Jim Stafford plays a synthesizer guitar on the Johnny Carson Show!! Jim calls the guitar a US Army M16 assault guitar and plays Beverly Hills Cop!! Cool sounds!
Yeah. He handled it very well. You had to be ahead of the beat, but do it consistently and you had to not pay attention to the backing band, or you'd fall behind.
Jim pulled it off great... despite the technological issues he had to overcome with that mid 80's Roland guitar synth setup. Yes, I can attest to the G-707's tracking and latency issue... the analog to digital technology hadn't really been perfected in that 24 pin hexaphonic system.. it was like having to relearn how to play an entirely new instrument. ..at least as far as playing technique and the approach.
Jim bought the Roland G-700 synthesizer and G-707 guitar from me at Arnold & Morgan Music Company in Garland, Texas! A way fun day, as you can imagine.
He was on his way, from Branson, to Los Angeles, i bet, or, on his way, back, as he might have shattered his first purchase, on the Tonight Show Stage and 40,000 shards flew out. That's too many, i know, but, he shard that Crowd, to hell! Yippy kiyyay......et ceteraaaaa.
I remember when this originally aired, when I was still a young teenager, but it was one of those rare occasions when I missed it and had to hear my dad tell me how cool it was. So awesome to be able to finally see it over thirty years later.
Those did have pretty terrible latency IIRC from the time, especially with staccato lines, and you can see Stanford - who is a tremendous guitarist - struggling a bit early on to keep rhythm. As always he is really entertaining and great to watch/listen!
I still have that guitar with the unit and a midi controller I think it was almost 3 grand back in 85 or 86. You can just feel the struggle with that thing tracking the right note. That is the hardest thing about that is you have to be so accurate or it will just glitch Wow. Feelin the old now Ouch
This was one of the coolest toys when it came out. It might seem odd to see Jim Stafford playing one but he was always a great entertainer and did a great job with it!
Astounding he had the balls to attempt this on late night prime time. This is actually much harder than you think. The newest gear is much easier. I played one of these for a little bit of time when they came out. It was in a music store and I didn't buy it because it was freakin' expensive. I'm sure Johnny wasn't really impressed, and most weren't, but I have to give Stafford props for even attempting this on late night TV and trying to make it entertaining for average people. Anyway, check out other vids to realize that Stafford is actually a good musician. He presented himself a certain way to develop a career. Nothing wrong with that, and he did a good job, as he was consistently entertaining every time I saw him on TV when I was a "young lad". Good for you, man!
***** Paul Battis below mentions the Roland 707 which is a drum machine, he meant to say Roland G-707, which is the guitar synth. Over time the Roland models evolved and the tracking speed got much better. The sloppiness you hear from Stafford in this vid is not really him as a player, as this guitar was hard to play clean by even good players. There were a few other companies trying to do that at that time as well, and their products were even worse. Nowadays tracking is not a big deal, though I've personally not had a chance to play those myself. You would not want to get an old G-707 setup today, as current Roland setups are way better. That odd angle brace at the top of the guitar was to keep the whole thing stiff and rigid, which is why with later setups as add-ons for existing guitar bodies, people liked to use something solid and stiff like Les Paul bodies or Paul Reed Smith.
***** The frets are fine. The problem was getting the string vibration through the pickup through the input of the synth fast enough. Much longer than today's setups. I don't know what would happen if you plugged the guitar into a new Roland synth. It would either be faster or would not be compatible at all. The problem is that you hit the string and you want to hear a quick response so that you have a good feel and timing. If you listen to Stafford on a regular guitar you hear what a great player he is. In this Roland vid you can hear timing and control problems. That's why I said he had a lot of balls attempting this in public. I'd be scared to do it!
Ah you must be referring to latency and possibly signal strength from the strings. Yeah, back then MIDI was controlled through a guitar like this using all analog meaning voltage readings of either -15 volts to 0 volts or 0 volts to 15 volts. So between the two Im sure it was problematic especially if youre getting a delay from the house PA when not using monitors. I thought this dude was screwing up a lot for a live performance but when you factor in these things I highly doubt anyone could have done it better.
Props to you Jim......great job with the holiest of holy GR700. I own one too, as well as a Roland GR500 and SPV355 pitch to voltage (which I worship).
Never see any one play one today? Just the fad back then I guess? He is vary talented and able to adapt to the times. Long live Jim Stafford..great post.
I am so surprised to be seeing Jim play one of these guitars... the only one I had seen till now was one that David Sterry of Real Life ("Send Me An Angel") played. How great to be seeing Jim spreading his wings and doing something so different. He really is a great musician.
Most people didn't use the G-707 guitar, because, well, it looks ridiculous. Roland's G-505, G-202, G-303, and G-808 were all compatible with the GR-700, and Roland licensed the synth interface to a number of other companies who built compatible instruments. When they were in GTR, Steve Hackett had a Schecter Strat style guitar with the guitar synth electronics and Steve Howe had a Les Paul that Gibson built for him (Gibson also offered a synth compatible Explorer, but I never saw anyone playing one). Henry Kaiser had a Modulus Graphite guitar, Al Di Meola had a PRS, and John McLaughlin a Pedulla, all of them using them with the Synclavier. John Abercrombie had a Ibanez (Steve Howe had one of those too, but he said he didn't like it, and it was stolen a couple months after he got it). David Gilmour had a couple different Strats with the synth interface, though I only remember seeing him playing them twice (once being the Guitar Greats concert MTV aired at the end of 1984, the other being when he played with Bryan Ferry at Live Aid and the synth guitar died during the first song and he had to swap guitars while one of the other guitarists in Ferry's band played a solo).
I love Jim because he is as talented as anyone..but he never went for the quick buck or did ANYTHING people expected him to do..he just did what he wanted
Excellent use of the synthesizer. I have an Ibanez X-ing IMG2010 (1986 model). Similar in control and appearance, except with out the bar over the neck. Jim's a funny guy and an excellent picker. Thanks for sharing.
John Abercrombie had one of those that he used with his GR-700, and I remember reading about a guitarist in New Orleans, can't remember his name now, who used the Ibanez MIDI rig to do a "one man band" thing, where he triggered full band arrangements from his guitar. Steve Howe had one too, but he said he didn't like it, and that it was stolen after he only had it for a few months (he said that the thief stole the guitar, but not the rack unit, saying "There's some silly person out there who doesn't have the rack unit that goes with the guitar").
Absolutely, you should see my face when my dick is in my hand, my wife's breast, Chinese chop sticks, a weed whacker, it's the same face no matter what's in my hands.
If you would read the description, it clearly says it's the Tonight Show...these are just clips from Jim on past shows...the ad at the end is for his show in Branson. Thanks...
Wow. I am a guitar synth player and what Jim played is hard enough on my modern stuff. The 707 was horrible to play, terrible sounds and lots of latency. The Latency is so bad that when I played one back in 1990 some of the notes are still to trigger! Jim was very brave to play it live!
Nancy Davis we used to go to Branson between 1997 and prob 2000, stayed at Lodge of the Ozarks right across from Jim Stafford's place. Always wanted to go bc the brochure made it sound awesome. We never went :(
Very interesting clip. Thanks for sharing. Along the same lines, RU-vid used to have a clip of Donny Osmond playing a pretty wicked synthesizer solo on a modular Moog. I can't find it. Maybe someone else can find a link or repost it.
Lost, here, is how the great Tommy Newsom whipped up a band arrangement to accompany Jim, likely that morning, just for this one performance. Something he did on a daily basis for 30 years!
They did that all the time. Those guys were veteran studio musicians, they had to whip up arrangemetns on the fly back in the 60's, because you basically had one afternoon to knock out a single, and maybe a week, if even that, to do a whoel album (mind you, back then albums were less than 30 minutes long). You had to be able to sightread to get those kind of gigs. Given the popularity of Axel F, its likely they alreayd had an arrangement at hand, because I could see that being the kind of thing they'd go out and play when doing concerts, they just had to drop out the parts that Stafford himself was playing. So this was nothing new to them. If you want to see something REALLY impressive, looking up the Tonight Show Brass playing True Gravity and Kind Of Bird with the Allman Brothers Band. It was two different appearances, one in 1990, the other in 1991. But that'll knock your socks off, as the Tonight Show guys had probably never heard either number before the day of taping, and again, the charts were probably prepared ahead of time, stuck in front of them, and they just sightread the hell out of it, knock out a couple takes in rehearsal, and then you're ready to rock n roll.
Another top guitarist that mixes humour with music, to be able to play like he does taken talent,devotion and passion! Frank zappa asked the question.. Does humour belong in music? Of course it does! But frank would be the first to tell you .. He took both VERY SERIOUSLY!!! IF you asked him Stafford if he plays guitar just for fun... I'd be surprised if he didn't turn deadly serious on you.
I forget who it was who told me he interviewed drummer Mickey Hart from the Grateful Dead once. At one point, the guy asked Mickey "What's your favourite drummer joke?". Mickey, very deadly seriously responds, "There's nothing funny about drumming". The guy said Mickey was definitely NOT joking.
Amazing, made me subscribe. You need to play to understand the synthesizer..... It's the whole band he was just playing. I tried the floor version one time, don't remember the wattage but it made the hair on your arms stand up when you were at the keyboard. Kinda like a alien pipe organ.,..LOL ! I had no idea until I came across this there was a guitar version of one. Amazing talent .
@gdwest999 Absolutely; I still use my GR30--even this past weekend. The samples are no longer amazing like they were in 1998, but they still hold their own in a bar. As you said, the lag is abysmal, so for timekeeping I'll reduce the guitar volume a bit and use the mixed tones. The piano is still discernible but no longer obviously late. Great fun to see the "thirstier" patrons peering through the gloom to find the keyboardist. I just noticed your comment is 4y old. Oh well *submit anyway*
Actor David Koechner is from Tipton, Mo. Jim Stafford is not "from" Branson, Mo., but, i think he lived and/or lives, there, at one time or an other and my former Boss, "Glen", is from a Town, near Boss, Mo. and, i am lost, but, i love Bacon and, please, enjoy your Bacon, Kevin Cline. Well, i tried.
I have a red one. It plays and feels great. The synth unit didn't track this good. I put it in storage and a tornado hit it. I only ever cared about the guitar anyway.
The GR300, the early blue box was able to track very fast and accurate. 5 ms response time. The 700 was not nearly as good. But it had more sounds so....shrug.
The problem with the GR-700 was the damn MIDI interface. Instead of doing pitch to voltage like the GR-300, the GR-700 was pitch to MIDI. Even if you were just using the onboard synth engine, it was still going through the MIDI thing, before it got to the synth. And that ws the very first MIDI guitar unit. I always found it fascinating that the GR-700 was "the next step up", yet it had worse tracking. And I remember Pat Metheny saying circa 2000 that even then, he still thought the GR-300 had the best tracking of any guitar synth he used.
@gdwest999 I totally agree .they also messed up your chops because the attack wasn't immediate.so if you went back to real guitar after playing this contraption for a long time,you practically had to develop your timing all over again.I watched this actually happen to a guy.
