Artists And Their Signature Instruments

Subject: Artists And Their Signature Instruments
From: GUEST,Great Big Voice
Date: 23 Jul 17 - 07:02 PM

I think of Pete Seeger and his long-neck banjo and down-tuned 12-string guitar.

Many others, like Dylan and Guthrie, are often represented in iconic images with certain instruments (the 'Fascists' guitar, of which I know there were several), but never stuck with one style, let alone one particular tool.

Are there others in the folk world that are identified with a particular make/model of instrument, or, like Seeger, identified with specific individual instruments throughout their careers?

Subject: RE: Artists And Their Signature Instruments
From: Jack Campin
Date: 23 Jul 17 - 07:20 PM

Cathal McConnell carries around a briefcaseful of battered and fungoid flutes and whistles, but most of his fluteplaying is on one instrument, a right-handed 8-key wooden flute which he plays lefthanded with most of the keys disabled by insulating tape and rubber bands. Hardly anybody else can get a sound out of it. There is a story that he was once due to play it in an outdoor gig in a hot country so it needed oiling, and there wasn't any bore oil around, so he used the oil from a tin of sardines. If it ever came into my possession I'd handle it with tongs and give it to a museum.

I think Peerie Willie Johnson had the same guitar for most of his life, which he carried around Lerwick in a bin bag.

At any moment there will be several "Rolf Harris" Stylophones for sale on EBay. But for some reason I've never seen a wobble board for sale - they were a more imaginative invention.

Subject: RE: Artists And Their Signature Instruments
From: Joe Offer
Date: 23 Jul 17 - 07:32 PM

If I could expand just a bit beyond the Folk World, B.B. King named his guitar "Lucille" - there were several guitars that held that name.

Les Paul is another performer whose guitar was well known - but a "Les Paul guitar" can be on of a number of varieties.

Here's Pete Seeger's Banjo (click)

And Woody Guthrie's guitar (click)

-Joe-

Subject: RE: Artists And Their Signature Instruments
From: gillymor
Date: 23 Jul 17 - 07:49 PM

Tony Rice and his 1935 Martin D-28 guitar that previously belonged to Clarence White, one of Tony's main inspirations.
Story at Fretboard Journal
It ranks up there with Bill Monroe's Gibson F-5 Lloyd Loar mandolin as one of the most famous instruments in Bluegrass history.

Norman Blake played a 1934 Martin D-18 12 fret for a long time that was stupendous. I think he's playing smaller instruments these days.

Subject: RE: Artists And Their Signature Instruments
From: Hagman
Date: 23 Jul 17 - 09:27 PM

B.B. King and "Lucille" come to mind....

Subject: RE: Artists And Their Signature Instruments
From: The Sandman
Date: 24 Jul 17 - 01:43 AM

Pavarotti and his voice

Subject: RE: Artists And Their Signature Instruments
From: Dave Hanson
Date: 24 Jul 17 - 02:07 AM

Maybelle Carters Gibson guitar ?

Dave H

Subject: RE: Artists And Their Signature Instruments
From: Hagman
Date: 24 Jul 17 - 02:56 AM

Paul McCartney's Rickenbacker Bass

Jim (Roger) McGuinn's Rickenbacker 12-string

Lonnie Mack (and Albert King) - Gibson Flying V

Robert Johnson's acoustic was pretty special - a Gibson, I believe.

Subject: RE: Artists And Their Signature Instruments
From: The Sandman
Date: 24 Jul 17 - 03:38 AM

Martin Carthy and his Martin

Subject: RE: Artists And Their Signature Instruments
From: GUEST,Ray
Date: 24 Jul 17 - 04:10 AM

Brian May and his home-made red guitar.

Reginald Dixon and the Blackpool organ.

Liberace and his candelabrum.

Subject: RE: Artists And Their Signature Instruments
From: Roger the Skiffler
Date: 24 Jul 17 - 04:17 AM

Willie Nelson and that "holy" guitar.

I like to think I've given a new dimension to the kazoo but others might differ!
RtS

Subject: RE: Artists And Their Signature Instruments
From: GUEST,Mark Bluemel
Date: 24 Jul 17 - 05:38 AM

Richard Thompson seems to have an ongoing search for his signature electric guitar, but plays his Lowden almost exclusively for acoustic.

Subject: RE: Artists And Their Signature Instruments
From: GUEST,Phil d'Conch
Date: 24 Jul 17 - 07:23 AM

Louis Armstrong's Selmer. It's in the Smithsonian now.

Bo Diddley's Gretsch.

Jamaican William Walker (Sugarbelly) and his homemade bamboo sax.

Subject: RE: Artists And Their Signature Instruments
From: gillymor
Date: 24 Jul 17 - 07:50 AM

The late, great J.J. Cale and his Fifty Dollar Guitar

Subject: RE: Artists And Their Signature Instruments
From: GUEST,Tunesmith
Date: 24 Jul 17 - 09:16 AM

McCartney's bass was a Hofner.

Subject: RE: Artists And Their Signature Instruments
From: GUEST,Mark Bluemel
Date: 24 Jul 17 - 11:33 AM

Tunesmith is correct. Paul McCartney has played other basses, including Rickenbackers, but the signature one is the Hofner.

I'm told that unlike the other band members who bought instruments on credit, Paul (always careful with money) chose the Hofner because it was cheap enough to buy outright...

This link tells a slightly different, but not incompatible story.

Subject: RE: Artists And Their Signature Instruments
From: punkfolkrocker
Date: 24 Jul 17 - 12:46 PM

Billy Bragg - Burns Steer [before he became grey haired beardy old BBC4 folk spokesperson...]

Subject: RE: Artists And Their Signature Instruments
From: Tattie Bogle
Date: 24 Jul 17 - 02:00 PM

What about people like Pete Coe, who play a multitude of different instruments? Which one do you really go to hear? Me, being a box player, just love his Hohner melodeon, and his song, somewhat decrying more expensive brands! (His Appalachian dulcimer also does it for me!)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CC3Dn5ParEE

Subject: RE: Artists And Their Signature Instruments
From: GUEST
Date: 24 Jul 17 - 05:06 PM

Andy Irvine-Sobell guitar-bouzouki

Subject: RE: Artists And Their Signature Instruments
From: GUEST
Date: 24 Jul 17 - 06:31 PM

Utah Phillips' Guild F50

Subject: RE: Artists And Their Signature Instruments
From: gillymor
Date: 24 Jul 17 - 07:28 PM

Ry Cooder and the "Coodercaster"

Subject: RE: Artists And Their Signature Instruments
From: Hagman
Date: 24 Jul 17 - 07:56 PM

I stand corrected on McCartney's bass! Thanks Tunesmith and Mark for setting the record straight...

Subject: RE: Artists And Their Signature Instruments
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 24 Jul 17 - 08:55 PM

Mudcat's beloved member Art Thieme - his banjo was embossed This Machine Kills Time.

Subject: RE: Artists And Their Signature Instruments
From: GUEST,Phil d'Conch
Date: 24 Jul 17 - 09:04 PM

If voice is in play then Edda Dell'Orso & Clare Torry.

Subject: RE: Artists And Their Signature Instruments
From: Dan Schatz
Date: 24 Jul 17 - 09:12 PM

Our own KYTrad - Jean Ritchie's dulcimer.

Dan

Subject: RE: Artists And Their Signature Instruments
From: Dan Schatz
Date: 24 Jul 17 - 09:41 PM

Gordon Bok's Apollonio 12-strings.

Dan

Subject: RE: Artists And Their Signature Instruments
From: gillymor
Date: 25 Jul 17 - 07:27 AM

Doc Watson and his Gallagher Dreadnought "Old Hoss".

Subject: RE: Artists And Their Signature Instruments
From: Jack Campin
Date: 25 Jul 17 - 09:52 AM

Our own KYTrad - Jean Ritchie's dulcimer.

Didn't she have lots of them?

Subject: RE: Artists And Their Signature Instruments
From: Thompson
Date: 25 Jul 17 - 09:55 AM

The flabbergasting
Luc Arbogast and his signature mandolin…

Subject: RE: Artists And Their Signature Instruments
From: GUEST,Gozz without his cookie
Date: 25 Jul 17 - 11:12 AM

That Mandolin is a long necked Octave Mandolin or Irish Bouzouki.

Subject: RE: Artists And Their Signature Instruments
From: GUEST,It'smagic
Date: 25 Jul 17 - 12:42 PM

Roy Williamson of The Corries invented - and introduced to the public in 1969 - two instruments called combolins. The one Roy played combined a guitar with a Spanish bandurria. The instrument had sitar-like sympathetic strings that resonated. The instrument played by Corries partner Ronnie Browne combined a mandolin with a guitar.

Subject: RE: Artists And Their Signature Instruments
From: Dan Schatz
Date: 25 Jul 17 - 01:44 PM

Jack - Jean owned many dulcimers (many of them are in museums now), but there was one in particular she played primarily, now in the capable hands of her son Jon Pickow. At her memorial concert there were a great any people who made a special point of coming up during intermission to look at it.

Dan

Subject: RE: Artists And Their Signature Instruments
From: GUEST,Phil d'Conch
Date: 25 Jul 17 - 02:28 PM

re: KYTrad - dulcimer - gotta work Homer Ledford into the conversation there.

Subject: RE: Artists And Their Signature Instruments
From: JedMarum
Date: 25 Jul 17 - 04:08 PM

Stan Rogers and his beautiful Laskin 12 string

Subject: RE: Artists And Their Signature Instruments
From: fat B****rd
Date: 25 Jul 17 - 05:04 PM

Buddy Holly and his Fender
Eddie Cochran and his Gretsch

Subject: RE: Artists And Their Signature Instruments
From: punkfolkrocker
Date: 25 Jul 17 - 05:18 PM

Wilko Johnson - Telecaster

Subject: RE: Artists And Their Signature Instruments
From: Hagman
Date: 25 Jul 17 - 09:02 PM

Hendrix and the upside-down Strat.

All pix of Hank B. Martin in the Shads days had him with a black Strat, was it?

Subject: RE: Artists And Their Signature Instruments
From: GUEST,Great Big Voice
Date: 25 Jul 17 - 10:19 PM

@Hagman:

Marvin's Stratocaster was Fiesta Red, a rare color even in the U.S. at the time, and the only one of its kind in the U.K.

There's a sense in which Hank Marvin's Stratocaster was as much a celebrity as he was- the shiny new American guitar, looking like it was from outer space, and then that color!

Subject: RE: Artists And Their Signature Instruments
From: banjoman
Date: 26 Jul 17 - 06:01 AM

Winifred Atwell and her "Other" Piano

Subject: RE: Artists And Their Signature Instruments
From: punkfolkrocker
Date: 26 Jul 17 - 11:14 AM

Unmentionable - stylophone, didgeridoo & wobble board

Subject: RE: Artists And Their Signature Instruments
From: Jack Campin
Date: 26 Jul 17 - 11:37 AM

I already mentioned two of them!

Subject: RE: Artists And Their Signature Instruments
From: punkfolkrocker
Date: 26 Jul 17 - 11:56 AM

ah yes.. you did.. that just goes to show the almighty powerful cultural pressures to block his name from our minds... 😱 😜

Subject: RE: Artists And Their Signature Instruments
From: Tattie Bogle
Date: 26 Jul 17 - 01:17 PM

I remember going to see a concert with Kevin Burke (virtuoso Irish fiddler) and Tim Edey (guitarist and buttonbox player - equally virtuoso at both). Good concert, but disappointed not to hear Tim play any of his boxes at all - missed opportunity, I thought. So which would you consider was Tim's "signature instrument"? (Not talking about which make at present.) The concert promoter told me "Tim was just there to accompany Kevin on guitar" - hmmm!

Subject: RE: Artists And Their Signature Instruments
From: Rusty Dobro
Date: 26 Jul 17 - 04:47 PM

Roy Buchanan's Telecaster, 'Nancy'

John Goodluck's Martin - 'it's older than my girlfriend'!

David Rawlings' Epiphone Emperor.

Subject: RE: Artists And Their Signature Instruments
From: Hagman
Date: 27 Jul 17 - 12:10 AM

@Great Big Voice re Hank B. Marvin's Strat

The pictures I remember would have been b & w :-)

Never had the chance to see him live with Cliff down here in Oz - missed all the tours.

Subject: RE: Artists And Their Signature Instruments
From: GUEST,keberoxu
Date: 08 Jul 18 - 03:12 PM

Talking of Mudcat Forum member Brian May
and his "Red Special",

this year's TRNSMT Festival in Glasgow
included "Queen + Adam Lambert."

Here is a description of the special welcoming gesture:

"An extremely unique stage will be in place
for Queen + Adam Lambert 's performance tonight,
with the stage based on Brian May's custom-made guitar
(designed and made with his father in the 1960s).

"Immense and impressive, the size of the guitar-shaped stage
is 21m wide and 34m long.
The catwalk 'neck' is 21m in length,
this long catwalk enables to be surrounded
by more audience than ever before!
This is a show not to be missed."

-- The Glasgowist, "Talk of the Town," written by Paul Trainer, 6th July 2018

Subject: RE: Artists And Their Signature Instruments
From: Jack Campin
Date: 08 Jul 18 - 03:33 PM

I just remembered - I have a G sopranino recorder once owned by Michael Copley of the Cambridge (later Classic) Buskers. I saw him on TV playing it about 20 years before I bought it - as part of the act he fingered a left-hand-only note, closed one nostril with his right hand and blew it through the other.

Subject: RE: Artists And Their Signature Instruments
From: GUEST,KarenH
Date: 08 Jul 18 - 04:47 PM

The spoon lady and … guess what?


https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=40&v=B6rCoyuoddU

Subject: RE: Artists And Their Signature Instruments
From: KarenH
Date: 09 Jul 18 - 07:03 PM

Hate to 'clog' up the thread, but …


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HtESUuA2gTc&list=RD3xfHY8q3tpA&index=3

Subject: RE: Artists And Their Signature Instruments
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 10 Jul 18 - 05:10 AM

Django's Macaferri

Bix's cornet

Frankie "Tram" Trumbauer's C saxophone

Rolf Harris's stylophone and wobbleboard