Tal Farlow

[Fred Archtop]

Dear fellow jazz guitarists,

Just found this picture in the liner notes of a Red Norvo album featuring Tal Farlow.



His guitar is equipped with a CC pick up (see the screws). It looks like a prewar ES 150, but the fingerboard inlays are unusual for this model (blocks instead of dots).

Has anyone ever seen this type of model ? This seems to be another proof that Gibson production process generated a lot of variations during these early years for electric archtops.

Thanks and cheers.

[wintermoon]

ES-250 w/open book inlays.

[Woody Sound]

ES-250 w/open book inlays.

Like this?

Featured Inventory Archives 1999-2012 | Gruhn Guitars

[wintermoon]

yessir

[Fred Archtop]

ES-250 w/open book inlays.

That's brillant ! Of course I know this model, but the guitar looks more like a 16'' wide model in Tal's hands, not 17'' like the ES 250. Until I've realized its Tal Farlow playing and that it is certainly 17'' wide. Tal was tall, that's the trick.

Thanks

[Greentone]

Yep. It looks like young Tal was using an ES-250, just like his hero, Charlie Christian--who moved up to the 250 as soon as it came out.

[pubylakeg]

Something else you might notice, Tal's Es 250 was the guitar that he famously had the neck shortened, and the fingerboard replaced to give him extra frets clear of the body. The point of interest being that he also had the headstock re-shaped as well. The original Gibson ES-250 headstock is a most distinctive design.

Compared with the re-shaped head,

[wintermoon]

knew about the neck shortening and new board.
always thought the headstock looked odd as it's bound, and early 250's w/stairstep headstock were unbound.
but it has binding in both pics pubylakeg posted.

[Greentone]

I like the tone of the 250 in "Darn That Dream." Presumably, it's a Gibson amp, too.

[Cunamara]

From the photos in the Tal Farlow bio that came out a couple years ago, the neck was not actually shortened. The fingerboard was replaced with a shorter scale (by the distance from the nut to the 1st fret) one. The bridge was moved up accordingly. This put the body at the 16th fret instead of the 14th.

[wintermoon]

Some other ES-250 players,

Herb Ellis, Carl Kress, T'Bone Walker had 2 of them, also Jack Hotop of the Joe Mooney quartet

[David B]

You can see Tal playing that guitar here:

[Greentone]

Cunamara is correct. I remember from reading, too, that Farlow changed the scale of his guitar by swapping fretboards and losing the first fret, adding the distance at the other end. This changed the fret/body joint to the 16th fret from the 14th fret. With Farlow's large hands this system gave him access to unbelievable intervals on the fretboard.

This would be easily playable by Farlow on his ES-250:

[lawson-stone]

You can see Tal playing that guitar here:

It doesn't look like Tal's guitar is plugged in.

[Jersey Bill]

T-Bone Walker did not have two ES-250s. The second picture shows T-Bone with a L7 (a later model) or a ES-300 with a Charlie Christian pickup. As most of you know the ES-250 was only made for 2 years and never had split parallelogram inlay.

[Jabberwocky]

[Groyniad]

its the constant forward flow man - it is just the hippest feel available

an effortless and exuberant joining up of one idea with another in a seamless flow

(i think he's heavily influenced by red here)

my god he's good

[destinytot]

[lawson-stone]

Plus, seriously... look at those suits! Remember when jazz players dressed well? Wes Montgomery's white shirt and thin black tie? I mean, these guys look like the Mafia and play like the devil.

It's heaven.

[Groyniad]

its not the clothes so much as the lighting that comes with them - its a very peculiar tobacco-light that only existed between about 1971 and 1982

if you close your eyes you can't see it and all there is the music

[silverfoxx]

Tal , was over here in England around 1983/4 played the Half Moon in Putney (London)
with Pete Morgan on Bass , Allan Ganley on drums. I seem to remember all the
"name" players were there to see and hear his phenomenal skills , his speed
was breathtaking, and his use of harmonics incredulous,. What a musician !!
Glad that I had the opportunity to witness Tal Farlow in action. He laughed a lot
and seemed to me an absolute Gent.

[pilotony]

Excellent guitarist. I had the pleasure of seeing Tal Farlow (solo) in person at "Zinno's", a jazz club in Greenwich Village--now long gone--in the late 80s or early 90s. His amp was built into a bar stool and man oh man could he play. During those years,"Zinno's" featured some of the best players in the New York guitar scene.

[Doctor Jeff]

My God those hands--he could choke a horse with one of them. Great playing!

I thought, boy wouldn't it be great to see Tal trading licks with Bucky Pizzarelli, and thanks to the magic of the internet:

Fun performance--not the cutting contest one might hope for, but entertaining nonetheless.

[mrcee]

It's time for me to tell my Tal Farlow story again.

It was around 1973 and I was in Las Vegas up from LA. I was in my 20s. I was in the Hilton if I remember right at about
midnight. I think BB King and Elvis were headlining. I was just wandering around aimlessly and found my self in a small lounge. There were only a few other patrons besides myself. It was basically empty. Red Norvo and Tal were playing with a drummer. No bass. They looked like it had been a hard day's night and were wearing tuxes with opened collared shirts and ties hanging loose. I don't think the other 2 or 3 customers knew who they were and weren't paying any attention anyway but I did and was watching and listening to them intently. I'm an open minded guy and like free jazz but these guys weren't playing nothin'. The technique was there but no music in the conventional sense. It was totally random like they were all just noodling and warming up individually and hadn't decided what to play. It was just an extension of the tinkling ice cubes. BUT it sounded great. I couldn't keep my eyes off of Tal. It sounded like free arrhythmic lounge music. Even though it sounded great I was a little baffled by the randomness of it all and probably looked like I was thinking "What the F..K is going on here?" I guess Tal was hip to this and he shot me this quick very hard direct look as if to say "Alright Kid! We're busted but don't you go sayin' nothin'!" It was a bit of an epiphany for me and I realized that great musicians are going to sound great even if they're sleepwalking and that the rules for melody, harmony and rhythm were pretty open. Almost 45 years ago and I can remember it like it was yesterday. I'll never forget it. A real eye opener.

[Bill C]

There's a special level of excitement in some of Tal's fast solos which seems to come from him playing right at the edge of his technique as if he's unconcerned about mistakes and non-sequiturs - great stuff!