Personally I’d like to see Keith Richards (with his selective tunings and 5 strings) attempt to play a Lindsey Buckingham song, the way Lindsey plays it. And of course Buckingham is great not just for his guitar work, but his writing, singing and music production. The guy is a genius and an autodidactic polymath (sorry, couldn’t resist the wordplay...but it’s true, can’t even read music, plays guitar like a banjo and yet...).
@@nikprior8280 RS best work was kinda Mick Taylor era, imo.. hear some funny stories about keef, re-recording ry cooders playing, (he was in the position to do it, I guess).., as the roadie in Wayne's world said, "keef can not be k..l.ed, w ith conventional weapons"..😄
RIP Rick Turner. I had the pleasure of meeting him a few years ago when he came to perform at an open mic I used to host. Afterward, we talked for hours and he told me all about making that guitar for Lindsey.
Even more amazing to me how few people even know who he is. Even amongst my musician friends I'm utterly confounded that so many are ignorant to how bad ass he is.
As Rick's son, when he passed away this last Easter, I've been finding myself watching more and more of these videos. Probably, to get to know him a bit better. I'm blown away by these comments. Thank you all for loving my dad. He was a genius.
Holy crap! Thanks so much for doing this. I was going through high school when Tango in the Night came out and that guitar was in the videos and I thought "That guitar looks stupid. That doesn't look like a bad ass guitar." But after this demonstration, this totally changed my view on it. It's an engineering piece of art.
That effing underrated word again. How mant times does that get used to describe band's and player's. I've even seen it getting used for describing Steve Vai,Prince and effing Led Zep, ffs. How can someone who is know by the whole world and a band that is a supergroup selling zillion's of records be described using that insipid frigging word undereffingrated. It's a truly offal word, Offal. haha!
How the hell is Buckingham underrated? He’s one of the most respected guitarists of all time from one of the best selling and most successful bands of all time. Lol
@@offal seriously? FM have sold over 120 million records. Rumours alone has sold over 40 million. Buckingham is a RRHoF inductee and one of Rolling Stones top 100 guitarists of all time. I doubt there’s a single adult on earth that couldn’t hum at least part of Bucks solo on The Chain. Underrated me arse. He’s one of the most loved guitarists in the world. Lol
@@MikaelLewisify yes i`m not dissagreeing with you, his work not only as a guitarist, singer songwriter, but as an arranger producer are flawless, he gilmour and green are my 3 favourite guitarists, but when i say to people lindsey buckingham they tend to say, who? then i explain and they know who he is from fleetwood mac, WE obviously appreciate him big time but i`m talking about people who don`t lol, jeez
The strap button is there to simulate a lowered stop tail. This was done to increase the tension/feel on the higher strings when bending. Pretty cool idea.
What a great video to stumble on. Such a great guitar with it's well known history. I'm writing this from our office in Sausalito. We're a mile away from where the closed down Record Plant is located. And as most everyone knows, one of the studio's used for the Rumors album.
Rick Turner's a friend of mine (straight up), and I still have the very first Renaissance ever made, which he customized for me (GR-ready). So we're sitting around the shop, and I was playing on a Model 1. The hummer can rotate in the faux soundhole, ya know, a few degrees one way or the other. I ask Rick the purpose of the rotating hummer. He says, "Man, it's just a gimmick I dreamed up... but it's a cool gimmick." Genius luthier by any standard.
I was actually going to mention the rotating pup. I wasn't sure if this was a feature of the prototype, but I knew the later iterations had it. The way I heard it, it was for even more tonal flexibility. If you rotate it it either accentuates the bass or treble frequencies depending on the direction. Sort of like EVH having the cocked pup in his Frankenstrat.
A very special instrument! Would love to get my hands on one of those. Sure to inspire. Lindsey Buckingham a man with a style all his own. Few musicians out there can say that. Love all is work! And his musical taste.
I remember Grant Lee Philips from Grant Lee Buffalo using one of these as his main axe back in the mid 90's. He used to achieve some really jaw dropping dynamics shifts when he swapped between clean acoustic and dirty electric tones.
The close up of John's hands when he first started playing the slide just changed slide guitar for me. I've never thought of playing behind the slide like John does in this video, a testament to how talented he is at guitar.
That's actually a very pleasant looking guitar. Not regular pretty like a Gibson or a fender or even a Gretsch, it's got its own thing, but aesthetically it ticks all the right points.
Such an iconic Guitar! I remember watching Lindsey rocking out on this thing finger picking and strumming like crazy! Drove me nuts trying to figure out how it sounds like he playing 2 guitars at once! So awesome!
Turner described the development of this guitar being prompted by the fact that he was urging Lindsey and John McVie to take up Alembic instruments where Turner had a large stake in. McVie eagerly obliged but Lindsey declined because in his opinion the Alembic guitars sounded "Too sterile" and didn't have that power he got from his Les Paul and his souped up Fender strats and teles which had Alembic "Stratoblaster" pre-amps fitted. (To give you an example on just HOW powerful Lindsey liked his sound to be, Turner said that fitting those pre-amps fried Lindsey's Hiwatt stacks on a nightly basis.) Anyway, Lindsey requested a guitar which would have the power of a Les Paul and the Clarity of a Fender and to achieve this Turner looked at a Les Paul Junior since those are well known tone machines and worked out what that guitar had which an Alembic had not. And came to the conclusion that it was the Alembic's "Hippie Sandwich" construction of layered wood which killed the natural harmonics of the instrument. So he made Lindsey a guitar which had a one piece mahogany body, the favored Alembic pre-amp and a pickup in the spot where a Stratocaster's middle pickup would be. Needless to say, he got it right! Because Lindsey told his crew that the Les Pauls and the Fenders could be left at home, the Turner gave him all he needed.
@@mrtyreus0 Aaannddd.... There is a FANTASTIC YT video around somewhere about the biography of Rick Turner.....I do believe this guitar and its virtues/history are explained in it!
I've had one of the original run (a 1980) since the mid 80's purchased at Leo's Music in Oakland. I'm the original owner. Mine is a 2-pickup model, which has a rotary pickup selector on the upper bout. The piezo wasn't added until much later (maybe 2000?). The other pickup was fixed and just in front of the bridge. I"m surprised that he didn't mention that the neck pickup rotates (the entire "soundhole" plate rotates) - maybe it's fixed on Lindsey's guitar. It makes a huge difference in the sound - when the pickup is rotated it's somewhat acoustic sounding. On a stock Model 1 from back in the day, the output jack was front-facing in one of the filled holes. Not sure what the other hole in the top was. And the metal button on the body underneath the neck is the original (weird) location of the strap button. I also had two of the Model 1 basses from the original run (I understand there were only a dozen or so made), but one was stolen. Amazing instruments, as are the new ones.
I remember years ago watching a documentary on PBS about this particular guitar being built. Still kinda amused that Buckingham is the only one I've ever seen play this guitar.
Its actually cool to see this guy play. I have always seen him do the rig rundowns and always wondered. I am sure there are many other vids that (John) plays on but this is the 1st one I have seen. Cool out yo!
Wow!! I nearly missed out on this when I saw the intro pic, thought it probably wasn't my thing. What a wonderful instrument. Should it be taken on by a manufacturer & mass produced? Yep!!
There's a clip of Fleetwood Mac on Midnight Special in 1976 and he's playing a Strat and using a pick. At one point a cameraman was shooting him from below where the guitar body and Lindsay's hands are in the foreground and close up and you can clearly see a pick.
Great video! I've always been fascinated with this guitar. BTW, it is nice to hear someone on RU-vid who actually knows how to pronounce "piezo" correctly!
Thanks for both the demo and the explanations. I remember seeing LB playing these on TV in the late '70s, and John Stewart as well, and it seemed a very intriguing design, but I couldn't find out anything about it...
I love demos where people can actually play and be versatile. Also, I don't know if this one does but the ones Buckingham uses now allow for the pickup to be easily angled in anyway you want like a tele or strat or even more customed.
You don't prefer them to show off the features and then go on to "Now here's a little blues boxing and dad rock soloing with a distortion/overdrive pedal to mask the tone"
2009-10? NAMM Rick let me play this exact guitar. He did say it was set up for Lindsay. It was a bit on the heavy side. But the frets and neck matched the response of the turning pickup. The ergonomics were the best I’ve ever felt. A beautiful work of art. Bravo RT👍🏽
I can't tell you how many videos I've seen attempting to impress the viewer with the range of sounds out of one guitar. This blows them all away; it literally sounded like 4 very different guitars.
So cool! Lindsey is the best. Got to see Fleetwood in Dublin in 2015. I think their live performances are better than their studios accept for 'Never Going Back Again', IMO.
That is one beautiful guitar. And amazing how versatile the sound ia. Of course, it helps a lot that you obviously know how to play. Great demonstration!
