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In the same (Library Of Congress) interview I quoted above JH says Miles wanted him for what became 'Miles In The Sky', JH thought the time spent in the studio/merv griffin show wasn't good preparation & recommended Benson, who got the gig. (& didn't do much with it...) (Sorry George)
Originally Posted by mr. beaumont
Off topic 1. The opening track on Undercurrent - My Funny Valentine, was the first thing they played in the studio to set recording levels, no rehearsal/discussion, after that worked they just kept playing, taking it it turns to suggest tunes...(Bill Evans interviewed by Charles Fox for BBC Radio 3 197? - got a tape of it somewhere...)
Off topic 2. Jim Hall said several times that he developed his legato style, & particularly his habit of playing entire phrases on only one string to blend his sound with Jimmy Giuffre's....
Off topic 3. Am now going to listen to Undercurrent & Intermodulation, if you've got any sense you'll do the same.
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09-08-2017 07:38 AM
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Not really slots in the wood bridge, but the bridge is scored to provide equal string spacing. Originally Posted by Alter
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
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Following this thread and ruminating on the genius that was Jim Hall makes me giddy with gratitude and awe at the diversity of creative expression we have available for our listening pleasure. Like a kid on Christmas morning, I can hardly believe my great good fortune: I get to listen to Jim Hall today? And then I get to listen to Wes? Get outta here! Soooo glad I got to meet him, if only once.
Watch this and see if you feel the same way sometimes about our musical heroes:
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I'm surprised it stayed on that guitar. One of Jim's many cool trademarks was his use of open strings while comping and soloing; St. Thomas comes immediately to mind, but there are countless other examples. I would think that thing would stop the open strings from ringing. Probably why it wasn't used on his other guitars. Originally Posted by docbop
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Yes, these are wonderful photographs of such an iconic guitar as this. I have an interesting story you guys may enjoy. In 1977 when I was a kid growing up in Manhasset, a town on Long Island, I was taking lessons in the adjacent town of Great Neck. My teacher was Joe Monk. He was a wonderful guy who I really enjoyed learning from and talking to. You can learn from him too - Welcome to the Joe Monk Web Site! Master Jazz Guitarist Teacher, Long Island, NY. - Joe told me stories about seeing Charlie Parker around town during the late 40's and early 50's when he was a kid getting his feet wet. He had a 1949 ES 175 that was just gorgeous. He was visually shocked to see that I had a virtually identical guitar that I used for the lessons. Now this guitar, a 1950 ES 175 (both Joe's and mine had single P90's) was acquired by a friend of mine a few years earlier on W. 48th Street in Manhattan. This is a story unto itself. Bob had worked for quite some time (painting) to put together the $400 for his jazz guitar. He had been using a 1971 SG Standard up until the big day. We were Long Island boys so Manhattan scared us to death. Bob put the envelope with the $400 into his underwear and actually taped it down somehow. We were taking the train into town and we had to make it from Penn Station to W. 48th Street alive, you see. We had no use for Manny's or the other stores on the street. We headed straight for We Buy Guitars. On the way there, we passed Stuyvesant Music which was diagonally across the street. There it was! The guitar was hanging in the window. We went on to We Buy but they didn't have anything that rang Bob's chimes. He headed back to Stuyvesant for the ES175 and the guitar cost every bit of that $400. It was beautiful. By the way, this is the very same Stuyvesant Music where The Edge of U2 acquired his Explorer under the very same circumstances. He had to travel a little further, however. Anyway, we got the guitar home and Bob was off to Berklee for two years. He dropped out and sold the guitar to me for the very same $400. He wouldn't take a penny less. Here is the issue. Bob was kind of a trifling guy. He did silly stuff. One thing he did was stuff his books for class on top of the guitar and mash the case lid closed. This was a very nice, very strong Lifton hardshell case. So, doing this kind of thing loosened the dove joint over time. It was slight but it was there. The high E string was right on the edge and the binding was coming off. The thing is, the guitar still played and sounded great. I didn't want to touch it if I didn't have to but it was getting worse. Now back to Great Neck and Joe Monk. I noticed that Joe's ES175 had a beautiful gleaming black fingerboard with enormous abalone block inlays and thick binding. He told me that he had had the work done by Jimmy D'Aquisto, as Jim Hall had done and that I should take mine to him as well. I was ready and very excited because I loved the way Joe's guitar looked, felt and played. The idea that I could have this for myself was too good to be true. I made the appointment. Jimmy was in an industrial park in Farmingdale at the time. It was a quick hop on the LIE to 110 and not too far from there. I took the guitar to Jimmy and he laid out the repair for me. The neck would be reset and the fingerboard would be replaced with an ebony slab with binding. I could forgo the inlays to save money, if I wanted. I went for the inlays. I wanted exactly what you see in the photographs of Jim Hall's guitar and I didn't care about extra cost. Okay, get this......the price for the dovetail repair, removal and replacement of the fingerboard with binding and abalone block inlays was $325. Oh yeah, I could do that because I already knew what I was going to get. Jimmy told me the work would take 2 weeks. I could hardly wait. Well, remember what I wrote about being too good to be true? Yeah, 2 weeks came and went. I received a call at one point that there would be an additional charge of $10 for a bone nut. Uh oh! I started getting nervous..... You know what? I am going to break off the story right here while I try to locate the original ticket for the job. This was signed on the back by Jimmy. If y'all want to hear the rest of the story, let me know. Thanks!
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quite a first post jg!!! welcome aboard..know all the locations, hung around 48th st for decades...extra resonance...good stuff
cheers
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If memory serves me Jim Hall had at least some work done on one of his guitars by Tom Doyle in N.J. One day Bob Devos was there when Jim was picking up his guitar and he asked Bob to play it so he could hear what it sounded like with someone else playing it.
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Jimmysguitar, or as neatomic has christened you, jg, that plus your Zoller post - wonderful. You should write a book. Seriously. Just as you write here. Like Kerouac. Fascinating stuff.
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Well, so, let's hear the rest of it!
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Cool guitar, nice bump of this old thread (I don't mind that).
Made me look closer to the pictures and I noticed the top of Jim's old guitar has collapsed terribly, it's almost flat. Probably to the point it can't be repaired anymore. I suspect broken top braces left unrepaired and now the top is severely deformed. A real shame :-(
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I saw him playing several times when he hung the strap over the top there, and binding and lacquer had worn away. This was on his D'Aquisto, and he sometimes draped the strap over the lower bout and wore away the binding there too. I observed this close up, close enough to touch the guitar. My other remarks to this effect have been discounted because there're no pictures of this, but I know what I saw. Originally Posted by 55bar
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Do you mean while the guitar was on a stand, or maybe in its case? Surely not possible while he was playing it. Originally Posted by Joe Phillips
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Greetings everyone. I am still trying to locate my receipt that Jimmy used for the work on my guitar. It's here somewhere. In the meantime, this article came in today. It seems well known that Jimmy had difficulties. I had no idea you could order an Excel from Jimmy for such a price at the time of my repairs. Wow!! I always wondered what kind of money Jim Hall paid for his. Anyway, here is the article. - Vintage Guitar - December 2018 - Open - Enjoy!
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But $2k in 1975 is equivalent to $9,681 in 2019 according to this calculator. Inflation Calculator
BTW, you might know but Jim Hall told in an interview that he was given the Avant-Garde from Jimmy D'aquisto and he thought it was too much for a gift and gave it back. Then JD insisted it was for him and kept it. Finally JH was accepted it and paid him for $1.5k. I can imagine they had such a great friendship and respect each other.
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As a kid, I watched the Griffin Show expressly because of the musicians in the band. Ray Brown used to play bass (on the show in the Herb Ellis years. I believe Red Mitchell played bass during the Jim Hall years). Jim Hall played guitar, then gave the seat to Herb Ellis, IIRC. Seeing those guys playing ES-175s really put the bug in me to get a sunburst, single-pickup (P90) ES-175.
It took me a decade to find the single-pickup, vintage 175 that I wanted--although this one had a humbucker in it. I played that guitar as my main instrument for over 30 years.
Hall, Ellis, Pass, Raney and others really figured things out when they settled in on the ES-175.
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