I'm sure the research was hard. His life & career was so short and virtually everyone connected with him are gone now and unable to share their memories.
Amigos, Mr. Valenzuela's "Ooh my head" - to soothe your jangled nerves - in the Go Johnny Go movie also earned a song-writing credit on Led Zeppelin's Physical Graffiti.
The 6120 Richie has, is not the same guitar as Cochrans. Eddie's has a clear Streamliner pickguard and Gibson P90 at the neck. Richie's is a stock 55 6120 .
@@richieluckenbill1590 So the myth goes. But, The stock pickguard for the 55 6120 and the pickguard on Cochrans guitar are completely different dimensions. However, his pickguard matches perfectly to a vintage Streamliner guard. You can also tell by the screw hole for the side bracket. On the original stock guards, the screw hole is found to the right of the H on the Gretsch logo and on Cochrans, it's above the H. Again, same as the vintage Streamliner guards. Also the old guards are thick and the Chet Atkins signpost logo is etched in quite deep. Sandpaper would not have removed it without making the centre of the guard incredibly thin.
The guitar that resembles the Epiphone in the La Bamba biopic is a Harmony. It's headstock and fingerboard look more worn than the body so it's possible they refinished it to look like pictures of the Epiphone, not knowing what the real guitar was.
According to Dion Dimucci, who was on the Winter Dance tour, they were all so impressed with Buddy Holly and his Fender, they all went out and got one too, but I don't think he actually said who all of "they" were, so Richie Valens might have already had one. The pic of Valens playing drums is a pretty good indicator of how much of a shambles that tour was. Almost everyone was sick with the flu and with so many people down ill, those still standing had to fill in for missing musicians for the other acts. Dimucci made special mention of Valens playing drums for Holly and I think he also said that he and members of the Belmonts did the same, when and where they could. Despite that, when you consider how young they all were back then, ( of the 3 headliners, Holly was the oldest at just 22 ) the tour must have seemed like a huge adventure at first, all blissfully unaware of the tragedy waiting just around the corner.
In that documentary Dion said that even Holly played drums for him at one venue! The Beltones drummer got frostbite on his toes....that tour was just evil.
Only just found this, Ramon! So much for my RU-vid notifications LOL. You know how much I love Ritchie V. Thoroughly enjoyed your highly informative chat; I've often wondered which guitar created these iconic sounds. ¡Gracias mi hermanito! X
You can tell from the pics that Ritchie really cherishes his guitars and made full use them on stage and in studios, I think he was a natural guitarist.
Listening to “Fast Freight”, it does sound as though Ritchie is playing that Stratocaster. I would’ve been the most sure if it sounded like he was using the middle pick up, which would not sound the same as the middle position on his arch top guitars.
After Carl Bunch was taken to hospital due to frostbite, Ritchie and Buddy played drums for the acts. The photo of Ritchie on drums is him, most likely, playing with Buddy as the photo also includes Tommy Allsup and Waylon Jennings.
Great video and really interesting seeing the guitars he used the gretsch 6120 I would say it was borrowed from else where while it's the same model as Eddie Cochran's Eddie altered his early on by replacing the neck pick up with a P90 and his he scratched off the colouring on the pick guard to take chet atkins name off. But a great video and thank you for putting it together Ritchie made a big impact at such a young age.
Nice video! I’ve always wondered about Ritchie’s gear. I have a 60’s Harmony 6868 Blonde Archtop that I always feel looks like the Epiphone Ritz you mentioned. That Ritz is gorgeous!
Very informative video. I was looking to find out what guitar he played for the bridge solo in Come On, Let's Go. You say it was a Harmony Stratotone. So okay. Now I know. Thank you very much.
The guitar Ritchie is playing on Fast Freight is the Gibson. When not playing live or recording, Ritchie played acoustic. The Fender Stratocaster was a guitar he received before the tour and most likely pushed by Buddy Holly. There's nothing but Fender in those photos of the last tour including Dion (look close} Waylon Jennings, Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens. All the amps are Fenders. Ritchie used tremolo and used it well but never used a whammy bar.
Hey Ramon, just a quick question (slightly off topic) maybe you could answer, which Les Paul is Eric Clapton using in the video for I Feel Free? Is that the guitar he recorded Fresh Cream with? Or is it the Beano Burst? Anything would help thanks :)
Interesting vid Ramon. What's your take on the stratotone? I think they look cool and would really like to get my hands on one but they are hard to come by and not cheap anymore!
You most likely won't see this but if you do, you should be more specific, yes he is from the San fernando Valley but there are other cities there, he specifically is from Pacoima
if you look at eddies guitar and richies guitar they are clearly not the same. richies guitar still has the diarmond pickup in the neck position whereas eddie had replaced that pickup on his with a P90
