My trip to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (pics)

bluechargeboy

Yesterday I went to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland Ohio. I was expecting to be unimpressed and cynical, but that changed as soon as laid eyes on Muddy Waters' guitar, and then I was propelled into awe by Hendrix's flying V (and costume!) from the IoW festival. These are the tools that were used to create the music that inspired young me to pick up a guitar.

There are loads of (somewhat blurry phone) pics here and some are shown below:

DulcetJones

That's some serious cool history there.  Is the last one an experiment Les Paul was working on?

mart

Eek, what's that horrible guitar at the end? Almost looks like someone has cut a decent guitar in half and stuck a railway sleeper in the middle of it!

bluechargeboy

That would be Les Paul's guitar called the Clunker!

Neil

Great pics, thanks for posting.

Jimi's suit, Muddy's Tele, Messrs Thunder's and Ramone's guitars, Lennon's Ricky etc etc.

You must have loved it. 

bluechargeboy

Muddy's tele was exuding mojo, I made an intense study of it!

The Eddie Cochran guitar was recovered from the crash that killed him in 1960. It was mint.

There was loads more: Bo Diddley guitars, plus more recent stuff like Metallica stage props (scales of justice), Wacko's silver glove, Bowie outfits, Lady Gaga & Rihanna guff, Van Halen drum kit etc etc....

Although in a way I was saddened that all these old guitars with stuff like OBL pickups were just sat there behind glass.

And the Simon & Garfunkel section was rubbish.

xmrchi

Amazing, thankyou for sneaking the pictures!

Misterg

Wow!

Babones

Love MW's Tele.

richardhomer

Muddy Waters supported Eric Clapton on a UK tour - I saw him with the red Tele at the Manchester Apollo. I was about 14 - I was probably a bit young to realise his significance at the time....

bluechargeboy

Me too @Babones!

stonevibe

I though Seymour Duncan now owned Beck's Esquire?

bluechargeboy

richardhomer said:

Muddy Waters supported Eric Clapton on a UK tour - I saw him with the red Tele at the Manchester Apollo. I was about 14 - I was probably a bit young to realise his significance at the time....

I was only 2 1/2 when Muddy died but my Dad got me into him; he used to go and watch the likes of John Lee Hooker playing in Manchester/Blackburn when he was a young'un. Apparently they all used to stand at the back and attempt to play along on their harmonicas!

So although I don't listen to this kind of stuff any more, this is the soundtrack of my early guitaring life, hence the uncharacteristic enthusiasm on my part.

bluechargeboy

stonevibe said:

I though Seymour Duncan now owned Beck's Esquire?

Isn't it the tele-gib that he owns?

bluechargeboy

@stonevibe:

It is at the RnR HoF now:

http://iconicaxes.blogspot.co.uk/2012/09/jeff-beck-1954-fender-esquire.html

I only had their word for it that these are all real guitars and not replicas!

stickyfiddle

That Tele has 6 saddles so it must sound shit

But seriously, that looks brilliant. You should go to the Hard Rock Vault on Park Lane and get your mitts on Hendrix's other V...

stonevibe

bluechargeboy said:

@stonevibe:

It is at the RnR HoF now:

http://iconicaxes.blogspot.co.uk/2012/09/jeff-beck-1954-fender-esquire.html

I only had their word for it that these are all real guitars and not replicas!

I suppose Seymour would take it out the vault for the right price...

bluechargeboy

By the way I was in Cleveland for a week (business trip) and they have some of the worst food (and fattest people) of anywhere I've been. It's all corn and fried potatoes, Mexican slop and muffins. I didn't see a carrot all week. Having a vegetable rehab programme since I got home!