Do we know for certain that this tele (52?) had five strings? If not theres is the possibility of Keith wanting to use the low E-string on Happy, partial capo on the top five strings.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2011-12-20 10:33 by Redhotcarpet.

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Redhotcarpet
Do we know for certain that this tele (52?) had five strings? If not theres is the possibility of Keith wanting to use the low E-string on Happy, partial capo on the top five strings.

Five strings, and no.

Mathijs

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Redhotcarpet

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Tumblin_Dice_07
The one reason I would completely rule out is that the second capo is a partial.

Right, could be the case here but as you said it doesnt make sense when you now how he plays the songs. Partial is not a farfetched theory. Maybe he used it on that tour?

The idea that the higher position capo was a partial capo... Keith isn't that kind of player at all. I'm not at all partial to that theory.

And as to the notion that the first capo is to deaden sympathetic vibrations of the strings near the headstock... If that were the case, the guitar would be having a problem with or without a capo. That small length of string is not even near the pick-ups anyway. So I'm not sympathetic to that theory either.

The buzz here seems to suggest that the likeliest answer is just for tuning / reinforcement purposes.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 2011-12-20 20:01 by schillid.

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Redhotcarpet

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Tumblin_Dice_07
The one reason I would completely rule out is that the second capo is a partial.

Right, could be the case here but as you said it doesnt make sense when you now how he plays the songs. Partial is not a farfetched theory. Maybe he used it on that tour?

Nah,that guitar was in 5 string open G. He played those songs (TD, Happy, JJF, SFM) in open G with a capo at the 4th fret. In '76 they started doing TD and Happy in Bb (3rd fret capo) sometimes but there's no reason to think he would start using a partial capo on "Happy" or JJF in '78 after playing them basically the same way since '72 and '69 in some cases. Besides that, all the audio and visual evidence confirms that Keith was still bashing out those open G riffs the same way, same as he has continued to do.

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Tumblin_Dice_07

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Redhotcarpet

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Tumblin_Dice_07
The one reason I would completely rule out is that the second capo is a partial.

Right, could be the case here but as you said it doesnt make sense when you now how he plays the songs. Partial is not a farfetched theory. Maybe he used it on that tour?

Nah,that guitar was in 5 string open G. He played those songs (TD, Happy, JJF, SFM) in open G with a capo at the 4th fret. In '76 they started doing TD and Happy in Bb (3rd fret capo) sometimes but there's no reason to think he would start using a partial capo on "Happy" or JJF in '78 after playing them basically the same way since '72 and '69 in some cases. Besides that, all the audio and visual evidence confirms that Keith was still bashing out those open G riffs the same way, same as he has continued to do.

Yes I know that just thinking out loud. Maybe he made up his mind about playing Happy in Bb or B onstage? His voice was really shot in 1978.