Roy and Gate

[mudshark]

 

[Willie G. Moseley]

1. That's a definitive example of how Roy Clark, sporting a smile on his face, could absolutely destroy anyone onstage.

2. That whole concert was a hoot when it first came out. Gate and Roy got into a music-backed conversation about ugly women that wasn't polite but it was hilarious.

3. And Gate got away with spitting out "son of a bitch" onstage in a unique way....

[Hackubus]

That was awesome.  What's Roy playing there? ES350? Byrdland?

[cynic]

Thanks for posting this!

I remember seeing that as a kid when it first aired and have looked around for it on the web from time to time.  I finally saw it a couple years back but it's always great to see.  I knew Roy Clark from Hee-Haw but this was my introduction to Gatemouth.  

[mudshark]

 

 

gate and roy.avif

[mudshark]

3 hours ago, Hackubus said:

That was awesome.  What's Roy playing there? ES350? Byrdland?

I don't know; Willie probably would.
Edit to add -- I would guess an L-5.

Edited April 27, 2024 by mudshark

[mudshark]

 

[Willie G. Moseley]

It's got the flower pot/torch headstock, block fret markers and loopy tailpiece of an L-5CES. If the truss rod cover says Custom maybe that's on accounta gold hardware and some kind of alternative pickups, from what I can tell.

Keep in mind Clark is flatpicking that stuff. Jeezus.

[hamerican gigolo]

Roy & Gate were masters of their respective genres. On the surface, their pairing shouldn't work, but it does so in spades... 😀

[cynic]

16 hours ago, Hackubus said:

That was awesome.  What's Roy playing there? ES350? Byrdland?

Byrdland.  Lots of similarities with the L5 but the wire tailpiece and 22 frets with markers at the 15/17/19 positions are Byrdland where the L5 had a more robust tailpiece, no marker at the 19th position and had only 20 frets.

The ES350T was short scale like the Byrdland but didn't have the flower pot headstock inlay and had the very cool split inlays on the fretboard (but again, the 19th was left bare).

Edited April 27, 2024 by cynic

[velorush]

1 hour ago, cynic said:

Byrdland.  Lots of similarities with the L5 but the wire tailpiece and 22 frets with markers at the 15/17/19 positions are Byrdland where the L5 had a more robust tailpiece, no marker at the 19th position and had only 20 frets.

The ES350T was short scale like the Byrdland but didn't have the flower pot headstock inlay and had the very cool split inlays on the fretboard (but again, the 19th was left bare).

There's also the Norlin reintroduction of the ES-350 (1977-81). Exactly the same other than it was 25 1/2" scale.

Norlin:

Original (short scale):

Best way for me to tell the difference is the distance between the pickups.  The Byrdland and early ES-350 look squished to me.

[/geekery]

The only reason this is rattling around in my brain was ages ago reading about Chuck Berry's early guitars (P-90 ES-350 among them), looking it up in the Gruhn's guide and finding it weird it was issued twice, exactly the same except for scale (17" lower bout, neck joint at the 14th fret, tubular "W" tailpiece with ES-350T on an oval, electronics layout...)

#waymorethanyouwantedtoknow

[Biz Prof]

Those of us that grew up pre-interwebs but witnessed guys like Roy, Chet, Glen, and Jerry Reed play on TV were really lucky. Roy and Jerry, in particular, made guitar wizardry not only look cool, but fun and wacky, too.  

While he's not the only one, Paul Gilbert is one of the rare modern players who combines incredible playing skill with comedic appeal. 

Edited April 28, 2024 by Biz Prof

[shankyboy]

I have this album. It's pretty much a ham fest but it's fun to listen to. 

[velorush]

There's a great archived VG interview of Roy by our own @Willie G. Moseley here.