POST # 373 MYSTERY CASE No. 9 WHO am I ?

Good Day GUITAR EUREKA Detectives!

You are given 10 clues to the identity of this mystery PERSON. See how many clues you require to solve the case...have fun! (this is a hard one!)

1. I was born on 26 June 1898 in Lake Dick, Arkansas, and was one of 17(!) children.

2. I copyrighted more than 300 songs during my lifetime, including both adaptations of traditional folk songs and original blues songs.

3. I made myself a fiddle from a cigar box and learned how to play spirituals and folk songs from my uncle, Jerry Belcher.

4. I had decided to give up the fiddle and become a preacher but was offered $50 and a new violin if I would play four days at a local venue. Before I could respond to the offer, my wife took the money and spent it, so I had to play.

5. I moved to Chicago in 1920 and switched to playing guitar. The guitars I have played include a Jane Regal flattop, Gibson Style 0 with a carved top, oval soundhole, body scroll, and cutaway, Gibson L-7 archtop and Martin 000-28.

6. My big break came in 1927 when I signed a record deal with Paramount and released my first record but my records sold poorly. I became more successful when I moved to Bluebird Records in 1934 and began recording with pianist Bob "Black Bob" Call, in 1938 I moved to Vocalion records.

7. I was asked to fill in for the recently deceased Robert Johnson at the John H. Hammond-produced From Spirituals to Swing concert at Carnegie Hall in 1938 and 1939.

8. I broadened my style in the 1940's to include ragtime, hokum blues, country blues, city blues, jazz tinged songs, folk songs and spirituals. Ronnie Wood of The Rolling Stones claims that my track, "Guitar Shuffle", is his favorite guitar music. Wood said, "It was one of the first tracks I learnt to play, but even to this day I can't play it exactly right." During the benediction at the 2009 inauguration ceremony of President Barack Obama, the civil rights leader Rev. Dr. Joseph Lowery paraphrased my song "Black, Brown and White Blues".

9. I passed away on August 15, 1958 in Chicago from complications with cancer. Many blues men including Muddy Waters attend my funeral.

10. My first name is "Big Bill"

I am ???

POST # 372 Eddie Van Halen on Learning Lead vs Rhythm Guitar

“Most beginners want to learn lead because they think it’s cool .. consequently, they never really develop good rhythm skills .. since most of a rock guitarists time is spent playing rhythm, it’s important to learn to do it well .. learning lead should come after you can play solid backup and have the sound of the chords in your head”

POST # 371 Dizzy Gillespie on what have taken a lifetime to learn

It's taken me all my life to learn what not to play.

POST # 370 Jimmy Rushing on the Blues

Anytime a person can play the blues, he has a soul and he has a 'lift' to play anything else he wants to play. It's sort of like the foundation to a building.

POST # 369 Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche on Music

“Without music, life would be a mistake.”

POST # 368 Frank Zappa on the most Blasphemous device on Earth

“Let’s be realistic about this, the guitar can be the most blasphemous device on the face of the earth. That’s why I like it…The disgusting stink of a too-loud electric guitar: now that’s my idea of a good time.”

POST # 367 George Barnes on his first Electric Guitar

In 1931, my older brother, who is an electronic genius, built me a pickup and an amplifier before they were even out on the market. He did this for me, because he knew I wanted to play solo lines which could be heard in a band. The first electric guitar came out the following year. National Dobro made them and one of those was my first real electric guitar. Nobody knows who had the first electric guitar; maybe I did. I knew, the first time I played one, that that instrument was going to take me through my career for the rest of my life.

POST # 366 MYSTERY CASE No. 8 WHAT am I ??

Good Day GUITAR EUREKA Detectives!

You are given 10 clues to the identity of this mystery OBJECT. See how many clues you require to solve the case...have fun!

1. My 'concept' was first designed in 1934 by Electro-Voice.

2. My application to the guitar was first applied in 1955

3. My original magnet length was 2.5" long, which was decreased by 1/8" to 1/4" to around 2.25" in July 1961.

4. I can be made of Alnico 2,3,4,5 grade, but standardized to Alnico 5 from 1961 onwards.

5. I was manually wound by the Leesona 102 coil winder until 1965 when automation took over.

6. I am wound with #42 plain enamel wire, firstly purple bobbin wires then red on later versions.

7. I typically have a DC resistance of 7.5 to 9 kΩ

8. I have a black or cream M-69 pickup ring

9. I have two internal coil bobbins under a 1.5" x 2.75" metal cover with one bobbin having a row of six adjustable slot-head poles, and the other bobbin being non-adjustable.

10. My U.S. Patent No. is 2,896,491 by Seth Lover

WHAT am I ???

EXTRA TRIVIA/CLUES:

I made my debut on the Gibson Les Paul guitar.

I have a narrower string spacing when used as the neck pickups of jazz archtops.

I have two coils with opposing windings and polarities

I produce a "warm" and "fat" tone

I am sometimes referred to as dual-coil, double coil or hum-cancelling pickups

POST # 365 George Barnes on working with Carl Kress

Carl was my closest friend. We really loved each other. We hung out together all the time, whether it be playing chess, drinking, or going to hear other musicians. He was always a gentleman with a relaxed manner, and a lot of fun to be with. He was also a fantastic musician.

His style of playing was totally unique. Playing rhythm was his forte. He used a special tuning to give his chords a full, rich sound. His 6th string was tuned to Bb the 5th to F, the 4th and 3rd had the regular tunings of D and G, the 2nd was tuned to A and the 1st to D. With this lower tuning, he could play more and fuller bass lines. However, this tuning was not very good for playing solo.

He rarely soloed in single notes; instead, he soloed in chords. It was his unique tuning that brought about the development of the 7-string guitar. George Van Eps, who studied with Carl, was warned by his father not to study with him, because he used an unusual tuning. We made four albums together, one of which was a live recording we did at a town hall concert. I truly miss him.

POST # 364 Jimi Hendrix on Electric Guitars

“I wish they’d had electric guitars in cotton fields back in the good old days. A whole lot of things would’ve been straightened out.” – Jimi Hendrix