Roy Wiggins

[Bill Rickles]

It's been awhile since I posted on the forum. Roy Wiggins is one of my idols. I know he played a Gibson Console Grande. He used the E13 tuning a lot. What did he tune the other neck to?

[S.M. Johnson]

some time back, it was reported, possibly here on the SGF, that Roy had indicated both necks were tuned to the same tuning, so that in the event of a string failure while performing, he'd be able to simply change necks and keep on playing.

No idea if there's any truth in that..........or not.

My memory could be totally inaccurate at this late date.

[Jack Stoner]

Roy, when I worked at his music store, had two different tunings on his Gibson. But, at that was 71/72 I don't remember what the other tuning was.

I should, Little Roy was my inspiration to play steel.

[S.M. Johnson]

I remember an olde friend mentioning that on Eddy Arnold's record "C-H-R-I-S-T-M-A-S" from back in his early days of recording.......

Roy rolled the full chord as an 'intro' and he had figured it out to be C6th. Now, that was one neck.
On his old record of "And That's How Much I Love You",
he definitely was playing C#min.

Of course, I could be mistaken.

[Bill Rickles]

Thanks for all your responses. I have listened to every recording Roy did with Eddy Arnold. He gets pretty swingy with "There's Been A Change In Me","The Love Bug Itch" and "That's how much I love You" I have tried to duplicate some of the licks in E13 tuning. However C#min seems to come closer to sounding like his recording. Roy was a great player. I can't believe it has been over 60 years since he played with Eddy. Those recordings were made with mostly acoustic backups- rhythm guitar and bass only. However, the result with Roy's playing made for some mighty pretty music.

[Jack Stoner]

Roy told me they mostly recorded in Chicago as there weren't any recording studios in Nashville yet.

Also, there was one session (don't remember which one it was) that Roy did not play on. He wouldn't elaborate on why he didn't do that one session or who it was that played steel on it. Maybe someone has a discography that lists the musicians on each recording?

[S.M. Johnson]

Jack......I believe a little research might reveal that one of Eddy Arnolds' alternate steel players was BILLY ROBINSON, at the time steel man for Red Foley on the Grand Old Opry.

I believe Billy might have performed on as many as four sides? Sorry I don't know the name of the tunes.

[Jack Stoner]

I got info that the songs Little Roy was not on were "It's A Sin" and "To My Sorrow".

[Dave Mayes]

I have an Eddy Arnold four CD set(discography included)that is all the Little Roy years with Eddie until Eddie parted ways with Colonel Parker (4/12/1944 - 4/12/1952).

According to the included discography, Little Roy is on all the sessions except:
"Easy Rockin' Chair"
"To My Sorrow"
"It's a Sin"
All three recorded in NYC on 9/24/46 with Eddie McMullen on steel.

[Bill Creller]

I recall a Saturday night on the Grand Ole Opry when Eddy had a new steel player that he introduced. He referred to him as "this young man", but I don't remember his name.
Through the grapevine, I heard that Eddy and Roy had a falling out, but RCA Victor demanded Wiggens on recordings, and things got patched up.
Hard to say what's really true about that.
Roy was a favorite of mine in my young days too, in the late 40s.

[Norman Evans]

I have an instrumental album by Roy Wiggins. He wrote his tuning on the back of the album for me and its E13.