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| | | REMEMBERING CLIFF GALLUP THE BEST DAM GUITAR PLAYER EVER!!!! |  |
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|  Sujet: REMEMBERING CLIFF GALLUP THE BEST DAM GUITAR PLAYER EVER!!!! Mar 09 Oct 2007, 02:23 | |
| CLIFF GALLUP ..
 ~~ Clifton Gallup ~~
17 June 1930 - 9 Oct 1988 Cliff Gallup..was the original lead guitarist in Gene Vincent's Blue Caps.
Davis assembled a band from local musicians, including Cliff Gallup, who was picked as lead guitarist. The story goes that when Vincent..and the Blue Caps went to Nashville for their first session in May 1956, producer Ken Nelson..had arranged to have top session musicians standing by in case the band wasn't up to par. But, goes the legend, as soon as Gallup ripped into the lightning solos on "Race with the Devil," they knew they wouldn't be needed. "Be-Bop-a-Lula" and "Race with the Devil" were among the songs recorded at this initial session, and both had solos that showcased Gallup's slithery tone, quick hands, and knack for wildly unimaginative, unexpected notes that fit. "Be-Bop-a-Lula" was the only big hit Vincent cut while Gallup was still in the band, and the guitarist's talent was to some extent squandered when the band covered a bunch of pop standards on their second round of sessions in June.
However, there were still a number of opportunities for Gallup to strut his stuff on uptempo rockabilly cuts, like "Bluejean Bop," "Jumps, Giggles and Shouts," and "Jump Back, Honey, Jump Back." With "Be-Bop-a-Lula" a big hit, the Blue Caps hit the road, with Gallup initially in tow. Gallup, however, was already 26 and married, and didn't enjoy touring. He gave in his notice in the fall. Fortunately, Ken Nelson asked Gallup..to come to Nashville for another round of sessions in October, and the guitarist played lead, although he was technically no longer in the band. These sessions produced more than a dozen tracks which rate with Vincent's finest work, although they're relatively undiscovered by the public. "Cruisin'" has a sensational skittering lead, and is a blueprint for the Stray Cats' arrangements; "Cat Man" shows Gallup's ability to leap from aggressive high tones to growling, sinister low ones; and "B-I-Bickey-Bi, Bo-Bo Go," "Five Feet of Lovin'," and "You Better Believe" are all great cuts on which Gallup, Vincent, and the band crackle with rockabilly exuberance. Still, these would be the last Vincent tracks on which Gallup would appear.
As a partial consequence of Gallup's absence, Vincent's own style would veer toward the softer and less exciting after 1956. In addition to his skill as a picker, Gallup..was at the cutting edge of mid-1950s technology. He played his Gretsch guitar..with a Fender Tweed amplifier, and produced the reverb that has come to be associated with much classic rockabilly by using echo units he constructed himself, with parts from old tape recorders. He used a flat pick in conjunction with fingerpicks on his middle and ring fingers, using his little finger to work the vibrato bar. It is amazing that a guitarist of Gallup's phenomenal abilities had not recorded before 1956.
It is also amazing, and disappointing, that Gallup went right into obscurity after 1956; surely he had enough chops and inventiveness to thrive as a session player in Nashville or Los Angeles, had he so chosen. Gallup did say that after he left the Blue Caps, Ken Nelson..had offered him a good contract, but Cliff..turned it down. He did make a solo album for the local Pussy Cat label in Norfolk, Straight Down the Middle, in the mid-1960s. According to the liner notes for Gene Vincent's The Capitol Years '56-'63 box set, this contained "a combination of 'supper club' and 'country music' instrumentals but included a few songs associated with Gene, including 'Be-Bop-A-Lula.' Cliff's style had mellowed by then but was still equally as ingenious."
At the time of his death from a heart attack in 1988, he was the Director of Maintenance and Transportation for his regional school system, although he continued to play guitar on weekends. Gallup's playing, however, influenced numerous subsequent guitarists, particularly Jeff Beck (listen to the Yardbirds' "Jeff's Boogie"), who made an album-length tribute to Gallup in 1993, Crazy Legs.Cliquez sur le logo pour son space !
Dernière édition par le Mar 09 Oct 2007, 02:47, édité 2 fois |
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| | Sujet: Re: REMEMBERING CLIFF GALLUP THE BEST DAM GUITAR PLAYER EVER!!!! Mar 09 Oct 2007, 02:40 | |
| Capturing The Blue Caps' Sound
So You Want To Sound Like Cliff?
by John Aaron 
From my perspective Gene Vincent and the Blue Caps is to Rock and Roll as Charles Lindburg was to flying airplanes. Neither were the first to do what they did, but perhaps both made the most significant contributions to what they did. Without question both were ground breaking pioneers.
The analogy between the two seems to end, however, when we consider that by today's standards the accomplishments of Lindburg is relevant only for historians. The technological advances in aerospace have far surpassed what was achievable in Lindy's day and few lessons remain to be learned. On the other hand, the music created by Gene and the Blue Caps still sounds great and remains relevant even though it is 44 years old. Their music is the archetype of '50s rock and roll and has influenced two generations of musicians. Perhaps most importantly their music established a foundation that can continue to influence future generations.
The purpose of this article is to discuss how today's guitar player can recreate one aspect of the G.V. & Blue Caps' sound - the sounds made by the original Blue Cap guitarist Cliff Gallup. The article has three main points. First, it shares the results of my own attempts to recreate the original effects that were used by Cliff and producer Ken Nelson in the studio recordings. Secondly, it lists resources (i.e. people and equipment) that are available today to help a guitarist achieve Cliff's sound or at least come close. Third, hopefully this article will start a dialogue with others to share and document the methods used by the Blue Caps to achieve their sound. I certainly don't have all of the answers, and it would be great to learn from others. Ideally, this discussion will lead to the preservation of this style of music as an option for those musicians who care to build on it for generations to come.
I don't profess to be a musical expert. Yes, I play guitar, but I'm not a pro. I don't work in a recording studio. As a hobby I enjoy spending time figuring out how to make my guitar(s) sound like those of my favorite musicians of the 1950s. For instance, not long ago I embarked on a project to learn to play the way guitarist Jimmy Bryant played during his early 50s recordings with steel guitar player Speedy West. In that case getting the sound was easy. I simply bought a 52 Telecaster re-issue guitar and a Victoria amplifier (exact remake of a vintage Fender amp) and bingo - the exact sound was there
Getting close to Cliff's sound was more challenging. His sound is deceptively simple. Besides his fabulous playing style the guitar echo is often the most noticeable aspect of his sound. But after some experimentation with several kinds of guitars, amplifiers, and effects devices, I realized that many factors contribute to the sound, and it is not easy to duplicate exactly. However, once one knows what equipment was used and where to get it today, it's pretty simple to come close to Cliff's original sound. The hard part then becomes to play as well as Cliff did. Picture of a 1955 Gretsch Duo-Jet.
All original except pickguard and Bigsby.
The Bigsby is a fixed arm like Cliff Gallup's, but the tailpiece is of the 1959 era  Picture of a 1955 Gretsch Duo-Jet (right) and 2000 Duo-jet re-issue.
The author replaced the original filtertron pickups that came with the re-issue with old DeArmonds made by Rowe Industries in the 1950's.
Be careful when replacing with original DeArmonds as the pickups can be out of phase causing a mushy sound when both pickups are selected.
Reversing the magnets to get rid of the problem is difficult on DeArmonds because the magnets are potted Close up of an original DeArmond, a Melita bridge, and a fixed arm Bigsby vibrato arm.
It is reported that Cliff used the fixed arm Bigsby back in 56.
The fixed arm really changes the way you play because it is always there.
Later styles swivel and can be pushed out of the way.
Cliff turned the potential disadvantage of the fixed arm into an advantage by keeping his little finger on the bar most of the time.
The vibrato plus the slap echo gave some really great effects which helped contribute to the Bluecaps unique sound. The "Plex" tube echo chamber (right) currently offered by Rock Hard Inc.
versus an Echoplex from the early 70s.
This Echoplex uses solid state technology.
The Plex uses vacuum tubes and sounds a bit closer to the true 50s sound.
Also the Plex is modeled after the original Echoplex of the late 50s and early 60s.
Both units use the same Dunlop tapes and sound nearly identical.  The inner workings of tape echo.
It's basically a continuous looped taped and adjustable
heads that gives the delayed echo effect.
The echo signal is then mixed with the undelayed guitar
signal to give the unique effect that was characteristic
of Cliff in the Blue Cap recordings.  DeArmond versus DeArmond versus DeArmond.
Not a very good picture unfortunately,
but it shows an original Rowe DeArmond (top),
a Gretsch re-issue DeArmond (middle) and a Fender re-issue DeArmond (bottom).
From the top all three look alike.
It is evident, however, that Gretsch has made exact duplicates of the originals in construction.  Here is a 62 Gretsch Anniversary that has been hot-rodded a bit.
The original but weak Hi-Lo-tron pickup has been replaced with an original
DeArmond, Also, a Bigsby bridge has been added with an Atkins vibrato arm
La suite... => ICI Click Here => CLIFF GALLUP TABS Source : http://www.rockabillyhall.com/gvCliffGallup.html |
| | | | Elviresheeley
Administrateur
Nombre de messages : 3100
Date de naissance : 29/03/1968
Age : 56
Localisation : Cleveland-USA
emploi : Rockabilly Wife to Supprime-man
Loisirs : Eddie, Gene and my Husband!
Date d'inscription : 18/03/2006
| | Sujet: Re: REMEMBERING CLIFF GALLUP THE BEST DAM GUITAR PLAYER EVER!!!! Mar 09 Oct 2007, 16:58 | |
| ..  Pearly! Super interessant! Great !!!   www.myspace.com/elviresheeley | |
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| | Sujet: Re: REMEMBERING CLIFF GALLUP THE BEST DAM GUITAR PLAYER EVER!!!! Mar 09 Oct 2007, 19:23 | |
| De rien Elvire, je pense aussi que Jolio appréciera ce post ! :lol!: Bisous !  |
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| | Sujet: plombier Ven 25 Juin 2010, 05:55 | |
| s'il avait su little joe aurait fait plombier
la preuve! il aurait certainement tenter en vain de rivaliser avec un genie
little joe |
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| | Sujet: Re: REMEMBERING CLIFF GALLUP THE BEST DAM GUITAR PLAYER EVER!!!! Ven 25 Juin 2010, 12:42 | |
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| | Sujet: gene Ven 25 Juin 2010, 13:33 | |
| juste pour toi gilou (et les autres s'ils le veulent)
gene vincent the be bop a lula kid
gene vincent who we now know as one of the top artists on the music scene today.paid his first visit to the country music disc jockey convention in nashville tennessee a while ago .gene chatted with his old friends and made manynew friends with his tremendous personality
as you well might know gene was one of capitolrecod's proudestand newest display and as was expected the boywonder came through with flying colors everybody there liked gene and the feeling was quitemutual onthe vincent fellow'part
we can all expect to see gene at the nex tyear's convention because this truly fine country style rock n roll artist is a gonna grace the folk music scenefor a good long time to come
voila la prochaine fois on parlera du sherif (tex davis) |
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| | Sujet: Re: REMEMBERING CLIFF GALLUP THE BEST DAM GUITAR PLAYER EVER!!!! Ven 25 Juin 2010, 17:25 | |
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| | Sujet: sherif Ven 25 Juin 2010, 18:25 | |
| geronimo n'habitait pas portsmouth et n'etait pas dj
allez gilou mets nous un bon gegene qui nous fasse jumper avec cliff bien sur
little joe |
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| | Sujet: Re: REMEMBERING CLIFF GALLUP THE BEST DAM GUITAR PLAYER EVER!!!! Ven 25 Juin 2010, 18:44 | |
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| | Sujet: gegene Ven 25 Juin 2010, 19:18 | |
|  tant pis je mets lazy river little joe |
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| | Sujet: Re: REMEMBERING CLIFF GALLUP THE BEST DAM GUITAR PLAYER EVER!!!! Ven 25 Juin 2010, 19:23 | |
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C'est vrai que ca doit etre SUUUUUUUUUPER interessant !!!!! 
.........................................AH ouais !!!!!
.........................................................franchement !!!! tu nous vois en train de foutre nos paluches sur l'ecran de l'ordi pour essayer de lire le texte ??!!! 
C'est CAAAAAAAAA !!!!!!! 
.................................................t'as raison !!!!! 
.......................................... 
je mets la table pour manger !!
a tous !!!!