We are proud to have taken in our latest arrival. The Delta Charleston is a 12 fret wood bodied single cone resonator guitar, Handbuilt by John Alderson in Leicestershire. Has to be played to be believed.......... A new favourite of ours from the excellent Delta Guitars
Currently in store at £1795 w/case.
Call us on 0115 913 9141
Or email sales@theguitarspot.com for more details.......
We have alreadysold 2 of our most recent delivery of Gordon Smith Guitars. We now have 2 GS1's left (more on the way) see our online shop or call us on 0115 9139141 for details.
As Nottingham's only Gordon Smith dealer, we feel a responsibility to bring more of these fantastic guitars in . They are not yet on our online shop , but are available in store.
We have a GS1 with a single P90 and gloss front £543.00
A GS1 with a single coil tapped Humbucker £485.00
And finally a GS2 with 2 coil tapped humbuckers in natural at £567.00
We are proud to have blues rock guitarist Gwyn Ashton endorsing our Elmore guitar slide. We also now have a thinner walled version available for those who want a lighter slide.
It has been some time since my last music related post. Mel Brown was somone I meant to mention a while back...............
In a time when alot of peoples focus in blues seems to be on the guitar itself, rather than the music , here is a reminder that you also need style , not flash , style. Some of my favourite guitar playing from a man who understood about such matters. He almost has the minimalism and style of a jazz player like Kenny Burrell , but on top of that he has that really raw T Bone Walker or Lowell Fulson thing going on........
The second clip features Mel Brown with Snooky Pryor. Just goes to show that when blues is played well it needs no bells and whistles, different chord changes or stupid names..........
After a change in the way they are distributed , Gordon Smith guitars have been in shorter supply than in the past. The good news is we have two new models in stock.....
Firstly we have a Gordon Smith GS1.5 in cherrry red. It has a coil tapped humbucker in the bridge and a single coil in the neck. It is available from our online shop £564.00 delivered to mainland UK.
Being as just showing people a picture of a slide is a bit useless, here is a video of our slide being demo'd . It is a steel Elmore , being played on a Pete Woodman single cone resonator guitar, tuned to open g.
I am also available to teach slide guitar. I charge £20 per hour for one to one lessons in my shop or £25.00 per hour to travel (Nottingham, Derby, Leicestershire area). I will also consider travel to other UK areas for appropriate travel costs. Contact james@theguitarspot.com for more details. Equally the Elmore Slide is available from our website www.theguitarspot.com
For many years we at The Guitar Spot have been purveyors of quality items related to slide guitar . Ever been in need of a really good glass slide ?- we are stockists for Diamond Bottlenecks , we always carry a selection from their range.
However for a long while now there has been something bothering me. Often my small father would find me sobbing over my resonator guitar , why ?- beacause of the lack of commercially available high quality metal slides. Most steel slides that you buy in shops are just thin pieces of tube , producing not particularly good thin sound. The thicker and heavier the slide you have , the better sound you have. So we have started making our own. The Elmore slide is bored from solid steel rod , which gives good weight, wall thickness and most importantly tone.
These slides are hand finished and exclusive to ourselves and our friends at Diamond Bottlenecks. When we previewed the Elmore at the first British Slide Guitar Festival , the reaction was great. Its not the cheapest slide on the market but we believe we are producing the best steel slide available at the moment. The slide is available instore or online for £35.00.
Ocasionally the Blues World of Jimmy Wiggins like to do a few infomercial type affairs on the behalf of Nottingham's finest purveyor of quality new and rare second hand instruments , and Black books style customer service The Guitar Spot !
We are proud to now be stocking Peerless Guitars !!!. These fine instruments are made in the Korean factory that made guitars for Gretsch and some of the higher quality parts of the Epiphone range.
Endorsees include Big Jim Sullivan and Richard Sullivan ......
Currently we have several models on order... but in the shop, and on the website to tempt you we have the Peerless Songbird. Yours for £495.00 with hard case.
I played it through a small valve amp and it put me in mind of
Now I know hes using humbuckers in this clip, but earlier on in his career he used a Gibson 330 with p90's .
So anyway just buy the Peerless and I will stop having to do adverts like this...........
Ever wanted to pretend you were in the Beatles ?- No ?, good neither did I. But if you like that kind of thing from that era why not snag yourself a Vox Conqueror. Vox's first attempt at solid state and allegedly used by the Fab Four on the Sgt Pepper album, and the promo video for Hello , goodbye.
We have recenty had this amp worked on by our amp tech, its mainly in original condition, all the opamps are original . The cabinte has one original vox 12" speaker and one marshall. For full details contact us at sales@theguitarspot.com or visit us at www.theguitarspot.com .
The amp sounds great and has wonderful reverb and tremolo , for about three seconds I thought I was John fogerty or Slim Harpo. All this could be yours for £950.00
At first glance the above statement may seem odd, is it a mantra by which I live my life?, no its not as important as that ........
As a longtime devotee of the blues there is always seems to be a point where someone brings up the argument can white people play blues. Personally I think the answer is anyone can play it, but here's the thing- all the blues I really like is 50's black music or things that sound like it. To me it is the benchmark by which you judge your own playing (would Otis Rush have played this ???). So the situation for me is a little confusing..........
There are still those who believe that no-one can play the blues like the early black players as we have not suffered the hardship of those people. Not a view I agree with , but I see its validity, maybe the music was the only way of escape from harsh reality ( after all its not all doom and gloom and crying into your beer , that's why God created Country music!).
So for any of those white middle class aspiring blues musicians, what do you do. Well if you want any kudos the answer is be Jewish! (also rich and tragic... but we'll come to that in a bit).
Two under sung favourites of mine, Michael Bloomfield and Hollywood Fats, were rich Jewish kids !!. This didn't stop them gaining the respect of all their black contemporaries ( Bloomfield as a teenager in the 50's sat in with Howlin Wolf and Muddy Waters, Hollywood Fats got his nickname from Buddy Guy). Unfortunately both are now dead due to personal demons and substance problems- Bloomfield was found dead in his car in 1981 aged 37. Hes was suspected to have overdosed on synthetic heroin, but there are many rumours surrounding the circumstances. Hollywood Fats died of a heroin overdose in 1986 he was 32.
So there you have it two tragic greats of the blues, rich Jewish kids who wanted the funkier side of life ..
All this talk of race and blues reminds me of two statements . When playing golf with Dean Martin , Sammy Davis Jr was asked by Martin what his handicap was, to which he replied " I'm a one eyed Jewish Nigger". (He really did say this).
Or on a more serious note from Miles Davis ( He was middle class and his father was a dentist)-
"I don?t care if a dude is purple with green breath as long as he can swing."
Another guy to check out, especially his 50's stuff is Clarence Gatemouth Brown. A really great guitarist and bandleader . Apparentley a bit of a gruff guy , but whats that matter when you can do this
When people ask me , as they occasionally do, why I got into blues music and which guitar players I like , I really tend to struggle to answer and give a list of about 20 or 30 and then keep thinking of more after the event . If I had to put it down to one person I always say Hubert Sumlin !. His work with Howlin Wolf did and still does blow my mind , see below for him talking to Chicago blues guitarist Dave Specter
Having decided there weren't enough quality blues based blogs about , sometime Guitar Spot owner and half of popular Nottingham duo Moules and Wiggins has decided to start his own !
Stay tuned or logged in or whatever for more updates
