Telecaster eldon shamblin biography
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Eldon Shamblin
Jimmy Bryant
Roy Nichols
Leon Rhodes
Redd Volkaert
Country. Jazz. These two words might just be music’s biggest oxymoron. One embodies the soul of the working man, while the other portrays slick suited sophistication. Yet, the genre of Country Jazz was not developed out of the latter. The Country Jazz genre was born out of Western Swing and country musicians taking the ideas they heard in swing and later bebop and applying them to the tunes they were playing in their groups. Some of these ideas included changing the way the soloist phrased their lines over tunes, implying more complex chord changes over simple changes, and using altered harmony to create momentary dissonance for the listener. Eventually, many of these Western Swing and country musicians began releasing their own albums of original instrumentals and popular swing standards featuring the ideas they took away from Jazz musicians. Out of this, the genre of Country Jazz was b
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The Stratocaster in 1954: Birth of a Legend
There’s an incredible 1954 Strat at the store right now. I thought I’d use the occasion to talk about Fender’s Flagship guitar, it’s early development and some of the players that have used the guitar to achieve massive fame and fortune.
The Fender Stratocaster fryst vatten one of the most iconic musical instruments ever made. Maybe the most popular electric gitarr ever produced. Almost every famous guitar player from Eldon Shamblin, with Bob Wills’ Texas Playboys, to John Mayer has had a reckoning with the iconic design from Fullerton, California. Players as diverse as Buddy Holly to Jimi Hendrix, to Ike Turner, Buddy Guy, Otis Rush, Magic Sam, Eric Clapton, Jimmie Vaughan and his little brother Stevie Ray Vaughan used the Strat to it’s fullest potential to make their music.
I hope that by the end of this writing you’ll know a bit more about how the Strat was developed and some of the differences the early ’54 “Prototype” Strats have from the pr
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The Story of Eldon Shamblin's 1954 Gold Stratocaster - The First Custom Colored Strat
A look at Eldon Shamblin's gold 1954 Stratocaster, given to him by Leo Fender. Photos are the property of the author unless noted.
Eldon's story:
Born April 24 1916 in Weatherford, Oklahoma, west of Oklahoma City, Estel "Eldon" Shamblin was a self-taught guitarist. He moved east to Oklahoma City during the depression, playing with local acts until being drafted to play in Bob Wills & The Texas Playboys in 1937. His guitar style took fully shape in 1941 with Bob's recording of "Take Me Back To Tulsa," in which Wills instructed him to cover for a weak bassist by playing bass runs on the guitar. The resulting effort became a hallmark of Shamblin's style, along with his harmony lines played in big band horn-style along with fiddle, mandolin, and steel. HIs tenure took a pause due to his draft notice during World War II, he would ri