Adrian Legg

Henry Nagle · Post by **Henry Nagle** » 1 Jan 2009 5:52 pm

I recently read an interview with Adrian Legg. I like what he has to say about playing guitar so I looked him up on the internet.

Here is a link to a sample of one of his tunes:

http://www.adrianlegg.com/mp3/NotRemotelyBlueIntro.mp3

How is he doing this stuff? I don't care for the reverb and recording style, but he is a wonderful player.

Ever seen him play?

Henry

Jerry Hayes R.I.P. · Post by **Jerry Hayes R.I.P.** » 2 Jan 2009 5:29 am

Henry, I have a couple of Adrian's CD's and he's a monster player. He usually used Ovation guitars and has those Keith/Scruggs banjo tuners on all six strings. He approaches the acoustic/electric guitar more like a straight electric guitarist as he seldom plays unplugged and uses effects quite a bit. He's mostly a fingerstyle player and uses very light strings as opposed to other acoustic players. I believe his 3rd string G isn't wrapped which is why he can do bends so well..........JH in Va.

Henry Nagle · Post by **Henry Nagle** » 2 Jan 2009 9:55 am

Thanks Jerry.

So, those bends that sound a bit like pedal steel- he's doing those with the fingers on his left hand? Pretty impressive.

Do you recommend any particular album? I'd like to hear a bit more from him.

Dave Harmonson · Post by **Dave Harmonson** » 2 Jan 2009 10:16 am

It sounds to me that most of those bends that "sound like pedal steel" are done with the Keith/Scruggs pegs. He's got notes above and below the bended note so that has to be mechanical. The bending parts by themselves remind me a bit of Buck Trent on his electric banjo with Keith pegs. I agree about his tone. Not my favorite sound, but he can sure rip it up.

Stephen Gambrell · Post by **Stephen Gambrell** » 2 Jan 2009 1:23 pm

Adrian uses a very light gauge set of strings on his guitars. The 1st string is a .010. So, with that ligh gauge strings, and the unwound third, the "pedal steel" stuff would be very easy.

Henry Nagle · Post by **Henry Nagle** » 2 Jan 2009 1:40 pm

If he is bending those notes with his fingers on the fretboard, then he is f'n amazing. With Keith tuners, he'd still have to reach up and turn them, right?

There are a few phrases where I hear multiple strings bending, and they are in tune. Makes me think it must be mechanical change of some sort.

Henry Nagle · Post by **Henry Nagle** » 2 Jan 2009 1:43 pm

Ok... It's a blend of open tuning and Keith tuners. Kinda like pedal steel, in a way!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CMZm_olq12I

Jerry Hayes R.I.P. · Post by **Jerry Hayes R.I.P.** » 2 Jan 2009 2:40 pm

Henry, the two CD's I have are "Guitar for Mortals" and "Wine, Women & Waltz". Both are excellent and really showcase his chops.........JH in Va.

Henry Nagle · Post by **Henry Nagle** » 3 Jan 2009 12:53 am

Actually, he is pretty crazy:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iOAhLBzF ... re=related

Roger Shackelton · Post by **Roger Shackelton** » 3 Jan 2009 9:51 am

I find Adrian's playing to be very exciting and interesting.
His tone is just different, not bad.

ROGER

Henry Nagle · Post by **Henry Nagle** » 4 Jan 2009 1:01 pm

I think he's great too! I found some clips on his website that had tone that I liked very much. I find many of his more "electric" tones to be very synthetic sounding, in large part because of type and amount of reverb he uses.

Jeff Garden · Post by **Jeff Garden** » 4 Jan 2009 1:14 pm

You might also enjoy Adrian Legg's "Guitars and Other Cathedrals" CD. I went to a clinic he gave in Clearwater Florida years ago. He got a lot of use out of those Keith pegs on a tricked out Ovation acoustic. He used lots of open tunings and was heavy on the delay and reverb as I remember. In between some great playing and interesting musical advice at the clinic he was also a good storyteller and had a great sense of humor (he sort of reminded me of Radar O'Reilly on M.A.S.H.)

Henry Nagle · Post by **Henry Nagle** » 4 Jan 2009 1:26 pm

His sense of humor was what motivated me to check him out! He gave an interview to Guitar Player magazine awhile back and was quite witty. He has a custom humbucker on his custom made guitar. It is extremely thin (probably so it does not have to be cut into the soundboard). It is called the "Waffare Theene" humbucker. Does everyone catch that reference?!

Roger Rettig · Post by **Roger Rettig** » 4 Jan 2009 8:01 pm

I remember Adrian playing an ordinary Telecaster in a country band in London in the early 1970s - he was always amazing at bending seemingly impossible combinations. I should know - I had to follow him into that very same gig!!!

A little later he and I played in a band together. He was and still is remarkable, even if I didn't always enjoy his use of effects. His playing was always 'real', though, and there were no Scruggs pegs on that Tele.

He's a funny guy, too - he used to write music reviews in some London magazine or other and he'd make me laugh out loud, especially when he'd write about a substandard band....

Roger Rettig · Post by **Roger Rettig** » 14 Jan 2009 6:29 am

Our UK Forumite, Jimmy Martin, spoke with Adrian and told him of this thread. Adrian subsequently wrote me this e-mail - see below - with some interesting stuff about his early methodology re: string-bending. He said to go ahead and post it for whoever might be interested.

Adrian was an inspiration to me back in 1970 or so when I was finding myself drawn to certain components in country music (of course, I'm not gonna tell HIM that!!!

...) Believe me, he was and still is a unique player; I'll never forget hearing him replicating E9th licks on that old unadorned Telecaster of his.

Adrian wrote:

"Hallo Roger,
I hope this finds you still blossoming in the sunshine, and, if this works, I'm chuffed to bits to track you
down at last.
Jim Martin was in touch, and mentioned the chat on your forum.
I don't think I have time to join it to respond before I hit the road again, and hope this roundabout way
will find you and you can pass along whatever seems relevant.

The bending was a thing from long before the Keith pegs. The yarn I tell is that we got the same
money in the Liverpool working men's clubs for a four or a five piece, so if I could do a passable bluff
of the steel solos and save a man, individually we could make a bit more money. In fact it was the
steel that turned me on to country more than the guitar playing therein. I saw BJ a couple of years ago,
doing a bit of Debussy with a cellist, and remembered your upside down glasses gag with much
delight. He did do that lovely Purcell aria - Dido's Lament "When I am Laid (in Earth with Drooping
Wings)" - gorgeous on a steel - actually, gorgeous anyway. There's a beautiful trumpet and pipe organ
version by Eric Schutz and Jan Overduin.
I thought that with a bit more rhythmic punctuation than the cello could provide he'd be onto
something. I was very glad to see him persevering with an oddball direction - from those activities
interesting musical possibilities flow.

I originally wanted a Keith peg to drop the top string so I could get near a Weldon Myrick lick - istr a
lovely piece of double stopping in the middle of a Skeeter Davis album. I couldn't find them anywhere
until I spotted one on a wall display at a London trade fair. I blagged it, and by the end of the fair had
stirred up a bit of interest and managed to blag all six - at which point I was challenged by a sales rep
to do something more than simply retune, and knocked up a silly piece on the spot. I think that's the
piece that's on YouTube.
Basically I got them for a fast retune, but the gimmick potential is irresistable and they do in fact
extend the bending idea a little further. It has been funny to see a bunch of puzzled guitarists and the
one banjo player in the midst of them laughing his head off. At the time I got them, I was playing in a
shambolic but glorious pub band with Joe Locker. He did a Scruggs piece with some peg drops in it,
and we didn't tell him about my pegs. When it came around to my solo he turned around so fast he
nearly fell off the stage

Those were Schallers, it wasn't until I got to the US that I was able to get Bill Keith's pegs.
The Ovations are long gone - creeping decrepitude/posture & r.s.i. issues, and the Boeing 777's 37.5
inch overhead - my guitar was made by Bill Puplett. I asked Steve Blucher to make me the Waffaire
Theene so we didn't have to cut the guitar in front of the bridge; he and Eric Corpus very kindly
indulged me. It's 6mm deep, quite low output, but, considering the physical limitations, has an
unexpectedly sweet tone. I am tempted by a Mississippi Queen, but the cut required to mount it could
be fatal.
Yes, it's essentially electric. I think the whole unplugged thing was, and still is, fraudulent, and
incapable of ever producing a nice tone because the instrument is so compromised. All I ever wanted
was enough of an acoustic's harmonic content to make a solo tone a tad more viable. Nowadays I think
piezo saddles can do something useable, given a number of quite serious attack transient caveats.
Alas the tonal lessons from Paul Bigsby and the Merle Travis period seem to be lost, and if you say
"Zairean cobalt" to anyone, they think you put it up your nose.

I'll have email on the road. It'd be lovely to hear from you, and I'd be happy to try to answer anything
that arises from the forum.
Best wishes and happy memories,
Adrian"

Jeff Garden · Post by **Jeff Garden** » 14 Jan 2009 7:23 am

Thanks for posting Adrian's e-mail, Roger. He still sounds like an entertaining guy to go have a beer with.

Roger Rettig · Post by **Roger Rettig** » 14 Jan 2009 7:36 am

"...an interesting guy to go have a beer with."

Yes - I think that's where we went wrong.....

Here we are - for those who don't know his face, that's Adrian on the left. I think I must have had some of those beers just before I bought those trousers - there's no other plausible explanation for such a lapse in judgment, except maybe I was more taken with Jack Nicklaus than Buddy Emmons at that point....

Adrian, Brian Hodgson, RR, Peter Baron (Brian and Peter still play with Albert Lee & Hogan's Heroes)

James Martin (U.K.) · Post by **James Martin (U.K.)** » 14 Jan 2009 9:53 am

Hey Roger, I think Peter has spotted you trying to lift his wallet! I did indeed correspond with Adrian a short while ago to see if he remembered the time I played with him in the Blueberry Buckle band with the great singer Tony Griffin who sadly passed away a few years ago and to remind him about the talcum powder which covered the front of his twin reverb and all over his guitar it was like playing in a chalk pit, but what a innovative player he was way back in the seventies. I'm delighted that he is doing so well. He tells me that he covers distances of three/four and five hundred miles to do gigs, he must have plenty of stamina! I baulk at anything over a hundred.

Henry Nagle · Post by **Henry Nagle** » 14 Jan 2009 11:13 am

Jimmy and Roger- thanks so much for bringing the man himself into this conversation. He seems like a very high quality individual. I'll have to look and see when he's coming through the bay area next.

Roger Rettig · Post by **Roger Rettig** » 14 Jan 2009 11:25 am

Henry

I just got a nice long email from Adrian. Here's a quote from it:

"leave for SFO tomorrow morning and head down to Mission Viejo Civic Center and McCabe's, Santa
Monica, then across to Texas, OK City, Albuquerque and up into Colorado & Idaho, then Yakima and
Everett WA south and out. Should be about ten miles to the dollar."

That was posted to me today, so it sounds like he'll be tolerably close to you - I think!

For Adrian: remind me to explain to you the convoluted circumstances that dumped Susie and me in Naples, FL - not our first choice of locations, but.....
$:\$

Henry Nagle · Post by **Henry Nagle** » 14 Jan 2009 11:41 am

Six or seven hours drive- a long trip, but I'd certainly consider it if I didn't have shows both days. Santa Monica sounds nice about right now. Although I suppose I can't complain about the weather here. Global warming is not so bad- right now

.

Drew Howard · Post by **Drew Howard** » 16 Jan 2009 7:08 am

Henree - this the CAP'N - it is cold here in the Flyover State - hope yer well.

Henry Nagle · Post by **Henry Nagle** » 16 Jan 2009 9:07 am

Happy New Years, Drew! Feel free to stop by and warm your hands. We've had t-shirt weather lately. I don't know how you ice dwellers do it.