Jimmy's Danelectro Guitar / 1988 Reunion Gig

[ThreeSticks]

Does anyone know why Jimmy developed such an affinity for this guitar, and why he used it for songs with alternate tunings?? I don't mean to insult anyone who is a fan of Danelectro guitars, but they are kind of on the cheap side. And they have a rep for going out of tune. After the guitar tuning problems that plagued the Live Aid reunion gig, you would've thought that the band's roadies would've been more careful about making sure that Jimmy's guitars were in tune for the 1988 reunion gig. But right out of the gate Jimmy came out with the Danelectro tuned to his "Kashmir" tuning, and the thing just sounded like a mess.

 

Another semi-related question....does anyone know if Jimmy's Lake Placid blue Stratocaster was equipped with a Floyd Rose locking tremolo? Floyd Rose systems started coming out on the market in 1977, two year's before the Knebworth gigs.  One of the reasons why I felt Jimmy's guitar playing on "in The Evening" in 79/80 sounded weird was because in the days before locking tremolos, just one tug of the whammy bar would sometimes put the whole thing out of tune.

[SteveAJones]

1 minute ago, ThreeSticks said:

right out of the gate Jimmy came out with the Danelectro tuned to his "Kashmir" tuning, and the thing just sounded like a mess.

Sounds in tune to me. However, Jimmy was nervous and the audio mix for television sucked.  

 

[ThreeSticks]

The main riff sounds okay, but the second part of the tune where he goes up and down the neck sounds out of tune with the keyboards. Of course the keyboard may have been out of tune. It just doesn't sound right.

[SteveAJones]

5 minutes ago, ThreeSticks said:

The main riff sounds okay, but the second part of the tune where he goes up and down the neck sounds out of tune with the keyboards. Of course the keyboard may have been out of tune. It just doesn't sound right.

If you can even hear the keyboards in the television mix you're a better man than I. The mix for the radio simulcast would be a better point of reference all around.

[ThreeSticks]

That's what I have. I have a CD bootleg of the radio broadcast. Plus, being a musician, my ears tend to be sensitive to these things. The larger point is that I just never understood  Jimmy's fascination  with this guitar. When he played Kashmir using a Les Paul at Earl's Court in 75 it sounded awesome.

[woz70]

By 1988 he'd replaced the standard Danelectro bridge with a badass bridge to improve the tuning stability.
As to his fascination with it - it has to be primarily the sound it makes, and then the way it plays.  Why else would anyone prefer one guitar over another?  Cheapness of construction doesn't really come into it.  I've played some horrifically expensive guitars that were absolute dogs, and some super cheap guitars that I didn't want to put down.

As for the blue strat - it looks like it's got a standard strat tremelo (which can be pretty stable if set up well, a well maintained nut and has well stretched strings...).  Floyd Rose trems involve a lot of wood removal and I don't think he's particularly keen on that because of the way it changes the sustain/tone.

[sixpense]

6 hours ago, ThreeSticks said:

Does anyone know why Jimmy developed such an affinity for this guitar, and why he used it for songs with alternate tunings??

I own a few. The guitars are made of fiberglass and are hollow along with lipstick tube pickups which provide a unique sound. 

Page probably used the guitar for that track so often because that was the guitar he used in the studio. 

[jasonlovesvids]

8 hours ago, SteveAJones said:

Sounds in tune to me. However, Jimmy was nervous and the audio mix for television sucked.  

 

Kashmir was an awesome recording on the record but I always that guitar sound bad live.  Without Bono on drums, Plant sounding, well, not as he did 12 years prior, and that poor guitar - it all was just off. The mix was terrible.   Still enjoyed it tho...

[ThreeSticks]

It is true that a cheap guitar can sound really good. As everyone knows, one of the hottest sounding guitars ever made was Eddie Van Halen's Frankenstein which he basically built with his own hands:

 

[jasonlovesvids]

Jack White made his name and fortune playing a plastic department store guitar in the White Stripes - one that was hard to play and hard to keep in tune.