[Jenn]

Did anyone else catch the program about him on PBS this week? Besides
the obvious interest to guitarists and other music lovers, the audio
content was highly interesting as well, as he basically invented "sound
on sound" recording and was innovative on other recording issues.

[Harry Lavo]

"Jenn" wrote in message
...
Did anyone else catch the program about him on PBS this week? Besides
the obvious interest to guitarists and other music lovers, the audio
content was highly interesting as well, as he basically invented "sound
on sound" recording and was innovative on other recording issues.

Saw it and loved it...particularly the old Ampexs spinning their magic.
Yep, he was a seminal force in the audio field. My dad was in the business
1948-55, and I remember him bringing home and raving to us and then demoing
on our showcase home system the original 10" LP that he and Mary Ford cut.
Can't remember the name..just the sound. Played, BTW, over the largest JBL
corner horn then in existence, via a 25wpc Newcomb pre-power amp
combination, from a Garrard 88 with one of the first GE variable reluctance
cartridges. Somehow that sound entered my genes and has stayed with me ever
since.

[Shhhh! I'm Listening to Reason!]

On Jul 13, 6:36 pm, Jenn wrote:
Did anyone else catch the program about him on PBS this week? Besides
the obvious interest to guitarists and other music lovers, the audio
content was highly interesting as well, as he basically invented "sound
on sound" recording and was innovative on other recording issues.

I have an old Radio-Electronics magazine with him on the cover which
talks about his and Mary Ford's home workshop/studio and some of the
things he was working on at that time. It's interesting.

He invented the eight-track recorder. He's also credited wih inventing
the solid-body guitar in the 1940s with "The Log."

Finding a genius "highly interesting" shouldn't surprise you...:-)

[Jenn]

In article om,
Shhhh! I'm Listening to Reason! wrote:

On Jul 13, 6:36 pm, Jenn wrote:
Did anyone else catch the program about him on PBS this week? Besides
the obvious interest to guitarists and other music lovers, the audio
content was highly interesting as well, as he basically invented "sound
on sound" recording and was innovative on other recording issues.

I have an old Radio-Electronics magazine with him on the cover which
talks about his and Mary Ford's home workshop/studio and some of the
things he was working on at that time. It's interesting.

He invented the eight-track recorder. He's also credited wih inventing
the solid-body guitar in the 1940s with "The Log."

Finding a genius "highly interesting" shouldn't surprise you...:-)

That's just me being my usual understated self ;-)

[Jenn]

In article ,
"Harry Lavo" wrote:

"Jenn" wrote in message

...
Did anyone else catch the program about him on PBS this week? Besides
the obvious interest to guitarists and other music lovers, the audio
content was highly interesting as well, as he basically invented "sound
on sound" recording and was innovative on other recording issues.

Saw it and loved it...particularly the old Ampexs spinning their magic.
Yep, he was a seminal force in the audio field. My dad was in the business
1948-55, and I remember him bringing home and raving to us and then demoing
on our showcase home system the original 10" LP that he and Mary Ford cut.
Can't remember the name..just the sound. Played, BTW, over the largest JBL
corner horn then in existence, via a 25wpc Newcomb pre-power amp
combination, from a Garrard 88 with one of the first GE variable reluctance
cartridges. Somehow that sound entered my genes and has stayed with me ever
since.

Thanks for sharing!

[Shhhh! I'm Listening to Reason!]

On Jul 13, 8:46 pm, "Soundhaspriority" wrote:
"Shhhh! I'm Listening to Reason!" wrote in glegroups.com... On Jul 13, 6:36 pm, Jenn wrote:
Did anyone else catch the program about him on PBS this week? Besides
the obvious interest to guitarists and other music lovers, the audio
content was highly interesting as well, as he basically invented "sound
on sound" recording and was innovative on other recording issues.

I have an old Radio-Electronics magazine with him on the cover which
talks about his and Mary Ford's home workshop/studio and some of the
things he was working on at that time. It's interesting.

He invented the eight-track recorder.

[snip]
I used to be the repairman for one of those. The musician owner loved it
like the family dog.

The amount of music recorded with eight or less tracks is amazing.
Probably the vast majority of music in the 1960s, and I would guess
some studios had eight-track well into the 1970s.

Didn't the Beatles use two four-track recorders?

[Jenn]

In article .com,
Bret Ludwig wrote:

I have an old Radio-Electronics magazine with him on the cover which
talks about his and Mary Ford's home workshop/studio and some of the
things he was working on at that time. It's interesting.

He invented the eight-track recorder. He's also credited wih inventing
the solid-body guitar in the 1940s with "The Log."


The Log was not really a solidbody guitar-it had hollow sides
bandsawn from an old Epiphone.

Cosmetic only, note.

[Jenn]

In article .com,
Bret Ludwig wrote:

On Jul 14, 11:07 pm, Jenn wrote:
In article .com,
Bret Ludwig wrote:

I have an old Radio-Electronics magazine with him on the cover which
talks about his and Mary Ford's home workshop/studio and some of the
things he was working on at that time. It's interesting.

He invented the eight-track recorder. He's also credited wih inventing
the solid-body guitar in the 1940s with "The Log."

The Log was not really a solidbody guitar-it had hollow sides
bandsawn from an old Epiphone.

Cosmetic only, note.

Well, it was also to give the guitar some shape so it could be played
in the normal position.

But the Epi parts had no effect on the sound; The Log was purely a solid
body instrument.

It was not a terribly sophisticated effort.

Les had almost certainly seen Paul Bigsby's custom solid guitars
which were simply an extension of the steel guitars he was building
for California country pros in western swing bands, as did Leo
Fender.

IIRC, Bigsby's non-steel guitar electrics came along about 7 years after
The Log. Bigsby's stuff was great, through. I've seen one of the ones
he did for Travis, now owned by the great (though troubled) Michael
O'Dorn, who taught me how to "Travis pick". And the Bigsby tremelos are
still the best, IMO. I have them on my Gibson and my Gretsch.

They were simply steel guitars with longer scale lengths,
playable neck contours and actions, and enough body so they could be
played in the Spanish position.

Yep.


Back then there were two kinds of guitar playing (not including
classical, which was largely unknown in the US): "Spanish", the
regular kind, or "Hawaiian", i.e. played overhand with a steel bar,
i.e. steel guitar. America had a great fascination with Hawaii and
vice versa before it became a state. After that, haoles weren't much
welcome there and the reverse as well.

If you ever see "Something's Got to Give"-not the Jack Nicholson/
Diane Keaton romantic dullety about white jerk on younger broad
(Nicholson is nine years older than Keaton: so much for the horse poop
otherwise)-but the never finished Martin/Monroe/Charisse film later
redone with James Darner and Doris Day as "Move Over, Darling"-you see
a little of the flavor of the attitude toward Hawaii in '62, before
the surfing craze was too overt, and when Hawaii still seemed swank.

Anyway, there were typically in a music store roughly equal amounts
of sheet music and books for Spanish and Hawaiian guitar, and steel-
lap steel rather than pedal steel-guitars were around in abundance.

The Hawaiian heritage lives on a bit today in the popularity of "slack
key" guitar, played, of course, on a "Spanish" style instrument.

lap steel has largely died out, although there was a little resurgence
four or five years ago: the surviving remnants are pedal steel and
Dobro, i.e., resonator acoustic guitar played overhand bluegrass
style.

I live about 5 miles from National Resonator. Their shop is two doors
down from the luthier who makes my main instrument, Mike Baranik.