RIP Duane Eddy

[Harp Tail]

“It's thrilling that he played my homemade guitar, all those years later”: Brian May pens personal tribute to Duane Eddy, and reflects on the time Eddy played his Red Special

The Queen guitarist is one of the many who have championed Eddy's influence and “cutting-edge” attitude in the wake of the Rebel Rouser guitarist's death last week

www.guitarworld.com

 

[Westerly Wood]

 

[merpt]

My "Plainer Duaner" (Thanks Hatted Frau)



1966 DE-400

RIP and thanks for the awesome guitar music!

Beautiful.

 

[chazmo]

Anyone know what Duane's gear was? Is it a typical sound from the DeArmond pickups on that guitar, or is it heavily processed? I think I hear quite a bit of reverb. And, I'm guessing a very hard pick.

RIP, Duane!

 

[Westerly Wood]

Interview, he talks about his early rigs...

https://www.premierguitar.com/artists/duane-eddy-sultan-of-twang

"
What amp were you playing through onstage?
We all had these Magnatones with two 12" Jensens. They were about the best on the market at the time, unless you went for a really expensive amp, like the Standels that Chet used.

Did you ever use a Fender amp?
The Magnatone was bigger—65 watts or something. These two local guys would boost it up over 100 watts through a single JBL 15" speaker and a tweeter. They would cover the amp with Naugahyde and a white grille cloth and charge us $100. That’s where my sound came from. It wouldn’t break up no matter how hard you hit it. I compared it to a Standel at Manny’s Music in New York one time. I would hit the Standel real hard with a note, or turn it up beyond a certain point, and it would break up. I plugged back into mine and turned it up even louder and it would not break up. I realized I had the best amp in the world.

What gauge strings were you using at that time?
Medium gauge.

Were they flatwound or roundwound?
Roundwound."

 

[Westerly Wood]

He says he bought a Les Paul for $75 in like 1954 or 1957. Wow.

 

[Walter Broes]

Anyone know what Duane's gear was? Is it a typical sound from the DeArmond pickups on that guitar, or is it heavily processed? I think I hear quite a bit of reverb. And, I'm guessing a very hard pick.

RIP, Duane!

Most of it is the way he plays. D.E. had a very idiosyncratic way of "rolling" from one note into the next that is deceptively hard to cop. But yes, he was a walking commercial for DeArmond pickups - except for the Danelectro six-string bass of course, he recorded and played with DeArmond-equipped guitars for all his career.

And the unique amp(s) he had built, besides being very clean and loud and having the famous JBL-D130....had a tweeter. That's very unusual for a guitar amp, and something you can actually hear really well in his early recorded material.

 

[chazmo]

Most of it is the way he plays. D.E. had a very idiosyncratic way of "rolling" from one note into the next that is deceptively hard to cop. But yes, he was a walking commercial for DeArmond pickups - except for the Danelectro six-string bass of course, he recorded and played with DeArmond-equipped guitars for all his career.

And the unique amp(s) he had built, besides being very clean and loud and having the famous JBL-D130....had a tweeter. That's very unusual for a guitar amp, and something you can actually hear really well in his early recorded material.

When he's talking to Letterman in the video, I can hear the AC hum of his equipment. Interesting about the tweeter, Walter!