The Breezin' D'Angelico

[Howard Emerson]

Spent some time at John's shop today, and got a little history lesson about a pair of D'Angelicos.

Here's one that is George Benson's former guitar, the one on the back of the Breezin' album.

[IMG][/IMG]

[upsidedown]

Beauty! It looks brand new!


Bobby Womack wrote it, Gabor Szabo first recorded it, but that Benson version...

[Howard Emerson]

Originally Posted by upsidedown

Beauty! It looks brand new!


Bobby Womack wrote it, Gabor Szabo first recorded it, but that Benson version...

Gabor Szabo.......There's a memory. The guy played a Gibson CF-100 with the built-in P-90 if my memory is half right......but anyway.........John had to replace the neck on the D'Angelico because the headstock had been very badly repaired a couple of times. Here's what it looked like back on the rack in 2008.....

[IMG][/IMG]

HE

[mr. beaumont]

Originally Posted by Howard Emerson

Spent some time at John's shop today, and got a little history lesson about a pair of D'Angelicos.

Here's one that is George Benson's former guitar, the one on the back of the Breezin' album.

[IMG][/IMG]

Very interesting!
Did he know much of the guitar's history after it left George's hands? Looks like at some point the inlays were changed...maybe a whole new fretboard?

[Howard Emerson]

Originally Posted by mr. beaumont

Very interesting!
Did he know much of the guitar's history after it left George's hands? Looks like at some point the inlays were changed...maybe a whole new fretboard?

John reused the fingerboard and headstock overlay that were original to the busted neck.

I’m sure John knows the whole history of it, but if I ask him he’ll spend 25 minutes telling me instead of working on something important:-)

HE

[L50EF15]

Spectacular. I remember when my Dad bought that album, right when “This Masquerade” was hitting the airwaves circa 1976. Nine years later, after I had been playing guitar a couple of years, I copied it onto a cassette, which I proceeded to wear out.

[Sam Sherry]

What a record! Every note in the moment; every moment is perfection.
Recorded in three days: Hit it, get it and go!

That does look like a different fingerboard to me, though FWIW.

[Steve DeRosa]

Originally Posted by Howard Emerson

Gabor Szabo.......There's a memory. The guy played a Gibson CF-100 with the built-in P-90 if my memory is half right...

When I attended the Guitar Summit hosted by George Benson at the Metropolitan Museum (NYC) in 1977, Gabor Szabo was playing a D-45 fitted with a DeArmond soundhole pickup, which TMK he had already been using for a number of years...

Rather than the D'Angelico in your pic (BTW I believe the album cover in fact shows a single-pickup Johnny Smith - I have the sheet music for "This Masquerade," with a full-length shot of George and this guitar on the cover), George used a blonde "lawsuit" Ibanez 2461 (think Johnny Smith D) which, unbeknownst to those in attendance, was serving as the test mule for his endorsement model (still in development at the time): $475 brand-new at the Brooklyn Sam Ash in 1976, and I'm still kicking myself for not buying one...

BTW the other luminaries on the bill were Bucky Pizzarelli and Les Paul - the latter just out of a 15-year retirement, and himself riding the popularity of the first Chester and Lester album (with Chet Atkins)...

Highlight of the evening was all four getting together on "C-Jam Blues" and (arguably) dropping out in order of proficiency: first Szabo, then Pizzarelli, leaving Benson and Paul - the hot young hand and the old gunslinger - swapping licks in what turned out to be a guitaristic duel for the ages...

After an extended lick-for-lick/riff-for-riff matching session George unplugged and walked off the stage - at which point old Les reached into his bag of tricks and ripped off lines that he hadn't even hinted at earlier...

When the smoke cleared he came back on stage, hugged Les, and told the audience:

"That's why there are no big heads among guitarists - as soon as someone thinks he's all that, Les Paul comes out of retirement..."

For the guitarists who made up the bulk of the audience, it was a true once-in-a-lifetime experience - for those who weren't, I'm just sorry that it was never recorded/videotaped for public release...

[upsidedown]

Originally Posted by Steve DeRosa

(BTW I believe the album cover in fact shows a single-pickup Johnny Smith - I have the sheet music for "This Masquerade," with a full-length shot of George and this guitar on the cover)

Sidebar! I recently finished "Leon Russell (The master of space and time's journey through rock n' roll history") by Bill Janovitz. In it, George Benson is quoted saying that if he'd known This Masquerade had been previouly covered and so often, he never would have cut it.

[fpuhan]

Originally Posted by Steve DeRosa

When the smoke cleared he came back on stage, hugged Les, and told the audience:

"That's why there are no big heads among guitarists - as soon as someone thinks he's all that, Les Paul comes out of retirement..."

For the guitarists who made up the bulk of the audience, it was a true once-in-a-lifetime experience - for those who weren't, I'm just sorry that it was never recorded/videotaped for public release...

Oh, man. I hope I get to witness this in the next life!