Another 'bluesy' song recorded by Glenn, as opposed to R&B, is his duet with BB King on BB's 80 album, Drivin' Wheel. Although he only sings one verse he does play some tasty guitar. It appears he played his Sunburst on the song.
Another 'bluesy' song recorded by Glenn, as opposed to R&B, is his duet with BB King on BB's 80 album, Drivin' Wheel. Although he only sings one verse he does play some tasty guitar. It appears he played his Sunburst on the song.
I thought I'd discuss gear, in particular Glenn's guitars, amps, effects, etc!
Glenn has always used a Fender non-reverb Blackface Deluxe onstage since I can remember, especially since the late 70s and for sure throughout HFO-to-present day. His pedals are very simple. Usually a couple of delays, a chorus, and a boost for solos. He doesn't need much (compared to Joe, Felder, or Stu) but they work great for him. The last pic of his board had two BOSS DD-3 delays, a BOSS CH-1 chorus, and a BOSS DS-1 distortion for lead boost. He runs his amp kind of broken up and then uses the volume control and the DS-1 for solos.
Where as Joe mainly runs BIG Fender Twin Reverbs and Super Reverbs clean live and uses the pedals for gain (he uses the BOSS OD-3 and OS-2 both on his board and also has been using a Voodoo Lab Sparkle Drive recently in place of the OD-3. He used to use the old BOSS HM-2 pedal back in the day and a Ibanez TS-9 as well.) which is the way I personally run my amps, run them clean with little or no breakup and then use pedals for a variety of gain sounds. It makes it easier to cover more range tone-wise and get those sounds from the record. I'm a big stickler for making the live show sound exactly like the record and of course the Eagles with Joe are pretty famous for that too, so that's why you go down the path of using so many pedals to cover more range to nail the sounds from the tracks.
Glenn's rig has always been very simple. Usually a Les Paul (either Standard in Sunburst or Old Black - the modified Junior) or a Telecaster (either brown Sunburst or yellow/natural) through a couple of BOSS pedals into his Blackface non-reverb Fender Deluxe. He did use a Gibson 335 for a short while in the late 70s/early 80s - especially during his solo career. He also used an Gibson SG Junior for a short while in the 70s.
Everyone that is a guitar fan or nerd or player usually has a specific setup when they think of a player. IE, they think of a Strat and a Super Reverb when they think of Stevie Ray Vaughan. When I think of Glenn, I think that Black Gibson Les Paul Junior through that Fender Blackface Deluxe.
When I think of Joe I think of a Sunburst Les Paul through a Fender Blackface Super or Twin Reverb. Joe will always be the Les Paul guy for me even though he has played Fender's heavily (both Strats and Teles). He is the reason I started and the reason I got into Les Pauls so much.
When I think of Felder, I think of a Gibson EDS-1275 through a Fender Blackface Deluxe Reverb or Tweed Deluxe. Felder did play Les Pauls and Stratocasters but that doubleneck 1275 is what I think of when I think of Don Felder or think of the guitar, I think of him.
But I wonder what the love affair with Takamine guitars is? Felder said that Glenn just went ahead and signed the Eagles up to Takamine as a promotional deal when they reformed in 94. 18 years later they still use them when there are far better American guitars available such as Taylor and Martin. But then the Eagles is Glenns band, he put them together and even Henley acknowledges this. So when it comes to making decisions, I suppose Glenn is quite entitled to do that and to be frank, he hasnt done a bad job on the business side either!
You can say that again, RC! Glenn is quite the business man and perhaps the Takemine deal was just that - a good business decision. Although, I assume Glenn (and the other band members) must certainly like the guitars. I can't see them continuing to play them if they believed they weren't up to their standards.
Also, in fairness, I think we should point out that Don is also involved in the business dealings of the band, so we can't give all the credit to Glenn. I believe they try to operate as a partnership and Don always has a word in what goes down - just not the final word.
"People don't run out of dreams: People just run out of time ..."
Glenn Frey 11/06/1948 - 01/18/2016
Well yes, there is a Glenn Frey model Takamine on sale now.
They play Takamine acoustics. RC will have to correct me if I'm wrong, but I think that was implied. I am not even aware that Takamine make purely electric guitars. They do make acoustic-electric guitars.
http://www.musicianshut.com/about-takamine-guitars
In his book, Felder takes a shot at a 'cheap Japanese guitar' they gave Bill Clinton to sign when Felder thought the guitar should have been American. In my opinion Felder does not come off very well in his description of this (page 280). Whether they should or should not use Japanese guitars is not for someone like me to debate.
In any case they were using Takamines before the split. See page 211 of Heaven & Hell for Felder's charming description of the Takamine he smashed up at 'Wrong Beach'.
Last edited by Freypower; 01-28-2012 at 05:40 PM.
FP I have to agree with Felder in this case. Why give a Japanese guitar to the US President? I agree it should have been an American made guitar. I believe it was a gift to Clinton that the band signed. Felder said that Frey had a deal with Takamine. I'm not sure that deal included the rest of the band. I don't believe I've seen Felder or Walsh play Takamine guitars, but I'm not sure.In his book, Felder takes a shot at a 'cheap Japanese guitar' they gave Bill Clinton to sign when Felder thought the guitar should have been American. In my opinion Felder does not come off very well in his description of this (page 280). Whether they should or should not use Japanese guitars is not for someone like me to debate.
Is Clinton much of a guitar player? If not, why would they waste a really good one on him? Moreover, theoretically, the case could be made that the gift of a foreign-made guitar could be seen as politically appropriate when considering both the gifters and giftee, but i'm not the one who's going to make that case . . .
I think Glenn played a 12-string Takamine on DKRC