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Re: I have just met McCartney, held the Hofner, 59 LP, Epi

Posted: Thu Sep 25, 2008 6:26 am
by ilan
Update: in 2 hours I'm meeting with Keith, Paul McCartney's guitar tech. Anything that you think I should ask him? Other than what's it like to take care of such historically significant instruments, and doesn't he sometimes wish Sir Paul got some new basses with less maintenance than a certain 45 years old German bass that needs neck resets and refrets... And why does Paul hang to his old guitars, is he a sentimental guy or is it to please the crowd that wants to see him with the Beatle bass. I can't get into technical stuff (this is for TV...) but I'll ask anyway if there's something you want to know and can post here in the next hour. Thanks

Re: I have just met McCartney, held the Hofner, 59 LP, Epi

Posted: Thu Sep 25, 2008 9:13 am
by jps
ilan wrote:Update: in 2 hours I'm meeting with Keith, Paul McCartney's guitar tech. Anything that you think I should ask him?
yeah, what kind of strings does Paul use on the Höfner, besides "long, shiny ones"! :lol:

Re: I have just met McCartney, held the Hofner, 59 LP, Epi

Posted: Thu Sep 25, 2008 9:39 am
by marc67
Just got a call from Ilan from the park in Tel Aviv, where McCartney will play tonight. Ilan just interviewed Keith, McCartney's technical manager and asked me to post that he will upload the whole interview and paste a link to it.
One highlight from the interview was that Paul still uses "the" 4001S for recordings...interesting...!

Re: I have just met McCartney, held the Hofner, 59 LP, Epi

Posted: Thu Sep 25, 2008 9:43 am
by rickenbrother
Very cool Ilan! Looking forward to your posts about the meeting and the concert. :D

Re: I have just met McCartney, held the Hofner, 59 LP, Epi

Posted: Thu Sep 25, 2008 11:11 am
by rickfan63
I hope things go off all right with this show. Considering the death threats that have been made. Security should be tighter than it's ever been.

Re: I have just met McCartney, held the Hofner, 59 LP, Epi

Posted: Thu Sep 25, 2008 4:08 pm
by johnallg
Dang, way too late - I wonder if Paul still has the 4004C and what his impressions of it are. Oh well, maybe next time, Ilan! :lol:

Re: I have just met McCartney, held the Hofner, 59 LP, Epi

Posted: Sun Oct 05, 2008 2:43 pm
by ilan
Update: today I have edited the TV interview with Keith Smith, Paul's technical manager. It's almost 9:00 minutes long. We talked about the '63 Hofner, the "Cavern" reissue, Epi Texan, Gibson Uke, the '59 Gibson LP... and the old Ric. It will probably take a couple more days before it's uploaded, then I'll post a link. I have two opening sentences in Hebrew, then the interview itself is in English.

Re: I have just met McCartney, held the Hofner, 59 LP, Epi

Posted: Sun Oct 05, 2008 2:45 pm
by kiramdear
Cool, Ilan. I'm on the edge of my seat :)

Re: I have just met McCartney, held the Hofner, 59 LP, Epi

Posted: Sun Oct 05, 2008 3:27 pm
by jps
Did you find out what kind of long, shiny strings Paul uses?

Re: I have just met McCartney, held the Hofner, 59 LP, Epi

Posted: Sun Oct 05, 2008 3:45 pm
by ilan
I assumed they were Pyramids... should I have asked? Keith did say that Paul generally likes things unchanged, and if he put a different set of strings, for example, Paul will notice - but will not know exactly what's changed. He'll just ask Keith to bring the bass back to where it was before the change.

Re: I have just met McCartney, held the Hofner, 59 LP, Epi

Posted: Sun Oct 05, 2008 4:03 pm
by jps
Ignorance is bliss!

Re: I have just met McCartney, held the Hofner, 59 LP, Epi

Posted: Sun Oct 05, 2008 4:09 pm
by kiramdear
He's beyond gear, just 100% focus on the music. Ultimate poverty is the ultimate luxury. The queen of England walks around with nothing but a little camera on her person, she's so beyond material concerns, too.

Re: I have just met McCartney, held the Hofner, 59 LP, Epi

Posted: Sun Oct 05, 2008 11:05 pm
by johnallg
JH has posted before of helping Paul's bass tech (IIRC) with finding old sets of Rick flatwounds, so I would think those are the strings (the old Maximas) that Paul has used. If memory serves me.

I too anxiously await the interview.

Re: I have just met McCartney, held the Hofner, 59 LP, Epi

Posted: Wed May 26, 2010 7:48 pm
by Prowl
resurrecting an old thread can be fun, but I was curious if the interview was ever posted? This whole thing has been very interesting to read

Re: I have just met McCartney, held the Hofner, 59 LP, Epi

Posted: Wed May 26, 2010 8:04 pm
by s4001
Most excellent!!!