Fab Gear - Page 4

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• 1 - Eric Olsen

  Dec 06, 2002 at 10:16 am

  Great Ed! Fascinating review, great pics too.

• 2 - Ed Driscoll

  Dec 06, 2002 at 3:13 pm

  Eric,
  
  Thanks. With the exception of the Lennon photo (it was tough finding a decent shot of one of the Beatles holding an instrument that had been sanded down during their "natural phase"), they're all on this site, which has some other photos and trivia that might be of interest to a Beatles fan.
  
  Ed

• 3 - darryl

  Dec 12, 2002 at 6:19 am

  great article, but check your facts in your intro:
  
  "B.B. King and Chuck Berry did with the Gibson ES-335, or Hendrix did with the Fender Stratocaster, or Clapton and Page did with the Les Paul in the late 1960s. They didn't invent new technologies, the way that The Who did with the Marshall amplifier stack."
  
  bb king played les pauls, namely Lucille.
  clapton played strats, "blackie" of layla fame and "brownie" from most cream-era recordings. GuitarPlayer published a few issues commemorating the landmark guitars and the musicians that wielded them for reference, but these should be obvious, especially Clapton's Stratocasters.

• 4 - Ed Driscoll

  Mar 08, 2003 at 12:58 am

  Darryl,
  
  I just noticed your comment. But for the record, B.B. King was only associated with Les Pauls very early in his career. (There's a photo of him looking very young and holding one here. He's much more known for his use of Gibson ES-335s and ES-355s, both semi-hollowbodied guitars, both larger than a Les Paul.
  
  Gibson's current "Lucille" model B.B. King signature guitar is essientially an ES-355 without f-holes, to reduce feedback. Compare this photograph of it, with this photo of a Les Paul, to see the difference between the two.

• 5 - Ed Driscoll

  Mar 08, 2003 at 1:08 am

  Darryl,
  
  Oh, and Eric Clapton was largely responsible for introducing the Les Paul to the British blues scene, through the use of it on the classic Bluesbreakers album with John Mayall. There are several photos of him holding the late 1950s sunburst model he purchased used just before recording that album, which inspired Jeff Beck, Jimmy Page, Peter Green, and other British blues rock guitar heroes of the 1960s to purchase theirs. Clapton played Gibson Les Pauls, SGs, and I believe Firebirds during his Cream days, as well as during Blind Faith. He only switched to Stratocasters around the time of his first solo album in 1970. To this day, he also frequently plays Les Pauls and other Gibson guitars, particularly on more blues-based numbers, for a thicker sound. See this page for what looks like a pretty decent list of his 1960s guitars.
  
  I've played guitar for over twenty years now, and went through periods of living and breathing this stuff, so believe me--I'm not making up who played what, and when!
  
  Regards,
  
  Ed

• 6 - Derek

  Oct 22, 2003 at 11:26 pm

  I bought the book, but then discovered the web site www.beatlesgear.com Once I figured out that the web site was not connected to the book, it dawned on me that the book is a joke and so is much of the information in it. Babiuk's research falls short when compared to the hard facts provided in the website. My guess, he's just a fan who went with whatever he was told just to fill the pages of the book. I don't mean to be so hard on the author, but the book cost way more than the web site and is obviously full of a huge amount of mistakes.

• 7 - Ed Driscoll

  Oct 22, 2003 at 11:33 pm

  Derek,
  
  That's a rather harsh statement about a book that's been very well received by both musicians and fans. What are some examples of mistakes you found in it?
  
  Ed

• 8 - Caroline

  Aug 02, 2005 at 10:39 am

  Went to www.beatlesgear.com but found only amplifiers there. Nothing more.

• 9 - Ricki Moss

  Feb 19, 2009 at 5:18 am

  I believe I have the Challen Piano used in Hey Jude at my house.... how could I confirm whether this is true? I'd be interested in some help.