1 Sept 14

JAZZ GUITAR LEGEND LOUIS STEWART and THE LOAR LH-700
Here is Louis with his new The Loar LH-700-VS from the batch that arrived here recently - In his own words:
“I love it..it exceeded my expectations.” http://louisstewart.net/

11 Nov 13

Recording King: The Brand, The Instruments, The Legacy

A brief history of the Recording King brand from its roots in one of America’s finest guitar manufacturers to its reestablishment in 2007

Recording King form part of our acoustic electro guitar offering as well as being the primary brand for resonator guitars. Today we’d like to celebrate Recording King with a potted history of the brand.

One Hell of a Famous Dad

Recording King was conceived as a sub brand of Gibson which developed in the late 1920s/early 1930s. Although Gibson is known for its electric guitars the business actually began with a mandolin. Electric steel guitars and banjos followed before Gibson began manufacturing banjos and guitars under the Recording King name.

Recording King are the more affordable offspring of Gibson embodying the style and engineering of Gibson’s original guitars without the price tag. Despite being sold off by Gibson current Recording King instruments maintain the essence of their Gibson parentage. 

Where It All Began

Recording King instruments are synonymous with Montgomery Ward department stores and indeed you cant tell their history without mentioning the retailer. The first Recording King banjos were produced by Gibson for Montgomery Ward in 1929. The success of this first batch led to a long and prosperous relationship between manufacturer and retailer that saw Gibson also supply guitars and mandolins. The instruments were sold as a sort of high quality own brand range of Montgomery Ward.

Though these were high quality guitars within the Montgomery Ward stocks they represent the budget end of Gibson’s guitars. They’re distinguishable from Gibson’s other instruments by the lack of adjustable truss rod which Gibson patented and included in all its other guitars. This difference in the Recording King brand meant they were much cheaper to produce and thus brought the price down for the customer.

The exclusive partnership between Gibson and Montgomery Ward continued until 1940 whereupon World War 2 put a halt to the manufacture of guitars as wood and metal were required for the war effort. 

Growth of the Brand

From the first banjos Recording Kings range expanded to guitars, resonators and mandolins. Special lap steel guitars are also now available too. The partnership with Montgomery Ward established the brand within America.

The guitars produced for Montgomery Ward all generally had very short runs, with a new model available in the next season. As a result specific models of these early guitars are extremely rare and have found status as collectors items.

Manufacturing of guitars halted during World War 2 damaging the growth of the brand. The partnership with Montgomery Ward wasn’t resumed after the war and the brand lay dormant.

In 2007 Recording King were acquired by Johnson Guitars who in turn are owned by Music Link and once again began producing instruments. Their output is based on original designs made in the same style as their pre-World War 2 guitars.

Brand Ethos

Gibson, in supplying simpler versions of their famous guitars to Montgomery Ward, established Recording King as a brand that allowed people with less disposable cash access to high quality instruments.

What’s interesting though is that Gibson hid their connection with Montgomery Ward. In advertising campaigns from the time Recording King instruments were sold as ‘nationally famous’ or made by ‘nationally known maker’. That early separation of the two brands has continued and you won‘t find reference to Recording King on Gibsons website or vice versa.

Recording King’s self professed vision for the brand is to build guitars that are special to the player, are built to last and that eventually get passed on to the next generation.

Today Recording King produces some of the best quality acoustic guitars, resonator guitars and banjos in their own modern purpose built factory in China. This sets them apart from apart from the many lesser quality brands which all subcontract to the same factories giving their instruments a generic feel.

Recording King employ an experienced team of instrument designers from the industry in the United States, among them Greg Rich, who has designed instruments for such people as Earl Scruggs, Slash and Paul McCartney. 

His extensive reasearch on Montgomery Ward has been utilised here.

10 Nov 13

Sweeneys Men and the first Bouzouki

Since the previous post  this Bouzouki has surfaced.

 I was delighted to find out during the week that Sweeneys Men (L – R Andy Irvine,Terry Woods & Johnny Moynihan) one of the first
folk groups from the 1960’s are to to reform for a concert here in Galway next Friday.By coincidence Johnny Moynihan dropped
in for strings yesterday with a bouzouki thats been with him all that time,made 50 years ago in 1963 by John Bailey.
Johnny told me it was the first flat back bouzouki ever to be made,and kindly allowed me to to take some photographs – half
way through string change!

 28 Oct 13

Thanks to ANA RICHINGS for her guest post below about bouzoukis.Ana is a fan of Irish folk music and story telling and has recently taken up the bouzouki.

How the Irish Bouzouki Developed From Ancient Greece

Follow the progress of the Irish bouzouki from its roots in the Eastern oud and Greek loot to todays 8 string 

The Irish bouzouki has a long and interesting history that sees the beginnings of the stringed instrument in Ancient Greece, weathering war, exodus and adaptation to be the instrument we know today.

The history of the Greek bouzouki

Bouzoukis are broadly known as a stringed instrument with a long neck and bulbous body. There are two varieties, the trichordo which has 3 pairs of strings aka  courses  i.e. 6 strings in total and the tetrachordo which has 4 courses i.e. 8 strings in total. The tetrachordo is the most recently developed, joining its three string brother in the mid 1900s. Prior to this the instrument underwent several other changes.

The bouzouki is closely related to the lute and the oud which are rooted in Southern Europe, northern Africa and the Near East. The bouzouki itself can be traced to the thabouras, of the lute family, which was played in Byzantine times when Greece and Turkey were one. Despite the fall, rise and subsequent second fall of the Byzantine Empire it wasn’t until the Greco-Turkish war 1919 1922  when the Greeks in Asia Minor fled back to Greece that the bouzouki became a distinct instrument separate to other variations on the design.

As mentioned above the bouzouki is originally a three course instrument that spawned a four course instrument in the 1950s.

The difference between Irish and Greek bouzoukis

The Irish version of the bouzouki is in its relative infancy compared to the Greek instrument however both have undergone changes to become what they are now. Most notably the Irish version has a flatter back on the usually deeply rounded body.

The Greek bouzouki can have 6 or 8 strings whereas the Irish one always has an 8 string set up aka tetrachordo. The Greek instrument also has a longer scale or neck.

Apart from differences in their physical appearance the two regional bouzoukis also sound different. They are tuned different with the Irish classic tuning being G₂D₃A₃D₄ and the Greek tuning being C₃F₃A₃D₄ and D₃A₃D₄ for the 4 course and 3 course respectively. Some people feel the Irish tuning is actually quite close to the tuning of the original 3 course Greek bouzouki.

The bouzouki comes to Ireland

Johnny Moynihan is credited with bringing the four course tetrachordo bouzouki to Ireland in 1965 (I believe he denies this, edit Kieran). At first the original Greek instrument was played to produce traditional Irish music but very quickly it became apparent that adaptations were required. 

 Early Footage of One of the First Irish Bouzoukis

Here’s an early example of the bouzouki in Irish music, filmed in 1973, around 10 years after Moynihan first introduced the instrument to Ireland:

www.youtube.com/embed/4vQvr3iiZOY