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Kossoff's burst in color (pre-strip)

davebc

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May 7, 2002
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Incredible! We're so fortunate those clips still exist.
Man, talk about the lost art of playing with simplicity!
 

flashriffs

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Nov 20, 2005
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Here's a pic of the Koss burst thats owned by my good friend Arthur Ramm, who just lives down the road from me, I took this 35mm shot back in 91, I'm recovering from an operation at present but soon as I'm firing on all cylinders I'm going to see A.R. to get some new pix's. I'll be sure to post them here, FRANK
100_1055.jpg
[/IMG]
 

zorglub!

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flashriffs, thanks a lot for that pic. You have some more pics of that '59 Burst here.

Koss also played 0 0195, you can see some pics of it here.
 

EdKing

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Feb 6, 2006
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Remember the old days when you had a HARD TIME digging those ball-string-ends out of the stud tailpiece. You'd just take a screwdriver and dig and dig an...<OOPS!>. Nice gouge in the wood you got there! More than once, even.

Saw that on the Kossoff '59 and brought back some memories. We were just a bunch of crazy kids!
 

sgtJoe

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Oct 25, 2003
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That is one beautiful burst, thanks for sharing the photo. There was a very good interview with Andy Fraser a while back in Vintage Guitar. It's hard to drag myselft away from the computer when I pull up those old Free vids on utube.
 

Ad_02Std

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Apr 12, 2005
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Here's one of my fave pics of him:

Koss1.jpg


Koss is certainly one of my favourites, and I'm 27. Got into Free about 10 years ago and have all the albums. The singer in my band (and also my best friend since I was 3) told me last week that after I repeatedly forced Free upon him he now rates "Tons Of Sobs" in his top 10 albums of all time.
 

Humbuck

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One of my favorite bands and top 5 players as well. Highly influential on me.:salude
 

keef

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0 0195 has got to be one of the flamiest bursts..
main.php


I'd like to know more about which burst Koss used on Free songs - anyone have a clue??
 

zorglub!

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Yeah, there had to be some light there to reveal that much flame!
 

DHBucker

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Here's a pic of the Koss burst thats owned by my good friend Arthur Ramm, who just lives down the road from me, I took this 35mm shot back in 91, I'm recovering from an operation at present but soon as I'm firing on all cylinders I'm going to see A.R. to get some new pix's. I'll be sure to post them here, FRANK
100_1055.jpg
[/IMG]

Is this the burst Koss used when he was a member of Black Cat Bone? I read that he had his address and telephone number on the plastic control cavity cover. This guitar was pictured in a book by Tony Bacon a few years back. God I wish Koss was here today with his stinging vibrato and emotive tone!! It's such a shame. Fly high and free paul....I miss you. I watch some of those vids and seeing Koss lean up against those cabs driven by cranked Marshall Majors just blows my mind! I guess you would have to be fuckered up to be able to lean against those guns!
 
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keef

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Is this the burst Koss used when he was a member of Black Cat Bone? I read that he had his address and telephone number on the plastic control cavity cover. This guitar was pictured in a book by Tony Bacon a few years back.

That was 0 0195 (if I recall correctly) with the two zebra PAFs showing. UK collector Gary Winterflood owns or has owned that guitar if I'm not mistaken - look in the back of the Bacon book.
 

Kossoff_Fan

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Dec 17, 2001
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Great pics there...

For the Koss/Free fanatic, issue 102 of the Free Appreciation Society is dedicated to all of Koss' guitars, and where they ended up. I noticed a few minor errors in terminology that almost any A.V.H. would notice as well, but overall, it's very good. David Clayton, co-author of the definitive Free biography Heavy Load often sells back issues on eBay.

I love Koss...

My favorite Koss bursts are the stripped 'burst (some have written that there were two of these, but I'm not certain.) and the real flamey one he used in the pre-Free, Black Cat Bones era. To comment on something that LPNV59 mentioned, I've never seen any details regarding who stripped that finish off the burst. I always thought it looked so cool. For many many years, like a lot of people, I thought it was a goldtop. The March 1994 issue of Guitarist magazine (a British guitar mag) has an in-depth piece on the stripped burst, with cool close-up pictures. Tony Levin is on the cover. Can be found on eBay quite often (I know...)

Koss! :dude:

JC
Kossoff_Fan
 

SPIROCHETE

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Jan 24, 2005
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I wonder why it was stripped and what did it look like beforehand?
Didn't Mick Ronson strip his around the same time?
 

Kossoff_Fan

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Dec 17, 2001
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From what I understand (I recall this being posted on the LPF several years ago), there was a time in the 60s/70s when stripping the finish off a guitar really was in vogue. Several well-known artists like the Beatles stripped the finish off their guitars, saying that it let the instrument "breathe" more (or better.)

Sidenote: The hardware on Koss' stripped burst was non-original gold-plated hardware, which was then scuffed and worn from playing.

JC
Kossoff_Fan
 

Wookie

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Apr 15, 2005
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What's strange to think about is that THOSE guitars he played back then, were only 10 years old.

That's like going down to the store and picking up a nice used 1998 Les Paul!

OH, but those were much different times.
 

Bluestar

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I still remember the first time I heard All Right Now!

Thanks to all for posting clips, info and pics.
 

Black58

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Koss mainly used three different bursts with Free, there may well have been others as Koss owned a lot of guitars throughout his career but these were the main ones that he used with Free.


lp1.jpg


1958 darkburst (serial number 82453) that he got off Eric Clapton in exchange for a three pickup custom. Paul Rogers owned this guitar for a while and played it with The Firm before giving it to David Kossoff (Paul's father) who auctioned it in aid of drugs charities. If I recall correctly the guitar was sold for around £47000 to an un-named American collector in 2000.


lp3.jpg


Cherry sunburst Les Paul. This is the one from the Stealer video at the start of this thread. The neck was broken on this guitar when Koss threw it into the air at the end of Free's last gig. The guitar was repaired and is now owned by Arthur Ramm guitarist with Beckett. Beckett supported Free on many of their tours in the 70's and still gig regularly around the north east of England.


lp2.jpg


Stripped to the wood Les Paul. This can be seen on the video footage from the 1970 Isle of White festival and on the Top of The Pops All Right Now video. Koss sold this guitar to a London Music store in 1974 to fund his drugs habit. It was bought by a young guitarist called Mike Gooch for around £500 and Mike took the guitar along to a Back Street Crawler gig in 1975 to show it to Koss. Apparently Koss's eyes lit up when he saw it and he offered a considerable amount of money to buy it back but it was not for sale. In 1994 this guitar was sold to a guy called Fenton Groover who I know nothing about other than the fact that he wrote an article in the Free Appreciation Society Magazine about Koss's guitars and much of this information comes from that article!
I'm really having a tough time accepting that the Isle Of Wight LP was "stripped" at that time. There's too much natural, as well as, "player" wear and aging going on, on the top. Not to mention the rusty/reddish/brown happening on the side of the headstock and body. I saw a "60 out at Lark St. once. Looked a LOT like it (minus the figure of course). The upper and lower bass side bouts were BLEACHED to a very light tan color. :hmm
 
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