The Golden Age of Electric Guitar Pt.2 (or “Hernias, Hippies and Tinnitus”)

It’s hard to precisely define the moment when the simplicity of the early rock and blues era rolled into the madness that followed it – fantastic, joyous, complex, exciting madness – but madness all the same!

So I’m going to choose one record that I think defined the changeover from the Rock’n’Roll and blues era, and that of the early guitar pop bands, to a louder age.

Ray and Dave Davies kicked guitar playing into a dirtier and grittier mode. The sound of the little Elpico amp on the record, reputedly distorted by the slicing of the speaker cone with a razor blade, drives one of the most instantly recognisable riffs in Rock history – one that plays a reprise part much later in the story of rock guitar. Some claim it to be the pre-cursor to heavy metal. It was August 1964.

Two inventions at around the same time would herald the rise of the guitar sound that left a young man from Surrey lauded as a deity. The Marshall Amp, (most notably the Bluesbreaker), and the Dallas Rangemaster Treble Booster.

This sound of the 1960 Les Paul, with the treble booster thrashing the front end of the Marshall Bluesbreaker combo is undoubtedly the sound that made Clapton the most famous guitar player on the planet in the 1960’s. And Clapton was directly responsible for the amp itself, having gone to Marshall and specifically asking for a JTM 45 that he could fit in a car.

But of course, Clapton’s rise wasn’t to stop there. Less than a year after that recording in 1965, he and Bruce had formed Cream and released the ‘Fresh Cream’ Album. Something else was changing in rock music – the single was becoming less important and the album as  an art form was gaining strength. Depending on your standpoint, it could be the end of the beginning or the beginning of the end (where all roads lead eventually to Johnny Rotten).  For me, it was dawn of the era of the Virtuoso guitarist.

And just at that time of course, one James Marshall Hendrix was discovered in New York by Chas Chandler of the Animals and the rest is of course history. I shan’t repeat his story here as it’s one everyone knows – but needless to say Hendrix ripped a hole through the UK guitar scene with ‘Are You Experienced’ like no-one else before him, and things were never the same again.

Another guitarist who took the volume to new levels was far from a virtuoso of the Hendrix, Beck or Clapton mould. Pete Townshend wasn’t blues man – he was a mod. He was a rebel with a cause, to tell the world of the British teenager’s anger and angst. And he wanted to make sure they heard it! He wanted volume.  Lots of Volume.  He went to Jim Marshall with a specific request – a 100W amplifier. This was quite an unusual request at the time, as speaker technology could barely cope with what was already being thrown at it – but boasting a single cabinet loaded with eight 25W speakers, the Marshall 1959 superlead was born.

The Who’s road crew soon had enough of the over sized speaker cabinet, and it was sawed in half – and the 4×12 cab completed the set.

Jeff Beck recorded his first (and to my ears still his finest) solo album, ‘Truth’, over four days at De Lane Lea studios in Soho in May 1968 with Rod Stewart’s raw angry vocal complimenting the biting aggressiveness of Beck’s guitar.

On 4th October the same year, the New Yardbirds began their first UK tour. Their album wouldn’t be released until January 1969, by that time under their new title, Led Zeppelin. But between those dates, the now legendary supergroup Cream held their final concert at the Royal Albert Hall in November.

Cream’s farewell concert was notable not just for the headline act’s planned swansong, only 2 years after its inception. On the bill that night was an Irish progressive blues and rock trio – Taste. The proud owner of what was reportedly the first Strat in Ireland, Rory Gallagher was a slightly unconventional rock star, rather quiet and softly spoken. But with his guitar, simply incendiary.

Already Taste had held down a regular slot at the Marquee Club and were becoming influential in the blues scene and Gallagher himself would become one of it’s mainstays well beyond the hayday of the late 60’s . They were to make what was probably their most famous appearance when the band had already decided to fold and relations between the members had reached disastrous levels of mistrust, at the Isle of Wight Festival 1970. But more of that later.

The album as an art form had it’s greatest launch pad with an album that was actually a move away from guitar driven pop music into a more esoteric field. Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, released in June 1967, elevated the status of the album as an entity – and the drive to emulate it’s success was one factor which allowed other artists to record albums which were no longer based around the idea of a hit single, but a statement in their own right. Of course, it also allowed a great deal of rambling nonsense to get pressed to vinyl, but amongst the dirt there was some gold dust, as guitarists suddenly had the time to become experimental.

Hendrix’s second album, “Axis Bold as Love” was one such record. Though still using fairly short songs, he was able to use less radio friendly arrangements such as If 6 was 9.

Hendrix was still half a year away from his most experimental work on Electric Ladyland. But others were experimenting too. Pink Floyd’s Piper at the Gates of Dawn” & “Saucer Full of Secrets” were certainly examples of this ability to exploit the longer 12″ format, as was the Stones attempt at a concept album, “Their Satanic Majesties Request” and the much more memorable “Beggar’s Banquet”.  With Cream, the recorded Guitar solo was allowed to elongate, and Jeff Beck, Rory Gallagher and others took full advantage of the now more favourable medium. In the live situation, the song list shrunk as the solos extended.

1969 saw the release of what are arguably two of rock guitar’s greatest vinyl show pieces. Led Zeppelin ‘s eponymous début and it’s quick successor, often known by it’s nickname the Brown Bomber. The first with it’s turbo charged blues of “You Shook Me”, the folk of “Black Mountain Side”, the anthemic “Your Time is Gonna Come”, to the roaring rock of “Communications Breakdown” and “Good Times Bad Times”.  And then there was the sonic indulgence of “Dazed and Confused” with it’s iconic use of the violin bow on Page’s telecaster. But soon it was followed by the riff fest that was “Whole Lotta Love”, “Livin Lovin Maid” and “Hearbreaker” on the heavier Zep II.

If Cream had invented the ‘Progressive Blues’ genre which is so convenient a canvas for the guitarist to express raw power and emotion, then Zeppelin took it to another level. Undoubtedly for me though, the big difference between Cream and Zep was one John Henry Bonham. For all of Page’s inventiveness and brilliance as a guitarist, writer and producer, none of it really would have had the impact it had without Bonzo’s fire and energy behind the kit. He changed rock drumming in much the way that Hendrix changed guitar playing, and I doubt that there has ever been another rock drummer who has had as much impact.

69 saw more great album releases featuring great guitarists – Beck-Ola, Jethro Tull’s “Stand Up”, “Tommy”, “Blind Faith”, “Tons of Sobs”. It was boom time for the progressive blues, and the guitarists leading the way were predominantly Brits. From Robert Fripp on ‘Court of the Crimson King’ and David Gilmour on ‘Ummmagumma’ to Page and Kossoff – British guitar exhibited the esoteric through to the outright self indulgent (but fun) to the incendiary.

As the 60’s ushered in the 70’s, the idealism of the early flower power era had died in the ashes of Altamont. Britain was to have it’s own watershed moment – played out in two acts over the space of only a few weeks.

Act One took place on the Isle of Wight between August 26 – 31 1970. The Festival, so grossly over attended that the gates were simply thrown open and ticketing abandoned, was destined to make such financial losses that it was never repeated on such an epic scale, and no festival was held there for decades afterwards. So many acts appeared including Free, Ten Years After, Taste, The Who, the Groundhogs, The Doors, ELP, Jethro Tull and of course – Jimi Hendrix.

It was to be his last gig in the UK, and a moment in which some of the unravelling of his life could be seen. Now without Noel Redding in a new ‘Experience’ line up which saw him replaced by Billy Cox, Hendrix was plagued with technical issues, seemed distracted at times and the set was rather loose. He asked the crowd whether they ‘really wanted to hear all those old songs’ (which of course were only really three years at the oldest, most newer), and jammed through loose arrangements of new songs such as Dolly Dagger.

The second act played out in Notting Hill on September 18th when Monika Dannemann found her lover impossible to rouse late in the morning. After some delay an ambulance was called but James Marshall Hendrix was declared dead at St Mary Abbot’s hospital at a quarter to one that afternoon.

Hendrix’s story is a for me a distinctly British one, it was coming to London that launched him into the stratosphere when America had turned its back on Blues as backward looking ‘slave music’.  It was an Engllishman who discovered him, it was swinging London that was his home during his career. So maybe it was inevitable that it would end here too, flickering out with the bright hopes of the 60’s counter culture that he was very much a part of.

To put the era in context, it is important to note the speed of change. Only Five Years had passed between The Beatles “Love Me Do” and Hendrix’s “Electric Ladyland”. When you consider that the album that blew away the era of hair rock, “Nevermind”, is now 24 years old and nothing has come along since to dilute it’s impact, it really highlights how revolutionary the first decade or so of ‘popular music culture’ was.

The second half of the 60’s was one of the golden ages of guitar playing – it heralded the invention of the truly British Guitar amp sound – the over driven Marshall, the rise of the Concept Album, and of the Lead Guitarist as an instantly recognisable and valued entity. The Pop star had become the rock star, the volume had risen with the hemlines!

Roadies had hernias, singers had tinnitus. British Guitarists ruled the world!

How to choose a Luthier (or ” Cor I dunno mate, that’s gunna cost ya!”)

We’ve all seen the memes about mechanics – and they’re only funny (like anything else), if there’s a degree of truth behind the joke. Like the “Going out for an English” sketch from Goodness Gracious Me – there’s a genuine observation in there about how English people behave in a restaurant after a skinfull. Not to say we’re all like it – but there’s just enough there for the joke to be funny.

And so to my little mock up!

I had a customer come in a little while ago with a guitar that had a bit of damage on it. He’d gone to a shop who had told him that the crack in the neck of his guitar was (and I quote) – “Dangerous”, and that he should simply dump the guitar and buy a new one.

This sort of thing makes me pretty angry really. I won’t name the shop, that wouldn’t be professional, and I have nothing in general against music shops at all – I’m sure if you want to buy an instrument the establishment in question is an excellent place to go.  But mostly they don’t do repairs in house. In fact, only handful of shops do – for any kind of product. So much of what we buy these days is disposable, that repairing things is just not a ‘High Street Demand’ kind of service.

Now that’s not to say that you’ll never get good advice from a music shop when it comes to a broken instrument – there’s lots of folks out there who know their stuff. But think of it like this:

When you take your car to be serviced at a big dealership, the salesman comes out and says – “We’re cutting our overheads at the minute, so we had to fire all the mechanics. So I’m going to get the manager’s secretary on it right away. She’s never done it before but she’s seen loads of motors coming in and out of here over the years, how difficult can it be right?”

That’s what has happened to the music industry on the high street to a large degree. Their margins have been shrunk to a wafer thin veneer on the back of the reducing popularity of music as an occupation or hobby and the internet squeeze on prices. Very few retailers can actually afford to have a repair guy on standby just in case something comes in. A skilled craftsman won’t work for peanuts – and the tooling is expensive too.

So it has made more sense over the years for Luthiers (and in this I include the repair and servicing guys too), to become independent – get away from the high street to cut their own costs and therefore stay competitive against simple replacement of broken instruments.

But that makes it harder for the customer too. You have a relationship with your local shop, but they have a ‘guy they send out to’ – and you don’t know him. It’s not really in the shopkeeper’s interest for you to know him either, otherwise you could just bypass him and there goes his margin (and he’s squeezed bad enough as it is, though I do know some very honest music retailers who simply give out a local Luthier’s card, forgoing the chance of profit). So how do you know that you retailer’s tech is good?

‘You Don’t!’ You’re taking the thing totally on trust. So it’s really about the retailer. Do you totally trust your retailer. I have to be honest and say that over the years I have dealt with a few that I would have totally trusted, and fewer that I truly didn’t. The others I was ambiguous about.

So when it comes to looking at the independent sector, the guy working out of his house or small workshop – what is it you’re looking for?

Well firstly, don’t start with the internet. I have a very nice website – but it proves absolutely nothing about my competence really. The guy with the best Search Engine Optimisation is not necessarily the best luthier. If the website is incredibly flash – (and mine is actually pretty slick thanks to my good friend Simon Milner who is both a graphic designer and owner of one of my prototypes), don’t just take it for granted that the service is equally as classy. Ask around a bit and find out if anyone you know has used the repairer in question.

But even if you don’t have many friends locally, or you’re a bit new in town, then you have to book an appointment and take a look. What are you looking for?

To start with, just sit back and see what the guy has to say about your guitar. Tell him what your problem is but don’t necessarily propose the solution you had in mind. He doesn’t know whether you know about guitars or not. If you’re talking to a jerk, this is the moment he will try to con you into paying lots of money for something that doesn’t need to be done. If you’ve got some experience, that’s the moment when you pack your guitar back in it’s case and politely make your exit. Also, think about the value of the instrument. If the luthier is proposing very large repairs to a cheap instrument without actually pointing it the value relationship out, then do you want to be talking to this guy?

If the luthier proposes a solution you think seems reasonable, ask about what will be done in more detail. A good luthier won’t be scared to tell you what he’s going to do. Someone who is winging it will most likely be evasive. But don’t expect a step by step guide in ‘How to do this job yourself’!

Be wary of the over promise. When I have seen jobs come in where an over promise has been made and left unfulfilled, it’s often over repairs to finishes. If you have a truly old guitar – and it’s got dinks in the finish. Leave it alone!!!

One Gretsch came in here with buckle rash repaired with what looked like ‘Airfix’ paint.

It was much worse than the initial damage (which was just natural wear for a mid 60’s instrument). I didn’t repair it, I returned it to it’s originally damaged state).  So when someone offers to repair something like a sunburst finish because you’ve gone through the colour, expect a significant portion of the guitar to be resprayed. If that’s not the case then it’s unlikely that the repair is going to be good. If you have a modern ‘Poly’ finished axe, the problem is even worse, because the finish is chemically cured – so repairs are rarely able to ‘return to new’.  Repairs can be made reasonably invisible, but rarely under close inspection without large refinishing.

Get a price – not an estimate. For the vast majority of jobs, the Luthier knows exactly what is entailed in the work at hand. There are a few occasions where we step into the unknown, where we have to open up the guitar to have a look. Realistically, most Luthiers will have a look and then quote a price to fix. Some will charge a small investigation fee and that’s reasonable in some cases. I don’t do that personally, but my overheads are fairly light compared to Luthiers who work in urban areas for instance. However, don’t ever authorise work on your guitar without knowing the price. Sometimes I will quote a range – giving a maximum if everything is worst case. I think that’s more reasonable than quoting a low price and then going back to a customer when the job takes longer than anticipated. When we take on jobs, like any other trade, if we quote incorrectly then that’s OUR PROBLEM – not the customers’.

Can you see evidence of their work? It’s very rare that luthiers have nothing of their own that they have kept (though sometimes a luthier’s guitar can be a bit like a mechanic’s car). But they should be able to show you some evidence of work, even if it’s just pictures.  Don’t be afraid to ask, a good Luthier will never be ashamed of his work. It’s harder for service/repair guys in this sense, but they will have a good catalogue of jobs behind them. You can never be 100% certain that every photo is genuine, but there you have to trust your instinct a little – we aren’t actors after all, we’re mostly just fine carpenters with some grounding in electronics!

So you’ve chosen your Luthier and the job has been done to your satisfaction. There’s one last thing you can do for your luthier and for your playing friends: Tell people about your Luthier.

Despite the impression that there are loads of us out there, it’s not really true.

And once we are gone, you’ll miss us.