JJ Cale's guitar

zohn · 2010-07-04T17:52:00+00:00

I've got my friend's "J.J. Cale Guitar Styles" (and how to play them) with me and I find it is a most interesting publication. What I find most intriguing though is the "$50 Harmony acoustic" he used on some of his recordings. He ripped the back of it and stuck no less than 5 pick-ups in there: My favorite guitar is this old fifty dollar Harmony, now backless for easier access to the electronics. Originally it was a round hole acoustic, but I've added five pickups for making records and playing concerts. Four of the pickups are Gibson, two of which are low impedance for recording direct. The other bar type pickup came from a Sears Silvertone guitar, it was manufactured by Dano Electro. The guitar has three high impedance outs and one low." This and some more info on the set-ups he used for a couple of his famous recordings can be found here: http://jjcale.org/jjbooks.htm

aja

That is weird but cool! I would hate to try look for a loose wire in that bird's nest ?

Good thing it is held together with hook screw things ???

Attila

Zhon,

I love JJ's Style, I have a unplugged recording of him in a radio interview ( K-FAQ they refer to their listerners a "FAQ Heads" ? ) in the US, the tight relationship between him and Eric Clapton is also pretty evedent....

zohn

I guess that makes me one of those "heads" too!! - I've always loved JJ's music, and yes, Clapton put him "on the map" by recording "After Midnight" and "Cocaine" later on.
He is one of very few artists who does what he does "for the music" - the guitars are just tools - there's no-one quite like him.

aja

zohn wrotethe guitars are just toolboxes

well, that is what the pic looks like ?

zohn

Yes, but he pretty much owned and played them all after that....

That Harmony's back was crushed by an airline during transport once, and so he ripped it off completely instead of trying to repair it.

Riaan

I'm a big fan of JJ, but really...like an ugly child, only he can love that guitar! ?

Ray

I dont know. My opinion but he didnt want it as an acoustic guitar but it made a convenient container for the electronics that he wanted and there was no ready made tool on the market for him. I see this at the woodwork assoc these guys put all sorts of jigs and even tools together becasue they cant get what they want anywhere retail.
I wonder if all the pickups came before or after he ripped the back off?

bloukie

Hi guys,

I've got a DVD of JJ and his band in Leon Russell's studio. At one stage he discusses this guitar in some detail. Might be something you want to investigate?

Groente

tbone

Hi!

I know the last post on this thread is older than 2 years, but anyway...

First, here's a Tribute page for the sadly miss JJ Cale:

music.yahoo.com/blogs/stop-the-presses/jj-cale-why-neil-young-called-him-best-183038172.html

If you scroll down, you'll find embedded the Movie your looking for (it's a YT link, actually):

www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=IaHxPi9dM7o

Secondly, does anyone know where to get the book "J.J. Cale Guitar Styles" (and how to play them)? It seems to be out of print, I only found it on amazon.com for ridicolous USD 399... I'd really like to work through the book, maybe someone here knows how to get it for a reasonable price... any tip'd be much appreciated!

Thank you very much!

Greetings,

tbone