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Eric Clapton's Firebird I folder:

vintage58

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Apr 13, 2003
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3,958
Which 'burst is he using in that lip-synced Beat Club footage of them doing "I Feel Free"? Is that the Summers 'Burst?
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rabbit

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Apr 24, 2005
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Crazy expressive tone, the best I've heard on record. I thought for decades it was the Firebird... it's on the back cover of the Live album so I stared intently at the album jacket photo while listening as a teenager believing I was hearing a Firebird... but Sleepy Time is the Fool SG.

I totally agree. I've always thought it was the very best tone of all --- SO powerful and sweet. I did exactly the same thing when I was a teenager, too. How well I remember sitting on the couch looking at that cover every time I listened to the album on our console stereo, thinking all those years and many more beyond that I was hearing that Firebird Clapton was playing on the cover. Then I finally found out not too terribly long ago that it was indeed the Fool SG.
 

rlan52

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May 2, 2008
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I totally agree. I've always thought it was the very best tone of all --- SO powerful and sweet. I did exactly the same thing when I was a teenager, too. How well I remember sitting on the couch looking at that cover every time I listened to the album on our console stereo, thinking all those years and many more beyond that I was hearing that Firebird Clapton was playing on the cover. Then I finally found out not too terribly long ago that it was indeed the Fool SG.

I think most of us love that tone but in the studio, back in those years, I think the amplifier played just as important a part in the sound as the guitar. I recall reading that many of the English guitar players in the 60's used small Princeton or Champ type of amps...
 

talpa

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Apr 30, 2005
Messages
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Crazy expressive tone, the best I've heard on record. I thought for decades it was the Firebird... it's on the back cover of the Live album so I stared intently at the album jacket photo while listening as a teenager believing I was hearing a Firebird... but Sleepy Time is the Fool SG.

yeah that's no FB - the Fool had something going on didn't it ?...that Grande Ballroom show is all Fool, and their best recorded performance imho.

Spoonful is my fav. studio cut (mostly due to the JTM45/100) - isn't that the LP ?

LP + KT66 = gracias
 

rabbit

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Yes, that is a Les Paul, but not Clapton's. He said in an interview in 1985 that he borrowed a Les Paul for Fresh Cream because the famous one he had played with Mayall had been stolen by that time ( during rehearsals for Cream. )
 

The Shifter

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And 5 years later...

Do you think Clapton is playing his FB on the recording of Badge? The solo in particular.
 

1242

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Feb 22, 2016
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And 5 years later...

Do you think Clapton is playing his FB on the recording of Badge? The solo in particular.

I have wondered that myself. The live tracks are (to my ears) without a shadow of a doubt the Firebird, although I know that some say it's an ES guitar, and, whilst I totally disagree, I respect their opinion, because I was not there on the night. But I have also thought about the studio tracks. I thought I had read that he used the 335, but the tone of the guitar on all three songs makes me wonder.
 

fakejake

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Are there anay current pictures or recordings of that guitar?
I assume it is still in ECs posession?

Gibson should really reissue a regular CS or CC version. The success of the Bonamassa Epi FB1s shows that there is a demand.
 

1242

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Feb 22, 2016
Messages
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Are there anay current pictures or recordings of that guitar?
I assume it is still in ECs posession?

Gibson should really reissue a regular CS or CC version. The success of the Bonamassa Epi FB1s shows that there is a demand.

I think the general consensus is that he gave/traded/sold it to Stephen Stills. There is a pic on the net of a FBI with the initials EC under the guard and it's claimed to be 'the' FB, but it's not, and if you look closely you can see holes from a vibrola removal, which of course EC's never had.

I agree about a CS reissue. I think they could only do a CC if they could get their hands on the original. The JB Epiphone FBs are great guitars. I had a strum on one at Anderton's in Guildford and also on one of the CC cherry FB IIIs, which was also a nice guitar.
 

The Shifter

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I feel like J45 would know the answer RE: Badge, but I don't know if he posts here anymore.
 

1242

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I feel like J45 would know the answer RE: Badge, but I don't know if he posts here anymore.

Here's a cover (guitar parts only) that I made in Garageband with a Firebird this weekend. Annoyingly, I can't get any closer to the epic swirling bridge riff (despite hours spent experimenting with various amp/cab/pedal combinations) but the rest is sort-of in the ball park (I think). Sadly, I don't have a 335 to do a comparison.

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/XI_jeGKQi3k" frameborder="0" allow="autoplay; encrypted-media" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
 

The Shifter

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Annoyingly, I can't get any closer to the epic swirling bridge riff (despite hours spent experimenting with various amp/cab/pedal combinations) but the rest is sort-of in the ball park (I think).

You know the bridge is a guitar through a Leslie cab, right?
 

1242

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Feb 22, 2016
Messages
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You know the bridge is a guitar through a Leslie cab, right?

Thanks, yes. I did it in Garageband, Apple's computer simulator, and used one of their 'Leslie' pedal effects. If anyone knows a setting that gets significantly closer I'd be grateful to hear. I just can't imagine being able to get close to the record without a real amp and an actual Leslie cab. I'd really love to be proved wrong, though.
 

K_L

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Sep 11, 2014
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That was really awesome!!!

Here's a cover (guitar parts only) that I made in Garageband with a Firebird this weekend. Annoyingly, I can't get any closer to the epic swirling bridge riff (despite hours spent experimenting with various amp/cab/pedal combinations) but the rest is sort-of in the ball park (I think). Sadly, I don't have a 335 to do a comparison.

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/XI_jeGKQi3k" frameborder="0" allow="autoplay; encrypted-media" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
 

tooold

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I just can't imagine being able to get close to the record without a real amp and an actual Leslie cab.

It's not a failure of your imagination, or of your technique. Reproducing the sound of an actual Leslie (not to mention the actual Leslie they used for that song, on that day, in that studio) is one thing that plug-ins have (so far) failed to do.
 

Bruce R

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Mar 2, 2007
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I am very pleased, at least playing live, with my older Hughes & Kettner Rotoshpere. The drive control on it really gets that "cranked Leslie" sound, like a Jon Lord or Goldy McJohn. That true "Badge" Harrison tone is tough is tough to nail, indeed.
 

Bruce R

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Eric Clapton's Firebird Bridge

Although I have read many of the posts on this thread, which now is over a hundred, I have not read them all. I am most curious about the bridge on EC's Firebird. In the 60's Gibson's "lightning bolt" wraparound tailpiece was compensated for a wound G string, not the plain string used by the rock players of the late 60's and now, of course. From every photo I have seen to date EC appears to have been using the stock tailpiece of the FB1. His intonation on the live recordings, and when I saw him at the Forum in '68, sounded spot-on. Does anyone out there have any knowledge as to whether or not the tailpiece was modified or not? Am I the only one that has wondered about this? I owned an FB1 for a few years and am quite familiar with them. Thanks!
 

1242

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Feb 22, 2016
Messages
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Re: Eric Clapton's Firebird Bridge

Although I have read many of the posts on this thread, which now is over a hundred, I have not read them all. I am most curious about the bridge on EC's Firebird. In the 60's Gibson's "lightning bolt" wraparound tailpiece was compensated for a wound G string, not the plain string used by the rock players of the late 60's and now, of course. From every photo I have seen to date EC appears to have been using the stock tailpiece of the FB1. His intonation on the live recordings, and when I saw him at the Forum in '68, sounded spot-on. Does anyone out there have any knowledge as to whether or not the tailpiece was modified or not? Am I the only one that has wondered about this? I owned an FB1 for a few years and am quite familiar with them. Thanks!


I have tons of pics of EC with the Firebird, but, unfortunately, none of the clearer ones show the tailpiece. As you say, the intonation always sounded spot-on, but unless the tp was modified it actually can't have been: the G must have been off a touch, but presumably not enough to be heard when playing.

I am very interested (and envious!) to hear that you were at the Forum. A few questions spring to mind, if I may... Can you remember whether you were at the first or the second night, the 18th or 19th of October? I think the 19th was the one from which the three live Goodbye tracks originated. And do you recall if he played the Firebird all night or if he switched guitars at all? There have been countless debates as to which guitar is heard on those live tracks on the record. To me, all three tracks sound unquestionably like the Firebird...but I wasn't there to bear witness.

Thanks in advance, Mark :salude
 
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