Sounds Great!

Last night, I took the Harmony/DeAarmond rig out to Dannys and played a short set of Lightnin' tunes (Baby Please Don't Go, Trouble in Mind, Goin' Down Slow) and the sound was great! The guitar was tuned a half-step down and plugged right into the PA system. We got a clean, loud sound with just a hint of retro overdrive. Hot dog!

Arthur Fowler played a fine set as well, culminating in an amazing acoustic version of Voodoo Child that garnered shrieks from the crowd. Man, he can play!

Ready for Prime Time?

I tested the new setup (Harmony 000 and DeArmond 210) against a Lightnin' Arhoolie CD from the late 1960s, and the sound match was nearly spot on... loud, almost electric sounding, with a hint of overdrive.

I took the setup over to Brian Daw of Daw Violins (www.dawviolins.com), and he was able to lower the action on the Harmony a touch, reglue the bridge (so he could put some heavier strings on it), and he rewired the DeArmond with new cabling and a strap-jack in the body.

The next test will be bringing it out to play in public, which I think I'll do at Danny's tonight.

We Have the Pick Up!

I was able to grab a DeArmond pickup on eBay. I think it's a 210 of the newer ilk (from the late 1960s), based on the lowered B string pole piece (below the plasic cover). It looks like it's been rewired at least once, but quite some time ago.

Last night, I put it in the Harmony guitar and did a quick test, running it through my PA system directly. It has a very nice, meaty and loud sound with a little built-in over drive that sounds nice. I'll need to do some sound tests against a few CDs, but I think we may have close to a good set up.

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.