What tracks with the Antoria?

[Martin Page]

I can't remember a similar thread on here but has anyone got a definitive list of Cliff/Shads' tracks with Hank playing the Antoria? My list would be something like this but I stand to be corrected:

The whole of the first Cliff album: Cliff

Cliff singles: Livin' Lovin' Doll/Steady With You; Mean Streak/Never Mind; Living Doll/Apron Strings;
Serious Charge EP, which has No Turning Back, Mad About You, Living Doll (again) and The Drifters' Chinchilla

The first Two Drifters' singles: Feelin' Fine/Don't Be A Fool (With Love); Jet Black/Driftin'

Martin.

[Martin Page]

...and of course the tracks on the new Rollercoaster records release: Let Me Tell You Baby – Its Called Rock’n’Roll

Martin.

[Moderne]

Hank didn't play his Antoria on the Living Doll 45rpm single.; he played a Gretsch White Falcon copy borrowed from Tony Harvey. He achieved the vibrato effect at the end of the record by wobbling the tailpiece! He might have played the Antoria on the version featured in the film, though.

[Martin Page]

Hank didn't play his Antoria on the Living Doll 45rpm single.; he played a Gretsch White Falcon copy borrowed from Tony Harvey. He achieved the vibrato effect at the end of the record by wobbling the tailpiece! He might have played the Antoria on the version featured in the film, though.

That makes sense - I never thought it sounded like an Antoria. Actually I'd heard the story of the White Falcon before but had forgotten it. The up-tempo film version was played by someone else I think.

Martin.

[Martin Page]

I just remembered that there were some tracks on Rock 'n' Roll years CD set that had the Antoria:

Never Mind - remix with a more prominent solo;
One Night - a recording not included on the Cliff album.

Martin.

[Pol]

Hank didn't play his Antoria on the Living Doll 45rpm single.; he played a Gretsch White Falcon copy borrowed from Tony Harvey. He achieved the vibrato effect at the end of the record by wobbling the tailpiece! He might have played the Antoria on the version featured in the film, though.

Tony Harvey (d. 1993) played lead guitar in Vince Taylor`s Playboys. There`s plenty of late 50`s and early 60`s film footage of Vince Taylor with backing support on Youtube. Doe`s anyone recognize Tony on any of these clips ? Plenty of semi-acoustics, but I can`t see any guitars with a light white top. Was Tonys guitar just similar to an Gretsch, and not a copy of a specific model ?

[JimN]

Hank didn't play his Antoria on the Living Doll 45rpm single.; he played a Gretsch White Falcon copy borrowed from Tony Harvey. He achieved the vibrato effect at the end of the record by wobbling the tailpiece! He might have played the Antoria on the version featured in the film, though.

Tony Harvey (d. 1993) played lead guitar in Vince Taylor`s Playboys. There`s plenty of late 50`s and early 60`s film footage of Vince Taylor with backing support on Youtube. Doe`s anyone recognize Tony on any of these clips ? Plenty of semi-acoustics, but I can`t see any guitars with a light white top. Was Tonys guitar just similar to an Gretsch, and not a copy of a specific model ?

"Copy of a Gretsch White Falcon" is very clearly an approximate description rather than a literal one. There were no direct copies of anything at the time; that part of the market didn't happen until the end of the 1960s (and was not done all that well at first).

I think Hank means a Grimshaw semi-acoustic like the one played by Joe Brown and Tony Sheridan (and also borrowed occasionally by Bruce, notably for the 1959 "Cliff" LP sessions). That does look rather like some editions of the White Falcon. But I don't think that was deliberate. I'd put money on Emile Grimshaw never having seen a White Falcon at the time it was designed in 1958 or earlier (that Gretsch was a relatively new model).

JN

PS: Using the tailpiece as a rudimentary tremolo unit would not have depended on the use of the "Gretsch copy" anyway - Hank would have been well-used to that from his time with the Hofner Congress (with and without a pickup) and from his time with the black Vega electric arch-top later owned by Bruce. Only the Antoria (whose tailpiece was more or less flat against the body) would not have been amenable to the technique.

[cockroach]

JIm N

I suggested that it was Grimshaw some time ago and was immediately corrected by some expert or other who pronounced that it was an Egmond..

[JimN]

JIm N

I suggested that it was Grimshaw some time ago and was immediately corrected by some expert or other who pronounced that it was an Egmond..

Well, I think we are both right.

Egmonds were low quality guitars (even if available cheaply). They made a few lower-end plywood semis and acoustic archtops (in the 8 guinea class) but even though they later managed to produce a £28 double cut semi (sold in the UK as a Rosetti), they never made anything which could remotely be imagined as good enough to be called a copy of a Gretsch White Falcon. And that was later anyway, certainly not 1958 or 1959.

JN

[Pedro]

Was it Rosettie who produced a guitar with a muting system for the bridge? The device could also be bought as an accessory. Obviously nobody told them about using ones palm.