Finding Charlie Christian's guitar

[2bornot2bop]

While researching ES-250's I stumbled upon this link...an interesting read about an ES-250 shipped to Charlie Christian just years before his passing

Finding Charlie Christian’s Guitar: Lynn Wheelwright Interview | Jas Obrecht Music Archive

[2bornot2bop]

[Fred Archtop]

Thanks 2bop,

Daniel Slaman has done an incredible work for re-inventing Charlie's ES 250 with his "Charlie Christian Commemorative series".

http://www.newvintageguitars.com/the-making-of....html

Cheers.

[fws6]

Am I the only one that never beleived that story ?

it is the same guitar except it has a different FON ... ?

[2bornot2bop]

Am I the only one that never beleived that story ?

it is the same guitar except it has a different FON ... ?

If you've information that refutes the story I'd welcome it!

[artdecade]

If you've information that refutes the story I'd welcome it!

The simple fact that it has a different FON seems like more than enough information to refute it.

[2bornot2bop]

The simple fact that it has a different FON seems like more than enough information to refute it.

Hasn't the author been approached with this suggestion? What has he said?

There were so few of these guitars produced, it's great simply to see 1 of them. Shame though that it's not being played!

[artdecade]

There were so few of these guitars produced, it's great simply to see 1 of them. Shame though that it's not being played!

Honestly, the fact that is not being played is the biggest tragedy of all.

[2bornot2bop]

It's only a guitar. The man who played it doesn't get the respect due him...even here, of all places!

it's Pat Metheny this, Kurt Rosenwinkel that...Well, I shouldn't complain...I was born at a time when giants of jazz guitar were still GIANTS.

[skykomishone]

2B,

My earliest jazz guitar listening included Charlie Christian. That's many moons ago Bro! Thanks for the post.

Cheers!

[2bornot2bop]

2B,

My earliest jazz guitar listening included Charlie Christian. That's many moons ago Bro! Thanks for the post.

Cheers!

I know you did! We're cut from the same Spruce!

[artdecade]

It's only a guitar. The man who played it doesn't get the respect due him...even here, of all places!

Or Eddie Lang... or George Van Eps... or Allan Reuss...

[TH]

Or Eddie Lang... or George Van Eps... or Allan Reuss...

Or Billy Bean, or Tiny Grimes, or Lawrence Lucie, or Harry Leahy or George Barnes... Who remembers those great players?
Hell when I was growing up, Fred Flintstone was my neighbor and it's not well known but he had a twin brother who was a true pioneer of early pre-historic jazz guitar. He played a Gibstone L-5. Back then we had to play strings made from Pteradactyl gut. Talk about heavy gauge.
So take THAT you whippersnappers!

David

[artdecade]

I think Fred Flintstone's brother was playing a Gibstone L-4...

[TH]

I think Fred Flintstone's brother was playing a Gibstone L-4...

Right you are! Silly me, they hadn't even invented the concept of 5 back then. Good job On the fact checking, artdecade.
It took about 8 years to carve stone tops. Another 3 to tap tune it. Introducing the L5 would've been production suicide.
David

[Brian B]

Hasn't the author been approached with this suggestion? What has he said?

There were so few of these guitars produced, it's great simply to see 1 of them. Shame though that it's not being played!

Honestly, the fact that is not being played is the biggest tragedy of all.

I found this ironic, in a way;

Have you ever been tempted to sell the Christian guitar?
Not for a minute. It is an important part of my museum exhibit and I try to keep it loaned out so the public can enjoy it. I would hate for it to be stuck away in some dark hole like that crate at the end of Raiders of the Lost Ark.

So....keeping it unplayed, in a glass case is completely different how?
I'm not saying it should be available to any or all to riff away on like a 13 year old at Guitar Center, but....

[2bornot2bop]

Hey whatever. People respect what they choose to. Without a past there's no future. We've gone from superb hifi, to boom boxes, to kids who think listening to the worst digital through their iPhone is music.

[sgcim]

On the cover of the Rene Thomas Guitar Groove LP it says, "The guitar that Rene Thomas is holding on the photograph on the cover of this album...is one of perhaps no more than five of its model remaining in use anywhere in the world. It is the same model as was used by Charlie Christian..."
It goes on to say that RT spent ten years searching the world for it. The photo only shows the headstock of the guitar which is black, and you can barely make out what might be 'Gibson' etched very lightly on top.
Are they talking about a 250 or 150?

[mr. beaumont]

On the cover of the Rene Thomas Guitar Groove LP it says, "The guitar that Rene Thomas is holding on the photograph on the cover of this album...is one of perhaps no more than five of its model remaining in use anywhere in the world. It is the same model as was used by Charlie Christian..."
It goes on to say that RT spent ten years searching the world for it. The photo only shows the headstock of the guitar which is black, and you can barely make out what might be 'Gibson' etched very lightly on top.
Are they talking about a 250 or 150?

I've seen Rene pictured with a 150. I have one of those "Jazz in Paris" records, on the Gitanes label...I'll see if I can dig it out...he's sitting on a car roof, playing the 150. Super cool photo.

EDIT: Not that picture, but here he is with a 150.



Great player. I think Jimmy Raney was a little taken aback by how similar he sounded to him when he first heard Rene, but hey, if you're going to copy, copy from somebody like Jimmy! Rene was a lot more than just a Jimmy clone, though.

[wintermoon]

On the cover of the Rene Thomas Guitar Groove LP it says, "The guitar that Rene Thomas is holding on the photograph on the cover of this album...is one of perhaps no more than five of its model remaining in use anywhere in the world. It is the same model as was used by Charlie Christian..."
It goes on to say that RT spent ten years searching the world for it. The photo only shows the headstock of the guitar which is black, and you can barely make out what might be 'Gibson' etched very lightly on top.
Are they talking about a 250 or 150?

yeah, I have that lp and laughed when I read the text. it's absolutely a 150.
he probably did have a hard time finding an ES-150 in Europe though.
Jimmy Gourley had one as well.

[sgcim]

yeah, I have that lp and laughed when I read the text. it's absolutely a 150.
he probably did have a hard time finding an ES-150 in Europe though.
Jimmy Gourley had one as well.

Yeah, liner notes had a way of dramatizing stuff about music and musicians. Probably half of what I know about jazz musicians is just BS that I got from reading liner notes!
RT was in the US for a couple of years according to these liner notes, so maybe they weren't that easy to find, but only five?
Gourley and RT sterted out as Raney imitators, so it would stand to reason that they all had 150s.
Raney told me that his 150 was stolen out of the trunk of his car when he lived in Jamaica, Queens.