collapse

* Member Info

 
 
Welcome, Guest. Please login or register.
Did you miss your activation email?
I'm goin' where the water drink like turpentine - Scott Dunbar, Blue Yodel

Author Topic: John Oates has Mississippi John Hurt's 1964 Newport Folk Festival guitar?  (Read 1834 times)

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

Offline Steve Pajik

  • Member
  • Posts: 59
Hi, all,

I apologize if this topic has been brought up already. Before posting, I did a quick search of the Weenie forum archives but couldn't find much on John Oates, so ....

By chance, I came across this article about John Oates and his new band and album. John Oates claims to have MJH's guitar, the one MJH played at his Newport appearance in 1964. If you watch the video included in the article, Oates says he used the guitar on the first two Hall & Oates albums, too.

http://www.folkradio.co.uk/2017/12/john-oates-album-arkansas/

I recall a few years back, one of MJH's Guilds was up for sale, but I believe the consensus reached was that it was NOT the one MJH played at the Newport festival (and thus NOT the famous one the festival committee bought for MJH - something which I thought happened at the '63 festival anyway. I'm confused!).

Anyway, I thought this was kinda neat, so I reckoned I'd (stop my lurking and) share something with the forum.  :)

Cheers!

Stephen
« Last Edit: December 03, 2017, 11:07:14 AM by Steve Pajik »

Offline Steve Pajik

  • Member
  • Posts: 59
Re: John Oates has Mississippi John Hurt's 1963 Newport Folk Festival guitar?
« Reply #1 on: December 03, 2017, 07:41:54 AM »
A photo comparison. Because why not?!

Offline Steve Pajik

  • Member
  • Posts: 59
Re: John Oates has Mississippi John Hurt's 1964 Newport Folk Festival guitar?
« Reply #2 on: December 03, 2017, 12:01:42 PM »
IMHO, Oates has the guitar that was up for sale at Harry Tuft's Denver Folklore Center a few years back. I apologize if everyone knows this already. I don't recall ever hearing who bought it!

Offline Rivers

  • Tech Support
  • Member
  • Posts: 7274
  • I like chicken pie
Re: John Oates has Mississippi John Hurt's 1964 Newport Folk Festival guitar?
« Reply #3 on: December 03, 2017, 12:06:42 PM »
Chrome tuners on MJH's guitar, gold plated on JO's. Doesn't prove anything either way, of course. Also I don't see the shield shaped graphic, or truss rod cover, on the headstock of MJH's guitar. It should be clearly visible; the MJH photo is cropped above the lower tuner pegs and the shield on Oates' starts below them, so definitely would be in frame.

So I'd say no, different instruments.
« Last Edit: December 03, 2017, 12:08:10 PM by Rivers »

Offline onewent

  • Member
  • Posts: 384
  • Mr. So and So
    • vintagebluesguitars.com
Re: John Oates has Mississippi John Hurt's 1964 Newport Folk Festival guitar?
« Reply #4 on: December 04, 2017, 01:38:29 PM »
Rivers, I noticed those two differences right away, but both of those are interchangeable parts, so not the smoking gun.  However, what I can ascertain from the two photos are the differences in 'fleks' (little light-ish spots) in the pick guard graining.  Granted, the pg could have been changed too, but not as likely as the tuners and truss cover. 

If I had to make a choice re same or different guitar, I'd say different based on these three points, based upon the images provided.

Tom

Offline Rivers

  • Tech Support
  • Member
  • Posts: 7274
  • I like chicken pie
Re: John Oates has Mississippi John Hurt's 1964 Newport Folk Festival guitar?
« Reply #5 on: December 04, 2017, 06:42:27 PM »
Hi Tom, I gotta think that it's highly unlikely that the first thing one'd do if one got ahold of MJH's guitar is swap out the tuners and truss rod cover for some more fancy appointments! :P

Unless JO didn't know, or care, what he had of course. There must have been thousands of that model w/sunburst finish produced with various appointment options. I had a telecaster once that looked exactly like the one Robbie Robertson played on The Band's earlier albums. Clearly it must have been the one. Had the worst, unfixable warped neck of any guitar I've ever owned. I French-polished the body and hung it on the wall.

This thread is a bit like the RJ photo threads, full of sound and fury and signifying nothing. I may be wrong but I doubt it.

Offline TenBrook

  • Member
  • Posts: 246
    • darkhollar.tumblr.com
Re: John Oates has Mississippi John Hurt's 1964 Newport Folk Festival guitar?
« Reply #6 on: December 05, 2017, 07:43:45 AM »
Hi all,
I did a quick google search and found this from 2015:
http://guildguitars.com/john-oates-of-hall-oates-talks-his-prized-guild/

From the above link/article:
"John Oates of famous 70?s duo Hall & Oates talked with Acoustic Guitar Magazine for their ?Guitar Acquisition Syndrome? article. AG asked readers and musicians what guitar they would own if money were no object.

John starts out by discussing one of his most prized possessions, his 1967 Guild F-20:

'I recorded the entire Mississippi Mile album on [it]. It?s a sweet small-body guitar that is very easy to play and doesn?t take up a lot of sonic space in a rack, but at the same time has a lot of character.?

He goes on to add, 'I would live to find and buy the Guild F-30 that was given to Mississippi John Hurt back in the late ?60s. After he passed away, it was given to my guitar mentor, Jerry Ricks, and he brought it to New York so I could play it on the first two Hall & Oates albums at Atlantic Studios.'"
« Last Edit: December 05, 2017, 07:47:27 AM by TenBrook »

Offline Stuart

  • Member
  • Posts: 3177
  • "The Voice of Almiqui"
Re: John Oates has Mississippi John Hurt's 1964 Newport Folk Festival guitar?
« Reply #7 on: December 05, 2017, 08:04:08 AM »
Thanks for finding the AG article, Lew.

n.b. In the scan of the article he is quoted as saying, ?I would like to find and buy the Guild F-30 that was given to Mississippi John Hurt back in the late ?60s..." where the electronic text has, "I would live to find..."

I think that it is reasonable to assume that if the scanned version is correct, when he was interviewed for the 9/25/2015 article, he still had not located Mississippi John's Guild.



 


anything
SimplePortal 2.3.7 © 2008-2024, SimplePortal