What tracks with the Antoria?

[aardvarkd]

Pedro, there was a muting device on my Vox Soundcaster. I removed it after a couple of weeks as it just got in the way.

[Martin Page]

That 'ashtray' device on the early Strats was for muting wasn't it? Bruce certainly posed with one in an early photograph.

Martin.

[cockroach]

Quite a few guitarists used the mute devices back in the late '50's and early '60's- Chet Atkins for one. Quite a few Gretsches had them, as well as Fenders and others- European makers probably copied them as they copied many other design features of top US guitars.

The adjustable dampers (single or double) were useful for getting special damped effects and for muting the bass strings whilst fingerpicking. The Fender Bass VI had one too so that it could be used for 'tic-tac' bass lines doubling standup bass lines.

The bridge covers which came with Strats and Telcasters and Precision and Jazz basses were also often left in place by players of these models.(Jet for one, Jimmy Bryant for another)
I think the Fender bass covers may have also had a block of foam stuck underneath for a string damper.

With the guitar bridge covers ('ashtrays') well, let's face it, with the small rough topped grub screws sticking up from Fender bridges, you can painfully shred your hand if playing close to the bridge, especially when strumming rhythm- they didn't have these clever individually sized grubs screws back then.

[Pol]

JimN, many thanks for putting the facts right on Hank borrowed white-top Grimshaw semi-acoustic.

PS.
There`s a marvellous photo of Lonnie Donegan with his Skiffle Group published in Philip Norman´s massive John Lennon biography "The Life" (2008). It shows the same white Grimshaw model, under discussion here, in the hands of band guitarist. Even if the picture is eventually a studio shot, the Grimshaw seems to be plugged into an valve amplifier near Nick Nicholls drumset.

[Pol]

Another shot from the same photo session is featured on http://grimshawguitars.co.uk/gallery/players
And the skiffle group guitarist is Jimmy Currie.

Also, checkout Jimmy playing his white Grimshaw SS deluxe on a very recent posted video...
http://grimshawguitars.co.uk/2011/01/07 ... eluxe-1957

ps. Martin, would it be proper to add Grimshaw to your topic title ?
"What tracks with the Antoria / Grimshaw"

Pol

[cockroach]

I don't know about anyone else, but I am looking forward to hearing Cliff and the (then)Drifters playing live on the new CD which is coming out soon...

In particular, to hear Hank's playing and the sound he gets......

Obviously, as he matured and improved his technique, and musical knowledge, and after he acquired top quality state of the art expensive gear, he also changed his sound, but it will be very interesting to hear what he managed to do at that time, with what was fairly average standard modestly priced gear, even in those days, using presumably a relatively cheap Japanese Antoria (Guyatone) guitar and a small simple British made Selmer amp of fairly low power and basic design.