It Was 40 Years Ago Today...

You're right Onhwy61; it's not just on long held notes, but on short ones as well ;-). I'm also not crazy about B.B.'s tone. There's not enough tube saturation for me (B.B., try a lower-powered amp cranked up to 11), but that, of course, is a matter of taste. What isn't?!

Speaking of amp power, guitars, and tone, a Telecaster isn't known as a Blues guitar (Country is a completely different story), yet in the hands of the right player can be excellent. Danny Gatton sure made one sound good, didn't he? That was with the stock Fender pickups replaced with Joe Barden's, his favorite. When I recorded with Telecaster player Evan Johns (a Gatton bandmate at times) he plugged his Tele into a blackface Super Reverb and turned it up full. It sounded great, but was LOUDER THAN HELL!

BB King also had a tendency to play in a pentatonic minor/blues scale hybrid box just below the 12th fret on the B and G strings. Mainly just four notes plus bends, etc. He got a ton of mileage out of that little box and Peter Green would often linger there while improvising, too. To my ear, that often gave his playing a little BB flavor.

As to the "bubblegum team" comment, that came from someone else. I, too, won't always object to the term, but it's so frequently applied (incorrectly) to Buckingham and Nicks that I'll always respond when I see it. Buckingham is so academic about his song structures (and uncomfortable about that fact) that he's kind of funny to listen to when discussing his process. He refuses to learn standard notation because (as he puts it) "That's a left brain process and rock n roll is a right brain art form". FWIW, I actually 100% agree with him, but I learned to read so long ago that I guess I'm a lost cause.

Nevertheless, when you check out a song like "Time Precious Time", you can see that he's failed miserably at stamping out his left brain.

BTW - there's a great Guitar World Magazine on-line interview about the composition of that tune. Worth checking out for anyone who is interested in that sort of thing.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HCGKFY9NBZY

Bdp,

I have Barden's on my Tele for that precise reason. Yet somehow, I still don't sound quite like Danny Gatton.

Be sure to tell Albert Collins and Muddy Waters your opinion about the Tele and blues.

My opinion about the Tele and Blues is just as I stated: "A Telecaster isn't known as a Blues guitar"..."yet in the hands of the right player can be excellent". For playing Blues, a Telecaster is certainly not the first, or second, or even third guitar anyone thinks of, is it? The fact that Albert Collins and Muddy Waters play/ed one does not change that fact. Sheesh, so touchy. For Country, the Telecaster is of course number one. The Tele is actually my favorite guitar, but then I love Country more than Blues, generally, and Bluegrass even more, which is all acoustic. And I love the Dobro even more. Forget Eric Clapton.....Jerry Douglas is God!