For the memory of Clarence White, Hummingbyrd

[Ed_Chambley]

I am sure there are a lot of you that do not know who Clarence White is, but most will recognize this Grammy Award Guitar player.  Clarence White was the first to use a B-Bender in the Byrds.  To hear one of the best who ever lived look up Sweetheart of the Rodeo album by the Byrds.  It is not what you might think and has some of Graham Parsons best work.  Clarence was killed by a drunk driver loading gear after a show.


Of course, Graham Parsons hung out with Keith Richards and pushed a tad too much morphine.  The guitar in the video is the original B-Bender, or as it was called then a string pull.  There is also a button on the front of the body below the bridge that is a G Bender.  Clarence was so accomplished you would swear he was playing a steel.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cH1u5j-1QZw

[SILVERGUN]

Man, that was so good I had to watch it twice, back to back!
The hardest part about that was making it look as easy as he did.
I didn't know I liked country until I started listening to the guitar players.

[Ed_Chambley]

Yes sir. If you think your chops are great, take a visit th Music City. I remember the first time going to Third and Lendley,, a club where the studio players have a band on Monday Night. I left feeling like I wanted to cut off my hands. Instead, I started learning.


Here is a secret I rarely tell. I go to a nail salon to have the 4 fingers on my right hand done  with epoxy powder and shaped.


Not EVH, but extremely talented. And even Marty is in awe of what Clarence could do with the string pull. Sometimes our ego says since it is not what we play it cannot be any good. I have watched some of the Nashville players do licks Even Eddie would envy.


Coolest thing is it is played as the progression, just as Jazz. You gotta think to learn it and forget to play it. The guy to the left is Kenny Vaughn. Funny guy. Played for Lucendia Williams and uses flatwounds on a Tele. 11 to 56.

[Willabe]

I like that and I really don't like Tele's very much. He's get's the twang and the chime without sounding thin. Really nice tone, clean pickin.

   

[Ed_Chambley]

I like that and I really don't like Tele's very much. He's get's the twang and the chime without sounding thin. Really nice tone, clean pickin.

 

I know what you mean.  Problem is you MUST play one if you've Gone Country.  Personally I have always been Humbucker guy.  My retired 59 Tele was a shift in tone and had more midrange than most and I do use a Strat PUP in the neck, but of course I changed the original pick guard and kept the original with it.  Today it is back together.


Peter Florence Voodoo Pickups makes a 59 bridge, but they are all a little different in those days.  I shipped him the original ones to measure and he returned me 4.  I put them in a Tele Deluxe and both sound almost identical.  The reason I retired the 59 is I was playing at a show and a guy was looking too closely at it and I could tell he knew what it was.  I got afraid of it getting stolen.


Now Marty Stuart tours with Johnny Cash's Martin D45 appraised at $125,000 and the original B-Bender, never appraised (who knows how much) and Model 5 Gibson Mandolin which are extremely rare and a 66 Gretsch 6250.  He told me they tell him they want to go to the show.