#bob luman

[rockincountryblues]

Bob Luman, Jeanne Black, Butch White, Janie Black and James Burton , May 1957

[adsin1960smusicmagazines]

Bob Luman (1961)

[theguitars]

Elvis Presley

Elvis Presley's guitars were a major component of the iconic rock and roll image created by Elvis Presley that revolutionized popular culture in the 1950s and 1960s. 

It's hard to list all guitars but...some of them:

-1955 Martin D-28 

-Gibson Ebony Dove 

-1965 Gibson EBS-1250 Double Bass 

-1956 Gibson J200 

-Fender Precision Bass 

But I'm generally not interested in his guitars...Everyone remember the '68 Comeback Special concert? As a child, I always watched this concert.I became interested in this guitar. BUT this is not his guitar!

The 1963 Gibson Super 400 CES Florentine model belonging to Scotty Moore played an important role in Elvis Presley's stage performance, the '68 Comeback Special.

The Gibson "Super 400" is a high-end carved solid wood archtop guitar, the largest, fanciest-adorned, and highest-priced factory-built archtop / hollowbody guitar ever. It is a highly influential guitar model that inspired many other master guitar builders (including Stromberg's Elmer Stromberg and D'Angelico's John D'Angelico). It was first sold in 1934 and named for its $400 price (many Gibson guitars were named for the sticker price during that era of the company). 

About the memorable “sit-down” jam session for Presley’s 1968 NBC-TV special :

“When they walked out on stage, their guitars were already in place. Scotty had his Gibson 400 Sunburst and Elvis had his Gibson J200, a natural-grain flattop model that Scotty had obtained for him from the manufacturer. They began the show with some of their early material … During the first couple of songs, Elvis kept glancing at Scotty, who was sitting to his left. Scotty’s brightly colored guitar shone in the camera lights. It was bigger than Elvis’s guitar, it was better looking, and it sounded better than his guitar. Elvis decided he just had to have it. Scotty was playing lead for a while and all of a sudden Elvis wanted to play lead. So he goes over and grabs Scotty’s guitar.  I thought, ‘What are we going to do here.’ Scotty wasn’t very happy about that. Elvis was a flogger and I knew Scotty was afraid he’d scar up the guitar. It worked out, but oh boy, he doesn’t like anyone to touch that guitar.Elvis played Scotty’s guitar for the remainder of the show… If Scotty was fuming on the inside, he never showed it. He kept going, never missing a beat … Elvis was the star, so he wanted the biggest, flashiest guitar.” James L. Dickerson

How well Elvis played the guitar?  it is also interesting to add some quotes of people who knew about his relationship with this instrument.

“He couldn’t press the strings down on it, they was set so high. So I let him practice on mine—I had a little Martin. I just tried to show him basic chords. I would take his fingers and place them, say, ‘You’re pressing the wrong strings with the wrong fingers,’ trying to straighten him out. He couldn’t really complete a song for a long time, couldn’t move his fingers and go with the flow of the music, but once I straightened him out he started to learn to do it right.” Jesse Lee Denson, son of a family friend

“This cat came out in red pants and a green coat and a pink shirt and socks, and he had this sneer on his face, and he stood behind the mike for five minutes, I’ll bet, before he made a move. Then he hit his guitar a lick, and he broke two strings. Hell, I’d been playing ten years, and I hadn’t broke a total of two strings. So there he was, these two strings dangling, and he hadn’t done anything except break the strings yet, and these high school girls were screaming and fainting and running up to the stage, and then he started to move his hips real slow like he had a thing for his guitar.”Bob Luman 

[rockincountryblues]

Bob Luman

[adsin1960smusicmagazines]

Bob Luman (1962)

[rockincountryblues]

Bob Luman at Capitol Studios, Los Angeles, California

[rockabilly-bebop]

Bob Luman - Red Cadillac and a Black Moustache

[rockincountryblues]

Bob Luman