the beginning and the end of real country music

Bill Hatcher · Post by **Bill Hatcher** » 2 Jan 2014 2:55 pm

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-yCQraOX ... ture=share

Bill Hatcher · Post by **Bill Hatcher** » 2 Jan 2014 2:59 pm

the electric guitar player is playing a bigsby guitar. is that grady martin?

Alvin Blaine · Post by **Alvin Blaine** » 2 Jan 2014 9:32 pm

Bill Hatcher wrote:the electric guitar player is playing a bigsby guitar. is that grady martin?

YES That's Grady and one of his Bigsby guitars.
That clip was October 1952, after Hank had been fired from the Opry and most of his band left to play with Ray Price. It was also just a couple of months before Hank passed away.

Steve Hinson · Post by **Steve Hinson** » 3 Jan 2014 7:37 pm

What a career Grady Martin had!Here he is with Hank and 40 years later he was on the road with Willie...

Truth be known,he was de facto producer on many of our favorite country records from the'50s,'60s and'70s...

Somebody else's name may have been listed as producer,but GM had the vision...

Steve Hinson · Post by **Steve Hinson** » 3 Jan 2014 7:50 pm

...plus...he perfected the prettiest electric guitar sound in the world...355/Echoplex...

Alvin Blaine · Post by **Alvin Blaine** » 4 Jan 2014 2:52 am

Another cool Grady Martin piece of trivia, in '51 he played that Bigsby on about a half a dozen Bill Monroe and his Bluegrass Boys recordings.
Not many folk can claim they played electric guitar in the Bluegrass Boys!!

Bill Cunningham · Post by **Bill Cunningham** » 4 Jan 2014 4:36 am

Posted 3 Jan 2014 10:50 pm
...plus...he perfected the prettiest electric guitar sound in the world...355/Echoplex...

Yes sir!!!

Ken Campbell · Post by **Ken Campbell** » 4 Jan 2014 5:41 am

Grady Martin and Billy Byrd.

The epitome of country guitar in my opinion

Bill Hatcher · Post by **Bill Hatcher** » 4 Jan 2014 11:12 am

a lot of that "grady martin" playing is also harold bradley. he had some import brand archtop with an old gibson bar magnet pickup that he said really sounded good with the echoplex playing that style of fill stuff....but grady martin was for sure the best at it!

heres a track from 1961. jerry byrd on bass! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fO0wFy8Pcds

Steve Hinson · Post by **Steve Hinson** » 4 Jan 2014 7:22 pm

Bill Hatcher wrote:a lot of that "grady martin" playing is also harold bradley. he had some import brand archtop with an old gibson bar magnet pickup that he said really sounded good with the echoplex playing that style of fill stuff....but grady martin was for sure the best at it!

heres a track from 1961. jerry byrd on bass! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fO0wFy8Pcds

All the guys back then had a 3XX and an Echoplex...Pete Wade,Jimmy Capps,Dale Sellers,Billy Sanford and the rest...I have records with probably 10 different guys playing that style...Grady WAS the best at it!

I believe Harold said in"Guitar Player"that his guitar was a"Ventura"and that it was the best one he had for the"Echoplex"style of playing...

robert kramer · Post by **robert kramer** » 5 Jan 2014 10:27 am

I couldn't find a color photo of Grady's Gibson 335 "Big Red" but check this out at Columbia w/ Pete Drake - cutting Carl and Pearl Butler. That looks like "Big Red." As the story goes - the bridge pickup was set a little forward towards the neck than a stock 335 - so everybody (wanting to sound like Grady) bought 335's and had the pickup in their 335's moved forward so they could cut hits, too.

Henry Mancini hired Grady on â€œMancini Countryâ€ RCA recorded 1967 in Nashville for RCA (probably at RCA Studio â€œBâ€). At one point Grady was playing so good that Mancini walked out in to the studio and said: â€œMr. Martin - thatâ€™s the best guitar sound Iâ€™ve ever heard.â€ Grady just looked up at Mancini - cigarette hanging out of the side of his mouth - with a look that said: You hired Grady Martin - what did you expect to hear? Mancini went back in the control room and fired him. Grady didnâ€™t care - he probably had a Patti Page an Andy Williams and a Ray price lined up after the Mancini.

The song was "Phone Call From the Past."

Bill Cunningham · Post by **Bill Cunningham** » 5 Jan 2014 11:02 am

So did Grady play a 335 or 355? I saw reference to both above. And if a 355 was it stereo? I guess if it was stereo, someone more knowledgeable than I would have pointed that out already.

I am not a guitar player but if I was I can't imagine spending time perfecting a Telecaster sound if I could get that mellow echoplex sound. (And then I woke up and remembered a good reason....$$$

)

Steve Hinson · Post by **Steve Hinson** » 5 Jan 2014 11:04 am

Excellent post,Bob...I heard the Mancini story recently from someone else who played on the session and was standing right there when it happened!I love that stuff!
Bill,"Big Red"was actually a 355...stereo with Varitone...I'm gonna try and post a color photo...
355 has an ebony fingerboard and that accounts for the"ping"sound you just can't get from the 335 or 345.
335s don't have Varitone,either...another factor.
I got a 355 last spring,and I just got my tube Echoplex up and running...I'm closing in...

Grady's tone on"Mancini Country"is off the hook,one of the best records to hear that sound...

Again,a great post!

Steve Hinson · Post by **Steve Hinson** » 5 Jan 2014 11:31 am

The pickups DO look closer together!Never noticed that before...I ain;t moving mine.

I've been threatening for years to book Pete Wade on a session so I could smoke that thing over,if I do I'll measure it and report my findings.

Thanks,Bob!

robert kramer · Post by **robert kramer** » 5 Jan 2014 12:10 pm

There's "Big Red." I actually saw her in person one time when Darrell McCall worked the record shop w/ Buddy E. & Capps, etc. and Pete broke her out. It was the THE sound in person. When I first met Capps - he rattled off all of Grady's Stonewall parts just like he was reading out of a book. And just want to repeat what Steve just said: "Truth be known, he (Grady Martin) was de facto producer on many of our favorite country records from the'50s,'60s and'70s..."

Steve Hinson · Post by **Steve Hinson** » 5 Jan 2014 12:22 pm

Bob,there's a Charlie McCoy record from about 10 years ago called"Country Classics"or"Classic Country"maybe...Pete and "Big Red"are in fine form on two or three ballads on there...it IS the sound!

355-tube Echoplex-Fender amp...the sound.

Thanks for the heads up on the pickup distance!

SH

Steve Hinson · Post by **Steve Hinson** » 5 Jan 2014 12:25 pm

Bill,the"Echoplex"sound is one of my two favorite guitar sounds...the other one being the Telecaster as featured on the old Emmylou stuff...I gotta have'em both!

Bill Cunningham · Post by **Bill Cunningham** » 5 Jan 2014 6:23 pm

Thanks for the feedback, Steve. I hope my attempt at humor commenting on the Telecaster sound didn't offend. I was not thinking at the time that you are a Tele picker as well as steel.

I was thinking of old Conway hits at that moment.

My best,

BC

Steve Hinson · Post by **Steve Hinson** » 5 Jan 2014 6:49 pm

Not at all,Bill...long as you promise not to be offended cause I hijacked your thread!

I AM a Tele picker...AND a 355 picker!
I've had that guitar out twice for sub gigs with bands and both times after the first song I used it on,the singer(2 different cats)turned around and said"that thing sounds like a Conway Twitty record"...

...mission accomplished...

Steve Hinson · Post by **Steve Hinson** » 5 Jan 2014 7:55 pm

One more thing...Lloyd Green is on"Mancini Country"too...if you are looking for"Steel Fest 2014"this ain't it...there are just little dashes here and there...but there is some pretty nice steel/guitar/fiddle playing on this record...it's real laid back,relaxing country music arranged by Henry Mancini...I really enjoy listening to it.

...and you can download it as mp3s from Amazon.

Joachim Kettner · Post by **Joachim Kettner** » 6 Jan 2014 3:40 am

I'm not sure, but may this be the guitar/sound you're talking about?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8AyELHm1764

Ken Campbell · Post by **Ken Campbell** » 6 Jan 2014 4:49 am

That was sure cool....

Alvin Blaine · Post by **Alvin Blaine** » 6 Jan 2014 5:31 am

Steve Hinson wrote:The pickups DO look closer together!Never noticed that before...I ain;t moving mine.

I've been threatening for years to book Pete Wade on a session so I could smoke that thing over,if I do I'll measure it and report my findings.

Thanks,Bob!

It has 24 frets so the neck pickup is almost an inch closer to the bridge pickup.

Alvin Blaine · Post by **Alvin Blaine** » 6 Jan 2014 5:52 am

This is who I think of when I think of a 355 with an echoplex.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XDSr_eGX6Wo

Then he and Grady Martin worked together on many projects.

Steve Hinson · Post by **Steve Hinson** » 6 Jan 2014 8:03 am

Alvin Blaine wrote:This is who I think of when I think of a 355 with an echoplex.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XDSr_eGX6Wo

Then he and Grady Martin worked together on many projects.

That's a 345 Hank is playing...rosewood fretboard.
That's probably the first 345 made...Gibson made him that and a matching six-string bass in about'58,I think...
A couple of people in town have told me that they thought Hank owned"Big Red"before Grady did.

Obviously Hank was a Gibson artist(Byrdland)and they were making stuff for him to use and evaluate...
I never once thought about the difference in distance between the pickups...crazy!