We Have the First Piece of the Puzzle!

The first piece of the experiment has been secured! While “on camera” Lightnin’ would play a Gibson, there are reports that he also played a Harmony guitar during a number of recording sessions. While vintage Gibson guitars are out of my reach (too cashy!), Harmony guitars from the period are much more affordable (and probably not as collectable).

After trying with a number of auctions, I finally nabbed a vintage 000-sized Harmony acoustic. It may need a little work, but the price makes it a great guitar to experiment on. I should receive it in a few days, so I’ll keep you posted.

DeArmond Pickup

It looks like one of the types of pickups that was certainly in use by Lightnin' in the early and mid 1960s was a DeArmond sound hole pickup. They have a very distinctive look and can be plainly seen in a number of Lightnin' photos as well as some filmed performances.

There is some great info on this pickup over at LittleBrotherBlues.com.

From several sources, it seems like some of Lightnin's recordings and performances featured him plugging this pickup directly into the PA system, rather than into an amplifier.

I've done some checking and several of these pickups can be found on eBay. I'm bidding on one now, so we'll see if I can nab it.

Which Sound is the Goal?

Lightnin’ Hopkins was the most recorded of all of the “classic era” blues artists, and his volume of work showcases a myriad of sounds. The Blues Masters CD, one of the best starting points for an appreciation of Lightnin’s music, features remastered recordings from a number of sources. Listen to the CD and you’ll hear his guitar sounding like an electric on one track, a clean acoustic on another and a very tinny, treble-heavy old guitar on another.

Obviously the variation comes from the different acoustics Lightnin’ used, plus different electronics as well as a variety of amplifying approaches and studio set ups. So what is the sound we are after on our quest?

Gibson J-50?

Doing a little image searching, the guitar Lightnin' uses on a number of performances in the Vestapol DVD appears to be a Gibson J-50. Doing a little more digging, I see that it could also be a J-45 as well. Both sported the funky pickguard you can see here and both were in use in the mid 1960s.

Lightnin's guitars (at least the ones we can see on DVDs and images from recording sessions) had sound-hole pickups during the 1960s. The Gibson in the DVD looks to have a single coil pickup mounted with a chrome mounting saddle.

Which Guitar?

A quick scan of the Lightnin' Hopkins images on the web shows a variety of guitars (most of which are hard to ID). On a Vestapol "Rare Performances" DVD, Lightnin' plays a Gibson acoustic guitar (not sure which model--I'll do some digging). From some preliminary research I've done, it seems like he might not have been all to particular about either the guitar or the tuning, at times playing a rented guitar or one provided to him by the studio.

So a key question to answer: Which guitar can emulate the Lightnin' sound?

A Quest!

During the last few weeks, Charlie Hayes (my guitar instructor) and I have been studying some of the mid-60s recordings of Lightnin' Hopkins. We always wrestle with getting the tuning on our guitars right (usually a half-step, more or less, down) so we can decode the sound.

But Lightnin' has some very unique sounds coming out of his amplified acoustic guitar. Charlie suggested that I do some research to see if we can determine what types of guitars he played, as well as what sort of electronics he used--to see if we could try to create an instrument that sounds close to his mid-60s sound. Just what I love...a Quest!