I must admit that I am not very knowledgeable on the subject of blues music, but that was a truly beautiful piece, smooth, soulful and haunting. For some reason it made me rather sad. Perhaps it was because of the background on Mike Bloomfield that you were kind enough to fill me in on, and the fact that such a talent died way before his time.
How wonderful for you that you have the talent to play the guitar professionally and that you were lucky enough to win a Les Paul Gibson guitar. It sounds as though your additions to it has made it even more of a treasure. I hope that you are successful in the formation of your group.
I remember seeing a Gibson guitar on Antique Roadshow that dated to the 1950’s. I can’t remember the details, but I know that the appraiser was impressed.
UPDATE: If your interested, here is the site with the details on that show. What would I do without the Internet and Google. LOL!
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/roadshow/archive/200706A21.html
How wonderful for you that you have the talent to play the guitar professionally and that you were lucky enough to win a Les Paul Gibson guitar. It sounds as though your additions to it has made it even more of a treasure. I hope that you are successful in the formation of your group.I consider it a blessing that I can play. Especially after a seven-year layoff while I sorted out some personal problems and fought a battle against clinical depression. I began playing in earnest again last year. So far, I've found a keyboard player/singer who'll be ready to go after she finishes her work preparing for a major blues show come September; I need only a bassist, drummer, and harmonica player, and if they all sing even better because at best I'm good for a guide vocal when I write my songs and that's about it.
I remember seeing a Gibson guitar on Antique Roadshow that dated to the 1950’s. I can’t remember the details, but I know that the appraiser was impressed.Thanks so for that show detail!
Now, here's one to break your heart or have me committed, whichever comes first---Back in 1998, when I bought a Gibson SG Custom (I had to sell it a few years ago when I needed money badly), I also had a) a little money to burn, and b) a chance to buy an original Les Paul---a 1952 model stamped "PROTOTYPE" on the back of the headstock---from a dealer who was asking 1) a mere $3,000 for the guitar itself (which was still very playable and all the electronics still in shape), and 2) a mere $300 to refinish the surface to its original goldtop. (The finish needed reworking badly.)
He took it out of its glass case and let me play it awhile. So help me it played like butter on an English muffin. And I wrenched and wrestled with myself and . . . chickened out.
I've been killing myself over it ever since. It would have been a beautiful instrument living a lot longer than its forty-six years at the time, and it would be worth six figures today if you're into that sort of thing.
Gibson struck a limited edition reproduction of that original Les Paul model, called the Tribute. I've played one. It's a beautiful guitar. But a little too rich for my blood right now.
Mike Bloomfield played "Really" on his 1959 Les Paul Standard. (When he got it, you could only find Les Pauls used or in pawn shops---Gibson stopped making the style in 1960, substituting the SG style as the Les Paul model until Les Paul himself withdrew his name because he disliked the new model---and it was thanks largely to Bloomfield's influence, plus Eric Clapton [using one in John Mayall's group], Peter Green [with Mayall and with Fleetwood Mac], and Jeff Beck using the guitars as well, that public demand finally prodded Gibson to reintroduce the original Les Paul style to stay in 1968.)
He used that guitar from his final Butterfield Blues Band days through the mid-to-late 1970s. He'd gotten it in a trade for $100 and his first Les Paul, a 1954 goldtop that he used to make the Butterfield landmark East-West. Gibson struck a tribute reproduction of that '59 Les Paul by way of hundreds of photographs provided by Bloomfield's brother, since the actual guitar was lost. They reproduced it right down to the mismatched volume and tone knobs (one has a chrome top, two are the top-hat shaped knobs, and the fourth is a top hat encased entirely in acrylic cap) and the crack in the wood behind the tailpiece.
Here's one more Bloomfield vintage for you, played on that same '59 Standard:
Mike Bloomfield and Friends, "Carmelita Skiffle"
This is from Live at Bill Graham's Fillmore West, a 1969 concert set that was remastered and re-released last year . . . by Australia's Raven label. (Bloomfield named the song, a nice, swinging blues jam, after the San Francisco street on which he lived.) The whole set is worth having, particularly for Taj Mahal's guest vocal on "One More Mile" . . . and the lost (it wasn't on the original vinyl release) "Blues from the Westside."