Ed Bickert's sound

[PeteMid]

Hi everyone, I've got a thing going with Telecasters and the many sounds they can produce - so re the jazz sound I've heard old clips where the Tele very obviously has the tone rolled right off and even with the amp distorting the sound was still great for swing - so my take on it is work the controls until you get something you can use - I'm using the tone on about 5 or 7 and the volume down to about 8 or 9 on my Strat neck pickup, into a 65 Princeton with treble on 3.5 and bass on 2.5, reverb on 2.5 - the sound is quite usable for jazz and I'm pretty sure the rest is down to the players delivery

[Fusionshred]

You can only get that tone with a Fisher-Price guitar.

[PeteMid]

More like a Gibson Super 400 ;-)

[DaveCurrie]

I'm new to Ed Bickertt, just heard his name mentioned as a great jazz telecaster player, so I watched a video and came here to see what kind of humbucker he used, and why. I figured it was a PAF, and that he used it because of the fatter/warmer sound, and that especially applies to the plain strings - later went to using an unwound 3rd string (maybe after getting the PAF)?

[mr. beaumont]

I think he switched to the humbucker mostly to deal with buzz at clubs with dirty power.

[Cunamara]

Easier to get even string balance, too. From everything I've read about Ed written by people who knew him, he was an immensely practical, no frills kind of person. Somewhere there is a wonderful story of Ed being taken out to dinner to celebrate something or another in his career; he perused the fine dining menu and asked the waiter if he could get a tuna sandwich and a side salad.

[sgcim]

Easier to get even string balance, too. From everything I've read about Ed written by people who knew him, he was an immensely practical, no frills kind of person. Somewhere there is a wonderful story of Ed being taken out to dinner to celebrate something or another in his career; he perused the fine dining menu and asked the waiter if he could get a tuna sandwich and a side salad.

I think around here, we've got to get to the subject of the Tele disturbing Ed's mind. Look what it did to Danny Gatton and Roy Buchanan....

[Cunamara]

Hmmm... I have two Telecasters.... hmmm...

Bill Frisell seems to be surviving OK, though.

[Mick-7]

"I think around here, we've got to get to the subject of the Tele disturbing Ed's mind."

It wasn't the Tele (although I guess you're joking), his wife of many years died, which led to his decline.

[44lombard]

... Somewhere there is a wonderful story of Ed being taken out to dinner to celebrate something or another in his career; he perused the fine dining menu and asked the waiter if he could get a tuna sandwich and a side salad.

That story is from Steve Wallace's excellent remembrance of Ed just after Ed passed. The same piece also includes a great story about Ed in the studio with a distortion pedal. I think the distortion pedal story illustrates Ed's relationship with gear quite nicely, and echoes other stories about Ed absolutely not being a gearhead:

https://wallacebass.com/so-long-ed-a-remembrance/

Wallace's blog posts on Ed are some of the best writing there is on Ed, imho. Here are the other two I'm aware of:

https://wallacebass.com/thanks-and-one-more-ed-story-for-the-road/

https://wallacebass.com/flyin-blind-with-mr-ed-at-the-ok-corral/

[sgcim]

"I think around here, we've got to get to the subject of the Tele disturbing Ed's mind."

It wasn't the Tele (although I guess you're joking), his wife of many years died, which led to his decline.

So you're telling me the book I've been working on for the last 20 years ("Teles-The Destructive Element") has just been a waste of time?

[Datsyuk]

Lorne has to be one of the least recognized / appreciated jazz musicians ever. Enjoy!

Ed Bickert/Lorne Lofsky Quartet - Album by Ed Bickert - Apple Music

[P.J.]

I use a gutted Roland Cube as a cabinet with a V30 in it. Looks terrible but sounds great.

[JDubs]

I have 2 teles, a 52 reissue and a luthier made with Fralins. The reissue gets nowhere near the Bickert tone. The luthier gets closer especially through an AER amp (not a fender). It still does not have that chime like tone he got out of the high E and B strings with the single coil neck pickup. Not sure what he did or had to get that, never heard it from any one else and he lost that particular sound with the humbuckers. Funny to read he thought those strings too weak.

[Cunamara]

Ed’s was a ‘65. He used a Standel amp for years, as I understand it. Later the Cube 60 and finally an Evans.

[Cunamara]

"I think around here, we've got to get to the subject of the Tele disturbing Ed's mind."

It wasn't the Tele (although I guess you're joking), his wife of many years died, which led to his decline.

And drinking too heavily, falling and breaking both arms (I’ve heard while cleaning the gutters on his house) and ultimately cancer. But his wife’s death seemed to have been the worst of it.

There is a set of interviews with Ed conducted by his son on Vimeo. Gives you a glimpse into the man.

[nevershouldhavesoldit]

It still does not have that chime like tone he got out of the high E and B strings with the single coil neck pickup. Not sure what he did or had to get that, never heard it from any one else and he lost that particular sound with the humbuckers.

IIRC, he agreed with you. He went to a DiMarzio humbucker in the late ‘70s but thought it sounded too dull. So he had his luthier switch it to a Gibson PU, which was brighter. I assume that he was happy enough with the benefits of a humbucker to live with the loss of brightness compared to to SC - he stuck with it for the rest of his life.