help us stay awake when we had to. The artists were usually the ones whacked out.

I will admit that one time a producer and artist got me so stoned I had to get up and take a walk around the block to get my head on straight. We started early that afternoon and didn’t finish until well after dawn the next day. Heck, If they were willing to pay me all that overtime…

But in all seriousness, most studio musicians shied away from those hard drugs.

Is it true you didn’t change strings for 15 years?
Maybe a little longer. I got my Jazz Bass in 1960, and I put new strings on it in 1962. It was a set of Labella strings. They never broke, so I never changed them. It wasn’t until they were filled with flat spots and started to unwind that I had to change them. I know it was long after I moved to Nashville.

You also play with a pick.
I always have. Remember, I went from guitar to bass overnight, and I just kept the pick. It eventually became part of my signature sound. Other bass players would always give me a hard time, but I never changed, and I’m not going to stop now.

Did it help having two pickups on the bass?
No, I never used the treble pickup. It had too much midrange for me.

Did you play directly into the recording console or mic off the amp?
Both. At first it was all from the amp, but after the direct box became available, I used both. Eventually, I ended up going direct for everything.

When and why did you leave L.A.?
1974. I just had to get out of there. I was just too busy for my liking and I needed a change.

Before we get into your time in Nashville, I have to ask: You were considered one of the best session bass players in the world. Did it ever bother you to see guys like Peter Tork or Danny Bonaduce playing air guitar to the licks you recorded for their songs?
No, not at all. We knew that it was going to happen. Hal had a good answer to a very similar question. He said people always tried to copy what we were doing, but by the time they learned it, we were already into something else.

There were bands that demanded our names never be mentioned in the liner notes. That didn’t bother us, either.

Who were you listening to back then?
Nobody. I didn’t have time. We were always so busy in the studio. Many times a producer would ask me to play a line like this guy or that guy. I’d just play like myself and he’d say, “That’s perfect!”

How did the British Invasion affect you?
It didn’t. We always had plenty of work, and we would take jobs as they came. We never skipped a session because we didn’t want to work with a certain artist; we took all comers. There were times we wished we could just do the sessions we wanted, but we never canceled a job.

What was scale back then?
believe I started at $45 [an hour], and just before I left, it was up to $130. The last few years I was in L.A., I was charging double scale. We thought that by charging double we would work less and make the same money, but producers were willing to pay us anything we wanted, so we started working more than we really cared to. Heck, there was a time when I worked two sessions a day, six days a week, and then a session on Sundays. It was really too much after a while.

So you packed up the family and moved to Nashville.
We bought a farm about 50 miles north of Nashville and I commuted into the city for 14 years.

Was there a big difference between the studios in L.A. and Nashville?
Studios are all the same. I worked every bit as much, if not more, in Nashville. I knew some people there, so it was easy for me to get in. I did session five, six, and sometimes seven days a week. Toward the end it slowed down.

That’s when you moved back to Louisiana?
I could live anywhere, but my wife and I are both from there, so we decided to make it home again.

Let’s talk a little about your Jazz Bass.
It is the only instrument I’ve played since 1960. I got it when I was playing with Ricky Nelson. We were about to go on tour and Fender was just about to introduce this new model. They sent one, and when I opened the case I didn’t know what to think. It was a lot different than my P-Bass. As soon as I picked it up, I could feel the neck was going to be much easier to finger, being it is so much thinner than the one I was used to. Like I said, it was the only bass I used for all those studio years.

When did you start having artists sign the back of it?
When I was in Nashville. If I played on a song that went to number one, I’d have the artist sign their name on the back and then I would shellac over it.

Do you know how many songs you played on that made the Top 40?
Recently, my son started a discography of my work, and there are about 200 pop Top 40, 18 number ones on the pop charts, and at least 53 number ones on the country charts.

Did you ever wish you would have played with just one band and made all the big money up front?
No, I never did like to travel. Bob Dylan made me a great offer, and Elvis also wanted me to go on the road with him, but I was happy with what I was doing. Heck, neither could pay me what I was making at the time.

What are you doing now?
Hal and I just finished a documentary about our time in the studios, and I’m working with Dan Lakin helping Lakland Basses design a new bass.

How’d that come about?
I have been looking to replace my old Jazz for some years now. Fender came out with a reissue of their 1960 version, and it isn’t even close to what I have. The feel is way off, and the sound is too muddy.

A few years ago, I was in Japan working with Richard Carpenter, and the guys from Yamaha sent a bass for me to try. I played it in the studio, and Richard was the first to say that didn’t sound anything like my Jazz. I started looking around and soon found out old Fenders like mine are selling for close to $8,500, and half of them are just as beat up. Who wants to haul a $8,500 bass around? Finally, I thought that I was going to have to find some guitarmaker and have him build an exact copy.

Six months ago, Dan Lakin called to ask if I wanted to try one of his basses. We went back and forth for awhile about what I was looking for, then I flew in, and they took all sorts of measurements and did all kinds of sound tests on my old bass. One thing led to another, and before too long, Dan and his guys came up with a design that is absolutely perfect. It plays 100 percent like my old Jazz and sounds as close to my old one as the human ear can tell. But the real kicker is the workmanship. I don’t know of another instrument made this well. After all the years of frustration, this one is everything I could ask for.

Dan and I came to an agreement to make it Lakland’s “Joe Osborn” signature model. Wait ’til you play one! They have it down to the exact detail. There will also be an active electric model offered. Greg Rzab, Buddy Guy’s bass player, is road-testing it.

So, are you going to retire your old bass?
I should. With all those names on the back, it should go into some sort of museum.

Have you ever thought about putting together a method book with some of your best chops?
The idea has surfaced recently. It’ll be a huge undertaking to work out all those tablatures. It is something I will definitely be working on in the near future.

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The Osborn Top 40

With a recording career that spanned three decades, one can assume there might be a few hit songs along the way. In Joe Osborn’s case, the number is around 200. This list contains songs that appeared on the pop charts. According to Joe, it’s a little incomplete due to the fact that he can’t remember every session. In his days in Nashville, Osborn played on53 certifiable number one songs on the country charts.
Arranged by year, artist, title and Chart Position
1961, Rick Nelson, Travelin’ Man, 1
1965, Gary Lewis/Playboys, This Diamond Ring, 1
1965, Barry McGre, Eve of Destruction, 1
1966, Mamas and Papas, Monday Monday, 1
1966, Johnny Rivers, Poor Side of Town, 1
1967, Association, Windy, 1
1969, Fifth Dimension, Wedding Bell Blues, 1
1969, Tommy Roe, Dizzy, 1
1970, Carpenters, Close To You, 1
1970, Neil Diamond, Cracklin’ Rose, 1
1970, Partridge Family, I Think I Love You, 1
1970, Simon and Garfunkel, Bridge Over Troubled Water, 1
1972, Helen Reddy, I Am Woman, 1
1973, Carpenters, Top of the World, 1
1973, Helen Reddy, Delta Dawn, 1
1974, Carpenters, Please, Mr. Postman, 1
1964, Johnny Rivers, Memphis, 2
1965, Gary Lewis/Playboys, Count Me In, 2
1965, Gary Lewis/Playboys, Save Your Heart For Me, 2
1967, Mamas and Papas, Dedicated To the One I Love, 2
1968, Association, Never My Love, 2
1968, Richard Harris, MacArthur Park, 2
1970, Carpenters, Superstar, 2
1970, Carpenters, We’ve Only Just Begun, 2
1970, Fifth Dimension, One Less Bell to Answer, 2
1971, Carpenters, Rainy Days and Mondays, 2
1972, Carpenters, Hurting Each Other, 2
1973, Carpenters, Yesterday Once More, 2
1976, England Dan & John Ford Coley, I’d Really Love to See You, 2
1966 , Johnny Rivers, Secret Agent Man, 3
1967 , JohnnyRivers, Baby, I Need Your Lovin’, 3
1968 , Fifth Dimension, Stone Soul Picnic, 3
1968 , Monkees, Valleri, 3
1969 , Bobby Sherman, Little Women, 3
1971 , Carpenters, For All We Know, 3
1973 , Carpenters, Sing, 3
1973 , Helen Reddy, Leave Me Alone, 3
1965 , Gary Lewis/Playboys, Everybody Loves a Clown, 4
1966 , Mamas & Papas, California Dreamin’, 4
1967 , Scott Mackenzie, San Francisco, 4
1974 , America, Tin Man, 4
1975 , Carpenters, Only Yesterday, 4
1962 , Rick Nelson, Teenage Idol, 5
1962 , Rick Nelson, YoungWorld, 5
1966 , Mamas & Papas, Words of Love, 5
1967 , Mamas & Papas, CreequeAlley, 5
1968 , Grass Roots, Midnight Confession, 5
1968 , Kenny Rogers & The First Edition, Just Dropped In, 5
1970 , Bobby Sherman, Julie, Do You Love Me?, 5
1974, Neil Diamond, Longfellow Serenade, 5
1975, America, Lonely People, 5
1977, KennyRogers, Lucille, 5
1962, Rick Nelson, It’s Up to You, 6
1964, Rick Nelson, ForYou, 6
1966, Mamas & Papas, I Saw Her Again, 6
1966, Tommy Roe, Hurray for Hazel, 6
1969, Kenny Rogers & The First Edition, Ruby, 6
1969 , Neil Diamond, Holly Holy, 6
1970 , Barbra Streisand, Stoney End, 6
1972 , Johnny Rivers, Rockin’ Pneumonia, 6
1971 , Partridge Family, Doesn’t Somebody Want to Be Wanted?, 6
1965 , Johnny Rivers, Seventh Son, 7
1967 , Fifth Dimension, Up, Up, and Away, 7
1969 , Simon & Garfunkel, The Boxer, 7
1971 , Tommy Roe, Stagger Lee, 7
1972 , Carpenters, Goodbye to Love, 7
1966 , Gary Lewis/Playboys, Green Grass, 8
1968 , Boyce & Hart, I Wonder What She’s Doin’, 8
1969 , Tommy Roe, Jam Up, Jelly Tight, 8
1972 , America, Ventura Highway, 8
1972 , Fifth Dimension, Didn’t Get to Sleep at All, 8
1975, Helen Reddy, No Way to Treat a Lady, 8
1961, Rick Nelson, Hello, Mary Lou, 9
1964, Johnny Rivers , Mountain of Love, 9
1967, Spanky & Our Gang, Sunday Will Never Be the Same, 9
1969, Bobby Sherman, La La La, 9
1970, Bobby Sherman, Easy Come, Easy Go, 9
1971, Grass Roots, Sooner or Later, 9
1971, Partridge Family, I’ll Meet Ya Halfway, 9
1973, Art Garfunkel, All I Know, 9
1973, B.W. Stevenson, My Maria, 9
1974, Helen Reddy, You and Me Against the World , 9
1975, Austin Roberts, Rocky, 9
1978, England Dan & John Ford Coley , We’ll Never Have to Say Goodbye Again , 9
1982, Sylvia, Nobody, 9
1967, Johnny Rivers, Tracks of My Tears, 10
1968, Association, EverythingThat TouchesYou, 10
1970, Mark Lindsay, Arizona, 10
1972, Fifth Dimension, If I Could ReachYou, 10
1976, England Dan & John Ford Coley, Nights Are Forever, 10
1961, Rick Nelson, A Wonder Like You, 11
1970, Kenny Rogers & The First Edition, Somethin’s Burnin’, 11
1974, Carpenters, I Won’t Last a Day, 11
1963, Rick Nelson, Fools Rush In, 12
1964, Johnny Rivers, Maybelle, 12
1968, Cass Elliott, Dream a Little Dream, 12
1971, FifthDimension, Never My Love, 12
1972, Carpenters, It’s Going to Take Some Time, 12
1972, Austin Roberts, Something’s Wrong With Me, 12
1973, Helen Reddy, Peaceful, 12
1976, Carpenters, There’s a Kind of Hush, 12
1966, Gary Lewis/Playboys, My Heart Symphony, 13
1968, Fifth Dimension, Sweet Blindness, 13
1971, Helen Reddy, I Don’t Know How to Love Him , 13
1972, Partridge Family, I Woke Up in Love, 13
1967, Johnny Rivers, Summer Rain, 14
1966, Gary Lewis/Playboys, Paint Me a Picture, 15
1969, Grass Roots, I’d Wait a Million Years, 15
1971, Grass Roots, Temptation Eyes, 15
1974, Helen Reddy, Keep On Singing, 15
1961, Rick Nelson, EverLovin’, 16
1967, Fifth Dimension, Go Where You Wanna Go, l 6
1971, Grass Roots, Two Divided By Love, 16
1971, Bobby Sherman, Cry Like a Baby, 16
1981, Carpenters, Touch Me When We’re Dancin’, 16
1968, Spanky & Our Gang, Like to Get to Know You, 17
1970, Kenny Rogers & The First Edition, Tell It to Brother, 17
1975, Carpenters, Solitaire, 17
1976, Art Garfunkel, I Only Have Eyes For You, 18
1966, Johnny Rivers, Muddy Water, 19
1968, Gary Lewis/Playboys, Sealed With a Kiss, 19
1969, Kenny Rogers & The First Edition, But You Know I Love You, 19
1970, Glen Campbell, Honey Come Back, 19
1971, Fifth Dimension, Love Lines, Angels & Rhymes, 19
1976, Helen Reddy, Somewhere in the Night, 19
1982, Michael Murphy, What’s Forever For, 19
1965, Johnny Rivers, Midnight Special, 20
1967, Mamas & Papas, TwelveThirty, 20
1969, Fifth Dimension, Workin’ On a Groovy Thing, 20
1970, Michael Parks, Long Lonesome Highway, 20
1972, Partridge Family, It’s One of Those Nights, 20
1977, Olivia Newton John, Sam, 20
1967, GaryLewis/Playboys , Where Will Words Come From , 21
1970, Fifth Dimension, Blowing Away, 21
1977, EnglandDan & John Ford Coley, It’s Sad to Belong, 21
1975, Helen Reddy, Emotion, 22
1967, Grass Roots, Things I Should Have Said, 23
1967, Tommy Roe, It’s Now Winter’s Day, 23
1969, Glen Campbell, Try a Little Kindness, 23
1977, England Dan & John Ford Coley, Gone Too Far, 23
1966, Mamas & Papas, Look Through My Window, 24
1967, Scott Mackenzie, Like an Old-Time Movie, 24
1969, Grass Roots, HeavenKnows, 24
1970, Fifth Dimension, Puppet Man, 24
1970, Bobby Sherman, Hey, Mr. Sun!, 24
1963, Rick Nelson, String Along, 25
1969, Fifth Dimension, California Soul, 25
1970, Mark Lindsay, Silver Bird, 25
1976, Carpenters, I Need to Be In Love, 26
1964, Rick Nelson, The Very Thought of You, 26
1965, Johnny Rivers, Where Have All the Flowers Gone, 26
1967, Glen Campbell, By the Time I Get to Phoenix , 26
1967, Mamas & Papas, Glad to Be Unhappy , 26
1969, Glen Campbell, Where’s the Playground, Suzie , 26
1970, Kenny Rogers & The First Edition, Reuben James, 26
1968, Boyce & Hart, Alice Long, 27
1970, Glen Campbell, All I Have to Do is Dream, 27
1970, Fifth Dimension, Save the Country, 27
1966, Grass Roots, Where Were You When I Needed You, 28
1969, Grass Roots, Bella Linda, 28
1972, Partridge Family, Breaking Up is Hard to Do, 28
1968, Fifth Dimension, Carpet Man, 29
1969, Tommy Roe, Heather Honey, 29
1971, Bobby Sherman, The Drum, 29
1968, Spanky & Our Gang, Sunday Morning, 30
1969, Cass Elliott, It’s Getting Better, 30
1967, Spanky & Our Gang, Make Every Minute Count, 31
1969, Grass Roots, The River Is Wide, 31
1971, Glen Campbell, Dream Baby, 31
1974, Albert Hammond, I’m a Train, 31
1970, John Philips, Mississippi, 32
1973, Fifth Dimension, LivingTogether, 32
1977, Carpenters, Calling Occupants, 32
1966, Johnny Rivers, Under Your Spell Again, 33
1970, Kenny Rogers & The First Edition, Heed the Call, 33
1976, Olivia Newton John, Don’t Stop Believin’, 33
1967, Fifth Dimension, Paper Cup, 34
1972, Grass Roots, Glory Bound, 34
1973, Neil Diamond, Be, 34
1974, Art Garfunkel, Second Avenue, 34
1969, Glen Campbell, TrueGrit, 35
1970, Grass Roots, Baby, Hold On!, 35
1973, America, Don’t Cross River, 35
1975, Helen Reddy, Bluebird, 35
1977, Carpenters, All You Can Get From Love, 35
1968, Glen Campbell, I Want to Live, 36
1969, Glen Campbell, Let It Be Me, 36
1969, Cass Elliott, Make Your Own Kind of Music, 36
1972, Fifth Dimension, Together Let’s Find Love, 37
1974, Art Garfunkel, I Shall Sing, 38
1975, Johnny Rivers, Blue Suede Shoes, 38
1967, Boyce & Hart, Out and About, 39
1968, Association, Time For Lovin’, 39
1968, Glen Campbell, Gentle On My Mind, 39
1972, Grass Roots, TheRunaway, 39
1973, Partridge Family, Look Through the Eyes of Love, 39
1966, The Turtles, You, Baby, 40

All Photos: Ed Hirsch.

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This article originally appeared in VG‘s Oct. ’98 issue. All copyrights are by the author and Vintage Guitar magazine. Unauthorized replication or use is strictly prohibited.

Fifty years ago, Gibson’s new Les Paul Model was quickly becoming one of the company’s most popular guitars, and (though there was no way of knowing it at the time) was on its way to achieving mythical status in the realm of the electric solidbody.

With the recent observation of the model’s golden anniversary, Vintage Guitar traveled to the scenic northern New Jersey home of the guitar’s namesake to find out how it all happened. Les Paul’s home was the perfect environment, given that part of his reputation was built on the groundbreaking NBC television show “Les Paul and Mary Ford At Home,” which aired in the mid 1950s.

When a tape recorder is running, Les Paul is comfortable, no matter if he’s playing guitar or merely discussing his adventuresome life.

Learning To Play
In the 1920s, a very young Lester Polfuss fell in love with the guitar, which was far from being the predominant instrument of its time, bowing to the more popular tenor banjo, plectrum banjo, ukulele, piano, mandolin, and violin.

“There just weren’t very many guitar players around at that time… guitar players who could play, anyway.”

Still, he put in the many thousands of hours of practice necessary to inch toward the top of the heap, and kept an ear tuned to famous guitarists of the day. He (along with several other up-and-comers) was particularly inspired by Eddie Lang.

“Eddie was sort of the cow with the bell,” said Les. “I thought he was playing correctly, so I fell in love with his playing. I thought, ‘This is a good person to follow.’ He was my mentor in the very early days. He was who I wanted to learn from.”

And learn he did, but not without innate assistance.

“You must have rhythm, an ear, determination, belief, and you must be ready to roll up your sleeves and work for the rest of your life,” he said. “You set your goals and don’t give up.”

After developing his chops, he moved to Chicago to make his mark.

“I got a Sears and Roebuck guitar, then a Dobro,” he said. “I joined ‘Sunny’ Joe Wolverton in St. Louis, and Joe said, ‘You know that tin can you got – it drowns me out – and it’s awful when you’re playing rhythm on it. You’ve got to have a Gibson L-5.’

“I said, ‘How do we do that?’ And Joe said, ‘Let’s go up to Kalamazoo and get one.’

“So we went to Gibson’s factory in Kalamazoo and picked out an L-5. So we both had L-5s, and we had a great sound.”

Very early in his career, Les decided that his life would revolve around the guitar. But there wasn’t much to go on; there weren’t many accomplished guitarists in the country and, obviously, there was no MTV or Hot Licks video. Nonetheless, he set about finding a guitar that would help him find his sound and realize his dream.

“In 1934, we were working at a radio station in Chicago, and I heard through the hillbillies around town that the Larson Brothers were over on Ohio Avenue. They were in a barn in a very undeveloped downtown part of Chicago. There were a lot of barns, which today is hard to believe.

“But I went over the see them, and one brother said, ‘What do you want?’ I told him what I wanted – a guitar with no F-holes. I talked him into it and I tried to explain that I was going to put pickups on it; I was going to make an electronic instrument that’s playable.

“I was way ahead of the game in 1934, because the electric guitar didn’t come out until ’36. It’s amazing how different those days were, how primitive. In those days it was most difficult to break the rules. There was another fellow who made a guitar for me, and he was with National-Dobro. The National people had moved from California to Chicago in the mid ’30s, and they also made me one with no F-holes.”

The Log and Clunker
During this time, Les was becoming one of the best guitarists in the country, and he continued to strive for the best guitar sound. In the late ’30s he moved to New York City and found himself in a great position to experiment.

“In 1941, I was close to the Epiphone factory on 13th Street, and I told them, ‘I want to build this log.’ They said, ‘You want to build what?’ And I said, ‘I’ll do it on Sunday, you guys don’t have to be there.’

“And I built it. It took three Sundays or so, and I finally got this ‘log’ built. This guy there helped me, and we got it together. It was just a 4×4 with a pickup and a neck.

“I took it to a tavern in Queens, and I was playing “The Sheik” on it, and the act died. The people looked at me like I was nuts. Then I thought, ‘I’m going back down to Epiphone and put wings on that thing… put some sides on it, and make it look like a guitar, and see if that makes any difference.’

“Geez, they went crazy. So I found out that people hear with their eyes, and that it’s got to look like a guitar. But the sound and everything was there.”

Many guitarists think Les had an early association with Epiphone (the fact he built it at the Epi factory helped further that myth, and his famous “clunkers” are Epiphones – with good reason.

“The log was not the reason I used Epiphones,” he said. “Right after we built the log in 1941, I went back to Chicago. One day I got a call from a guy who said, ‘I work for a bread wrapping company and I got my hand caught in a wrapping machine. I have a guitar and amp I want to give you. It’s an Epiphone.’ I said, ‘I play a Gibson, I don’t play Epiphone.’ But he said, ‘I’ll give it to you.’

“So I said, ‘Well, bring it over.’ So I looked at it and gave him $125. I took it because it had a door in the back, so I could go in and change the pickups, do the electronics, all that junk.

After The Log
“For the ‘clunker,’ I started thinking, ‘I’m going to do more than pickups here. I’m going to change this and that,’ and the guitar became an experiment. Next thing you know, it’s the best damn guitar I’ve got. That became my number one clunker. I had three of them.

“That was a very exciting time because I had this clunker and I’m making records with Bing Crosby [Decca Records’ Bing Crosby With The Les Paul Trio and Bing Crosby With Les Paul And His Trio], and Gibson is going nuts. They say, ‘We’ll give you a gold plated L-5… whatever you want.’ I told them, ‘If you can beat this one, okay.’

“The surgery I did on the clunker was severe. And it just so happens I recorded ‘How High The Moon,’ ‘Bye Bye Blues,’ and everything from that period with it.”

And Les kept his word, continuing to use the Epiphone clunker until Gibson presented him with a better-sounding guitar – the prototype solidbody Les Paul Model.
Learning to Record
“Bing and I were recording ‘It’s Been A Long, Long Time’ and some other songs, and afterward Bing said, ‘Where are you going?’

“So we went next door to the Grotto, and we’re eating salami sandwiches and beer at 8 a.m. Bing said, ‘You didn’t seem too enthusiastic about those takes. I said, ‘I’ve got a whole list of things that could have been better.’

Then Bing offered to buy a recording studio for me. We went up Sunset Boulevard, and he said, ‘What about that building over there?’ So I said, ‘No, that’s too big.’ Finally he found a place across from what is now the Hollywood Guitar Center, and he says, ‘That looks perfect.’ I can see the sign – Les Paul’s House of Sound. There, you could teach all the tricks of the trade. We’d have something that would go through the whole country, and it would be so big.’

“I thought about it and said, ‘You know what, Bing? What I really want to do is just play the guitar.’ Bing said, ‘Okay.’ So we went back to the parking lot on Melrose and he drove his way and I drove mine.”

Still, Les learned everything he could about recording. After passing on Crosby’s offer, he and two buddies decided to board up his garage and make their own studio

“I wanted to learn, exactly, all the tricks of recording. So I built the studio in my back yard and got the word out that I would record anybody – for no fee! I’d have a bass player come over with his trio, and I’d concentrate on making the best-sounding recording. I’d go for the best fidelity, with the acoustics just right, even if it meant taking some carpet out, slanting the walls, changing the room materials, which mics accomplished the best sound from the bass or piano – all the technical things.

“The piano was the very first instrument I did. I put on a piano roll and just let it play for two or three weeks until I found out how to get the best sound.

“I did freebies for months, and finally thought, ‘Now I have her.’ Then I started charging $12 an hour. W.C. Fields made an album that probably cost him $50!”

Rhubarb Red and Mary Lou
While learning the fine points of recording in his own studio, Les also maintained a busy show schedule.

“I had nine shows on NBC radio, called “sustainers,” where I could do anything I wished, and they were all-jazz shows. The NBC program director told me, ‘I’ve got nine more shows and I’m trying to think of something to fill them.’ I said, ‘Why don’t you go country?’ He said, ‘That’s a good idea.’ I said, ‘I started out country. If you want, I’ll change my name to Rhubarb Red and find a group.’ Low and behold, everybody in my jazz group played another instrument. The piano player played the accordion, my guitar player played the violin.

“The group picked things up quickly, and I thought, ‘All I need is a singer.’ So I stepped out of NBC one day, and Gene Autry was walking just ahead of me. I said, ‘Hi, Gene.’ Gene said, ‘Rhubarb, how are you?’ I said, ‘I’m looking for a country girl singer. He said, ‘I have a trio that sings for me. The one in the middle is good looking, has a good ear, and is the best singer I know of.’”

That singer was Colleen Summers, and Les came to find that she was a huge fan of his music. Still, he had a tough time convincing her that he was indeed Les Paul. She eventually accepted his invitation to visit his studio, and he gave her a “country name” – Mary Lou.

“The Show was a lot of fun because there was nothing like it on the radio,” Les said.

The Les Paul Sound
Beyond his reputation as a brilliant guitarist, Les is today known as the father of modern multitrack recording. He spent thousands of hours perfecting many techniques that eventually became industry standards, but not before their many nuances came to make up “the Les Paul sound.”

And it all started because of his mother!

“I was at the Oriental Theater, in Chicago, in 1946, playing with the Andrews Sisters when my mother told me, ‘Lester, I heard you last night on the radio.’ I said, ‘Mom, it couldn’t have been me, I’ve been onstage with the Andrews Sisters. It had to be someone else.’ She said, ‘Well, you ought to stop them.’ I said, ‘How can I stop a guy from playing like me? There’s no law against that, Ma!’ She said, ‘Well you should do something about it. When your mother can’t tell you from someone else, there’s something wrong.’

“So I thought about it, and went to the Andrews Sisters and said, ‘You can keep my trio, but I’m going back to California to lock myself into the studio and develop a new concept.’

“And that’s how my sound happened. It’s different than with straight guitar. It’s what you do with slap-back echo, and reverb, and all the things you have at your command. What you can do with the bass and the speeding up the tracks. All of the creative things you can do to make this sound so different that makes your mother say, ‘That’s Lester.’

“And of course my mom just loved it because it was unusual. And it worked.”

Les’ new sound had a lot to do with his own multilayer recording invention. His first hit with Capitol Records was the wizard-like instrumental “Lover” which became a hit in ’47.

Then in ’48, Les and Mary were in a serious automobile accident. It took Les 18 months to recover, and in that time he came to the conclusion that he needed something to build on… something that would take him beyond being a mere “guitar star.”

Les Paul and Mary Ford
“Colleen (Mary Lou) was working with Gene Autry and his rodeo, and we played a lot of the same cities at the same time. When I was at the Paramount, they’d be playing Madison Square Garden. We’d meet and I’d say, ‘I’ve got to find something to put in my trio… there should be a vocal.’ But I never thought about her, even though we were hanging out together.”

As a personal relationship began to develop between Les and Colleen, he began to formulate plans for a new group that included her, but her show biz name would be Mary (nee Mary Lou) and Ford, which he picked out of the phone book, based on the famous automobile family name.

“We started playing in Milwaukee,” he said. “I still lived in L.A. but we went to Milwaukee to open a tavern for my brother-in-law.”

Needing more than one place to play, Les started driving down Milwaukee Avenue. He found a place with a marquee that advertised live music.

“I approached the owner and said, ‘I’d like to play in your club.’ He said, ‘I’ve lost a lot of money on everything I’ve tried.’ Then I said, ‘We’ll play for nothing,’ and he said, ‘Come on in!’

“So we went in, and three months later they were lined up around the block. I said, ‘Mary, I think this thing is going to work.’

“But we had to leave because I’d made arrangements to open the Blue Note in Chicago for Dave Garroway. So we played, and on the second night, the owner called [our agent] in New York and said, ‘We’ve got the world’s worst trio in here. I want to get them out and get somebody in here that’s good.’ He told them, ‘The guitarist talks into his shoe, she’s in a gingham gown, and they don’t finish a song. Sometimes he’s funny, but it sure doesn’t fit down here. And I don’t want any cowboy hats in here!’

“Well, he didn’t know that the cowboy hats were Gene Autry and Tex Ritter. They had never had that in the Blue Note; it was a bad sign to see a jazz joint with cowboy hats.

“But that second night we continued doing what we were doing, and there were a lot of reporters with pencils in the audience, going like mad. The next day, the owner said, ‘Have you read the reviews? All those guys you were ribbing with the pencils? Well, just keep doing what you’re doing.’

“And that’s the way it started. Then the Miller Brewing people said, ‘Les, it’s time for you two to get married.’ And we were happily married. We were very close to Fred Miller and all those people then. Milwaukee was our home. So they fixed up the whole nightclub, and got us married right there.

“Mary was a tremendously talented person, and it was a great combination.”

Commercial Appeal
Aside from their rising status as a live and recording act, Les and Mary were one of the first successful artist-based radio advertisers.

“We were at the Oriental Theater in 1951, and a fellow from Rheingold Beer approached me. He said, ‘I’m here to talk to you about making a commercial. We’re willing to pay you good money.’ I was my own manager and I said, ‘That sounds good. How much time do you want?’ He said, ‘Thirty seconds.’ I said, ‘When do you need it?’ He said, ‘If we can do it, I’ll produce it right here.’

“Mary and I were doing a broadcast once a week for our radio show (“Les Paul and Mary Ford At Home”). So I said, ‘I’ll tell you what. Go downstairs and watch today’s newsreel, and give me a chance to think about it.’

“So he goes down, and when he comes back I hand him a reel that has 30 seconds of tape. I said, ‘I thought about it, and I did your commercial.’ He said, ‘You did the commercial!?’ I said, ‘Yeah.’

“I wrote the script, I wrote the song, I did the whole damn thing, and I got it on a reel. I handed it to him and said, ‘Now you give me the money and we’ve got a deal.’ He said, ‘I haven’t heard it yet.’ I said, ‘Well, I’ll play it for you.’ And I did and he flipped out and said, ‘They’re going to go crazy for this. But I’m supposed to be the producer and the director, and it’s supposed to be my idea. I’m going back to New York, so will you please not tell anybody?’ I said, ‘Nah, you produced it, you directed it, and you made it.’ And he went back and the people at Rheingold Beer loved it, and everything was very successful.

“I didn’t want anybody to know just what it was that I was doing, because it was highly unusual. This was sound on sound and nobody else had that. I didn’t want to disclose how I was doing all of this stuff.

“I was using it on my radio show, and that’s when we came up with the term the ‘Les Paulverizer’ and all that stuff. I’d say by throwing these switches I could get all these sounds. And from that point on, McDonald would come out and say ‘Hey Les, I have another one for you. I’ll leave it and get lost.’

Rheingold Beer was just for the New York area, and it was a very popular beer, so it was the most aggressive advertiser, and the most important commercial we ever made in our life. With all the Listerine ads and the Robert Hall ads, Rheingold was the one that concentrated more on advertising their product.

“If you looked at the New York Times you’d see maybe six full pages, one right after the other, of nothing but Les Paul and Mary Ford. We were sitting at a table eating and we’d have our beer in front of us, and the next picture is something entirely different. And we’d do 30-second radio commercials, ‘Rheingold is my beer – my beer.’ They were terribly popular.

“But the critics were on our backs something awful. We were the very first musicians to advertise a product. So we were criticized by Billboard and Downbeat, because musicians advertising a product was considered prostitution. But today, musicians and artists fight to get to advertise a product.

“It came to the point where Capitol Records sided with the critics, and for the most unusual reason; they said the ads were hurting the sales of records. We made the commercials so good that in many cases they were better than the record (laughs).

“Say our record was ‘The World Is Waiting for the Sunrise,’ which is a very good record. But if just ahead of it was something that was 30 seconds long and very good, too, then Capitol thought that was a problem. It was Capitol’s point of view that many of the disk jockeys might have thought, ‘Why play Les Paul and Mary Ford again, when we just heard them on a commercial?’ So Capitol thought that the ads hurt the airplay of the records.

“So we had a meeting, and I made one of the most stupid mistakes I ever made. I said, ‘Well, why don’t we vote on it?’ And by one vote, I lost, and we cancelled the commercials.

“Now I look back and see how wrong I was. Those commercials were the start of the whole thing. And it didn’t hurt the records. And the advertising, besides being on radio, was in the newspapers, and on [billboards].”

Les Paul and Mary Ford at Home
That misstep was not the end of the line for Les’ and Mary’s advertising-related exposure. Next came their popular Listerine-sponsored TV program.

They purchased a home near Listerine’s headquarters in upstate New Jersey, and with the help of the company, it was made into a world-class recording and TV studio.

This time, however, Les and Mary would not directly advertise the product. The program was called “Les Paul and Mary Ford At Home,” and the two would act out a skit, perform a song, then go to commercial break, which was generally a Listerine mouthwash ad – but there were other products. After the break, the show would resume with a second song, often an instrumental by Les using his Paulverizer.

Most of the episodes had to do with everyday life. They might feature Les in a chef’s hat at a backyard BBQ, talking about his secret recipes. Another episode had Mary wondering why the refrigerator wasn’t working, only to have Les discover that it was unplugged. There is nothing unusual about a man wandering around a kitchen with a black Gibson Les Paul Custom, right?

Another episode had Mary sitting at the kitchen table playing a card game.

“I remember the first show to come out of our home studio,” Les said. “The director had me with a straw hat, a cane, and a striped shirt, tap dancing (laughs). So I said, ‘Somehow, I think we’re going the wrong direction with this act. Get rid of that director and get another guy.’ So they got another guy, and he that came up with the chef’s hat.

“So we worked it out, but it took a long time because we were pioneering, and those were the early days of TV.

“On a typical day, Mary would be upstairs in her dressing room right above us [in his home]. Mary would be trying on her gowns and putting on her makeup, and I’d be eating breakfast. The crew would come down and say, ‘Here’s the schedule.’ They’d hand me the script, so I’d get an idea of what was going to happen. So there are two songs down on the script, let’s say ‘How High The Moon’ and another song I had to choose.

“The script told me how much time I had, and while I’d eat, I’d be thinking, ‘One chorus at that tempo will be that.’ So I’d say to the setup man, ‘Set up some cocktail drums and my black guitar.’ So I walk to that room right over there (points to the second floor glass control room overlooking the main studio) and I lay down 37 seconds of drums, or it might be something else like a second guitar part. Then I may put down a melody for 37 seconds. The tempo is already there – it’s going to be 32 bars, or 12 bars, whatever. I’d already figured out that I’m going to do two choruses or something I make up right there.

“So in 20 minutes I’ve got the song. But Mary hadn’t heard it. She’s still upstairs putting her clothes on. So the song goes immediately to acetate disk, which is placed in the living room or the studio. Then we were ready for the script.

“The script might have Mary saying, ‘While I’m making a sandwich, will you play “Who Broke The Lock?”‘ And they drop the needle on the record that I only heard when I made it (laughs). And there it is – it is as much a surprise to everybody as it is to me. And we get through that and we have maybe four words and we go into a commercial. And that’s the way we had to do the shows. So there were so many surprises.

“So, every day I’d come down to breakfast and a guy would shove something at me. I’d say, ‘What am I going to do this time…?’ So after we’d finish the number, they’d cut to commercial, come back, and Mary would say, ‘Well that was “Doin’ The Town” or “Wait And See” or “Pardon Me, Baby,”‘ or whatever it was. And the show was not dubbed. They’d just sit there with cameras running. The songs we recorded for the radio and TV shows were in most cases picked by me because they were made very popular by someone else. They were standards, and there’s nothing like a proven hit song.

“‘Vaya Con Dios’ was written by a dear friend of mine. That’s the one I think of when it comes to Les Paul and Mary Ford, because it sold so many millions. I think of it every time I go to the bank (laughs). Mary and I admired the writer, and we admired the song, and that’s why we used it. The writer never did live long enough to hear the song. I was so sold on ‘Vaya Con Dios’ and Capitol was so against it that they did not want to put it out. So I had a hell of a time convincing Capitol that it was a hit.”

“Vaya Con Dios” was Les Paul and Mary Ford’s biggest hit, being number one for 11 weeks in ’53. “How High The Moon” was number one for nine weeks in ’51, and was the groundbreaker for the “Paulverized” sound.

Les and Leo
One of the many people who came to Les’ Hollywood backyard/home studio in the ’40s was Leo Fender.

“Leo loved country music, and I was recording Spade Cooley’s guys. So Leo was in my backyard, and Paul Bigsby, and they’re saying, ‘This guy has some stuff going here.’

“Leo and I spent many hours talking. He was interested in me going with him, starting things. He wanted to try new sounds. Where else could Leo hear a better thing than in an orchestra being recorded with his amplifier? Where else is Leo going to find a better place to be where there is an electronic engineer, a person that knows, a person that plays the instrument? And as you know, Leo was not around jazz players at all. He was strictly in a country world. And the country world was prominent in my backyard.

“So Leo and I would sit and talk about sound. And it came to what sound do we like best? The best we agreed upon was the sound that came out of the steel guitar. That was a sound that you could never get out of a straight guitar. A straight guitar always sounded like a straight guitar – limping, dragging its foot. And we finally got to the point of two pickups, where to place them, and what to do with them.

“That was where Leo and I had a different choice. I wanted a front pickup to sound with all the characteristics of a back pickup, but I didn’t want it to be a back pickup. And Leo wanted to take a back pickup and make it sound something like a front pickup. So we were on opposite ends. And through our whole careers, it stayed that way.

“Anyway, Leo was interested in me going with him. The reason I didn’t was that there was only one company at the time – Gibson. So why do I want to start with someone from scratch? So I told Leo, ‘I don’t know if this is the way I want to go.’

Convincing Gibson
Les had already experimented with many ideas for a solidbody electric guitar, including the famous “log.” He approached Gibson’s Guy Hart beginning in 1941 with the idea, and for 10 years tried to convince the company it was good.

After Fender approached Les, he tried Gibson again.

“I called and said, ‘There’s a guy out here who wants me to go with him, and I think that would be a mistake. You should consider my idea a little more.’”

But Gibson wasn’t ready. On one hand, it wanted to give Les anything he wanted – like a gold plated L-5. But on the other hand, it wouldn’t give him the only thing he really wanted – a solidbody guitar that sounded like a steel guitar with a bridge-mounted pickup.

Of course, World War II turned everything around. From 1941 through ’45, few men worked at Gibson, and production was primarily war-related. In ’45, Chicago Musical Instruments (CMI), run by M.H. Berlin, bought Gibson. The latest rage was the cutaway archtop acoustic and cutaway acoustic/electric archtop, and Gibson was trying to figure out (and keep up with) Les Paul’s large body acoustic/electric archtop Epiphone, not some solidbody dream guitar. But with Berlin on board, things began to change at Gibson.

“Mr. Berlin was probably the most honest, comfortable person I’ve ever dealt with. I met him in 1931, when he was selling Martin guitars in his music store across the street from Lyon and Healy, on Wabash.

“When he became chairman of CMI, we’d talk. So he was aware of my career. He told me, many years later, ‘When you came to Gibson with that contraption of yours (the log), we called you the character with the broomstick with the pickups on it.’ And he said, ‘Gibson laughed at you for 10 years.’ Then he said, ‘Well, Gibson was wrong.’”

The First Gibson Solidbody
In the early ’50s, Gibson began to seriously consider a solidbody guitar. Les had warned them of Leo Fender, and most people credit Fender’s bolt-neck, slab-body Esquire/Telecaster with pushing Gibson into the solidbody market.

But at Gibson, Berlin was discussing Les’ ideas with company president Ted McCarty. When Les briefed Berlin, there were two other people in the room, but McCarty was’t one of them.

McCarty’s main job was to fill instrument orders, but he also wanted to increase production at the Kalamazoo factory. McCarty purchased an early Fender solidbody and tore it apart. He worked from one angle, Les worked from another angle, and Berlin was in the middle, taking input from both.

“Everything about the looks of the first guitar was discussed with Mr. Berlin and myself,” he said. “And when we were finished he said, ‘What color are we going to make it?’ Without really thinking, because it never entered my mind that anybody would ask, I said, ‘Gold,’ and there were two other people in the room, another manager and Mr. Berlin’s right-hand man, Mark Carlucci. They damn near died! One guy said, ‘It’s a terrible color to work with.’ But M.H said, ‘Gold it is.’

“Then they said, ‘What about the other guitar?’ I said, ‘Black.’ They asked why, and I said, ‘I like to see the player’s hands move…’ Today, those are two great colors. Sometimes your first thought is the right one!

“Mr. Berlin and I talked about maple and mahogany bodies, and the Gibson people got them backward; the black guitar, which was the most expensive, was all mahogany, and the cheap guitar, with the maple top, cost the most to make.

“When I got my hands on the prototype, I found quite a few errors. I said, ‘Why don’t you do the same with every one of them. Just make them all with a maple top and mahogany on the sides?’ We found out over time that there was not that much difference between the maple and mahogany top.”

Patentently Controversial
Development of the Les Paul Model was very much a team effort, with Berlin calling the shots. But the patent process was assigned to McCarty; Gibson’s guitar patents were handled in the Kalamazoo offices.

McCarty generally let the engineer most responsible for a product be listed as the patent holder. An example is the 1955 Gibson humbucking pickup patented by Seth Lover.

But in 1952 and ’53, a lot was going on. In one span, three similar patents were filed in a six-month period – the Tune-O-Matic Bridge patent was filed on July 5, 1952 in the name of Ted McCarty, the Les Paul trapeze bridge patent was filed four days later in the name of Lester W. Polfus (Les Paul), and the patent for the stop-tail Les Paul guitar (entitled “Stringed Musical Instrument Of The Guitar Type And Combined Bridge And Tailpiece Therefore”) was filed January 2l, 1953 in McCarty’s name.

The Les Paul Guitar
An important day for Les was the day Ted McCarty reached the Delaware Water Gap (the eastern Pennsylvania mountains that border the Delaware River). That was the night that the first Gibson prototype was named the Les Paul guitar.

“The contract was signed, and Ted turned around and asked me, ‘What are we going to call this thing?’ I said, ‘Call it a Les Paul guitar.’ He said, ‘Will you put that in writing.’ I did! So sometimes I do the right thing (laughs).”

In one pen stroke, many of the dreams Les Paul had worked were achieved.

“We signed the agreement and Ted said, ‘What are we going to do with that clunker?’ I said, ‘Play it until you make that first solidbody right.’ Ted said, ‘Les you can’t walk out on the stage with an Epiphone name on your guitar.’ I said, ‘Okay. Send me some Gibson logos and I’ll put one on it.’ And that’s why you look up at the clunker and see Gibson.”

Ted McCarty had always been concerned with the clunker.

“Ted would pace the floor and say, ‘That’s the damndess sound I’ve ever heard. We’ve got to have it.’ And I said, ‘I’ll give you most of it, but I won’t give you all of it. I’ll work with you on that Les Paul guitar and make it the finest that can be made.’ And that’s what we did.”

Summary
Les Paul did so many things right; he found his passion at an early age, and he had natural rhythm and musical ability. He continually improved until he found his sound. He knew he needed to be well-rounded, not only to be a guitarist, but to be an engineer, inventor, promoter, and celebrity. And he worked tirelessly all the while.

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This article originally appeared in VG‘s November 2002 issue. All copyrights are by the author and Vintage Guitar magazine. Unauthorized replication or use is strictly prohibited.

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Leon Rhodes 1932-2017

We are saddened to hear of the passing of guitar legend Leon Rhodes, one of the most-beloved players from the golden age of country music. Leon emerged in the early ’60s with Ernest Tubb’s Texas Troubadours, his jazzy style usually played on a semi- or hollowbody thinline that helped create a distinctive sound heard on many Tubb hits. He also performed onstage the Grand Ole Opry, in the band on television’s “Hee-Haw,” and was a sought-after studio player who backed Roy Orbison, Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings, George Strait, Roy Clark, John Denver, Ricky Skaggs, and many others. In 1998, Leon sat for an extensive interview with VG. Enjoy…

Leon Rhodes has worn a lot of hats during his long and successful career in the music business. He’s played drums, mandolin, bass, guitar, been a bus driver, an “accountant,” a singer, a songwriter and undoubtedly he’s held a few other occupations. From his early days on the Big D Jamboree to his nearly seven-year stint with Country Music Hall of Fame member Ernest Tubb, to his 20-year gig on “Hee Haw” to his continuing affiliation with the Grand Ole Opry, Rhodes has seen and done just about everything the country music business can offer.

A Texas native (from Dallas), Rhodes spent most of the 1960s with The Texas Troubadours as Ernest Tubb’s lead guitarist. Much of his playing with Tubbs was in a straight country and classic honky tonk style. But Rhodes loved swing and jazz music, and when The Troubadours played their own sets at Tubbs’ gigs, they created a tremendously exciting blend of country and jazz. The Troubadours lineup that featured Rhodes on lead guitar, Buddy Charleton on steel, Jack Drake on bass, Cal Smith on rhythm guitar and Jack Greene on drums, is arguably one of the finest backup bands in the history of country music.

In addition to being a superb picker, Rhodes has been involved in the manufacturing and repair/tech side of the guitar business for nearly 30 years. He was a quality control inspector/final assembler for Grammer Guitars in the late 1960s and went on to do similar work with Gower Guitars (manufacturer of a Leon Rhodes Model flat-top acoustic) in the 1970s. And he still does an occasional setup for close friends and fellow pickers.

Rhodes is a man of sincere faith whose most important role is that of devoted father and family man. He and wife, Judi, have been married for 33 years. Judi’s a Nebraska native and they met while Rhodes was on tour with Tubbs. Together they’ve raised four great kids: Tag, Tara, Tami and Tandy, and Rhodes became a grandfather for the first time in late 1996.

These days, Rhodes stays very busy as one of the staff guitarists for The Grand Ole Opry, where he regularly plays with two of Nashville’s all-time great pickers – “Spider” Wilson and Jimmy Capps. And when he’s not on the Opry, he’s in the studio, backing a variety of artists. He also happens to be one of the nicest, most down-to-earth folks in all of country music.

Vintage Guitar: Let’s dive right in. You’re from Dallas, right?
Leon Rhodes: Yes. I was born and raised in Dallas. My first professional job playing was with the Big D Jamboree out of Dallas. I started there when I was 16 years old. I had to audition to get on it. They needed a guitar player for the Big D Jamboree and they held the auditions down at Jim Beck’s recording studio on Ross Avenue. This was the same place Lefty Frizzell did his first recordings, and Ray Price recorded early in his career there, and so did several other artists who would go on to become big stars.

I went down, and I was pretty naive about the music business, but I thought I could play a pretty good boogie-woogie on the guitar. Well, it came my turn to play and I stepped up and when I got through, I thought I’d just played the fire out of it. One of the judges looked at me – I think they could tell I was a bit shy – and said “Leon, that was some very good guitar playing.” I ducked my head and said “Well thank you, sir.” The judge said “I’ve got one question – have you ever played for any dances?” I think he was putting me on, and I said “Yes sir, I sure have.” And he said “Well, whereabouts?” And I said “In church.”

And I was serious. I was raised in the Pentecostal Church, where they dance in the spirit. He said “Well my boy, I think we’re going to hire you.” And that’s how I got my first real professional job, working the Big D Jamboree at the Sportatorium in Dallas.

When did you pick up the guitar?
I was about 14 years old when my dad bought me a guitar. I have two brothers – one is four years older than I am and the oldest is 12 years older than me. Ray [the eldest brother] always had a little “plunky-plunk” type of guitar around the house and sometimes I’d go and get it and try and pick out a tune or so. And he showed me a couple a chords. Actually, my whole family was musical. My mother played piano, my dad played guitar and french harp.

I really had a desire for the guitar. I ended up playing day and night. What I know about the guitar I’m sure was God-given. God gave me that talent because I’ve never had any real problems learning the instrument and progressing right along. And in my early years, I never really had any players I looked up to. Back then, I didn’t know anybody that played, except for my family. Basically, I sat out on the back porch and learned how to play. Nowadays you’ve got television, audio and videocassettes you can buy that show you how to do things.

The church was an important influence?
Oh yes. My mother and dad were very religious, and I’ve often said I went to church nine months before I was even born.

When were you born?
In 1932. March 10 to be exact.

Well, you’re a very young-looking 65.
Well that’s a really nice compliment. Speaking of Junior – I did a thing with Junior not too long ago. It was a television show called “Evening Of The Greats.” And Pam Tillis was on the show, as well. Junior did a couple of Ernest Tubb songs, then he and Pam did a couple of songs, one of which was also an Ernest Tubb song.

Junior’s got that one called “My Baby Don’t Dance To Nothing But Ernest Tubb,” and he’s got E.T.’s voice down. The first time I heard that song I thought that it had to be somebody related to Ernest.
He really does. He sounds more like Ernest than anybody I’ve ever heard.

Kind of scary, isn’t it?
Yeah, really. Junior is a great musician.

I love his stuff. He’s really eclectic. He’ll be playing those great Leon Rhodes and Buddy Charleton-type licks and fills, and then he’ll go and do Jimi Hendrix.
Absolutely.

On the Big D Jamboree, you must have backed up a lot of performers.
Shortly after I got on the Big D Jamboree, Lefty Frizzell came on the scene. His first recording sessions were at Jim Beck’s studio and I was lucky enough to have been the guitar player on those sessions.

Was this before Lefty signed with Columbia?
I can’t remember for sure, but I don’t think he was with Columbia then.

Jim’s studio was widely used wasn’t, it?
It was. Then I worked three or four years for Jack Ruby. Do you know who Jack was?

That’s not Texas Ruby’s father, is it?
No. Jack was the man who shot Lee Harvey Oswald.

Oh, that Jack Ruby! That would have been my second guess.
I worked for Jack. He had a club called the Silver Spur. Jack also owned Bob Wills Ranch House, it was out on Industrial Boulevard in Dallas. Jack owned the place after Bob had owned it, and I moved down there to play. That club, which Dewey Groom eventually bought and named The Longhorn Ballroom, was so big it didn’t work very well for Jack or for us, so we went back to the Silver Spur.

So you were in the house band?
Yeah. Actually, at this time I was doing several things to make a little money. I even played professional fast-pitch softball.

No kidding!
As a matter of fact, I was playing pro ball when I went to work with Ernest. I was also doing club work at The Longhorn Ballroom. There were three of us who would work from 2 to about 4:30 p.m. and at night the regular 10 or 12-piece band would play. On Sundays, I would play guitar and sing, and with a piano and drums it was just a bit bigger sound than the small early morning band I played in. And actually, I was playing drums in the small band, not guitar.

You’re a drummer, too!
Yeah, I did play ’em. I worked one time with a group at a pretty rough joint. We lost our drummer, so I filled in. Luckily, our steel guitarist was also a guitar player. He played steel standing up and slung the six-string guitar around behind his back when he wasn’t playing it. Having him take over the melodic duties allowed me to concentrate on drums and I ended up on them for five nights a week or so for a while. I got so I could hold my own.

You just mentioned Ernest. How did you get hooked up with him?
The first time I was aware Ernest Tubb and The Troubadours played at The Longhorn Ballroom was on a Sunday night. I’d played in the afternoon and I didn’t know The Troubadours had arrived and the bus was parked out back. I was on the bandstand playing (with the Sunday night early evening band) and I noticed this guy dressed in a t-shirt and a pair of blue jeans and some boots with his pants stuck down in them and that he’d been standing there watching us for quite a while.

Finally, in between songs, he walked up to the rail at the edge of the bandstand and motioned to me. I bent down to talk to him. He said “Hey can you guys play an Ernest Tubb song and can you pick it on guitar like Butterball [Paige] would do it?” I told him “Yeah, we’ll play one in a little bit.”

We started in on another song and I noticed that this guy was really watching me now – big time. Then he motioned for me again and asked “When are you gonna play that Ernest Tubb song?” So I went over to the band leader and said “Hey, this guy down here really wants us to do an Ernest Tubb song.” The leader said “Man, I can’t do that. Ernest is playing here tonight.” And I told him “Well, this guy isn’t going to leave until we do one.” So we did one – just a verse and a chorus and I did a turnaround and we ended it after another chorus. And I picked it out like what I thought Butterball or Billy Byrd would do.

Well the guy in the t-shirt turns around and takes off running across the dance floor. After a few minutes he comes back and he’s got another guy with him. The band and I took an intermission about that time and he motioned to me and asked me if they could buy me a drink. I told him “Well, I don’t drink but I’ll sit and have a cola or something with you.” He said “Fine. We really want to talk with you.”

So we go and sit, and during our conversation they asked me if I’d like to move to Nashville and go to work with Ernest Tubb.

(chuckling) For real?
(laughing) Yeah. So I said “Doing what?” And the second guy says “Playing guitar.” I said “I’m really not the guitar player here. I’m the drummer.” Then the guy in the t-shirt says “No man – you’re a guitar player. In fact, you not just a guitar player you’re the guitar player.” Anyway the guy in the t-shirt was Buddy Emmons and the other guy was Jack Drake.

Ernest’s bass player?
Right. And I told them “I don’t think so. I’m playing professional ball and drums with the band in the afternoon and I don’t see how it would work.”

Well, Buddy wouldn’t have it that way. He said “No, you’re the guitar player.” They ended up calling me about four times, and the fourth time they said they wanted me to go out on a 13-day tour. At that point, I felt like I might be ready for a little vacation, and I said “Okay, send me a ticket and I’ll be there.” The long and short of it is I flew to Nashville for a 13-day tour and I never went back to Texas.

No kiddin’? When did all of this happen?
It was in 1960.

That has to be one of the more unusual auditions I’ve heard of. You didn’t even know you were auditioning.
No, I didn’t (laughing). In fact, unless Ernest was hiding in the club that Sunday, he didn’t even hear me play until right before the tour. Actually, he depended on guys like Buddy and Jack to tell him if a particular player should be a part of the band.

How long were you with The Troubadours?
Just about seven years. I left just before 1967, not too long after we recorded the Ernest Tubb’s Fabulous Texas Troubadours LP.

E.T. was renowned for his generosity and willingness to help others in the business. And I know he was particularly impressed with the 1960s Texas Troubadours lineup, which happens to be my favorite country backup band of all time. When did the Jack Greene, Cal Smith, Jack Drake, Buddy Charleton and Leon Rhodes lineup come together?
Buddy Emmons left the band in about 1962. Then Buddy Charleton came on board. Of course, Jack Drake had already been with Ernest for quite a while. Jack Greene replaced Jan Kurtis, I think it was a bit after Charleton joined. Cal Smith replaced Johnny Johnson on rhythm guitar and as front man, and this was after Jack Greene joined, sometime in 1963, I think.

Jan’s from the Pacific northwest, and I think he lives up here now.
Yeah. Jan played on the very first Troubadours album, which we recorded at Cains Ballroom (for the album On Tour). Jan was a wonderful drummer. He could play jazz – anything! The ’60s Troubadours were really lucky to get such great talent. I thought getting a replacement for Buddy Emmons would have been impossible, but Buddy Charleton was terrific! And then we got Jack Greene to replace Jan Kurtis.

I love the drumming on the Troubadours’ solo albums. Like “Honey Fingers,” for example. That’s just terrific, tight drumming.
It sure is. Jack Greene used to say “Leon plays so fast that he’s always just a little bit ahead of me. When I try to rush and catch him he’ll go faster. You just can’t catch him.”

You guys ended up with your own recording contract on Decca Records starting in about 1964 or so. Those are just fantastic records. The instrumentals knock me out! You were on three of the LPs, right?
Actually, I might have been on four. I was on the Cains Ballroom project, and next was Ernest Tubb Presents The Texas Troubadours.

Then Country Dance Time.
That’s right. And then there was Hittin’ The Road and Ernest Tubb’s Fabulous Texas Troubadours, so I guess that makes five albums.

And you were also on the Midnight Jamboree album.
That’s right, but that was before Jack Greene and Buddy Charleton were in the band.

I’m completely in awe of the playing on those records, as well as the songwriting. And the recording quality is top-notch, too. Do you have any favorite tunes on those projects?
They were good records. When we recorded them, we didn’t overdub anything. What we played in the studio is exactly what you hear on those records. Nothing has been “fixed.”

A number of tunes, like “Red Top” and “C-Jam Blues” are real jazz tunes, and others, like Buddy’s “Almost To Tulsa” and of course, “Honey Fingers,” definitely have some jazz sound and feel to them. How did you guys get into writing/playing such jazz-flavored material?
They do have a jazz feel to them, but actually I’ve never really considered myself a jazz player. And I never concentrated on playing jazz tunes. All of my background is in country playing of one kind or another. But I loved (and still love) jazz. I tried to play my guitar where my notes sounded a bit different – where the other country guitar players wouldn’t know exactly what I was doing. That way I could get a bit “outside” of the melody and “outside” of other players’ ways of thinking. And more than once I had players ask me “What are you doing?” and “What are you thinking about?”

That must have been interesting, given the constraints of backing Ernest.
Ernest really preferred you to just stick to the melody. And he liked you to stick to his style, too. It was interesting because a lot of folks thought what I played with Ernest was all I could play. But the players that did know me told a lot of folks “No, what you hear Leon play when he’s with Ernest is not all he can play.”

Do you have any favorite songs from those albums?
One of my favorites is “Steel Guitar Rag” (from On Tour). Our version came off so beautiful. I’d had that arrangement since I was a kid in Dallas, but I’d never played it with a steel player like Buddy Charleton. Wow! I think it was one of our best instrumental tunes. And of course, “Honey Fingers.” I still get royalty money for that one. And “Rhodes-Bud Boogie,” too.

Well you should. Those are killer tunes!
Those three songs are probably my favorites, and the ones the band really loved to play. We could play our jazz licks on them and we could play as fast as we wanted too.

I’m also quite fond of the real swing/jazz tunes “C-Jam Blues” and “Red Top.”
They are real swing/jazz tunes.

And another one I love is the “Texas Troubadour Stomp.” Through the years I’ve impressed a number of folks when I cue that one up. Generally, it doesn’t take long before they’re slapping their foreheads in wonderment. And when I tell them it’s Ernest Tubb’s backup band, many times I have to show them the album before they believe me. You’ve got some signature licks and short note patterns that show up in some form in a number of those tunes.
(laughing) Yeah. Those are things I’ve put together through the years and have really liked. My feeling was “I’ve got something good here.” So every once in a while I’ll play it.

A friend of mine recently put out a terrific CD called Travis County Pickin‘ and when they held the release party/performance, one of the few cover tunes they played was “Honey Fingers.”
Really?

Every player I’ve talked to that is really into the country/jazz style guitar all know that song and they all know about your incredible solos on it.
I really appreciate those comments. It really makes me feel good.

When you left the Troubadours, did you already have the gig with “Hee Haw” lined up?
No, I didn’t. Once you come to Nashville and play for a while and the record producers and publishing companies get to know who you are and what you can do, you can get in demand to do recording sessions. I quit working the road with Ernest to do recording sessions, and to get in on more opportunities for work than I could being out on the road.

And you wouldn’t have to travel.
Definitely.

You and The Troubs worked a huge number of dates each year.
We were driving over 200,000 miles each year. That’s a long way.!

250 to 275 dates a year?
That’s probably not far off.

I’m sure you got tired of roadhouses.
Oh, man!

So you ended up jumping into the studio?
I did, and I was doing real well, earning a good living doing sessions. And then some television work came along. And actually, the week after I left Ernest I went to work at the Opry. At that time, there was only one guitar player, and I walked in and was welcomed with open arms. Nearly all of the artists knew me because we’d either travelled together or been on tour or package shows. And they were delighted to have me back them on the Opry.

Who was the other guitarist at that time?
Spider Wilson. Jerry Whitehurst was the piano player, Junior Huskey was on bass and Ed Hyde was on fiddle.

This was in ’67?
That’s right.

Another important part of your career was the “Hee Haw” period. When did you join the “Hee Haw” band?
I started in 1971 and was with the show until ’91.

20 years. That’s a long time. “Hee Haw” got a little too corny for me at times, but I used to enjoy the guest artist spots where I’d get a chance to see you and the band do some pickin’. In fact, TNN has those shows in reruns still.
My favorite segments on that show were when the band got to work with Roy Clark. Before Roy brought his own band in, we would back him. He’d do a number of songs each season and we’d back him. And he did some real swinging numbers!

He’s a great player!
Oh yeah! He’s a very talented man, a real showman and a great guitar player. I’m proud to call him my friend.

There’s a whole generation that only knows Roy from the corny characters he portrayed on “Hee Haw,” and that’s too bad.
Well, Roy is a showman’s showman. A real entertainer.

So, 20 years on “Hee Haw” and you’ve been affiliated with the Opry since ’67. What about now, with the “Marty Party” show?
Marty is a serious fan of pickers. I’ve known him since he was a little kid. And he definitely respects the same folks he looked up to when he was a young boy. He hasn’t forgotten the great players before him. And as far as talent, Marty has loads of talent.

I’m definitely a fan. He’s my favorite modern country performer, but I’m puzzled that he hasn’t quite made it into the superstar realm yet.
Yeah, I really like him. He’s a fine young man. I was on the one “Marty Party” show with him.

I remember that one! I loved hearing “Honey Fingers” when the show came back from a commercial break.
That “Honey Fingers” thing was Marty’s idea. He said “Leon is going to play something on my show.” And he asked me what I wanted to play and I said “How about ‘Honey Fingers’?” And we did it. Marty also uses me on rhythm guitar when he appears on the Opry. I think he respects me and just wants me there with him. And I really appreciate that.

Through the years, you’ve played a lot of guitars and used a lot of amps. I know The Texas Troubadours got into that Epiphone thing.
I’m definitely an Epiphone man. The Sheraton is my particular favorite model. I was introduced to it when I joined Ernest. When I first arrived in Nashville, I was playing a Fender Jazzmaster and prior to that I played the Telecaster and the Stratocaster. Gibson sponsored Ernest and they told me they would like me to play a Gibson. We went through Kalamazoo and I looked over the guitars at the factory and I picked the Epiphone Sheraton. I really like the neck and I think it is a quality instrument. And that’s what I’ve played pretty much exclusively until a few years ago when I went back to the Telecaster. I use the Tele on the Opry and quite a bit on sessions. To quote Grady Martin, the Tele has “…that shrill sound that kills Johnson grass when you pick it.” The kind they love in the studio.

(laughing) The tone isn’t exactly big and full-sounding, is it?
No, it isn’t.

What are you using for an amplifier these days? I know you used to use Standel.
When I was with Ernest, that’s what I had. I had a Standel model with no reverb. And I liked it better than any amp I’ve ever had. Nowadays, I think the older Fender amps are probably my favorites to record with. I also have a Peavey Nashville 400. And on the Opry we have Peavey equipment.

In terms of the current scene, do you have any favorite pickers or musicians in general?
There’s a lot of great players around, but I’m real fond of the younger guy who played with Merle Haggard – Clint Strong. Clint is a very good friend of mine and he’s a serious jazz player – a real “water moccasin” on guitar. He can handle anything thrown at him. And of course there’s Grady Martin, who’ll always be my hero.

Grady’s awesome! Have you ever played with Brent Mason or Brent Rowan?
Yeah. I just did a Ricky Skaggs session that Brent Mason was on. He’s a fine player.

It sounds like the session work has been pretty good for you through the years. Who else have you recorded with?
B.J. Thomas, Connie Smith, The Gatlin Brothers, Sammy Davis, Jr., Paul Anka, George Strait, George Jones, Roy Clark, Julie Andrews, Crystal Gayle, Loretta Lynn, Sammi Smith, Gene Watson, The Osborne Brothers, Jean Shepard, Dottie West, George Morgan, John Denver, Moe Bandy, Roy Orbison, Marie Osmond, Jimmy Dickens, Ricky Skaggs and Buddy Emmons, to name a few. And actually, I did a fair amount of work with Jimmy Bryant when he moved to Nashville.

Really?
Yeah. I never knew Jimmy before that. I met him when he moved here and we just kind of fell in love with each other, hit it off real well. We had always admired each other’s playing but had never met. I was working at a little place called The Roadway Venture Inn on Sunday and Monday nights. Jimmy would wander in all the time and sit in the front row, make up paper wads and throw ’em at me every time I’d take a real hot chorus (laughs).

I told him “Okay, you get up here now and play a little bit and I’m gonna throw things at you.”

What did you and Jimmy work on?
Jimmy got involved in producing albums and sessions. Every time he was the leader on a session, he would call me. One time, I arrived at a session he had called me on and he wanted to play a three-part guitar harmony section. Me and Jimmy on guitars, and Buddy Emmons – he always called Buddy, too – on steel guitar. Before the session, Buddy set up right up between Jimmy and me. Emmons was tuning and then he started playing some real hot licks. All of a sudden, he stopped, dropped his bar and looked over at Jimmy and then over at me. He pushed his chair back, got up and said “No, no. No, no.” And then he walked out!

Now that’s a good story! Did you and Jimmy ever record any instrumental stuff?
Unfortunately, we didn’t. We never got into that. It seemed like we were always busy with other people’s projects and time just flew right by.

As big a fan as I am of instrumental music, since the Beatles there hasn’t been a very strong mainstream market for it. There’s always been a strong-but-small niche market and actually, instrumental music has been making a bit of a comeback in recent years, but it’s definitely not like the ’50s and ’60s, when Speedy and Jimmy and you and The Troubs were putting out such great stuff. And folks would go to dances and anticipate getting up to “cut a rug” to tunes like “Rhodes-Bud Boogie.”
You’re right. I’ve often thought that as popular as Ernest was, The Troubadours had a lot of fans, too. We used to kid E.T. and tell him “E.T., we had as many fans here tonight as you.” Not true, of course, but we did have a lot of them.

How was E.T. to work for? Was he as good as they say?
E.T. was one of the finest men I’ve ever known and a great guy to work for. Here’s one story that’ll show what kind of man Ernest was.

We played Madison Square Garden and we only did 10 minutes – it was a big package tour thing. One of my jobs, including doing most of the arranging and sometimes driving the bus, was to settle up with the promoters, get Ernest’s money and keep it until the next day. Our fee that night was $2,000. I went in to the promoter and he told me “Leon, I hate to tell you this but we didn’t crack the nut tonight. We didn’t make enough money to pay all of you. What I’m doing is giving everybody half of their due in cash and then I’m post-dating a check to make up the difference. Is that all right with you?” I told him “No sir. I can only do it if you’ll date the check today. I’ll be glad to hold it for as long as you want.” He said “No, I want to post-date it.” I told him “How about you don’t give me any money or any check and when you get the full $2,000, just send it to the office in Nashville.” He said “Are you serious? You’d do that for me?” I said “Sure. I trust you.”

We shook hands and I left. Well, the next morning I had to face Ernest, and I was beginning to think maybe I’d done the wrong thing. I went down and he was sitting on a little stool eating Post Toasties and milk. I sat beside him and said “Good morning, Ernest. Me and you gotta talk.” He said “What is it, son?” I said “I didn’t get you any money last night.” He said “Is that right?” And I told him exactly what happened. He took a couple of chews on his cereal and he looked at me and said “Son, you did right.” And that’s all he ever said about it. He was an honest and trustworthy man.

You did end up coming out okay on it, right?
Oh yeah.

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Honey Fingers
A Selected Leon Rhodes Discography
Leon Rhodes, who spent much of the 1960s in Ernest Tubb’s great backup band, The Texas Troubadours, is a terrific guitar player. Ernest was so impressed with Leon and the rest of this group of Troubadours that he helped them get their own recording contract. As part of this exceptionally fine Troubadour band (Buddy Charleton on steel, Jack Drake on bass, Jack Greene on drums and Cal Smith on rhythm guitar) Leon recorded three albums (beginning in late 1964) that included some very fine instrumental tunes and vocals. He became adept at a variety of styles (straight country, western, and western swing) including my personal favorite musical hybrid: country-jazz. And much of the instrumental material he recorded with The Troubadours features exceptionally fine examples of country-jazz guitar. Here are a few of my favorite examples of Leon’s superb playing:

Ernest Tubb Presents The Texas Troubadours (released in early 1965). The debut Troubadours LP includes several terrific instrumentals, including the “Pan Handle Rag” (one of my favorite versions of this classic steel guitar tune), “Rhodes-Bud Boogie” and the ultra cool “Texas Troubadour Stomp,” which features some great close harmony work from Leon and Buddy, and two fine solos from Leon.

Country Dance Time (released in late 1965). Stellar cuts include “Red Top” (the Lionel Hampton tune) and Duke Ellington’s “C-Jam Blues.” Both “Red Top” and “C-Jam Blues” feature wonderful country-jazz arrangements/playing. “Twilight Over Texas” shows Leon’s tasty western/ballad capabilities. And I can’t say enough about the engineering/stereo mix on this record. Superb!

Ernest Tubb’s Fabulous Texas Troubadours (released in late 1966). “Honey Fingers” is a standout track on this great LP. Leon takes two solos and they feature some jaw dropping/forehead slapping country-jazz guitar work. Other notable tracks include “E.T. Blues” (very catchy), “Cool It”, and “Take That.” All feature Leon’s tasty fills and solos.

Here’s some specific details on Leon’s recorded work with The Texas Troubadours:

45 RPM SINGLES
Label/# Titles
Decca 31699 “Pan Handle Rag”/”Rhodes-Bud Boogie”
Decca 31770 “Cains Corner”/”Honky Tonks And You”*
Decca 31837 “Leon’s Guitar Boogie”/”Highway Man”*
Decca 32065 “E.T. Blues”/”Walking The Floor Over You”
Decca 32121 “Honey Fingers”/”Gardenia Waltz”
Decca 32185 “Almost To Tulsa”/”Oklahoma Hills”*

33 1/3 RPM STEREO ALBUMS
Decca DL 74045 Midnight Jamboree
Decca DL 74321 On Tour
Decca DL 74459 Ernest Tubb Presents The Texas Troubadours
Decca DL 74644 Country Dance Time
Decca DL 74681 Hittin’ The Road
Decca DL 74745 Ernest Tubb’s Fabulous Texas Troubadours

COMPACT DISC
Rhino CD R2 70902 Ernest Tubb Live, 1965
Rhino CD R2 70718 Legends of Guitar – Country, Vol. 1 (1 track – “Honey Fingers”)

VOCALS
For more information on Leon, Buddy Charleton, and the rest of The Troubadours, see the September, 1994, “SPOTLIGHT” column, which profiles the Troubadours debut LP Ernest Tubb Presents The Texas Troubadours.

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** A special ‘tip-of-the-Stetson’ to my pal and VG colleague Dave Kyle for his important role in getting this project going. Many thanks, Dave! **

This article originally appeared in VG‘s Jan. ’98 issue. All copyrights are by the author and Vintage Guitar magazine. Unauthorized replication or use is strictly prohibited.

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Reggie Young passed away on January 17, 2019. Here is an extensive interview he did with VG in 2001.

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Reggie Young is one of the most recorded guitarists in history. His tasty style has opened doors for him to play onstage and in the studio with every style of music possible; early rockabilly, rhythm and blues, country, rock, pop, and even jazz!

Young was born in Missouri, grew up in Arkansas, and moved to Memphis at age 13. His father played guitar around the house and Reggie received his first guitar – a National flat-top – for Christmas in 1950. He played his first gig at age 15 and made $13. Growing up, Young was heavily influenced by the WSM radio show out of Nashville called “Two Guitars.” It featured Chet Atkins, Jerry Byrd, and Ray Edenton. Young would listen and try to figure out guitar licks.

He joined Eddie Bond and the Stompers in 1955. A local disc jockey named Sleepy Eyed John heard them play and asked them to record the song “Rockin’ Daddy” at WHHM studio. Mercury Records heard the song and signed Bond to a deal. The song charted and became a hit, so the band hit the road with the likes of Johnny Cash, Roy Orbison, Carl Perkins, and Johnny Horton.

Young’s next session was for Mercury. He was paid union scale – $41.25 – he keeps the stub in his scrapbook. He played with Johnny Horton throughout 1958. Every Saturday they’d play “The Louisiana Hayride.” Then Bill Black formed his combo, and asked Reggie to come aboard. That band opened for many prominent acts of the day, including an outfit called The Beatles! Sessions in Muscle Shoals, Fame Studios and Royal Studio in Memphis kept him busy at the time, and after traveling to New York to work for Atlantic Records, Young helped form the Memphis Boys, which served as the house band at American Studios.

The Memphis Boys helped turn out hit after hit from 1967 to ’72, including Elvis’ comeback hits “Suspicious Minds,” “In the Ghetto,” and “Kentucky Rain.”

Soon after, Young moved to Nashville and has been here since, playing on a list of who’s who in the pop and country world. He played the famous riff on “Drift Away” and the beautiful guitar part on Travis Tritt’s “Anymore.”

His work ethic and dedication to craft have earned him a listing in 1,000 Great Guitarists, selection as 1978’s “Super Picker of the Year” by the Nashville chapter of the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences for playing on the most sessions, scored him a gig backing Willie Nelson and Kris Kristofferson at Bob Dylan’s 30th Anniversary concert, performed on “The Tonight Show,” “Late Night with David Letterman,” “Saturday Night Live,” “The Nashville Network,” “CMA Awards,” and gigs at several Farm Aid concerts.

His playing is featured on nearly 20 movie soundtracks and if you caught VH1’s “Top 100 Songs” program last year, Young played on three of them! Twice he has performed at the Kennedy Center Honors – for tributes to Johnny Cash and Willie Nelson. And of course, he has toured the world over.

Young lives outside of Nashville with his wife, Diane. Our talk took place at his home, and started with instruments in-hand…

Vintage Guitar: Since we’re playing guitars, let’s talk about the gear you’re using, starting with amplifiers.
Reggie Young: I have a Matchless 2×12 combo, and I use it a lot. I’ve also got a ’65 Fender Deluxe Reverb, I guess it’s my all-time favorite little amp. That’s mostly what I use in the studio. Another one I use for the studio is a Hullett Deluxe, which is all-tube with one 12″ Eminence speaker; the extension cab has a 12″ Weber VST. It’s kind of like a Deluxe Reverb…except it doesn’t have reverb. [Nashville session guitarist] Bill Hullett’s son, Clay, makes the amp.

Between those three, I play the Fender the most, depending on what were doing. If it’s a harder sound, I’ll go with the Matchless. The Hullett is a different sound – more on the Deluxe side. It only has a volume, treble, and bass controls, and another volume for the other channel. That’s it. Sometimes I combine amps.

How about strings?
I use .0095 sets. Fender started making sets for me because they didn’t make a .0095, but they wanted me to endorse them. I said, “But you don’t make a .0095,” and they said, “We will.” It was their nickel-plated string, and I came to like them. I had to change them more often because they don’t last as long. I can’t get any more, so now I’m using D’Addarios – their .0095 seem to stay in tune a little better. I bend .009s all over the place. They make my chord playing questionable, tuning-wise. I bounce back and forth from the .010 and the .0095. I put too much pressure on the .009s but the .0095s are perfect.

Talk about your Tele.
It’s a ’69, black with binding, maple neck and fretboard, with three single-coil pickups. The lead and neck pickups are Fralins…this week (laughs). The middle pickup is a Seymour Duncan blade Hot Rail. I just use this (touches the knob which used to be the tone control) to blend in the Duncan if I’m on the back pickup.

So you have a volume knob and a blend knob, not a tone knob?
Right. And the mini toggle switch between knobs on the plate was from when I had the mini-humbucker and the EMGs. They were a combination of active and passive. You couldn’t use both at the same time – the switch would cut it off.

And the bender?
It’s a G and B bender by Joe Glaser. I’ll raise the B bender on one song with Waylon, on the live gig. I’m not really a bender player. It’s there in case I need it.

How about your Strat?
This is a ’57, sunburst, with maple neck and fretboard – the last year they made the V neck. It has Bill Lawrence pickups.

Are they custom-wound?
Bill sent me a set. He said they’re “perfectly wound.” And they are very quiet. He called and laid the phone down – that’s the way he is when he calls – and said, “Just listen to these pickups.” And then he played, saying, “This is the neck pickup,” and he’d just work his way through the guitar. Then he picked up the phone in and said, “Can I send you a set of these?” I said, “Go Ahead” (laughs).

He also sent me a set for the Tele, but I didn’t them. I was surprised – I really did like them in the Strat. I had Glaser put them in, and he said, “Only Bill Lawrence could possibly do this.” So far, Brent Mason and I are the only two guys in town using these pickups.

So these are your main studio guitars?
That’s what I use all the time. Matter of fact, I’ve been taking the Tele out on live dates with Waylon. Fender gave me a Custom Shop Nocaster Relic. I had Joe put a B bender on it and I’m thinking of about taking it on the road and leaving the ’69 at home. I’d hate to lose this old Tele. I couldn’t replace it.

Do you have a collection of guitars?
I have about 13 that I play.

What about live, what’s your amp setup?
Two Fender Bassmans with 4x10s running in stereo. Clay shellacs the tweed on these new Bassmans – they look like they’ve been in the business for about 30 years! They don’t look like regular amps (laughs). They sound good for what we are doing.

How about your pedalboard?
Dave Wilkerson put it together over at Techstar (a Nashville customizing and repair center) back in ’90 or ’91, when I started touring with The Highwaymen (Jennings, Nelson, Kristofferson, and Cash). When I got home from touring, I liked the board so much I started using it in the studio, and began to tear my rack down – I quit using my rack gear.

In the pedalboard I have a MXR compressor, Boss DD3, a VooDoo Lab tremolo, T.C. chorus (for stereo), Fulldrive 2 (distortion), Ernie Ball volume pedal, and a Boss Digital Reverb.

Studio Rig?
Some of my effects were part of the rack, but it got so crazy… All I’m using is stompboxes, and the studio effects are a real similar setup. Pretty much the same as the Techstar board, but with an Expandora (distortion), a Boss chorus (mono), a wah wah, and a volume pedal. I use a Bradshaw Switching System; it’s total-bypass. Whatever effect I’m using would be the only one running. These go into a separate pedalboard in a drawer. I usually use George L’s cables for the guitar.

Tell me about the Memphis studio days.
I was in Memphis until ’72, ’til I moved here. I was in the studio band at American from ’68 to ’72. The same guys, same rhythm section. We cut about 155 chart records – rhythm and blues.

Was that the Memphis Boys?
Yes.

It sounded like a house band gig.
That’s exactly what it was.

Except you had a different audience every night.
With different producers (laughs)! They would come in and use us. We kind of bonded ourselves together. If somebody wanted me to come to New York, I’d tell them, “Sorry, you’ll have to come to Memphis.” We all did that and they came here to get the band. We cut a ton of records.

So you started playing professionally in Memphis?
I started with Eddie Bond and The Stompers in ’55. I recorded “Rockin’ Daddy” with him. That was a real rockabilly band.

Well, back then you had an authentic rockabilly guitar sound.
(laughs) The real thing.

Then you played with Johnny Horton?
Yeah, I worked with him around ’58. After “Honky Tonk Man” and before “Battle Of New Orleans.” I didn’t play on those sessions. Bill Black played bass on “Battle Of New Orleans.” He was Elvis’ bass player. In January of ’59, I got my draft notice, so I came home and got together with Bill Black and Scotty Moore. We had a little rhythm section over at Hi Studios. One of the first records we cut was an instrumental called “Smokie.” I tuned the guitar down two whole steps and was playing in the E position, which was actually C. And I played this (demonstrates taking a pencil and striking the lose strings in a rocking rhythm). I had an old ’59 Gibson ES-345 Stereo. The strings were heavier back then. That was the beginning of the Bill Black Combo.

We started cutting records at Hi Studios. A bunch of hits. One of them was “Haunted House” by Gene Simmons. We cut stuff with Ace Cannon (as a bandleader and sideman), the saxophone player and Willie Mitchell, the trumpet player. Al Jackson (Booker T. and the MGs) was his drummer. I wrote a lot of instrumentals with Willie. The Bill Black Combo was Billboard magazine’s number one instrumental group in 1960, ’61, and ’62.

We later quit the road to work at Hi Studios. There were three different road bands that called themselves the Bill Black Combo – none had any original members. Then this tour came up. The Beatles requested Bill Black Combo to be the opening act.

One of the road bands was going to do the tour because we weren’t traveling. Well, I bumped the guitar player. A guy named Bob Tucker had the band. He did ask if I wanted to do it and I said, “Heck, yeah!” This was in ’64. “A Hard Day’s Night” was out at the time, and the first gig we did was in San Francisco after a very long bus trip from Memphis.

So opening night was at The Cow Palace?
Yes. It was funny. We opened the show, but before we came out the DJs would pump up the crowd saying, “Do you want to see Ringo?” The crowd would cheer, then they’d say, “Do you want to see Paul?” They’d start screaming and so on. Then they’d announce, “The Bill Black Combo!” (laughs). Well, the audience wasn’t thrilled about that – they wanted The Beatles. We spoke with the DJs and after a couple of gigs they changed their routine.

What other artists did you back up on that tour?
A vocal band from New York called The Exciters, Jackie DeShannon, and Clarence “Frogman” Henry. The Righteous Brothers were on the tour for a short time.

What were The Beatles like musically in those days?
They were a rock and roll band from England – it was hard to hear the music with all the screaming (laughs). We all hung out in Key West (Florida) one time for three days. Took over the dining room at the hotel we were all staying at and set up our equipment and jammed.

Anything special about George’s gear?
I noticed he had a wound third string.

Then you went to Europe?
Yeah, for 30 days. Billy Joe Kramer was the headliner. We opened and backed up The Ronettes. They had the hit “Be My Baby” at the time. Lulu was there, the Kinks, and the Yardbirds with Eric Clapton.

Did you guys jam any?
Yeah. We’d sit around the hotels and jam. I stayed in touch with Dave Davies for awhile. I did speak with Eric at Bob Dylan’s 30th Anniversary concert. He remembered me.

What happened during the American Studio days?
In ’67, I’d go to New York with Tommy Cogdill and Chips Moman (guitarist/producer) to work for Atlantic Records. Well, we decided we didn’t want to travel anymore, so we agreed not to record anywhere but Moman’s American Studios, in Memphis. The studio band there was Gene Chrisman on drums, Buddy Emmons on keyboards, and us. Bobby Wood joined us on keyboards around ’68, and Mike Leech wrote horn charts and played bass.

That rhythm section cut 155 chart singles, like The Box Top’s “Cry Like A Baby.” Didn’t you play electric sitar on that?
Yes, I did.

What guitar and amp were you using at the time?
I had a blond ’67 Tele I traded in on the ’69 I have now. My amp was a silverface Deluxe with an Altec-Lansing speaker.

Did you know Elvis in the ’50s?
Elvis used to sit in with us in the ’50s – he’d sing Marty Robbins songs! I didn’t really play with Elvis until ’69. He was scheduled to record in California and Hal Blaine (session drummer) got sick. So, instead of getting another drummer, George Klein, a friend of Elvis’, recommended American Studios.

So Elvis came walking through the door with his entourage, and even though he hadn’t had a hit in seven or eight years, he had such a presence that we had to take a step backward.

He brought his publisher and they began to play songs they wanted to record. Like those songs he did in his movies. Elvis would ask me if I liked the song we just heard, and I said “No.” He asked Bobby, and he said, “No” also. We didn’t realize that you didn’t say “No” to Elvis.

Chips Moman pitched “Suspicious Minds” and “In The Ghetto” to Elvis. He liked the songs and wanted to record them. Now, one of the guys in a suit told Moman that they wanted all of the publishing rights to these songs. Moman told the suit, “You could be the president of RCA, I don’t care. We cut hit records here and if you don’t want to do that, you can leave!” Well, somehow this got back to Elvis. Elvis didn’t bring his entourage in the studio while recording the album. Elvis was cool and relaxed around the band.

What guitars did you use on the Elvis sessions?
Scotty Moore’s old Gibson Super 400 – the one with three pickups – was in the studio. He’d traded it for a keyboard. So it had been just sitting around the studio. This guitar was on Elvis’ early recordings. I took the guitar, dusted it off, cleaned it up, restrung it, and played it on “Suspicious Minds” and “Kentucky Rain.” I played a nylon-string on “In The Ghetto.” That guitar is in the Blues Museum in Memphis, along with one of my Les Pauls.

Did you move to Nashville next?
No, the American Studio rhythm section moved to Atlanta. Billy Burnette was with us then. We opened a studio in a warehouse around ’72.

I left five or six months later and stopped by Nashville to see David Briggs at Quad Studios. David asked me to stay, and I did. I thought Nashville was what I had seen on TV – cowboy hats and crew cuts. It wasn’t that at all. At that time, I’d recorded Danny O’Keefe’s “Good Time Charlie’s Got The Blues” prior to leaving Memphis. The record was on the charts and getting airplay before I moved to Nashville.

Producers in Nashville hired me to play the same kind of style I played on that record. I knew Buddy Killen and Fred Foster of Monument Records from the Memphis days; they also encouraged me to move to Nashville.

I started doing pop acts like Jimmy Buffett and Dobie Gray. The first hit record I played on in Nashville was “Drift Away.” I also played on J.J.Cale’s original recording of “Cocaine.”

I met some great friends there – songwriters like Troy Seals and Will Jennings. Then I started getting involved in mainstream country. Jimmy Bowan also kept me busy.

What guitar did you use on “Drift Away?”
It was a ’69 goldtop Les Paul with the mini humbuckers. That guitar is in the Country Music Hall of Fame. I performed with Dobie Gray not too long ago at 3rd & Lindsley (a Nashville club) with Lonnie Mack. I had to go out and get the CD and re-learn “Drift Away” (laughs).

You recorded with Donovan?
Yes. I remember he had a beautiful purple acoustic guitar with a star in the headstock. I can’t remember if it sounded good, but it looked cool.

And Cat Stevens?
He was cool. We’d hang out. I had a brown Ford van, and we’d jump in and go to lunch. In the studio, he was a real perfectionist.

George Strait?
I played on just about everything until about three or four years ago. I played a Strat on “The Fireman.”

Billy Swan?
I played the intro on “I Can Help” (he picks up a guitar and demonstrates, playing augmented and diminished chords up and down the neck, showing how he was messing around and someone said that would make a great intro for a song).

Reba McIntyre?
I did the solo on “Little Rock.”

Merle Haggard?
The solo in “That’s The Way Love Goes.” Merle liked a straight guitar sound. He didn’t care for gimmicks. I played through a Fender Concert amp.

How about backing up B.B. King?
I believe it was the “Love Me Tender” session. I played mostly fills and rhythm patterns. He told me, “I don’t play chords, I play common tones.” He’d find the notes that matched the chords. He was a very nice man. He signed the back of my ’57 Strat.

After touring with The Beatles, recording with Ringo must have been neat.
Ringo was recorded in Memphis. Moman got the old rhythm section together from American Studios.

Did Ringo play drums?
No, he just sang. The album was never released. I did see Ringo again at Farm Aid. Afterward, he came over and gave me a hug, we could hear my sunglasses breaking in my pocket, so he gave me his. So I have a pair of Ringo’s sunglasses around the house somewhere (laughs)!

Paul Simon?
Willie (Nelson) and Paul were doing a song together on Willie’s Borderline album. Don Was produced it. I did back up Paul and Willie on “Saturday Night Live.” They did tunes from Paul’s Graceland record. Benmont Tench (keyboardist with Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers) played with us.

Jazz Crusaders?
I know Barry Beckett from the Muscle Shoals days. He produced it, I played mostly rhythm.

How about Bob Dylan?
We did a TV show called “Willie Big 60.” It was filmed in the “Austin City Limits” studios. Don Was was the bandleader, and we backed up several acts. After the show, I was standing in the hallway and Bob came walking down the hall with his entourage. He came right over to me, shook my hand and said, “How you doin’, Reggie?” I didn’t know he knew who I was. But he was real cool. He also played on Willie’s Borderline album.

What’s the story about Scotty Moore and All The King’s Men session?
Scotty called and wanted to know if it was possible to put the Bill Black Combo back together. So I called Jerry Arnold (drummer), Ace Cannon (sax), Bobby Emmons (keyboards), Bobby Wood, and Mike Leech. Larrie Londin brought down his drums for Satch to play – he hadn’t played in about 15 years. Bobby Emmons and I wrote an old shuffle called, “Going To Memphis.” Well, Scotty called me after it was released and told me it was nominated for a Grammy for Instrumental of the Year! It was surprising and exciting. We went to Radio City Music Hall in New York. We didn’t win, but we got medallions.

Do you remember the first time you heard yourself on the radio?
Well, I was listening to this guitar solo on the radio in ’78, and I said to myself, “I can play a better solo than that guy.” Then I realized it was me!

I decided then that I needed to slow down. I was doing two, three, four sessions a day and I’d stay after the sessions were over and overdub harmonies or whatever had to be done. Then I’d be pushed for time to get to the next session. We didn’t have cartage back then. Joe Osbourne (bassist) suggested I go double-scale – the only musician doing that at the time was drummer Larrie Londin. I set the date – January 1, 1979 – to start the double-scale. Producers thought it was a great idea. I lost some work, but actually did better.

You’ve known Louie Shelton for a long time.
I met Louie in Little Rock when he was very young.

You’re on Louie’s Nashville Guitars CD.
Louie called and asked me to play on the project. The song I did was called “Exit 209” – that’s the freeway exit for Music Row (picks up his ’57 Strat and plays a portion of the song).

….talk about your picking technique.
In the ’50s I played with thumbpicks, trying to sound like Chet Atkins. A friend of mine, a fiddle player from Little Rock named Kinky King, told me I needed to find myself musically – my own voice. He said all I was doing was helping Chet Atkins sell records (laughs). Kinky told that to Louie, too.

You have a platinum CD on your wall for the Rhythm, Country and Blues album.

I played on Conway Twitty’s last recording, “Rainy Night In Georgia.” He recorded that with Sam Moore. I also played on Trisha Yearwood and Arron Neville’s “I Fall To Pieces.”

Any unusual calls?
Steve Jordan (session drummer) asked if he could give my number to someone. I said, “Sure,” and couple of days later Steven Segall called me. He was very nice. He kept saying, “My brother” (laughs). Well, he asked if I was interested in doing a benefit and I said I was, then he said I needed to be in Korea on Tuesday (laughs)! I told him that I couldn’t be there, but I gave him Tony Joe White’s number.

Have you heard any new guitarists lately?
I recently went to The Grand Ole Opry and saw Brad Paisley. He’s one of the finest Tele players I’ve ever heard.

Any solo album plans?
I have been thinking about doing one. I’m writing songs for it.

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The Hullett Amp

Clay Hullet builds amps as a labor of love. Each is hand-made; once one is started, Hullett works only on it until it is finished, one amp at a time!

Clay built his first amp in 1997 for his father, renowned Nashville session guitarist Bill Hullet. It’s essentially a clone of a ’58 Fender (5E3) Deluxe with one 12″ Weber VST speaker. Controls are simple – two volumes, one tone (Clay believes that fewer controls mean a richer sound).
When the elder Hullett started using the amp for session work, engineers were constantly complimenting its sound. Often, they would come out of the control booth to check it out!

Reggie Young ordered one after hearing Bill’s during its first week of use. Since that time, Clay has built almost 100 of the workhorses.

As we prepared to give the Hullett a test drive, Bill handed over his 1950 Fender Nocaster, which we gladly plugged in.

After some muted blues licks, we had a feeling that nirvana approached. Clay then bridged the normal and bright channels, and the amp offered some gorgeous, bright, low-frequency tones – straight outta Clapton’s “Layla” era.

The Hullett’s beefy 20-watt output is delivered via two 6V6s, two 12AX7s, and a 5Y3 rectifier. Clay uses an epoxy-style circuitboard with regular plastic coated wire because the cloth style wire tends to spark out. The cabinet is made from the same plank of solid pine for a consistent structure. The tweed cabinet is covered with shellac for that vintage look.

To find out what Nashville already knows, go to www.hullettamps.com.

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Young Sessions

The Memphis Days, 1955-’72
Arthur Alexander
Chuck Berry
Bill Black’s Combo
Bobby “Blue” Bland
The Blossoms
Eddie Bond
The Box Tops
Solomon Burke
Ace Cannon
James Carr
Sonny Charles
Petula Clark
King Curtis
Cymarron
Paul Davis
Neil Diamond
Roy Hamilton
John Hammond
Ivory Joe Hunter
Herbie Mann
Bill Medley
Willie Mitchell
Melba Moore
Danny O’Keefe
Wilson Pickett
Sandy Posey
Elvis
John Prine
The Purify Brothers
Paul Revere and the Raiders
Merrilee Rush
Gene Simmons
Joe Simon
Dusty Springfield
The Sweet Inspirations
Joe Tex
B.J. Thomas
Carla Thomas>
Oscar Tony
Dionne Warwick
Tony Joe White
Bobby Womack

Nashville, 1972 to today
Alabama
Bob Dylan
Ronnie Milsap
Bill Anderson
Duane Eddy
Eddie Mitchell
John Anderson
Skip Ewing
Sam Moore
Paul Anka
Donna Fargo
Scotty Moore
Eddy Arnold
Cleave Francis
Lorrie Morgan
Joan Baez
Janie Frickie
Gary Morris
Razzy Bailey
Larry Gatlin
Michael Murphy
David Ball
Crystal Gayle
Willie Nelson
Moe Bandy
Vince Gill
Aaron Neville
Bobby Bare
Tom Paul Glazer
Mickey Newberry
The Bellamy Brothers
Bobby Goldsboro
The Oak Ridge Boys
John Berry
Vern Gosdin
Sinead O’Connor
Clint Black
Amy Grant
K.T. Oslin
Teresa Brewer
Dobie Gray
Roy Orbison
Lane Brody
Lee Greenwood
Paul Overstreet
Lisa Brokop
Merle Haggard
Buck Owens
T. Graham Brown
The Highwaymen
Dolly Parton
Jimmy Buffett
Ferlin Husky
Dan Penn
Jerry Butler
Etta James
Carl Perkins
J.J. Cale
Waylon Jennings
Ray Price
Glen Campbell
George Jones
Eddie Rabbitt
Paulette Carlson
Toby Keith
Eddie Raven
Carl Carlton
Doug Kershaw
Ronna Reeves
Johnny Cash
Sammy Kershaw
Jerry Reed
Ray Charles
B.B. King
Johnny Rivers
Joe Cocker
Gladys Knight
Marty Robbins
Jessi Colter
Kris Kristofferson
Kenny Rogers
Perry Como
Brenda Lee
Buffy Saint-Marie
Earl Thomas Conley
Johnny Lee
John Schnieder
Rita Coolidge
Jerry Lee Lewis
Earl Scruggs
Floyd Cramer
Dave Loggins
Dan Seals
Brendon Crocker
Patty Loveless
T.G. Sheppard
Rodney Crowell
Lorna Luft
Dinah Shore
The Jazz Crusaders
Loretta Lynn
Paul Simon
Billy Ray Cyrus
Melissa Manchester
Sissy Spacek
Lacy J. Dalton
Barbara Mandrell
Joe Stampley
Dave and Sugar
Dean Martin
The Staple Singers
Gail Davis
Johnny Mathis
Ringo Starr
Linda Davis
Delbert McClinton
Cat Stevens
Mac Davis
Ronnie McDowell
Ray Stevens
Donovan
Reba McEntire
Gary Stewart
Johnny Duncan
Roger Miller
George Strait
Marty Stuart
Billy Swan
Hank Thompson
Mel Tillis
Aaron Tippin
Rick Trevino
Travis Tritt
Tanya Tucker
Shania Twain
Conway Twitty
Steve Wariner
Dottie West
Kirk Whalum
Roger Whitaker
John and Audrey Wiggins
Andy Williams
Hank Williams, Jr.
Trisha Yearwood
Paul Young

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Photos courtesy of Reggie Young.
This article originally appeared in VG‘s Sep. ’01 issue.

Fresh off a 42-show/13-country European tour with his own band, Supertramp guitarist and L.A. studio ace Carl Verheyen has just released his 12th studio CD, Mustang Run. Following 2010’s live CD/DVD The Road Divides, it’s his first studio disc since the guitar-laden Trading 8s in 2008, and it covers lots of new ground in a recording career that spans 26 years.

How did the new CD come together?
I’m constantly writing and after I got eight songs in the can, I stepped back and decided it still needed a real-high-energy piece. So, I called drummer Simon Phillips, Supertramp bassist Cliff Hugo, and keyboardist Jim Cox, and we recorded “Fusioneers Disease.” I also thought it could use something real soulful, with gospel-like chord changes, so I wrote “Spirit of Julia,” and those two songs gave me a sense of completion.

What is your goal when you record?
My goal is to make a CD that bears repeated listening. Before I made this one, I pulled out a lot of CDs by fellow guitarists that I listen to over and over again. Pat Martino’s We’ll Be Together Again and Standard Brands by Chet Atkins and Lenny Breau are two examples. It’s all about the melodic line. If it’s compelling, you’ll listen again and again.

Where did the title come from?
My son, who was 17 at the time, worked a couple summers as a camp counselor and saved $4,000 so he could buy a 1997 Mustang. The joke around the house was, “Mustang, please keep running.”

Did you use any instruments that you hadn’t used on a CD before?
Electric violin and saxophone. Jerry Goodman, the electric violinist from the original Mahavishnu Orchestra, is on “Mustang Run.” I wanted something other than a guitar to carry the melody. We used to run into each other in the studios and he was the first person who came to mind. Also, I’ve also never had a saxophone on any of my CDs. Bill Evans and Supertramp’s John Halliwell plays sax on “Bloody Well Right” and Bill Evans is on “Fourth Door on the Right.” Bill liked the song so much he’s going to use it in his live set.

What guitars did you use?
Two guitars I used a lot are from LsL: the T-Bone, which is their version of a Telecaster, and my signature model that’s like a Strat. I used a lot of my “secret weapons”; a ’72 Les Paul Deluxe with PAFs on “Taylor’s Blues,” a ’66 Gibson 335 and a John Suhr guitar on “Fusioneers Disease.” On “Last Days of Autumn” it’s a ’61 Strat and Mark Angus acoustic. I used a ’58 Strat with a Reverend Slingshot on “Amandola” and a ’66 SG with a ’56 Supro Dual Tone on “Bloody Well Right.” “Mustang Run” is a mint sunburst ’65 Strat and the solo on “Fourth Door on the Right” and all of “Spirit of Julia” is the 335. On “Julietta and the St. George,” you’ll hear my ’59 Martin D-18, a ’51 Gibson J-50, the LsL CV Special, a ’66 Rickenbacher 12-string, and a Danelectro.

How about amps?
The two I used the most were a 1968 Marshall plexi 50-watt and a ’66 JTM 45. I also used a ’69 100-watt Marshall and two ’64 Vox AC30s in stereo. I’m big into blackface Princetons and used four of those, along with a Doctor Z SRZ 65 and a Kharman Ghia.

Where do you record?
I like to experiment with tones in my garage, but when it comes to recording, it’s in one of L.A.’s great-sounding studios like Sunset Sound and Village Recordings. We recorded with Pro Tools but did it in studios that are tuned rooms where they have all the old API and Neve stuff that warm up a guitar signal so much. That makes me able to listen to my records 10 or 15 years later, because they hold up sonically.

Are there any pedals you really like?
I have five pedalboards and about 250 pedals laying around not on pedalboards! One of my favorites for single-coil pickups is the Il Distatore, made in Italy by Analogics. I like the T-Rex Mudhoney and the Tap Delay for playing live, but not for recording, where I prefer to do delay post-production. I also use the Providence Anodyne TC Electronics chorus pedals quite a bit.

What’s in the future?
In May, I’m going to a guitar camp in Stuttgart, and in August there’s the Guitar Town Festival in Copper Mountain, Colorado. I’m already starting to amass tunes for a new record.

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This article originally appeared in VG June 2014 issue. All copyrights are by the author and Vintage Guitar magazine. Unauthorized replication or use is strictly prohibited.

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