Liverpool's Fastest Rhythm Guitar

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Liverpool's Fastest Rhythm Guitar

Post by anonymous »

Liverpool's Fastest Rhythm Guitar has been updated and added to The Liverpool Project today.
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sowhat
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Post by sowhat »

I wonder, Peter, was (is) there anyone who'd be FASTER? (not necessarily from Liverpool)
(OT: i've tried to play at the same speed a couple of times. Didn't succeed. It was a feeling, like, 'i have five fingers only'.)
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Post by admin »

Sheena: The only clear example of a recording artist from Liverpool who might have equaled McNally's strumming speed would have been John Lennon on "All My Loving."
Life, as with music, often requires one to let go of the melody and listen to the rhythm

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Post by sowhat »

Hmmm... is that really all?! Maybe that should make a "Guinness book" (or something) entry? Nah, just kiddin'.
Mean, i've heard lots bout fast lead guitarists. For instance, a guy from Russia, Victor Zinchuk, has made it to the records book for playing - i don't really remember how much, bout 150 perhaps, or even more - notes per minute. I've never heard of this kind of 'statistics' for rhythm players, and i do wanna know who i should 'pray' to...
Sheena, an 'underdone' RG player...
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Post by wayang »

The musical record for notes per minute continues to be held by a Balinese gamelan from Denpasar, recorded by a French engineer in the '60's...all the more impressive when one considers the feat of 35 people playing together...I'll have to do some research to get the actual figure...
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Post by jingle_jangle »

The rhythm for "All My Loving', played at the same pace as the album release, is around 240 per minute...trying to time it is a real exercise in polyrhythmic insanity, though...
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Post by wayang »

I've taken the liberty of passing on this paragraph which I found on the website for Sekar Jaya, San Francisco's legendary gamelan:


"No gamelan in the past quarter century or so (save for the conservatory groups) has achieved enough fame to challenge the supremacy of Pindha and Geladag. One close contender emerged in the 1970s in the village of Perean, Tabanan district. A recording of their ensemble from that period displays the absolute summit of gamelan speed and virtuosity: kotekan played at a rate of 200 beats per minute. At four subdivisions per beat that breaks down to 800 notes per minute, or an average of 400 notes each for polos and sangsih parts, which in turn translates to almost 7 notes per player per second! Can one conceive of 25 people doing anything together that fast? All of this was executed with crystalline clarity and accompanied, one might surmise, by facial expressions of utter nonchalance and boredom during performance."

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Re: Liverpool's Fastest Rhythm Guitar

Post by JimN »

Whoa!

Not so fast...

In the article:

Before purchasing the Hofner, John McNally owned a Futurama, an affordable instrument played by a number of Merseybeat musicians including George Harrison of The Beatles and the Shadows' Bruce Welch. The "futuristic" appeal of this guitar was evident in the name and also apparent in the design as seen below. Nonethless, the young McNally moved away from the Futurama.

What a mystifying claim!

I can be very definite about this: Bruce Welch of The Shadows never played a Futurama guitar. None of The Shadows did. As a member of The Drifters and The Shadows, Bruce variously played a Vega (USA) guitar (which had belonged to Hank), a Framus and a Grimshaw - all semi-acoustic. His first solid (supplied by Jennings in late 1959) was a sunburst Fender Jazzmaster, though this was sometimes famously supplemented by a loaned blonde Telecaster, and occasionally by a sunburst Stratocaster provided as a stage stand-by by fellow artiste Chas McDevitt (who once stood in for Bruce as a member of The Shadows on stage). Bruce also had a Gretsch 6120 and sometimes used it with the group - notably in the film "Summer Holiday". The famous matching red Fenders were supplied - again, on loan - by Jennings in 1961.

I wonder where the tale of the Futurama came from?

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Re: Liverpool's Fastest Rhythm Guitar

Post by carr »

Didnt the Shadows also have matching white Burns bisons too inthe 60's?
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Re: Liverpool's Fastest Rhythm Guitar

Post by JimN »

Hi, John,

No, The Shadows never used the Burns Bison model (with one rather esoteric exception, see below).

The group swapped from a Stratocaster/Precision line-up to a set of signature Burns instruments called the "Marvin" (six-string) and "Shadows Bass" (er... bass) during 1963-1964, with the first public appearance of the new models coming in the early spring of 1964.

Marvin (a recent reissue):
http://preview.tinyurl.com/6altoh

Shadows Bass (a recent reissue correctly known as the John Rostill model):
http://preview.tinyurl.com/6bx63h

Not long after the Shads signature guitars were released for sale in '64, Burns re-designed the Bison guitar and bass so as to feature many of the design characteristics first seen on the Marvin (especially the pickups and electrical circuit, the trem system, the headstock design and the general appearance of the body and scratchplates). The same was true of the basses. Because the Type 3 Bison/Bass and the Marvin/Shadows Bass look so similar (though certainly not identical - the guitars have different scale-lengths), they have often been confused over the years. I remember another guitarist telling me, quite assertively, that The Shads used Bisons - this back in 1968.

For a time during the 1970s, The Shadows were augmented by famous session-bassist Dave Richmond. He played, for instance, on their great 1973 LP Rockin' With Curly Leads (thoroughly recommended, BTW). Dave was legendary for using a Type 2 Burns Black Bison Bass - his trademark - and almost certainly used it for recording with the group. That would be the only Burns bass connection for The Shadows apart from the Burns Shadows Bass/John Rostill Reissue model - as far as I am aware!

Hope this helps,

JimN
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