On Practicing Guitar

The Quest for a P90s SG Hits Paydirt!

My quest to find a P90s guitar seemed like it was going on forever. It all started with a reissue double-cut Les Paul Special that a friend of mine had years back. I coveted that guitar and looked around for one a little, but they were scarce and expensive. More recently, I ramped up the search but still kept coming up empty handed.

I’ve been eyeing Epiphone Casinos, Les Paul Specials, Juniors, SGs, and of course lusting after expensive Les Paul gold top reissues, everything under the sun it seems, even Guild X-175s – they sound great but not really my style of neck. I had seen a few people playing the recent model Gibson SGs with P90s and I love The Who, so that was high on my list. I was almost ready to order a Gibson 2016 SG Standard – they dropped the price from $1200 to $999, but I had played one a few months ago and was unimpressed. I have to add that I have an amazing 2014 SG with 57 Classics so, the bar was a little high.

The nut is a little bizarre. Graphite? I might have a new bone nut made for it. Also, '50s Tribute'? Didn't the SG model start in the '60s? The logo looks like it could be easily scraped off...

Recently I tried a ‘tribute’ SG at Sam Ash in Queens that wasn’t half bad at $399. It seemed slightly toy-like, but I was getting desperate and it really wasn't half bad. A few days later, it was gone! So I tried a bunch of modern Specials and even Juniors but they were all huge necks and that awful tuning system, Ugh! Not really high quality. A Modern style Special in TV Yellow was gorgeous but see above. Sam Ash is blowing them out, if you’re interested.

Gotta find out a little bit of the history of this particular guitar. Note 'PROTOTYPE' vertically stamped in.

Today, I ran into this used Gibson SG “50s Tribute” at Guitar Center. At $499 it was a bit more than the cheapie that got away but it was also a much more substantial guitar. In fact, the quality level is maybe slightly higher than the Standard that I tried earlier this year, and it sounds better, too. I’ve always had a theory that guitars from the beginning of the line (I don’t know how long Gibson has been doing the Tribute series) are better. This guitar has “prototype” stamped into the back of the headstock, along with Made in USA, a very long serial number, and 2013 Model. I’ve never seen that – Prototype! And it's definitely been played.

I'm thinking of getting a pickguard and replacing the truss rod cover to make it like a fake '60s era Special, heh heh... Maybe drill a couple of holes... Not.

It reminds me of the guitars that I used to see guys playing in my neighborhood back in the day. A little dinged up, a nice cherry finish, and that mean shape. Unlike my 2014 SG “61 Standard,” it doesn’t “play itself.” The neck is pretty chunky and the action is a bit high at the moment. But it sounds very balanced with very good intonation and a decent top register. The P90s are warm, have good midrange and some high end sparkle. And it's LOUD! Because it didn’t cost $1200 or more, I’m less worried about a headstock accident, using a gig-bag, etc. It also definitely feels like more than $500 worth of guitar. Way more. I bought it on the spot. It has tons of mojo. I love SGs and I love loud guitars! I’m excited. 

Fender City Comes to Bushwick

It was a little dark in this studio, but a bevy of Fender beauties was on hand for some recording work on the new Saints and Sinners album. It was only after recording for several hours that I realized what a bounty of Fender delishiousness was present and I took this picture. There is one impostor, however.

On the left we have a '62 reissue Strat in Forest Green Metallic. I used that on a minor blues that includes some weeping whammy dives and some heavy tremolo action. We started out with the brand spanking new Princeton 68 Custom at left but the breakup was too much and it wasn't really working with the track, which already had a more distorted guitar on the basic track. So we switched to the '65 Reissue Deluxe at right, which did the trick. A little bit less lush on the tremolo, but the tone was cleaner and fit right into the track. 

For a rhythm part on a new tune, we plugged the Kelly Tele at right straight into "The Beast," aka the Pro Junior sitting on top of the Fender one 15" cab (only employed as a stand ;-). An unbelievably useful amp! It does not really do clean although it has provided some nice cleanish tones with the green Strat on other tracks. All in all it was a fun and productive afternoon with Jeff Cook at his awesome Linden Underground studio!

 

 

Dinah Washington - The Queen and a Musician's Singer

Dinah Washington doesn't get a lot of press these days, but before her untimely death in 1963, she was known as The Queen. Her style is a little hard to pin down and that might be a reason why she’s less well known than other female jazz, blues and pop singers of her day. Dinah could sing all those types of music and she had a spicy persona on stage to go with her dramatic offstage life, too.

Dinah’s voice was penetrating and direct and there is a ton of attitude in her singing. Her enunciation and diction were outstanding and you can understand every word that she sings, something a little unusual for a ‘blues’ singer. She was a tremendous musician, with a fabulous sense of rhythm, a great ear and a work ethic second to none. Top shelf jazz musicians clamored to play on her records. She also had a sharp eye for talent. For example, at one time Wynton Kelly and Jimmy Cobb later of Miles Davis fame (both played on Kind of Blue) were part of her backing group on the road and in the studio.

This is what the cover of First Issue: The Dinah Washington Story looks like, in addition to The Queen's very own postage stamp!

She started out as a gospel singer but by her late teens she had her eye on a life as an entertainer. Her early records were labeled blues and she struggled to be accepted as a jazz artist, eventually crossing over to the pop charts with her biggest hit, “What a Difference a Day Makes,” and “Unforgettable” both in 1959.

But her insecurity about her looks and her need to be loved undermined her personal life. She was married eight times by the time she died at thirty-nine, with many of the unions lasting less than a year. She was obsessed with her weight, and her use of amphetamines to control her appetite and keep on working was her ultimate undoing.

She had two sons who she doted on and she spent as much time with them as she could despite her constantly being on the road. She could be tough on her friends but at the same time was loyal and generous and the people that knew her were generous and loyal in return. If you’re wondering about all these qualities and how they might affect her music, you’re probably right – Dinah’s fans and the musicians who were so impressed with her singing felt that Dinah possessed copious amounts of the quality known as “real” – she sang it like she lived it.

Listening to Dinah’s records is fascinating. The backing is utterly astounding from her very first singles on. Top jazz musicians play wicked blues and jazz at times aided by strings with The Queen always front and center but leaving plenty of room for the cats to do their thing. Musicians loved Dinah.

Wyn Kelly at the Keyboard

A good place to start is with her first big single, “Evil Gal Blues.” The piano begins the song with mean ol’ diminished chord licks before Dinah tells the world how bad she is. It became a signature song for her and places her firmly in a blues/jazz/r&b bag – too slick for R&B, too sophisticated for blues, too bluesy for jazz, now how do you like that? An original was born!

I’m a sucker for the blues songs so let’s head on over to one of Dinah’s late triumphs, her nine-minute, tour de force blues medley, “Trouble in the Lowlands,” which includes Bessie Smith’s “Backwater Blues,” along with the blues standard, “Trouble in Mind.” It’s a feat to keep a blues going for almost ten minutes, but the combination of Dinah along with a superb, uncredited guitarist makes it spin. It’s a must hear for any serious blues guitar aficionado.

Dinah did lots of novelty type stuff and the song “TV is the Thing (This Year)” is a perfect case in point. It was a big hit for her and a crowd favorite. It reminds me of Elmore James singing, “TV Mama,” but Dinah is far raunchier than Elmore James.

I know all of this because I read a terrific biography about Dinah by Nadine Cohodas, called Queen: The Life and Music of Dinah Washington. I was also aided by an excellent collection that I got out of the library, First Issue: The Dinah Washington Story. There are forty-six cuts on the double CD set and it never gets boring! Another CD to seek out is Dinah Jams. Do I have to explain that one?

Dinah Washington did pretty well for herself. She had somewhat of a fixation on fur, favoring minks. She bought a house in Chicago for her Mom and her sisters and other family, and then an apartment in New York City for herself and her sons, and another building in which she set up her father. At one time she had a pink Cadillac and always drove a fancy ride.

Dinah generally had a taste for the finer things in life, including Champagne. But the biggest catch of her life was certainly her last husband, Richard “Night Train” Lane, who was a Hall of Fame pro football player for the Detroit Lions (see below). Her short time with Lane seemed to be happy and while reading this relatively brief part of Cohodas’ book, you get a feeling of what Dinah’s life might have been like if she had lived, slowed down, or just had a little more luck in romance.

I became interested in Dinah Washington when my Mother told me that she was a fan of hers as a teenager. This post is dedicated to my Mom, who loves the great jazz singers of the 50s. I love you Mom! -Christian Botta