Thanks Mark, I appreciate your help!
LIVE! from WinterNAMM 2008: Gretsch Makes History
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Jan 17, 2008 11:33 p.m. Rex:
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Jan 17, 2008 11:35 p.m. Mark S(ynchro):
Glad to help.
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Jan 17, 2008 11:41 p.m. Slack:
Proteus, as Hillary would say "You've found your voice"
I don't know whose idea it was to have you cover NAMM in this fashion - but it was a stroke of genius. Very entertaining - keep up the good work.
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Jan 17, 2008 11:58 p.m. Proteus:
Trivia Winners
(But not the amp yet.)
Q: When did Harrison get his Jet? A: My source says 1960, but since there seems to be authoritative evidence for 1961, I'm going to accept either, and since each 1961 answer gets more specific, I'm giving away Joe's Koil Cords to five guys: Boyko, Pappy, Dr Nyl, cgs, and SideLake Bob.
Q: What happened to George's Gent? A: Yes, of course I was asking about the first one, and I was looking for the very colorful answer that it fell off the boot onto a carriageway in Merry Olde.
Five poster winners here: wenzel, Antik, ScottieDawg, Boyko, and cgs.
(Guys, message me with your addresses, if I don't already have them.)
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Jan 18, 2008 12:09 a.m. Wantanannie:
Purdy green, nice
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Jan 18, 2008 12:27 a.m. otterbean:
Q1: 1920 Q2: Duane Eddy bought his 6120 in Pheonix, Arizona
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Jan 18, 2008 12:36 a.m. otterbean:
Thanks for all of the event coverage so far Proteus. I just logged in after a busy day. Looks like I missed most of the action.
The sound clips are excellent. The tone from those Corvettes is very nice. That sounds like a great rockin' guitar for sure. You make a convincing argument for owning one of those without the written copy. I'm sure that all of the cool kids will be wanting one of those.
Thanks for the photos as well. There is enough eye candy there to choke a fella'.
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Jan 18, 2008 12:55 a.m. Gretschmaster:
Just in case you're handing out a couple of extra prizes...
Q1. 1920
Q2. Phoenix, Arizona
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- Rated: 328 ↑
Jan 18, 2008 1:16 a.m. Proteus:
Amp winner!
I'm thrilled to my prehensile toes to announce our very own young Boyko as the first winner of an Electromatic 5222 amp.
In 1920, Gretsch was the largest manufacturer/distributor of musical instruments in the U.S. Can you imagine? Before guitars even got popular? What were people PLAYING?
And Phoenix is the answer we were looking for. That's the answer that matched my authority (Fred), but some of you seemed to be hitting more geographic detail in Arizona, and I thought perhaps you were narrowing it down to a suburb or something.
So I checked with The Ultimate Authority (Miss Deed herself), and the word is that the 6120 which lay the very cornerstone for twang, surf, and all reverb-drenched slippery punchy low-string riffs which snake primordially through all our tone DNA came from Ziggie's in Phoenix.
Of course Boyko is in bed...but how cool to give an amp to a young guy, not one of us over-indulged middle-aged adolescents!
I gotta say, I played through the 5222 today, and it's got a genuine thing about it. The low-gain input stays nicely clean up to halfway or so, then grows some hair from there on out. And the high gain starts there and creeps up into Tweedy territory, but with a Gretsch twist.
I imagine with some upscale tube swaps it might get even sweeter.
It'll make a great office amp for us over-indulged good old boys as well.
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Jan 18, 2008 1:29 a.m. gresco:
Hey Proteus. It's 2:09 am here in Maine. I started to wade through 11 pages in this thread yesterday. Needless to say, I'm way too late to answer any trivia. Didn't know the answers anyway. The only one I could take a guess at was Duane's 6120 in Phoenix. And I did remember the dice on Wenzel's Club before anyone else posted it. Man! The members are tracking you hard!!
I have to give you big accolades for the great coverage you're providing. This appears to be well planned on your part. And I agree that you're the perfect GDP rep. for the job. ATTA BOY!!
I really enjoyed your clips of the Corvettes. First I've ever heard one. Impressive, and your playing was right on for the instrument. The Electomatic was a little raunchier, but both sounded great to me.
BTW, I was raised in Long Beach, not too far from where you are. You're making me a little homesick. Just last May I had to sell the old homestead and I still feel pangs now and then. I'd definitely trade weather conditions right now!
Keep up the good work, Prote. I'm amazed at what you're able to send to the GDP. Ain't technology grand?
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- Rated: 328 ↑
Jan 18, 2008 1:29 a.m. Proteus:
More people.
Buzz Campbell, perhaps best known as Lee Rocker's very tasty guitarist, stopped by the booth late this afternoon with Tim Butler, who plays bass in Buzz's own band. Top-notch guys.
We know Lee Rocker as the original bassist of the Stray Cats; I've become a fan just from hearing the most recent album Black Cat Bone. To my ear, it has a depth and cool sophistication a lot of good-time rockabilly overlooks. Buzz's guitar is an integral part of that.
When he's not Lee-Rocking, though, Buzz runs the band Hot Rod Lincoln. (And there's a name which suggests just the kind of roots rock I'm talkin' 'bout. Might call it classibilly.) Kick the tires at hotrodlincoln.net.
And when Tim isn't slapping the low end of Buzz's Lincoln down the road, he plays some with Sha Na Na – and works as an old-time letterpress and woodtype lithographer.
Cool?
They posed with white Falcons, and mentioned that Buzz loves a Falcon because he plays in bands where the drums and bass are black...and the guys might wear a bit of black. The Falcon catches ALL the light on stage and burns everyone else into the background.
Which is what MarkS was saying about the clever stagecraft Jimmie built into the Falcon's visual design.
Joe, Buzz, Tim, and I enjoyed a leisurely chat, and snapped a couple pics.
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- Rated: 328 ↑
Jan 18, 2008 1:53 a.m. Proteus:
A rare and unexpected treat.
Who knows Steve Hunter? Shame on me for merely recognizing the name, but not knowing where from.
He has a pretty legendary resumé, for one thing. How would you like to take credit for the classic intro to Lou Reed's "Sweet Jane"? Other bonafides inclue recording and touring stints with Aerosmith, Alice Cooper, and David Lee Roth. So he's an unreconstructed rocker, right?
What do you make of gigs with Peter Gabriel, Bette Midler, and Tracy Chapman then?
He starts to sound like a rock-n-pop all-sport.
And that's the way Joe introduced him. We were all expecting quotes from that history.
But what we got when Steve perched on the little stage with the Bono Irish Falcon and plugged through the Gretsch Variety was more magical than any of that. It had to come straight from his heart.
I'm posting over 20 minutes of Steve, because something inaccessible to language comes through his playing. There's a dark, burnished, liquid tone (making extensive use of the mud switch, which I christen the gold switch in his hands). That's part of it.
But there's also a kind of still, calm centeredness in his playing. There's motion and rhythm, without a doubt, but there's a balance, a serenity – and it was a welcome antidote to the noise of a late afternoon NAMM.
In fact, you'll hear the other noise going on in the background. But there Steve sat, drawing these evocative meditative sound sculptures out of the Falcon. He kept a small and appreciative group spellbound, not with flash, licks and forward motion (all of which he can command), but with a pure musicality – part Debussy, part Chet, part Ted Greene, and a lot Steve Hunter.
I'm also appending a conversation he had with a listener after his set in which he discusses bar bridges and intonation (in terms we'll recognize around here) as well as the tonal characteristics of the Falcon and its mud switch.
Note that after his last song, he says "That's all I know, I'm empty." He told me afterward that he'd run out of material with "Somewhere Over the Rainbow," before I even started recording – and the rest of the material he'd just taken on the fly.
I hear that; I hear the stream of consciousness, the ebb and flow, and that's part of what gives these cuts their charm. It's like we're inside a profound and fluid musical consciousness. Steve doesn't so much give a performance as take us into his confidence. That takes a certain amount of bravery, a real openness to the moment, and something like faith.
Remarkable. Thank you, Steve, for a great listening experience.
Steve Hunter 1
Steve Hunter 2
Steve Hunter 3
Steve Hunter 4
Steve Steve talks Gretsch.
Now - does anyone want to talk about playing jazz on a Gretsch?
His website is http://www.stevehunter.com/ . I'm going to be seeing what else he has to say.
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- Rated: 24 ↑
Jan 18, 2008 2:01 a.m. bluesman:
hi proteus, great work so far,sounds like a great time!
please give joe a big hug for me!
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Jan 18, 2008 2:07 a.m. Gretschmaster:
Wow I really like the fingerpicked rendition of Solsbury Hill. Thanks for posting that.
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Jan 18, 2008 2:35 a.m. Proteus:
OK, lots of folks to respond to ... and I'll try to get to some of that tomorrow.
For now, just a thanks to Brad Traweek for the hospitality of FMIC's regular web staff, who labor with me in the "web den" (see pics in related post). And for the compliments on this coverage. I see you guys doing stellar work yourself, and I'm a little jealous of the video capability!
The bandwidth discussion wasn't really SO irrelevant, I gotcha there. I'm using some alternate hosting for the moment...may move stuff back to the mothership to keep it all together.
See you...in...oh goodie, just a few hours.
We can sleep next week. Right?
Oh, and giffenf, thanks for the additional pics, very good work! I'm anxious to meet more GDPers (had dinner with one tonight). Next time you get up to the booth, if I'm not in sight, just ask anyone official to get me from behind the curtain.
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Jan 18, 2008 2:48 a.m. BradTraweekFender:
An absolute pleasure, Proteus -- hope you're having a blast with it (actually, from the great content you're posting it's already pretty evident that you are :-) .) And yes, sleep is for NEXT week. Hee hee!
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Jan 18, 2008 2:56 a.m. Adam:
Wow, thanks Proteus! Excellent coverage!
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Jan 18, 2008 3:01 a.m. Proteus:
12:56 a.m. NAMM time. No more posts from me for 8 or 9 hours. I have some inner eyelids I've been meaning to inspect.
Thanks for all the support and encouragement, and for coming along for the wild NAMM ride.
Still to come: an Electromatic feature, a bass feature, a lefty review, The Real Truth about availability of the big Gretsch amps (with sonic candy from all three), a bracing shootout, more guitars, more great players, and more G.I.R.Ls. (That's Gretsch Inventory Reduction Logistics...what did you think I meant?)
Oh yeah, did I mention there's a new Gretsch catalog?
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Jan 18, 2008 5:19 a.m. Ratrod:
Phew, that was a long read through. I'm a bit late here, but hey.
Great job you're doing Proteus. You'll put Joe out of work soon.
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Jan 18, 2008 6:01 a.m. Pappy:
Way to go Boyko!
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Jan 18, 2008 6:14 a.m. Danman:
Wow steve Hunter, great you saw and heard steve play. I recently saw him in Amsterdam on the Lou Reed Berlin tour which was absolutely great mostly thanks to him.
And as an encore they did sweet jane with that intro: I have to admit I had a tear in my eye.... so beautiful and powerful
Actually I think he was wearing the same hat and he had the same way of hanging over his guitar, even standing up.
good work Proteus
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Jan 18, 2008 8:11 a.m. Boyko:
Amazing!! Thanks so much Proteus, Joe, and all at Gretsch! I'm so excited, and just wow! Haha, I'm at a loss for words. Thanks very much!
So its first period at school here, my study period. I had hoped for the snow day, and it came, but only for me. Being on the back roads my bus couldn't get in, but since I had that presentation I drove in. Now I won't worry about checking in for the amp today, but I will be checking in for more great coverage!
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Jan 18, 2008 8:24 a.m. Curt:
I've been listening to Steve for some time, great at what he does.
I wish Gretsch would go back to the old style Space Control Bridge because in my opinion it's a great setup. The new version is way too sloppy and light.
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Jan 18, 2008 9:21 a.m. JC:
This is all great stuff!
Thanks again Prot,Joe and everyone involved
Pity i've missed all the comps though.
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Jan 18, 2008 10:02 a.m. stjohn:
I'm getting so much no-work done with this thread, it's incredible. At least I have my own office, and an innate ability to sense someone coming so I can get a quick minimize on the web page.
Congrats to all the day 1 winners, especially Boyko! Dude, that rocks that you won the amp!
Can't wait for day two coverage!
