Bruce's Decision to Play a Stratocaster

[RayL]

Apart from Nivram there is also a harmony lead line on Theme From A Filleted Place (and quite an intricate one). Also Bruce, I presume?

Ray

[Iain Purdon]

The released version of Tales Of A Raggy Tramline was apparently recorded on 1st June 1962 (despite being a part-Harris composition), so no Jazzmaster (which had already been used on a hit record by The Hunters). This was well inside the red Strat era.

I feel sure that date is incorrect. To my ears that bass playing sounds like Jet not Lic, so it would need to have been in the can by April. Unless there was an overdub added in June. But what would that be?!

[UlrichS]

The released version of Tales Of A Raggy Tramline was apparently recorded on 1st June 1962 (despite being a part-Harris composition), so no Jazzmaster (which had already been used on a hit record by The Hunters). This was well inside the red Strat era.

I feel sure that date is incorrect. To my ears that bass playing sounds like Jet not Lic, so it would need to have been in the can by April. Unless there was an overdub added in June. But what would that be?!

Brian Locking confirmed that it is Jet who is playing on "Tales Of A Raggy Tramline". Either the studio information about "Tales ..." on the 1st June 1962 session is wrong or it refers to some additional processing which has been made. I stuck to 19th December 1961 as recording date. (Sorry, Jim!)

Ulrich

[GoldenStreet]

Certainly, according to Vic Rust's Shadows Recording Catalogue, the Raggy Tramline session was on 19th December 1961, with a comment to the effect that it was about the first track, included on Out Of The Shadows, to be recorded.

I would imagine by this time Bruce had sold his Jazzmaster to Brian Parker of the Hunters, whose album The Hunters Play The Big Hits was issued in the same year, most likely before the December, with the cover picture showing presumably the said instrument.

Afraid all this doesn't help, though, to identify the guitar Bruce did play on the track!

Bill

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[abstamaria]

Thanks, Bill. At least you've confirmed it probably wasn't a Jazzmaster.

Andy

[cockroach]

If it was an electric guitar that Bruce used on that track at that time, then it may probably have been his new red rosewood fingerboard Strat, which matched Hank's...

(I said electric meaning a solid body, because I've seen pictures of Bruce using a Martin acoustic with an inbuilt De Armond neck pickup on stage at about that time)

And that new red Strat was presumably the guitar with which he had tuning troubles , causing his nervous condition, and leading to the use of the Burns guitars!

[GoldenStreet]

I was always under the impression that the problem lay with the Strat not staying in tune during playing, particularly with Hank's regular use of the tremolo arm, as distinct from tuning it in preparation for use. I would have thought, rightly or wrongly, that the latter applied in Bruce's situation.

Bill

[Uncle Fiesta]

In a guitar magazine interview with Hank (sometime during the 80's IIRC) he said that the rosewood Strats were part of a faulty batch in which the frets were in slightly the wrong position on the neck. One wonders why, if that were the case, they didn't simply ask Jennings to change them.

[cockroach]

If the bridge saddles were not adjusted correctly, then the guitar would be out of tune at various positions- the frets could be perfectly positioned but if the bridge adjustment is wrong, it will never play in tune all across and up and down the neck.

As discussed recently here, some photos clearly show Hank's red rosewood fingerboard Strat with the bridge saddles nicely adjusted in a neat tidy STRAIGHT LINE!!

NO guitar would be properly tuneable with a bridge adjusted like that!

I suspect that few people knew how to adjust those new- fangled Fender bridges properly back then- there were no 'guitar techs' and no internet etc back then!

[abstamaria]

No wonder then. I must confess I never heard those off notes. Must put on headphones.

By the way, there was a fun post here (http://www.shadowmusic.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=1211) on “Raggy Tramline”; no conclusion about the guitar used except that it was out of tune. An interesting thread.

“Sticking out like a sore thumb and cringe-worthy, Bruce's guitar is horribly out of tune in his 1st & 2nd strings (haven't I read somewhere that BW is paranoid about tuning?). If you've got good ears, Hank Bruce and bass are slightly out of tune from each other”.

y