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I happened to find this video on YouTube when I was looking for performances of It's Been a Blue Day. There is a still photo in this video that starts at about the 01:44 mark and lasts through to the end. It appears to be one of those "mirror images" that is flipped (i.e., left-handed guitar straps), but aside from that...Bruce's guitar looks like some sort of semi-hollow. I was wondering if anybody recognises what kind of guitar this might be. Also, do you think this is a "real" photo, or might it be like the album cover(s) that we were discussing, where they are posing for the photo and the guitars are props. I am looking at Jet's guitar, which may or may not match Bruce's, and it just does not look like an instrument that Jet would play. It's not even a bass, is it?

Kind regards,
Donna

That would be Jet's first bass guitar, a Besson-badged Framus. Can't see enough of Bruce's...

George

I believe that the guitar held by Bruce in that photo is a Framus.

JN

Hofner?

Hi Heres A pic From October 1959
looks like Hank as The Strat By this time

Jay

Jay Bass wrote:Hi Heres A pic From October 1959
looks like Hank as The Strat By this time

Jay

shads nhampton 6101959 copy.jpg

The interesting thing about this picture is the Selmer Stadium amp that Hank appears to be using.

Just a quick thank you to everyone who wrote in reply. I am learning so much from you -- thank you. I did not know about Framus guitars, and I love the photo from 1959. Thanks again.

- Donna

Great photo! It can't have been long after this, presumably sometime during November 1959, when Tony Meehan accidentally snapped the neck on Jet's Framus. Jet had left the instrument propped against a dressing room door which was thrown open with some force by Tony - not realising that Jet's bass was behind the door. A replacement bass had to be found PDQ - which was when the Fender precision arrived. The guitar that Bruce is playing, I'm sure (if memory serves) that there's a publicity shot of Cliff strumming that particular guitar.

Rob

The black guitar played by Bruce (which I understand he still owns) is a pre-WW2 Vega electric guitar, made in the USA.

Vega were later better known for banjos than for guitars, but were in fact one of the first makers of electric guitars, that particular model being a regular archtop acoustic rendered electric at the factory by the installation of a Rickenbacker horseshoe pickup and controls.

There is a picture of Charlie Christian (c.1918-1942) playing a guitar exactly the same as that one (with a Vega amp as well). I wonder whether it's the same example? Either way, that Vega seems to have found its way to Newcastle by the 1950s, where it fell into the hands of Eddy Silver (Hank's bandmate) and then belonged to Hank himself, later being transferred to Bruce, perhaps when Hank got the Antoria, and then used in "Expresso Bongo".

HTH,

JN

Arpeggio wrote:Great photo! It can't have been long after this, presumably sometime during November 1959, when Tony Meehan accidentally snapped the neck on Jet's Framus. Jet had left the instrument propped against a dressing room door which was thrown open with some force by Tony - not realising that Jet's bass was behind the door. A replacement bass had to be found PDQ - which was when the Fender precision arrived. The guitar that Bruce is playing, I'm sure (if memory serves) that there's a publicity shot of Cliff strumming that particular guitar.

Rob

Hi Rob
i remember reading or hearing somewhere that the first recording Jet did with the Sunburst Fender precision Bass
was for Cliffs Single "Voice in the Wilderness"
The EP and film version were recorded 2 days after the date on the picture oct 8th 1959 i presume Jet was still using
The framus bass.
The single version was recorded on 20th December 1959 so it was sometime between oct8th & dec 20th 1959
that Jet Got the Precision bass.

Heres a great site for Old Tour dates etc
http://www.bradfordtimeline.co.uk/mindex59g.htm
Regards
Jay