Dave On Rock

I have told this story before, but have lost it somewhere in my myriad multi-forum posts. One of the most incredible moments of my music/guitar related life, was the opportunity to hear the great man, inventor and former president of Gibson guitars, during the golden era and laterally president of Bigsby, until he retrired, Theodore “Ted” Mc Carty, tell his story and relate some key moments in the history of the Gibson company. The late Les Paul was also at this rather unique event held at the National Museum of American History, held at the Lemelson Center and associated with the Smithsonian Institute in Washington, D.C.

I attended on Saturday November 16, 1996 as I happened to be visiting my sister in Maryland at the time and I was able to take the Metro train to the museum. It was an experience that will live with me always. I met Duke Kramer of Gretsch guitar fame, got his autograph, and attended the presentation by Ted Mc Carty who was fairly advanced in years by that time and what a kind and informative individual he was. He related the story of the designing of the Explorer, Flying V and of course the Les Paul guitars. He and Les were not there at the same time, Les has his own day at the exhibit and I could only attend the one day. There was a large collection of vintage guitars, many courtesy of the late Scott Chinery collection, well he was still alive then! I met Paul Reed Smith, Jol Danzig of Hamer guitars as well.

I got the opportunity to shake the hand of this great inventor and father of the Gibson golden years and thank him personally for all the great guitars and designs he gave to us guitarists and how much they meant tp us musicians. He signed my program in a shaky hand, but managed to do so. I truly felt in the presence of a great man, he was very humble and he was most proud of all his employees that worked with him as he emphasized that he did not do it all by himself. Paul Reed Smith was in rather close attendance to Ted, as he was presenting his ‘Mc Carty’ model guitar at the time.

He mentioned that Les Paul and Gibson’s account of the invention of the Les Paul had slight differences and was very respectful to Les, whom he was good friends with back in those days, even though Les’s ideas were originally turned down by Gibson. Fender’s production of the Broadcaster/Esquire/Telecaster prompted Gibson to move in the solid body direction..

Ted personally invented the wrap around tailpiece that transformed the original 1952 Les Paul Goldtops, almost unplayable neck angle and tailpiece/bridge, into an awesome tone machine and the start of an incredible journey of innovation, that is still unparalleled to this day. My initial impressions of Paul Reed Smith, were that he was certainly very self assured and he specifically took me over to look at a classical guitar in a display case, and said, just put your hand across the bottom bout of the guitar and you have the basis of the shape of the Les Paul guitar. This is so ironic because not many years later the Gibson company took him to court over his single cut guitars and their similarity to Gibson’s Les Paul Juniors and Specials. I must give my impression and opinion of what I observed and to me, I felt personally that PRS was sort of leeching off of Ted and sure the McCarty model is in tribute to Ted and I hope Ted was well compensated for his endorsement of Paul’s guitars, but there is nothing new under the sun these days and that was my impression.

I also met Jol Danzig of Hamer guitars, who I managed to ask the most embarrassing question of that was possible, instead of the story about him dissembling the ex Peter Green/Gary Moore Les Paul, I asked him what was the deal with Steve Stevens and his abrupt leaving from Hamer. I could tell immediately that this was not a pleasant subject for Jol to discuss. He replied and  these are his exact words “I would have coffee any day of the week with Steve….pause…but as far as working with again professionally..again silence.”

I have heard the other side of that story from the man himself, Steve Stevens..but that is for another article.

What a great time I had and shaking this mans hand was like a very moving experience for me. I have shaken hands with Yngwie Malmsteen and the late great Jimmy Smith, all masters of their instruments and a handshake is a powerful thing to me, a connection from days gone past!

But then again I am very sentimental and old school when it comes to music and musicians.

Dave

I did not know Steve personally, but I did know his work and let me say, I have never been as impressed with an aftermarket product as I have been with the parts I purchased for my 1952/1956 Les Paul Goldtop restoration/conversion project, see the story in my blog earlier on.

Steve was a Rembrandt of guitar hardware and a Michelangelo combined, he was an artisan, who was a player who understood great tone for himself and his engineering side, where he used apparently CNC machinery to produce these breathtaking versions of primarily Gibson 1950′s hardware. I can really appreciate a fine piece of machined craftsmanship and the ABR-1 that I have which is made of aluminum, is spectacular in quality function and fit, very important parts of the tone/vibration transfer. Also my light weight aluminum tail piece and steel studs are equally superbly manufactured and fit like a glove.

I have been raving for some time about the quality of Steve’s product and those in the know, particularly those with Gibson Historics, know the extremely poor quality of Gibsons modern interpretations of the ’50′s pieces and the Pigtails are as close to and in cases equal or more consistently better than the originals. That is some achievement let me say.

On the left is a picture of the aluminum ABR-1 Pigtail and right next to it is my hand holding an ABR-1 from an all original 1958 Les Paul Goldtop, I was helping sell at the Great American Guitar Show in Philly 2008.

These are various pictures and documents showing tailpieces, comparing the vintage vrs the Pigtail vrs the Historic tail pieces. Notice how different the Historic hardware is form the Pigtail and how closely the Pigtail resembles the vintage piece.

I believe from what I read in my research, before investing in the Pigtail pieces, that Steve meticulously researched the old hardware and digitally measured it, right sown to casting marks, ect.

For example his tail pieces used for a wraparound bridge, such as on a 1953-1955 Les Pauls intonate so much better than the Historic part, The ridge that the strings c go over has been shown to exactly resemble the vintage piece.

With extreme condolences to Steve’s family it is my express hope that someone will continue the tradition of these parts. Steve was primarily a one man operation as far as I know and that is always the hardest scenario to continue.

To those of us that love vintage Les Paul’s and those who GAS over Historics, the loss of Steve is a tragedy on so many levels. I understand that he had a love of vintage aircraft as well.

Something I have always said and I have willingly promoted Steve’s fine product to others looking to upgrade the tone of  their Gibson’s be they vintage or Historic, is that if I had , say a 1959 Les Paul Sunburst and wanted to change out the bridge and or tail piece, I would use Pigtail components without hesitation as these fine products are as good as or better than the original as they are more consistent, due to the modern method of construction, the high quality of metals and playing used.

On the right side of the page is my 1952/56 conversion with Steve’s hardware in place. The aluminum ABR-1 really wakes up the tone of the Gold Top and as my luthier had to slightly spray thicker lacquer die to the original configuration of the guitar, where in the conversion to TOM from the original 1952 tailpiece, the bridge was sunk into the body rather than resetting the neck angle.

Since my guitar had to be re-necked due to it arriving with a severe headstock break, necessitating the use of a old wood neck blank, which was set at the correct 1956 style angle for TOM and stop tailpiece, see my Story of My Gold Top, contained in this blog!

I love this guitar and I am honored to have  Pigtail pieces fitted and will think of Steve when I play the guitar as I do of the late John Zeidler, when I play either of my two Gary Moore Heritages, as John reworked those for me as well. God bless you Steve and thanks from every guitarist for your brilliant contribution to helping is nail that perfect tone. His hardware is practically built to military specifications, it is that superior.

You will be missed.  Dave