CL APTON’S HIDEAWAY
The tone EC achieved on the ‘Beano’ album has become a benchmark for how a ’Burst and a Marshall should sound together. But it’s a little more complex than that...
Few guitarists will forget the first time they heard Clapton’s ecstatic playing on the track Hideaway from the Bluesbreakers’ ‘Beano’ album. The tone EC achieved on that record has become one of the classic archetypes for how an electric guitar should sound. His Les Paul is pushed hard, its voice a full-throated yet expressive song – with the dynamics to reveal the nuance of every phrase – but enough sustaining compression to really take flight when Eric lets rip.
The basics of how he got that sound, in terms of gear, are known. The guitar used was, of course, the ‘Beano ’Burst’ whose current whereabouts are unknown (though widely speculated upon). Stuart Robson of Sunbear Pickups, a tone archivist by trade, fills in some of the other details of the guitar, both documented and conjectured: “When it comes to Clapton’s long lost ‘Beano ’Burst’, speaking in absolutes is rarely, if ever, possible. After all, this ’Burst, which helped inspire so many to pick up the guitar themselves hasn’t been seen in 57 years. With that said, it’s broadly agreed that this Les Paul, with its double black [bridge] and double white [neck] PAF pickup set was a 1960. This helps us a little when it comes to its pickups but not quite as much as it might first appear.
“Some key changes occurred at Gibson through 1960, so the elusive detail of precisely when the guitar was built leaves us relying just as much on the recordings themselves as anything else, and what recordings they are! To my ear, this Les Paul has the certain strident ‘shouty’ edge common to later PAF specs and this leads me to feel the coils were probably quite even, Leesona-wound spec, likely Alnico V magnets and a moderate-to-high wind in the PAF range of the time.
“The guitar howls and responds in Clapton’s hands as few things can more than a classic, unpotted PAF and regardless of the specifics, they were clearly a pair that exhibited much of what made these sometimes inconsistent pickups so legendary.”
The amp used was, famously a Model 1962 Marshall combo with two 12-inch speakers that was effectively a JTM45 in combo format. But Adrian Emsley of Orange Amps cautions that, when trying to achieve Clapton’s sound on the album, you have to factor in the compressors and mic preamps used for the session – things that aren’t usually on guitar players’ radars but which were just as present and influential in the signal chain as any other element.
“People will go, ‘Oh, I have a JTM45, I have a Les Paul, but it doesn’t sound like Bluesbreakers,’ and that’s because you haven’t got a mic-preamp with 48-volt rails going into a [Teletronix] LA-2A Leveling Amplifier [compressor] going into a tape machine. That is a massive part of it,” Adrian explains, with a wry smile. “In the 1970s, that became an [Universal Audio] 1176. But it’s still the same. Back then it was literally: microphone, mic pre, line level, compressor, tape machine.”
blues scene. Most followed a path that strayed from the blues with The Rolling Stones arguably managing to maintain their own blues roots more than the others.
New influences were making their way over from the States at the same time. Soul and Motown sounds were becoming popular but kept only tentative links to blues. Artists such as James Brown were taking soul in another direction and inventing funk in the process. All made a big impact on British music and threatened to kill off the hardcore blues scene were it not for the likes of Alexis Korner and John Mayall who remained steadfastly loyal to the blues.
Had they decided to ‘sell out’, the British Blues Boom might have ended there. But with the release of the iconic ‘Beano’ album, a new strand of blues was created that paved the way for groups such as Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple, Fleetwood Mac and Black Sabbath to conquer the 1970s. Each of these put their blues roots before commercial pressures and managed to find huge audiences as a result.
OUT OF OBSCURITY
The story of the British Blues Boom isn’t without its ironies. Artists such as Buddy Guy, BB King and others enjoyed a whole new career path as a result of it. Many great and important American blues musicians struggled with the advent of rock ’n’ roll, a genre that stemmed directly from blues. Many had to give up music as a full-time job and many were ‘rescued’ from obscurity after a bunch of British
“New influences were making their way from the US, taking soul in another direction and inventing funk in the process”
lads took American music back to where it had originated and reminded Americans that many of those originators were still alive and kicking.
But perhaps the most poignant part of the story is that of Jimi Hendrix. An obvious supreme talent who, had he never been ‘discovered’ playing a small club in New York in 1966, would still have been able to boast an impressive CV. He’d already played and toured with a veritable who’s-who of American soul and rock ’n’ roll stars such as Little Richard, The Isley Brothers, Ike and Tina Turner, Wilson Pickett, Sam Cooke and Jackie Wilson, but he was yet still unnoticed for his genius and was always constantly broke financially.
When Chas Chandler, bassist from The Animals, saw him for the first time he couldn’t believe that Hendrix hadn’t been signed up for stardom. Recognising that the music scene in Britain that had been kickstarted by Jimi’s predecessors might be the answer, he soon had him on a plane to London to find out.
Within days Jimi was being hailed as a messiah by every blues and rock star that saw him play. Here, suddenly, was a genuine, authentic blues musician of their generation! The British
Blues Boom had unwittingly created a space for this unknown American to find his voice. Jimi’s arrival gave British music a shot of adrenaline that it wasn’t primed for.
It would likely never have happened for Jimi Hendrix in his native country, yet within nine months he was back in the States as a superstar, leaving Americans wondering how they could have missed out on him before he’d left. It definitely wouldn’t have happened for Jimi in the UK had the interlinking strands of traditional jazz, blues, skiffle and rock ’n’ roll not created the perfect platform for him to ride in on. It was a scene that originated from an interest in folk blues and early jazz going back to the 1930s before crossing the Atlantic – constantly being fuelled by small groups of enthusiasts huddled around a 78rpm record player listening to whatever discs they could lay their hands upon.
As it gathered pace in pubs, clubs and dance halls, it was inevitable that the surviving pioneers would be sucked in eventually, where, from there, it took on a life of its own in the ensuing decade. A generation of young musicians were transfixed, and, without realising it at the time, forged a new music for the world – a music that was revolutionary and pioneering in its own right yet never lost its respect in those who had created it.
“Jimi was hailed as a messiah by every blues and rock star. Here was a genuine, authentic blues musician of their generation!”