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Topic: Julian Tharpe 20 string 11pedal MSA |
Stan Schober
From:
Cahokia, Illinois, USA
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Posted 7 Sep 2009 9:20 am |
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Did anyone here ever see Julian Tharpe play this 20 string ?
Any idea what the tuning or copedent was?
It's on fleabay... |
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Jay Jessup
From:
Charlottesville, VA, USA
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Posted 7 Sep 2009 10:21 am
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| Looking at it on e-bay it appears to be just a D-10 but with no spacing or height difference between the two necks so I guess the C6 is out front and the E9 is in the back. I find the pictures of the underside more interesting because I have never seen an MSA with flat cross bars. Maybe this is the way their first guitars were made sorta like ZB? Do anyone think Julian actually owned this guitar? |
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Fred Shannon
From:
Rocking "S" Ranch, Comancheria, Texas, R.I.P.
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Posted 7 Sep 2009 12:06 pm
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This was Julian's guitar. This was the only one ever made at MSA. I'm almost certain the keyhead was designed by Bud Carter and the guitar was assembled by Julian when he worked at MSA. The original tuning, as confirmed by Reece, was a 10 string E9 on the first 10 strings, and C6 on the bottom 10. It had to be that way because of the heavy 10th string on C6 wouldn't let the 11th string be heard. ( I believe that's what Reece and I discussed sometime back). The flat bars were common place on the very early MSA guitars. Matter of fact I just gave Junior Knight a basket case S12 with these bars on it. To say however,that the tuning was E9 and C6 would only be true to the initial tuning on the guitar. Julian was always experimenting with tunings and there's no telling what he ended up with on this guitar. But it is the only one that ever came from the MSA shops, and it was designed by "HO-Daddy" himself. Several of us have heard him play it and it was something to see. He could switch from one side of it to the other and never blink his eyes. He was some super steel guitarist. I miss his dry humor and I wish I could hear him crawl my butt one more time. He was a super critical teacher and he lived by "Perfect practice or don't bother."
Hope this helps.
phred
_________________
There are only two defining forces that have offered to die for you; Jesus Christ and the American GI!!
Think about it!! |
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Archie Nicol R.I.P.
From:
Ayrshire, Scotland
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Posted 7 Sep 2009 2:24 pm
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Perhaps Reece could enlighten us.
Arch.
_________________
I'm well behaved, so there! |
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Stan Schober
From:
Cahokia, Illinois, USA
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Posted 7 Sep 2009 2:41 pm
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Phred, Thanks for the response.
It's always great to hear some history from those who lived it.
(And if you come across another basketcase S-12, throw it my way, eh ?  ) |
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Fred Shannon
From:
Rocking "S" Ranch, Comancheria, Texas, R.I.P.
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Posted 7 Sep 2009 2:45 pm
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Joe McHam from Houston might add something. He and I were students of Julians when he was in Dallas. I haven't heard from Joe in some time though.
phred
_________________
There are only two defining forces that have offered to die for you; Jesus Christ and the American GI!!
Think about it!! |
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chris ivey
From:
california (deceased)
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Posted 7 Sep 2009 3:35 pm
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| one neck....one pickup. |
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b0b
From:
Cloverdale, CA, USA
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Jay Jessup
From:
Charlottesville, VA, USA
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Posted 8 Sep 2009 10:01 am
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| LOL Yep and I bet it was excessively heavy too! Other than listening to his records back in the day I don't know much about Julian but it seems to me this guitar may shed a little light on a step along the way of how he arrived at his 14 string E9 (I think??) based tuning? |
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Fred Shannon
From:
Rocking "S" Ranch, Comancheria, Texas, R.I.P.
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Posted 8 Sep 2009 11:18 am
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Jay, maybe so. I know he messed around with some key of F tunings also. Somewhere I have an original piece of paper of his setup in F and one in F# but I think I may have lost them in a ranch house fire some years ago. I think I posted them on the Forum back then though but I haven't been able to find them.
phred
_________________
There are only two defining forces that have offered to die for you; Jesus Christ and the American GI!!
Think about it!! |
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