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JimK

Jim - thanks for posting this link.
That's a pretty good quality recording - maybe soundboard direct to the radio station ?
McGuinn's 12-string is ringing and chiming nicely ... very cool.

By the way, do any of you Byrd's historians know if it was Clarence White, or who, playing guitar with this line-up of the Byrds in Nov '68 ?

Regards

Think the lineup in the fall of '68 was McGuinn, Clarence White, John York and Gene Parsons.

Yeah, there was something about the sound of that Strat that gave Clarence away. I think I definitely heard a B bender lick or two on "Jesus Is Just All Right."

JimK

jimk wrote:Yeah, there was something about the sound of that Strat that gave Clarence away. I think I definitely heard a B bender lick or two on "Jesus Is Just All Right."

JimK

Interesting you should mention Clarence and the B bender, Jim. It was on a Tele. Read an article on Clarence's brother not to long ago and there was a piece on the B bender. Gene Parsons actually developed it for White and built it in his fathers machine shop. IIRC, the geetar is now in the hands of Marty Stuart.
Here's a photo of it. The body was from a '55 Fender and neck was off a '56.

buzfluhart wrote:

jimk wrote:Yeah, there was something about the sound of that Strat that gave Clarence away. I think I definitely heard a B bender lick or two on "Jesus Is Just All Right."

JimK

Interesting you should mention Clarence and the B bender, Jim. It was on a Tele....

Oops Well, what can I say? I don't know nothin' 'bout 'lectric geetars, but I know what I like.

JimK

Ain't no big deal either way, Jim. I was more taken by the story of the B bender than whether it was a Strat or Tele. Sound wise, I wouldn't have been able to tell the difference either.

buzfluhart wrote:Ain't no big deal either way, Jim. I was more taken by the story of the B bender than whether it was a Strat or Tele. Sound wise, I wouldn't have been able to tell the difference either.

If you want to hear a really oddball use of the B-bender, listen to Led Zepplin's "All of My Love". Gene Parsons installed a bender on one of Jimmy Page's Les Pauls! Page waaaaay overuses the device on that song... nothing remotely like Clarence's deft touch.

Yeah, that's the thing about the B bender and Clarence; he made his guitar sound like a lap steel. So much so, that I've often wondered, why bother? Just get a lap steel.

All that aside, I've always like the Clarence White/Gene Parsons edition of the Byrds, as much as the Original Five.

JimK

You're not too far off there Jim, the neck pickup on that Tele had been replaced with a '54 Strat pickup!
Gene originally suggested that Clarence hook up a foot pedal system - to be operated on the floor. Clarence told him no way, that he wanted the pull-string incorporated into the guitar body itself. Clarence told Gene that if he wanted to play pedal steel guitar, he'd get a pedal steel. Hence, the Parsons/White B Bender...

Apparently this is Stringbender #2, Clarence's other Tele, played by Bob Warford. I wonder whatever became of this guitar...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0FiKHaSRMeg

Bob Warford still owns and plays that old white Tele...once owned by Clarence White and Buck Owens

Here's a picture of Bob showing it to Fred Stuart out at Gramfest a couple of years ago..