Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

Clapton was uncomfortable being labeled "guitar god" so he proceeded to make some truly horrible pop music after cream ... I have never yet met a musician who does not hate "Wonderful Tonight"

I would put money on them going to the States. I can't see them putting all that rehearsal time in & then not 'creaming' in the money!

What gear will they use? Strat and Warwick through digital amps, or SG and EB3 through plexi Marshalls... Unfortunately I can't see them going out to buy vintage gear when their current sponsors supply them with free guitars, and all their Cream era instruments went long ago. What happens when you buy vintage instruments to mimic your rock heroes, only to find they no longer play them?

That's true Mark. A friend of mine went to see the Who recently, only to find that Townsend played a Strat all night. My friend is Who mad, but he had to admit that when Rics & SGs were so much of the Whos sound, it didn't sound quite right on a Strat.

Jumping into the middle of a long-running thread here, BUT:

I've been around this music thing since Feb 10, 1964 (bet you can't guess what got me playing at age 15!).

I'm SICK of Strats and almost as SICK of Teles. Excellent guitars for their purposes, yes. Far too common, yes again. They are probably the most visible example in our American culture that (some) "musicians" have nowhere near the imagination that we generally credit "musicians" with. In my own musical life, they represent a phase, and that phase shifted long ago.

I recently lived in Brasil for about a year. Music is EVERYWHERE down there; many, many more people perform professionally or for their own satisfaction than here in the US. VIRTUALLY EVERY guitarist whom I saw perform on an electric, whether a living-room amateur or a touring professional, played a Strat or Strat clone. I cannot remember seeing ANY other electric being played! I'm very happy to see that the younger musicians (beginning with Cobain?) have embraced some variety, unwittingly bringing on some more collecting nonsense.

National Glenwoods (sans trussrod and all!) bringing $3000.00 on eBay?!?! HA HA!!! My uncle played one in a POLKA BAND in the '60s!

(A side note to this: He may have begun a small trend when, in 1955 (!!!) he installed a set of colored Christmas tree lights inside his banjo for a Chicago TV gig. I wonder if F.C. might have been watching "Polka Party" that night?

NAH!

)

Jeff,
I agree Jack's version of Crossroads is great.

It saddens me to see how very few know or have even heard the "real" version. Robert Leroy Johnson's original haunting slower version is still my favourite and my preference to play.

As for gear, of course Clapton will continue to use a Strat, I doubt highly that we'll see Jack toting a 1960's EB-3.

I'll lend Jack my EB3 if he'll give me a backstage pass! (LOL)

Who knows....He might bring it out. I haven't heard of it being in the hands of anyone else. Clapton, on the other hand, has sold all his vintage Cream instruments in his two sucessful Christies Auctions. With all the new technology in the last, especially 10 years, I think they can reproduce their original sounds pretty much. Believe me --- I am sure that they are quite aware that they have to bring a lot of their 60's mojo to these concerts. They're not fools. They certainly won't be out to please guitar aficianados/collectors and won't give a damn about that.

I read somewhere that Jack sold his EB-3 years ago for some reason or other.
I live in Lima Peru half the time, I don't know about Brasil but I expect it's the same as in Peru, strat style guitars are really cheap as there are so many of them and S. America is not exactly the richest continent in the world. I brought a couple of Ric basses and an SVT there and most musicians looked at the stuff like it was the holy grail.
Yeah Jeff, I love just about everything Jack Bruce ever played sang or wrote, he doesn't get his due IMHO.
They will probably use Line 6's haha! on Cream setting! Nothing like the real thing.

nice EB-3 Ron.

Bob - What do you do in Peru? Obviously Jeff hates Clapton --all the above reasons.They might use Line 6's for the concerts but no one will care -- no one -- as long as they sound the same. You would hope, for sure, that Bruce would never play a EB-3 -- those are the were the worst basses ever! With mudbuckers and all... Warwick is for sure a step up, if thats what he does.

Graeme Pattingale's "Those Were The Days" site contains a breathtaking analysis of The Cream's equipment. Jack used 3 EB-3s, all of which had the wide-apart knobs, signifying that they were all second-hand purchases.

http://twtd.bluemountains.net.au/cream/

Didn't Jack also use a FenderIV?

yep Jack played the Fender 6 string bass on a few songs ... he would hit some unpleasantly high notes with that bass ... actually it was more of a baritone guitar than a bass ... I played on of them ... the strings are even tighter than the 4003s5 bass ...