Kenny Burrell's Guitars

[jads57]

I will say most Heritage Archtops Eagles,etc with carved tops and backs tend to be on the thinner side. As opposed to say Gibson Johnny Smith or L-5C.
Funny thing is these are some of the same old guys who were making the Gibson in the late 1960’s

[Rickco]

My golden eagle has the exact same specs as my friends and and several others including one on carters site early '60s gibson JS ('63 to be exact) body dimension and identical weight 6.3 lbs. The only difference is the neck length and of course shape. So if the heritage was carved "thinner" seems like it would weigh less? (there was a great shot of the 2 compared in a recent post). They dont play or sound the same but Im pretty sure it has nothing to do with carve thickness, and they both feedback at about the same volume with their floaters turned on. I liked the sound of whatever he was playing in Midnight Blue but Ill bet whichever was just as prone to feedback given the right (wrong) conditions. Mounted pickups help damp a top but that has more to do with other factors than just top thickness. My 175 came to me because the seller couldnt deal with the feedback he was getting, I think there's a lot more to consider than just top thickness when it comes to hollow body response. This discussion began about why KB lowered the low E screw which I dont think had anything to do with the top carve of that guitar. But Id bet someone (like Ren) at Heritage would know.

[Herbie]

Do the thickness of the carved tops vary, or is it same from the f-hole to f-hole?

If it is the same thru the top – like I suppose is the case with the laminate tops like ES-175 – You can measure it and investigate if the feedback depends on it.

[Hammertone]

Do the thickness of the carved tops vary, or is it same from the f-hole to f-hole?
If it is the same thru the top – like I suppose is the case with the laminate tops like ES-175 – You can measure it and investigate if the feedback depends on it.

Carved tops typically vary significantly in their thickness in different areas of the plate.

[andrew]

The modern (Bandlab era) Eagle Classics are carved/braced quite heavily. More so than most L-5CES'. Many of them are in excess of 8 pounds.

[jads57]

Models that have mounted pickups definitely have heavier tops to accommodate the added hardware. I also read somewhere Wes Montgomery L-5CES had a plywood back to reduce feedback.

[blkjazz]

I went to see Kenny Burrell at Yoshi's in Oakland about 5 years ago. As I was walking to the club, there was Kenny carrying two guitars walking ahead of me. He would take about 10 steps, put the guitars down and rest for a minute then pick up the two guitars and do another 10 steps (Keep in mind this is an 80 year old guy carrying two guitars to a gig!). When I caught up to him, I introduced myself and offered to help carry a guitar. He smiled, thanked me and told me that when the day comes that he can't carry his own guitars to the gig, it will be time to retire. He played great that night. KB doesn't play a lot of notes, but he plays the right ones.

The older I get, the more I like Kenny Burrell's Jazz guitar playing. I liked his muscular phrasing the first time I heard him, but as a young man, his economy of notes failed to impress me as much as a few other players. It took me years to become mature enough to understand that the cats who dazzle with lots of notes do so because what KB does is beyond their skill set.

KB's tone with his D'Angelico New Yorker (listen to the album he did with John Coltrane) is as good as it gets. His tone with his Super 400's is pretty damn good as well. The Heritage KB model is a good guitar, but it is not as good as the Super 400 IMO.

May we all still be here and playing our guitars at 86 years of age. Go KB! You are an inspiration to us all.

The first song I learned for a gig was Chitlins Con Carne. Kenny Burrell was a god to me and my biggest influence. While visiting the Bay Area back in the 1973, I saw him at the El Matador. He was kind enough to spend his break at our table. I'm paraphrasing and condensing the conversation, but he told me that night that it made more musical sense to play 50 notes with feel and soul than 500 for the sake of playing 500 notes. That stuck with me. I have strived to follow his advice. Some years later I had the opportunity to meet him again in my city. Same advice.