Claescaster

Category: Youtube

Guitar of the day

Jimi Hendrix 1967 Gibson SG Custom
Jimi Hendrix 1967 Gibson SG Custom

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Jimi Hendrix on his 1967 Gibson SG Custom

Jimi Hendrix 1967 Gibson SG Custom

https://youtu.be/gYC0CzGSGSo

Jimi Hendrix playing Redhouse live in Sweden Jan 9th 1969

Movie of the day

Jethro Tull Ian Anderson

I really liked Jethro Tull when I was a teenager, especially Ian Anderson’s acoustic guitar playing. The extracts from Thick As A Brick are pretty awesome in this live concert from 1977.

Rod Stewart

Rod Stewart drinking Hein

I was raised on Rod Stewart. It’s the only music that was ever played out loud in my house when I grew up. Weekend mornings back in Södertälje and my mum would dazzle my young innocent mind with the raspy voice of Rod Stewart while she was cleaning the house. I guess I kind of always liked it but since she preferred the late Seventies stuff I didn’t fully understand how good he was until I decided to find out for myself. I bought his 1971 album Every Picture Tells a Story when I was about 17-18 years old and was hooked straight away and bought everything I could find, both Rod Stewart solo and with The Faces. Well everything I could find up until his 1974 album Smiler, after that he left The Faces and moved to America and made Atlantic Crossing and the Rod I knew and loved was gone. Out of my old heroes I guess it’s just Rod Stewart, with and without The Faces, and Crosby, Stills & Nash that I still really care about. Here is a longer post about Rod Stewart that I wrote for my other blog.

Rod Stewart - Every picture tells a storyThe record that changed my life, Rod Stewart’s 1971 album Every Picture Tells a Story

One of the reasons why I love Rod

Grab yourself a drink and start the night with this concert

The Faces live at The Marquee Club 1970
https://youtu.be/YgLqxKlmPYI

Rig Rundown

I really like Premier Guitar’s series Rig Rundown. Well there is an awful lot of pedals and crap that I don’t really care much for but I like to see the guitars and hear them talk about their equipment, or rather hear their guitar technicians talk about it. Here are just a couple but if you search for Rig Rundown in Youtube you can find a lot more. I have to say that I never cared much for Joe Bonamassa but after hearing what he brings on tour, two real 59′ bursts, and how passionate he is about vintage guitars, I’ve changed my opinion. I truly believe that old guitars were made to be played and I really like that Joe and his crew has been invited to see and often play 75 original 59′ burst so far, apparently only 643 sunburst guitars were made in 1959 and only 53% is accounted for. It’s a weird world we live in where collectors sit on guitars that never see the light of day and real musicians are too scared of taking anything else than re-issues on tour. Hats off to Joe Bonamassa for still playing the real thing and I do understand why people come up to him and lend him famous guitars to play, like when the Kossoff family let him play Paul Kossoff’s 1959 Les Paul.

Movie of the day

Hank Williams
Hank Williams, one of country musics early super stars

Araceli and I watched this BBC documentary last weekend and it was pretty good. If you are not much of a country fan it could work pretty well as an introduction to, The Joy Of Country.

http://youtu.be/81CH8Yn0Vw8

Levin LT-16

Levin LT-16 Made in Sweden 1966Levin LT-16 Made in Sweden 1966

When I grew up back in Sweden we always had this old acoustic guitar standing in a corner. It was from my father and I never knew what make it was or how old it could be, my mum just told me that my dad bought it second hand in the early Seventies. Someone had sanded off the name on the headstock and taken off the sticker inside before my dad had bought it. I learned to play on this guitar and it’s still one of my favourites because of the thin neck and slightly smaller body. I recently had an epiphany and found out what guitar it is. About a month ago my girlfriend and I was watching a film and suddenly I got this weird feeling that I actually knew what make my dad’s acoustic guitar is, I recognised the head shape.  I was convinced, it’s an old Levin. I have always thought that it was a Japanese guitar since the pickup looks like one of those Japanese gold foil pickups from the Sixties. I stopped the film and started to search for Sixties Levin guitars and managed to find a very similar one in a vintage guitar shop in Stockholm. I found some more info on the model and now even the serial number on top of the head made sense. It is a Levin LT-16 made in Göteborg, Sweden in 1966. The nickel plated individual Van Gent tuners with metal buttons can be found on Hagström guitars from this time as well. I wish that we would have taken better care of it over the years and that I wouldn’t have been so hard with the pic when I first learned to play but at least now after more than four decades of family confusion we know what it is. It’s a Swedish Levin.

Levin LT-16 Made in Sweden 1966

Levin LT-16 / Goya T-16
Grand Concert size: Body width: 380 mm, body length: 480 mm, body depth: 98 mm
Fingerboard width: 43 mm, scale length: 630 mm
Spruce top, mahogany back and sides, 4-ply bound top, single-bound back
Mahogany bolt-on neck with adjustable truss rod
Single-bound rosewood fingerboard with bass side pearloid dot inlay.
Rosewood bridge, nickel plated individual Van Gent tuners with metal buttons
Matte natural finish and ten year warranty