Ry Cooder's backline on October 3, 2008

[frmorales52]

Ry Cooder, Nick Lowe and Jim Keltner did a two night benefit concert at the Great American Music Hall in San Francisco on 10/2 and 10/3.
I attended the 10/3 concert and spent the evening 15 feet from the front of the stage.

What a great show!

Everything Ry used is in this blurry picture. His tone, touch and feel were out of this world. No one else sounds or plays like him. He is soooooo funky. He's also super expressive. His face and body react to and anticipate every note he plays. I'm here to tell you - he's feeling it. There was a lot of space for him to fill and he did it with a style that is all his own.

I feel lucky to have been there. I've seen him with Hiatt and Little Village and once years ago with Flaco in tow. But this was different - Way more personal and intimate, yet casual at the same time - and he was way more animated.

He played his heavily modified Strat most of the night. He also put in a fair amout of time on a modified, bound Tele that has a MOTS sunburst finish (to match the pick guard) and played one song on what looks like a Rickenbacker all metal frying pan guitar. All three instruments are in the stand on the right side of the picture.

As you can see, he had two amps. A very beat tweed Deluxe and a very clean blackface Vibroverb. The Vibroverb looked suspiciously new. It may have been a re-issue. But somehow - considering who was playing it - I doubt it. Both amps were miced through the house PA.

I only saw two stomp boxes. Both are on top of the Vibroverb. The one on the left looked like and "AB" box. The other one was a metal box with a single switch.

[gtrfinder]

Awesome.
Always liked Ry. He's got great intuition and really good hands.
One of the masters who never plays too much and always leaves you wanting more.

[Thinsocks]

What was the deal with the Tele?

[Neer]

That's not a Rickenbacher Frying Pan, but a Rickenbacher Spanish Electro, which is a bakelite guitar. Does it have a Vibrato bar on it? Some of them had this old motorized Vibrato mechanism. I know Jackson Browne has a few of them. Lindley used to play the Hawaiian neck version.

[kimock]

Pointing across the stage no less. . .

[snarkle]

Originally Posted by kimock

Pointing across the stage no less. . .

He's a smart guy, that Ry.

And in the original picture the Tele looks more like a baritone or 6-string bass...true?

[playon]

Yeah that must be a Baritone neck on the tele, it's way longer than the neck on the strat. Sounds like a great show. I saw Ry play that same venue years ago when he had the Tex-Mex band with Flaco Jimenez and the three back-up singers.

[wombat66]

few pictures from the SF Chronicle





and the review
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/articl...sn=001&sc=1000

[frmorales52]

I found this about the Strat that Ry played most of the night:

The '60s Fender Stratocaster is his main bottleneck guitar. It has an Oahu lap-steel pickup assembly - the body was routed out to accomodate that - and is notched for the Fender tailpiece. It also has a Teisco pickup in the neck position. The neck is a "C" model he got from David Lindley. It's really wide with lots of mass. It's a very stable and responsive guitar, with good sustain and a good constant volume.

[ghost]

thanks for posting this. I was just about to start a thread regarding how to cop Ry's incredible tones...

I always though he got his coolest tones with the magnatone amp and the tel-ray delay...

were the tones with the setup you photographed comparable to the great tones I'm talking about (like he got live with David L...)???

same? different? do tell!!!!

[frmorales52]

I ain't familiar with the tones he got with David. L. But he had that thick, sorta buzzy, greasy tone that you can find all over "I Flathead". I think the two amp set-up was a major part of it. I recognized that thick 5E3 magic (I have a Clark Beaufort) - but with note definition and verb courtousy of the blackface.

To my ears though - it was that Strat with the mods that had the most tonal mojo going on. I'm seriously thinking of getting my hands on a decent strat and routing it out for an Oahu and Teisco pick-ups. Of course, I still won't sound like Ry........

[ghost]

WOW- whats up with Teisco pickups....wonder what gives them that sound, or is it the combo wit the lap steel pickup...

Don M or any of you guys know anything about how these pickups are contructed? I gues they are pretty big physically?


So- he was running both amps at once, not switching back and forth?,,,,hmmmm

[frmorales52]

The teiscos on both the Tele and Strat were mounted in the neck position.

Here's a picture of the Strat he was playing. It's the sunburst on the right....
Dig the huge metal plate on the Oahu bridge pick-up:
l

[paulg]

The Tele was a Fender, maple neck, moto front and back double bound with vintage sunburst finish (yes, very funky!), white moto pickguard with the Tiesco pup in the neck. As far as I could tell he used the bridge pickup most, if not all of the time.

[Strung Up]

Originally Posted by ghost

were the tones with the setup you photographed comparable to the great tones I'm talking about (like he got live with David L...)???

same? different? do tell!!!!

Sounded like the Deluxe was cranked higher throughout. Very much in the 'Get Rhythm' pallette of tones. Even when cleaner, or when the trem. on the Vibro was kicked on, the tweed dominated.

Surprised that he played as much WITHOUT slide as he did (even on the shoulder-slung Rick)

Also surprised that I could pay any attention to him while being mesmerized by Keltner. Watching him up close was a MAJOR schooling in rhythm, dynamics, space, ensemble support and propulsion . . . I could go on.