Its no mystery that as the King of Rock n Roll, Elvis is one of the most intriguing and fascinating things about the Rockabilly era and I just love Elvis trivia.
I could happily hold a lecture on the most unknown things about Elvis Presley's life as a musician. and I plan to someday. But i'm just going to keep this as short as possible and specific to what I want to cover.
Elvis' impeccable taste in vintage guitars.
The Ballad of the Gibson EBS 1250 & Elvis Presley
I know what you're thinking. "Eh, haven't you like, written about this like, before like, a million years ago? duh?" (well, if your internal monologue is a 14 year old Wisconsin girl from 1998) and yes, I have written about vintage guitars before, and you can read that article right here.
Last time though, my urge to write said article was centred around my fascination with the Gibson EB-1 but now I've got something even more exciting and wacky to share. For the sake of climax though, like all good writers i'm going to save that bit until last and start with Elvis' Olympic White Fender Precision Bass and get progressively more 'out there'.
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| Elvis playing his Fender Precision Bass at home in Graceland |
Everyone following so far? Good.
Buddy Holly was instrumental and often horrendously underrated as a musical arranger for constructing what we all know and love as the standard rock band setup. A Vocalist, who is also playing rhythm guitar. a Lead guitarist, a Drummer and a Bass player. It's so common and so simple that no one stops to think "So, someone actually labored away in a studio and thought this one size fits all arrangement up? He must have been some kind of genius" and he was; he started a trend that caught on so well a lot of airheads don't know where it came from anymore.
But i've gotten side tracked. The Point i'm making is, Buddy Holly played with the Crickets, the bass player of said band, the fantastic Joe Mauldin played an upright bass.
Somewhere along the line, Elvis Presley hit mainstream success and began to experiment with his other band members and further developed the template set by Buddy Holly. The most significant of which is Bill Black's decision to start playing an electric solid body Bass Guitar in 1957, 6 years after the instrument had been invented.
Now, at which point it comes to an interesting question.
Who's decision was this to ultimately replace upright Basses in commercial rock music?
1962 Precision Bass in action. The same model as the one owned by Elvis,
just finished in Blonde instead of Olympic White
Bill Black was well respected by Elvis, his decision would have been openly embraced by Elvis even if it was outside the widely accepted norm. Which would make it fair to assume, the reason bass guitar is the standard low end in any rock band is because of the influence of Bill Black.
However, Elvis was a performance visionary and it's often overlooked. This here, is a man who had the nerve to popularize black urban music in a time where a white majority wanted nothing to do with black people. He also invented pole dancing.
Elvis was a leading man and called all the shots in his band, and given that he had a 1956 Precision bass delivered to his house for Bill Black to use on his record, and at a later stage owned his own Olympic white Sid Vicious style Precision bass (Yes, Elvis was a massive Pistols fan. you heard it first here.) and had an impeccable taste in often radical and unusual guitars. I also think it's noteably fair to assume the decision was that of the King's himself.
Either way, one of if not both of these men are the reason I don't have to carry a gigantic violin on my back to and from college for which I am eternally grateful.
Burns are one of my favourite guitar manufacturers these days, they're amazing in their own right, yet aren't as widely popular as Gibson or Fender. Which I really don't understand, perhaps American commercial giants just simply tend to do the whole commercialism thing significantly better than anyone else. I think if I were to buy myself a new 6 string guitar in the Gibson/Fender price range, it'd be Burns Cobra or Gretsch Double Jet.
Someone do me a favor and check back here in a few years and let me know if I've bought either guitars I just said I would.
Burns are a London based early Rockabilly/Spaghetti western style guitar manufacturer, a lot of their models such as the Double Six have been made famous by the likes of Hank Marvin and the Shadows.
Also, the pickups on Brian May's red special are Burns Trisonic pickups, I do believe he originally wired his own but Burns pickups were a little more desirable.
I first heard of Burns as a brand through Ian Hanmore (Yes, the actor) I interviewed him a few years ago now, and we ended up chatting endlessly about Bass Guitar because we're both Bass players and that's what we Bass players do. For the record, Ian plays a Burns Barracuda bass VI; an unusual Burns version of a Fender Bass VI which is effectively a longer scaled 6 string guitar that is tuned an octave lower so it's in bass register, which is strung by custom tape wound strings that i'm told are self consciously expensive. For an example of the Barracuda, click here, I'm not going to talk about it much because that's tangenting off in a strange and dangerous place I like to call early 70's London.
This is how the Burns Double six sounds in action.
Note the Trisonic Pickups are the same mentioned above.
At this point in the article I now want to formally introduce you to my new favourite thing; The Gibson Custom Shop EBS 1250 "Double Bass".
Somewhere along the line, Elvis Presley hit mainstream success and began to experiment with his other band members and further developed the template set by Buddy Holly. The most significant of which is Bill Black's decision to start playing an electric solid body Bass Guitar in 1957, 6 years after the instrument had been invented.
Now, at which point it comes to an interesting question.
Who's decision was this to ultimately replace upright Basses in commercial rock music?
just finished in Blonde instead of Olympic White
Bill Black was well respected by Elvis, his decision would have been openly embraced by Elvis even if it was outside the widely accepted norm. Which would make it fair to assume, the reason bass guitar is the standard low end in any rock band is because of the influence of Bill Black.
However, Elvis was a performance visionary and it's often overlooked. This here, is a man who had the nerve to popularize black urban music in a time where a white majority wanted nothing to do with black people. He also invented pole dancing.
Elvis was a leading man and called all the shots in his band, and given that he had a 1956 Precision bass delivered to his house for Bill Black to use on his record, and at a later stage owned his own Olympic white Sid Vicious style Precision bass (Yes, Elvis was a massive Pistols fan. you heard it first here.) and had an impeccable taste in often radical and unusual guitars. I also think it's noteably fair to assume the decision was that of the King's himself.
Either way, one of if not both of these men are the reason I don't have to carry a gigantic violin on my back to and from college for which I am eternally grateful.
I felt that important to note. Next up, Anyone here a fan of Burns guitars?
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| Elvis' Burns Double Six 12 string electric guitar |
Someone do me a favor and check back here in a few years and let me know if I've bought either guitars I just said I would.
Burns are a London based early Rockabilly/Spaghetti western style guitar manufacturer, a lot of their models such as the Double Six have been made famous by the likes of Hank Marvin and the Shadows.
Also, the pickups on Brian May's red special are Burns Trisonic pickups, I do believe he originally wired his own but Burns pickups were a little more desirable.
I first heard of Burns as a brand through Ian Hanmore (Yes, the actor) I interviewed him a few years ago now, and we ended up chatting endlessly about Bass Guitar because we're both Bass players and that's what we Bass players do. For the record, Ian plays a Burns Barracuda bass VI; an unusual Burns version of a Fender Bass VI which is effectively a longer scaled 6 string guitar that is tuned an octave lower so it's in bass register, which is strung by custom tape wound strings that i'm told are self consciously expensive. For an example of the Barracuda, click here, I'm not going to talk about it much because that's tangenting off in a strange and dangerous place I like to call early 70's London.
Note the Trisonic Pickups are the same mentioned above.
Elvis played a Burns Double Six in the 1966 movie 'Spinout' in which he plays the part of a Racing driver and plays an array of flashy and wacky looking guitars and a song that teaches you how to safely cross the road.
See, dodgy movies like this are probably the reason his genius is often overlooked.
The Burns Double Six was one of Elvis' own finds for the movie, having become acquainted with the shadows since the late 50s but prior to the making of 'Spinout' the colonel located an even more jaw dropping find. He had a knack for that.
See, dodgy movies like this are probably the reason his genius is often overlooked.
The Burns Double Six was one of Elvis' own finds for the movie, having become acquainted with the shadows since the late 50s but prior to the making of 'Spinout' the colonel located an even more jaw dropping find. He had a knack for that.
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| Elvis and his 1965 Gibson EBS 1250 |
In the 60s, Gibson and Fender dove to excessive measures to try and outdo eachother, one of the things Gibson did was try and expand the possibility of potential uses of a solid body electric guitar, and somewhere along the way, They started experimenting with making siamese or double neck guitars. I'm not sure if double necks was his idea originally, it very possibly could have been, but the genius behind the EBS 1250 was a virtual unknown from Indiana called Jim Ramage.
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| The Original Jim Ramage EBS 1250 "Double Bass" |
in 1964, as a musical experiment, Ramage, who worked for/with Gibson had this monstrosity made for whatever reason we may never know. One of the main reasons a lot of people, myself included find this piece of guitar music history so intriguing is there are very few sources of information on this bass or of Jim Ramage
Being the first of very few made before the custom model was discontinued, the Ramage Double bass is possibly the most expensive of the lot, retailing at 15, 478.99 euro from Chicago Music exchange.
Being the first of very few made before the custom model was discontinued, the Ramage Double bass is possibly the most expensive of the lot, retailing at 15, 478.99 euro from Chicago Music exchange.
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| It's got Free Delivery though, so everyone's a winner at the end of the day |
In '65, Jim Ramage's obscurity starts to become dangerously interesting: The Colonel, Elvis' own manager of all people somehow became aware of the existence of Ramage, a complete unknown, and his Gibson Double Bass and asked for one to be made for Elvis for 'Spinout'. Taking this on board, Ramage designed an even more special design, because how often as a Luthier do you get to design an original Guitar, based on your own for Elvis Fucking Presley? (Elvis' real middle name is actually Aaron).
The New EBS 1250 Ramage built had a 6 string guitar neck and a six string 'Bass VI' style neck.
Judging from the fact that in his lifetime, Elvis bought the Gibson custom after the movie, which was the only solid body electric guitar Elvis owned in his lifetime, it's safe to assume he loved it.
"There was a period of time
when Elvis used to play that red double neck at Graceland a lot. He would sit
on the arm of the couch in what is now known as the Jungle Room, which we
referred to as the Den, and play. Usually Red (West) would play another guitar
along with him. Sometimes it would be plugged in but most time's it wouldn't
be. He loved the line,"Goin' Up,Goin' down," in "Baby What You
Want Me To Do."
- Marty Lacker, Memphis Mafia
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| The EBS 1250 owned by Elvis currently resides in the museum part of Graceland. |
How could you not? It's effectively all you could possibly need, and here are the videos to prove it:
Chicago Music Exchange Demo of the Original Jim Ramage Bass.
Fretted Americana Demo of a later version of the EBS 1250 made in (the Summer of) '69
(Yes, I went there.)
I wonder if Jim knew at the time of creating the EBS 1250 that he had created a Grunge/Metal/Ambient/Shoegaze/one-man-band instrument. The range of the instrument is notably bizarrely vast, which can be seen from how the same instrument is played by two completely different musicians with completely different inspiration, backgrounds and playing styles. Not even bearing in mind it's got two necks.
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It's a seriously useful feature, I don't know why It isn't a thing. I will definitely do some more research on this for future articles.
To bring this article to a close, enjoy this Blues gem from 'King Creole'.
Until Next time.
To bring this article to a close, enjoy this Blues gem from 'King Creole'.
Until Next time.
