Tal Farlow 1986 audio interview - 44 mins - archive premiere!

[Jazzgtr335]

[Jazzgtr335]

Includes interview photographs of Tal sitting on a couch playing his Gibson Prototype - taken in Manchester by, and included with kind permission of, Dave Gould, a member of this forum. Thanks Dave!

[davegould]

A couple more pics from the same night:

[nevershouldhavesoldit]

Does anybody know why there are 3 pan head screws in the top of that guitar? They don’t look like they’re in the right places to be from a CC, since there are 2 behind the bridge and one just behind the neck pickup. They’d be the wrong screws for anything unless they’re just filling holes or are lag screws holding wood against the undersurface. I’d guess that there was a P90 there, but the screw looks too close to the midline. The second one could be under the guard, I suppose. But the screws behind the bridge are certainly not from a second P90.

The guard is also cut for another pickup just behind that humbucker. I seem to recall seeing one of the greats with a third pickup screwed to the top in that location alongside a set pickup - but I don’t remember who it was.

[daveg]

The screws behind the bridge are there as an aid to correct placement of the bridge after string change or cleaning.
Tal put a third pu just behind the neck pu which was fed directly into an effects pedal. He also had a stool with a built in amp and effects etc.
DG

[nevershouldhavesoldit]

The screws behind the bridge are there as an aid to correct placement of the bridge after string change or cleaning.

Yet the bridge base isn’t touching them, so they don’t provide positive location. That seems like an odd and inefficient way to do this. Most of us use tape.

Tal put a third pu just behind the neck pu which was fed directly into an effects pedal. He also had a stool with a built in amp and effects etc.
DG

Thanks! I knew I remembered that someone had that 3rd pickup screwed on. Was it on that guitar?

[nevershouldhavesoldit]

I knew I remembered that someone had that 3rd pickup screwed on. Was it on that guitar?

Yes it was. I found an old interview that I’d saved, in which he says that he put the extra pickup on two of the prototypes to drive the octave divider he used.

[sgosnell]

Yet the bridge base isn’t touching them, so they don’t provide positive location. That seems like an odd and inefficient way to do this. Most of us use tape.

Close enough, I guess. You wouldn't want the screws tight against the bridge, because it might need to be moved to intonate for different strings. The small gap is enough to get the bridge pretty close to start, and then it's easy to tweak its position for good intonation. Screws have never been necessary for me, and I agree that tape is better in that it's removable and can thus be placed up against the bridge, but if you're installing different strings you'll still have to adjust the bridge for intonation. I generally just eyeball it to start.

[Cunamara]

The screws in the top just reinforce for me the notion that, for players of Tal's era and talent, the guitar is a tool. Not a collector's item or an investment. That attitude is much more prevalent among us amateurs (in the positive rather than pejorative sense of the word- we own and play guitars for the love of them and the love of music).

[sgosnell]

Amateur comes from the Latin word for love. Amateurs do what they do for the love of doing it, supposedly. That's certainly why I play guitar, not for fiscal profit.

[Cunamara]

There are not a lot of people who get to play jazz for much profit.