I have always dabbled with the guitar and although quite bereft of any talent whatsoever have bought guitars to try to play some poor rendition of Roy's songs in my living room. To this end, in the 80s, I first bought an Ovation Applause AE36 deep bowl cutaway. An Adamas Elite was well beyond me. Later, the Gibson SST was too far for my pocket but I did get a rather nice Washburn SBF24 solid-bodied acoustic. Recently I have been getting plenty of tips from "Bad Speeches" fantastic YouTube tutorials and, thanks to these boosting my enthusiasm, have been considering getting rid of the old guitars and replacing them with one a couple of steps up the quality ladder. Currently my first choice is the Taylor 214ce costing about £850. So, my question (Yes, there is one) is, what do other guitar players use, especially when it comes to covering Roy's songs? (Thought it Might make an interesting thread)
Always regret.. Always regret guitars I've lost on the way...used to have an Ovation like Roy's with the leaf pattern; bit similar to this : [youtube]93-QRTiN6fo[/youtube] Never had a Taylor but I think that's not a bad price for one of them? Got a £600 Farida which plays nice. I remember on LHSF Avebury 1, Nick left a guitar lying down on the grass which had an unusual shape to it, which I commented on. He said it was one of dad's old guitars sort of flippantly.... and suddenly the provenance flashed through my mind... Andi
I'm sure Nick said that was a travel guitar he was playing - dunno if it was one of Roy's but here's a picture of it, I haven't seen another one like it:
It's a Giannini Craviola, Jimmy Page used to play Tangerine live with one, wonder if there's a link to the one Nick has?
I was sent out one Saturday morning to get some food shopping came back with a Washburn parlour. Best acoustic I have. Although for half the price I got my son an excellent Lag guitar. Lag is a make I had not heard but having tried all the guitars in the shop at the 200 quid bracket the Lag stood out against Taylor , Washburn and Takamine. Annoyingly the Lag has a better action than my Washburn. Morale of this tale is spending a lot of dosh doesn't mean you will get the best guitar. So try lots of em out before you part with yer dosh.
The Vintage Gordon Giltrap Signature model is well worth considering: http://tinyurl.com/cmd44gq Lovely guitar for the money. Phil. :wink:
My second guitar! I can't believe it! I have a Giannini 12-string that looks almost the same except for a smaller pick guard. I bought it my last semester in college (1981) for $130 at IthacaGuitarWorks but now it's in storage (I didn't understand then it needed to be kept tuned down from standard tuning, the face warped severely below the bridge). As I recall it was manufactured in Brazil. I haven't seen another in a long time.
Update Yesterday I picked up a shiny new Taylor 214ce Black and its brilliant. Everything about it is better than any other guitar I have owned. I can't stop playing it. Been playing "Tom Tiddler's Ground" and "Goodbye" with dropped E's and it rings with wonderful tones. Taylor 214ce Black
There is a nice video of Roy playing Commune on a Lowden. Much superior to a Taylor, though significantly more expensive - you might find a used one for £1300-£1500. Else ignoring what he plays top end Yamahas are excellent value - you might get a CPX15 or equivalent for as little as £500-£600.
Ive been after a baritone acoustic for a while now. Tried down tuning my normal acoustic and it just doesnt work. Any ideas? Ive only got a few hundred quid to spend sadly.
Hi Nigel and everybody, First of all MANY THANKS for checking out BadSpeech. I'm glad that it's been helpful. I don't elaborate too much on guitars mostly because my guitars aren't that great. But they are fine to my taste and that's really all you need. You can play Roy's songs on any guitar as long as it suits you (now this wasn't very helpful....) Just a few things: I think Roy's early stuff sounds better on small/medium size guitars, not too bass heavy, so I wouldn't go for a dreadnought. But then again that would change as you go through his 70s albums. There are only a very few songs that I think RH used 12-string. Then for his 80's stuff it is mandatory to have an Ovation with EQ and FX to get that sound. I'm not a big fan of that sound and I don't own one of those but it definitely sounds better on Ovations. I hated when Roy started using the Gibson Chet Atkins and Washburns with FX. If I had to pick one guitar I would probably choose a medium size model, which ironically I don't own one. So I tend to use my parlour Tanglewood or a dreadnought – you can't have them all. If you want to spend like 500 on a guitar I would go for a Tanglewood or a Lag. I've tried a few models and they are consistently good and not expensive at all. I almost bought a Lag recently but then opted for a Yamaha LL16 (a bit more expensive) – soon to show up on YT. Of course Martin and Taylor have affordable models too, and they sound good, but I find the finishings very poor. Lowden are just too expensive for my pockets. Cheers Joao
I'm interested in one of these Walden Baritone guitars for all my Nick Harper requirements. Combined with a set of "Nick Harper" Newtonestrings will do the job nicely me thinks. Oh and if I replace the machineheads with Keith Tuners which at $220 a pair are going to cost more than the guitar eek! So I might forego them My local guitar shop had a stock of Walden guitars earlier this year but as yet I haven't managed to get down there to check it out.
Thats a good price..£499 That's a good price for one of those...are you going for the B1 or B1E model? [extra £200]. Am sorely tempted, as I know it'll inspire me to get back to playing again more regularly. Have been stuck in Open C this year and Open B would give it a bit more gravitas I'm sure. http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_nkw=baritone+acoustic+guitar Roy never seems to play this live [well at the gigs I've been to..] and it's one of my favs : [youtube]lt4XnUvrdvY[/youtube] Andy psssst! http://www.vanityfair.com/culture/2012/07/lsd-drugs-summer-of-love-sixties
I would be going with the cheaper version mostly because of cost but also on the few occasions when I have played to an audience my Fishman soundhole pickup has done the job. I just use a bit of gaffa tape ala John Martyn stylee to keep the cable out the way [youtube]Y5_-uN1uMBY[/youtube]
Done it! Done it! Got to Denmark Street at the end of Oxford Street and it's a veritable guitar oasis. Got a half price Alvarez model ABT 60E baritone electro acoustic for £247 coz of a miniscule scratch on the soundboard! https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=p...YMvS00QXo84DICA&ved=0CD0QsAQ&biw=1152&bih=690 http://www.gear4music.com/Guitar-an...OMzJnB_pcrid_28538692879_plid__kword__match__ A x
Ha!! Ha!! Broken two strings already!! Know how Nick feels now!! Either I was tuning it to wrong alternate/standard tunings for the string gauges inherent or it had been banged around in the shop? It sounds weird and floppy in Open A and phps Open B is the max? At least the electronic tuner is working ok... Hopefully I can play this eventually? : [youtube]FD0aAtbgO1s[/youtube] [youtube]TbTxq3KtFUs[/youtube] [youtube]f3rFh5SF7zw[/youtube] Phps oneday someone will tab Matt's amazing accompanyment? [youtube]DWu4TIL1p0Q[/youtube] [youtube]ndi0PdjK43E[/youtube] Andy
