It's maybe worth adding that Shubb [who make the capos Keith uses] are posisbly the only folks making a Capo to correctly match a Fender vintage 7 inch fret board radius.
Doesn't remove the requirement to fine tune when you fit...but it allows all the strings to ring cleanly without using excessive clamping force.
Standard radius Capos will work with a vintage radius board... but you have to fiddle with them a lot more to get them correctly seated and playing in tune.



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 2008-07-11 09:57 by Spud.

I agree about the Schubb capos, but...

[who make the capos Keith uses] ..."in recent years" should be added.

In earlier days he used Wittner, Jim Dunlop and others.

...and sounded out of tune as often as not.
Those old tubular capos secured with an elastic strap require loads of fiddling to retune as there's no fine adjustment of tension. Same with the Dunlop Capos...it's either this notch, too slack, ..or that notch, too tight ;^)



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2008-07-10 16:00 by Spud.

hehe - also true.
I was thinking of mentioning that aswell.
It seems the search for the holy grail of capos ended with the Schubb.

I wsih Schubb made a capo that could fit on the upper reaches of the fret of my Les Paul. The neck is like a baseball bat and none of the 3 different Schubbs I have will fit!

Exactly how far up are you wanting to position it ? Is it because you're gertting almost to the heal ?



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2008-07-11 10:03 by Spud.

[she smiled sweetly:] do you gentlemen want me to open an "iorrians' capos" thread for you?
i will be glad to, and i'll even hang a nice photo or two in it. :E

edit: following the posts below ... okay - go ahead, light up the town: [www.iorr.org]



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 2008-07-11 20:42 by with sssoul.

I think we can pass on that one.

But thanks for the kind offer.

Now a thread about plectrums would be cool ;^)

I think that was a gentle nudge to try and keep on topic as it really makes these instru-informative threads easier to navigate.

LOL,
Yes I think we'd noticed that. ;^)

Quote
Spud
Exactly how far up are you wanting to position it ? Is it because you're getting almost to the heal ?

The lovely Ms Sssoul is correct. We should stay on topic. But to answer the question I was trying to capo at the 7th fret (near the heel would be way too high up the neck!) and the Shubbs don't fit beyond the 5th fret. I'll just have to use a Fender <sigh>

That's one fat neck !

It is indeed. The Les Paul's neck profile became thinner in 1959 and even more so in 1960. Before that they tended to be a bit on the thick side. Still, it's one hell of a guitar!

>> Keith had a closed relationship with Taylor prior the latter was hired by the Stones? <<

i've never heard of a close relationship between them; Mick T simply bought Keith's LP.
apparently it was Stu who actually did the transaction with him.

Quote
with sssoul
>> Keith had a closed relationship with Taylor prior the latter was hired by the Stones? <<

i've never heard of a close relationship between them; Mick T simply bought Keith's LP.
apparently it was Stu who actually did the transaction with him.

I believe that Taylor has stated that he'd only run into Jagger one time before he actually auditioned.

Mathijs

I use a Kyser. It works on any guitar I've ever played. I used to have the shitty kind, the Dunlop Elastic Heavy Single - a piece of shit if there ever was one. I've seen pictures of Keith using one. Always surprised me. But then again, he does like to play through a Fender Twin, a shit amp if there ever was one for Fender. Their worst amp ever.

Quote
skipstone
a Fender Twin, a shit amp if there ever was one for Fender. Their worst amp ever.

Why is that?

Mathijs

here's the thread for discussing your own capos: [www.iorr.org]
enjoy it! and now back to our regularly scheduled thread about Keith's Les Pauls ...
please and thank you kindly

I remembered this pic taken around 1970 and I believe the Burst pictured on top is the same one pictured below, which is from the Hard Rock Cafe Museum in Florida. Though its hard to see, you can just make out the figuring above the bridge pickup and behind and below the bridge between the control knobs. Aside from the pickup covers, it looks to be the same guitar but I believe it was actually used by Mick Taylor and not Keith Richards during the '70-72 tours but I don't have any more clear photos of it to verify my statement. Thoughts and more pics anyone?

I believe it is from 1970 or 1971 as well because Keith Richards didn't use one without a bigsby until after the 1969 United States tour and he also used a second Dan Armstrong during that era also.

htttp://www.last.fm/user/rocknrollcola

Not that it indicates anything...but that LP in the Hard Rock Cafe picture has the screw holes indicating that a Bigsby has been fitted at some point.
[One hole just front right of the "stop tail" and one just back left of it]

I noticed that as well Spud but in the older pic it's hard to tell if the guitar had a Bigsby fitted at one time. I seem to recall Mick Taylor saying in his 1979 Guitar Player mag interview that early on in his Stones tenure he had a Bigsby equipped Les Paul and removed it. I'll have to look and see if I still have it but I do believe these two guitars are one in the same.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2008-07-31 21:38 by ChrisM.

Quote
Mathijs

Quote
skipstone
a Fender Twin, a shit amp if there ever was one for Fender. Their worst amp ever.

Why is that?

Mathijs

Off topic I know but I'm curious as well. To my mind it is one of the best amps, at least in its first few years of production, that Fender, or anyone else, has ever made. Why do you dislike the Fender Twin so much skipstone?

Firsty, which Twins are we talking about.
Do we mean 50s spec high and low powered Tweed Twins ? , 60s Black Face Twins ? Silver Face Twins ? ,Rivera era twins, later Red Knob & "Evil" Twins ? or....

Some of the above are verydifferent amps which will appeal to different folks. The old Tweed twins like Keith uses these days have luscious warm clean sounds and gnarly compressed distortion when overdriven.

The classic 60's Black Face Twin Reverbs are famed for that huge scooped and bell like clean sound with a shimmering top end...and for remaining clean at very loud levels. Some folks hate these because they don't distort...but that's not because it's a bad amp.

Horses for courses... and a matter of taste and requirements.

Most folks think the late 60's Silver Face models represented a decline in quality [largely justified] and didn't like some of the design changes.[these can be easily modded to Black face spec if that's your wish and there are still a few bargains to be had].
Later model "Twins" with master volume and other more complex circuitry are perceived by many to have let the baby out with the bath water and to have lost the vital quality of tone that we expect from a good Fender amp.

You could discuss the relative merits of various Fender Twin amps for days [and this is not the time or place]... but I'd challenge anybody to dislike all of them ;^)



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2008-08-01 10:21 by Spud.

To get back on topic, and without reading back through the whole thread, approximatly how many Les Pauls do we know to passed through Keith's and MT's hands down years ? It's evident that one has often been confused with another.

I always thought Keith used two gibson les paul standards with bigsby vibratos. I know of so many les pauls Keith has used. Mick has used four standards in the Rolling Stones and one custom in the Rolling Stones.

htttp://www.last.fm/user/rocknrollcola

From top of my head, the LP's so far (until '90 that is, the rest I don't care about so much):

Keith: two three-pickup customs from '66 to 71. A '54 Custom in '72 and '73. A '54 Goldtop in '72. The "Taylor" Bigsby Burst in '64/'65. The "claw" burst in '72. A '52 Goldtop in '75. A Special in '78, a Junior from '73 to date.

Taylor: Keith's Bigsby Burst 'from 67 to 71, a '59 standard from '68 to early 80's, the "claw" burst from ~'71 to early 80's, and a dark burst on the '73 winter tour, probably rented.

Mathijs

>> Keith ... A '54 Goldtop in '72 ... A '52 Goldtop in '75 <<

the 52 goldtop he had in 75 is the one he acquired in the mid-60s?

>> a Junior from '73 to date <<

finetuning: a dark cherry doublecutaway Junior from 73 to 78, a TV yellow one from 79 to the present,
and at least two singlecutaway Juniors, at least one of which was around in 79 and 81.
but if i understand the question right i think it's the standard LPs he's asking about.

speaking of standard LPs ... i am so sorry i don't have a scanner!
i just got (finally!) a copy of David Dalton's 1972 book called just Rolling Stones
(subtitled an unauthorized biography in words, photographs and music ) and on page 58
there's a photo identified as a Dominique Tarle shot of the Stones' first Paris show (october 20th 1964).
it's not very clear, but ... [peering hard] ... that's the 59 sunburst LP Keith's got there, isn't it?!
if i'm not hallucinating, that would be the first time i've seen a shot of it from before the second US tour -
just three days before, but still! it would fit right in with the story that Keith bought it at Selmer's, not in the US.

if someone out there who has the same book and a scanner and the good will to scan and post the shot
that would be very very cool and i would be most grateful. and/or if any of our Guitar Connoisseurs who own the book
could have a look and tell me what you think ... it sure does appear to be a single-cutaway model, so it ain't the Epiphone!

smile: the book was supposed to be my bedtime reading last night, but when i saw that shot
i got so excited i couldn't sleep. blame it on the Stones :E