Merle Travis - Musical Giant & Architect of the Solid Body Guitar - Ask Zac 156

well hello friends and welcome to Ask
0:16
Zac
0:18
I'm guessing many of you have seen all
0:20
these uh you know it's very hip right
0:22
now to have these kind of what ifs or
0:24
alternate realities where you know one
0:27
thing has changed and everything else
0:30
you know changes in the uh timeline
0:34
there's one guitarist that if you
0:37
removed him you wouldn't have Chet
0:41
Atkins among many other guitar players
0:43
and just as significant you probably
0:47
wouldn't have the Fender Telecaster or
0:49
the Stratocaster or the Gibson Les Paul
0:51
guitars
0:53
that person that's such a linchpin in
0:56
the history of guitar playing of
0:58
electric guitar playing is Merle Travis
1:01
Merle Travis was a hugely influential
1:04
guitarist
1:05
and he is mostly uncredited As to his
1:11
importance in the birth of the solid
1:13
body guitar
1:15
so we're going to rectify that today
1:17
we're also going to have a book Nook
1:20
segment in which we're going to talk
1:22
about uh you know a very essential
1:27
element and and research point for uh
1:30
for this episode and that's the Merle
1:32
Travis Story by Merle Travis and Deke
1:35
Dickerson so
1:37
first off I need to thank the sponsor of
1:40
today's episode true fire
1:42
I love TruFire they have the most
1:46
amazing collection of artists that are
1:49
teaching their lessons
1:51
and beyond that they have the most
1:54
Fantastical and easy to use interface
1:58
pertaining to today's episode they have
2:01
a series with Tom Brash who of course is
2:04
Merle Travis's son and he teaches the
2:09
late Tom brush taught an entire series
2:12
on how to play like Merle Travis so
2:15
that's a wonderful thing so if you're
2:18
interested use the link down in the
2:21
description and use the discount code
2:24
ask zack30 to get 30 off all right let's
2:28
dig in
2:30
so Merle Travis was born in Rosewood
2:33
Kentucky that's in Muhlenberg County and
2:37
some of you may know about Muhlenberg
2:38
because of the John Prine tune which is
2:43
significant but Muhlenberg County is
2:46
actually more significant for its guitar
2:48
players and the guitar style the
2:51
indigenous guitar style that came out of
2:53
that area
2:54
so Merle was born November 29th in 1917
2:59
there and he grew up very poor and he
3:02
was surrounded by the Muhlenberg County
3:05
guitar style which was the use of a
3:08
thumb pick and a single finger and this
3:11
was played by many of the coal miners
3:13
and they would they would work in the
3:16
coal mines and then on the evenings and
3:19
on weekends they would perform
3:22
and Merle absorbed this style learned a
3:27
lot of the tunes
3:28
and he decided he wasn't going to be a
3:31
coal miner
3:32
he decided that he was going to be a
3:34
full-time Entertainer
3:36
and so he learned and probably the two
3:39
best known and I guess most important
3:43
you know players of this style that
3:45
Merle learned from or Moe's rhaeger and
3:47
Ike Everly of course Pike Everly
3:49
was the the father of the Everly
3:51
Brothers and so he learned the
3:54
Muhlenberg County guitar style which was
3:57
playing the bass line with your thumb
3:59
and then adding kind of Rhythm and
4:03
Melody using your your first finger and
4:06
so that's the that's the style and
4:08
that's the way everyone played just
4:09
using the thumb and a single finger it
4:11
wasn't until later you know guys like
4:12
Chet Atkins and others started adding in
4:14
other fingers to the style but uh
4:18
yeah Merle was the guy that got out and
4:22
took the style of guitar playing to the
4:25
rest of the country so first he started
4:27
kind of touring regionally and he
4:30
started to kind of expanding you know
4:32
beyond that he uh he was one of the
4:35
first country performers to uh
4:38
add a pickup to his arch Top guitar so
4:41
he got a de-armond floating pickup in
4:44
1939 and added it on and making him one
4:47
of the earlier electric guitar players
4:50
of course that was after Charlie
4:52
Christian but probably one of the
4:54
earlier uh country music you know
4:57
performers that was using the electric
4:58
guitar with an amplifier
5:01
and continue to kind of do that that
5:04
thing and tour and play on on you know
5:07
live radio
5:08
and where his career really gets into
5:10
high gear is when he gets tired of that
5:14
area of the country the central United
5:17
States and the and the kind of the South
5:19
that he's been touring in he decides to
5:23
leave and go out to the land of promise
5:26
which is California and this is in the
5:28
in the 1940s now just to give you a
5:31
little bit of background
5:32
um California at that time was really
5:35
seen as the real land of opportunity in
5:40
the U.S throughout the the depression of
5:43
the 1930s many immigrants many uh many
5:49
from Oklahoma Okies arkeys from Arkansas
5:53
all you know we're uh we're starving to
5:56
death and they all moved out to uh to
6:00
California to work in the fields usually
6:02
picking uh you know vegetables fruit
6:05
whatever it was and uh
6:08
and then even into the 1940s it
6:12
continued to be kind of the land of
6:14
opportunity because of all the defense
6:16
plants that uh were built up during the
6:20
second world war and so there were jobs
6:23
there was money to be made and there was
6:28
just again opportunity in California
6:31
so during the second World War
6:35
you know he uh he moves out you know
6:37
Merle Travis moves out to California and
6:40
because the defense plants are running
6:42
like two and three shifts there's always
6:45
you know people wanting to blow off
6:47
steam after working in the plant and
6:49
they want to you know drink beer and
6:52
dance and listen to good country music
6:56
and so that's what Merle did he uh he
6:59
entertained the uh the hard-working
7:01
people that were you know helping with
7:04
the war effort
7:06
so uh once the the war ends he continues
7:10
to perform he starts being on you know
7:13
live radio shows which are kind of a
7:15
staple during that period of time
7:17
and also ends up with a recording
7:20
contract with a young upstart label
7:23
called Capital Records uh it's hard to
7:26
think of it that way but uh you know
7:28
just a a decade or two earlier you know
7:31
we we think of Capital Records like in
7:33
the 60s because the Beach Boys and the
7:35
Beatles and and other groups or Merle
7:38
Haggard and Buck Owens but uh you know
7:40
in the in the 1940s Capital was a uh you
7:43
know small label that was you know kind
7:45
of getting off the ground and so Merle
7:48
was signed to Capital
7:49
and he uh he recorded an album called
7:53
songs from the hills and it was him
7:55
doing uh folk songs or things that or
8:00
songs that he'd written that sounded
8:02
like folk songs and probably one of the
8:05
most important songs that ended up on
8:07
that album was 16 tons which is an
8:10
incredibly important tune and of course
8:12
has been covered many many times through
8:14
the years I guess the biggest hit was
8:16
Tennessee Ernie Ford
8:17
but uh yeah Merle was continuing to
8:22
advance as a guitarist you know learning
8:25
to play you know instrumentals you know
8:27
getting better and better at his guitar
8:29
style he was getting better and better
8:31
as a songwriter he was also writing
8:34
Tunes like smoke smoke that cigarette
8:37
which was a head hit for Tex Williams or
8:40
even one of my favorite Tunes sweet
8:41
Temptation that he recorded and of
8:44
course was later recorded by Ricky
8:45
Skaggs in the 70s
8:47
and uh
8:49
you know then uh
8:50
he during this time he also
8:55
began to be
8:57
dissatisfied with his Gibson Arch top
9:01
that he had put the drum and pickup on
9:03
so he'd been using it all that time so
9:05
he was using this Gibson L10 with the
9:08
dearman pickup into one of those old
9:10
Gibson eh amplifier it's kind of like
9:13
the one Charlie Christian used
9:15
so
9:16
he began to see the steel guitar players
9:19
that he was playing with and he saw that
9:23
they didn't have problems with feedback
9:25
and they had you know longer they had
9:28
much more sustain than he had
9:31
and he uh he noticed that there was a
9:35
steel player who was one of the greats
9:37
named Joaquin Murphy and Joaquin Murphy
9:41
had a steel guitar that was built by a
9:45
motorcycle Enthusiast named Paul Bixby
9:49
so Merle and Paul meet somehow probably
9:52
through their uh both loved motorcycle
9:55
racing and they uh Merle begins you know
9:59
talking about having a solid body guitar
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built again this is in 1947.
10:07
and now there were some interesting
10:10
solid bodies made by slingerland and uh
10:14
and also from Rickenbacker but all of
10:16
them had like really small bodies and
10:18
they they weren't really
10:20
uh they didn't look really like a guitar
10:24
or they had like a really small strange
10:26
body
10:28
so Merle Drew out a uh you know what
10:32
what he wanted and one of the things he
10:35
was adamant about was he wanted
10:37
the all the machine heads all the tuners
10:40
he wanted them to be on one side he
10:42
wanted six in a line tuners because he
10:44
didn't like going back and forth when he
10:46
was you know tuning or stringing up a
10:48
guitar
10:50
so he made this drawing it was crude uh
10:54
and it's in the book that uh you you
10:57
should you should check it out and
11:00
you know Paul takes this crude drawing
11:03
and turns it into an instrument and it's
11:06
made of Bird's Eye Maple it has a six on
11:09
a headstock tuner but it has kind of a
11:11
strange looking
11:13
headstock that's kind of uh you know
11:16
overly large
11:18
so Paul ends up cutting it down into of
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course what we think of as the Bixby
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headstock aka the Strat headstock
11:28
again this is in 1947.
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Merle begins performing with the
11:35
instrument and he he likes it but he
11:39
still ends up recording more with his
11:40
Gibson l-10 there are some recordings of
11:43
him using the Bixby instrument but he he
11:46
still kind of liked the uh the arch talk
11:49
with the pickup sound
11:51
so
11:52
while he's performing with this Bixby
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solid body guitar you know probably
12:00
I can't think of anyone else because I
12:03
mean Les Paul was using the log which
12:06
was just solid down the middle and
12:07
Hollow on the sides or he's using his
12:09
Clunkers which were those instruments
12:12
that had thick Tops on them but were
12:13
still hollow body instruments this is
12:17
really I think the first you know big
12:20
performer because you have to remember
12:21
Merle was on Capitol Records and he was
12:24
on radio
12:25
and he was really the first person to
12:28
popularize the solid body electric
12:31
guitar
12:32
now here's where things get really good
12:36
a man comes out to one of Merle's shows
12:38
and his name is Leo fender
12:41
Leo Fender asks to borrow the Bixby
12:44
guitar
12:45
he brings it back a week later and he
12:49
shows his version of the instrument
12:52
and we don't know exactly what it was
12:54
but I mean it could have been one of the
12:56
snakehead ones or you know one of one of
12:59
the early versions of the of the the
13:01
singular dual pickup Esquire
13:04
so uh now
13:07
I guess let's just cut to the chase was
13:10
the Fender guitar
13:12
an exact copy of the Bixby instrument no
13:15
but it was hugely influenced by it
13:19
and I think it's
13:21
unfortunate that Merle and Paul have
13:25
kind of been
13:26
in some ways written out of the history
13:29
books now part of it has to do with
13:31
evidently
13:33
uh once Fender started having a lot of
13:36
success
13:37
um
13:38
Paul Bigsby evidently sued Fender and
13:42
lost
13:42
and I think this is where we get the
13:45
story that Leo would tell over and over
13:47
again when asked about the Bixby
13:48
instrument he would say oh I had seen it
13:52
but it was really Croatian instruments
13:55
with six on a side tuners and uh I'm
14:00
sorry I've seen the pictures of these
14:01
Croatian instruments and I'll bet you a
14:04
million dollars that uh you know Leo
14:07
Fender didn't have access to a Croatian
14:10
instrument I think that's what a lawyer
14:12
was able to use as a a way of
14:16
undermining what you know Paul was
14:19
asserting in the lawsuit
14:21
so
14:22
yeah I and I think it's just unfortunate
14:26
that Bigsby and Merle Travis are not
14:28
really given the the credit they deserve
14:31
and and am I trying to argue for any
14:33
type of monetary thing no I'm just
14:35
arguing for the due credit that Paul and
14:40
Merle deserve for their huge influence
14:43
on the Esquire broadcaster telecaster
14:46
and of course the Strat when Leo went
14:50
full on and used you know a uh A
14:53
variation of the Bixby headstock and you
14:57
know what I said earlier about the
14:59
Gibson Les Paul well if it hadn't been
15:02
for the uh for the you know broadcast or
15:05
telecaster and its popularity and its
15:08
its growth and its sales there'd be no
15:11
Gibson Les Paul guitar you know because
15:13
again that was an instrument that Gibson
15:15
came up with Les Paul had nothing to do
15:17
with that instrument except for
15:19
insisting that that awful uh tailpiece
15:22
go on it and I think the color but
15:25
otherwise you know that was an
15:27
instrument that Gibson had already
15:29
developed and it was in response to
15:31
Fender's instrument which of course
15:34
existed because of you know Leo Fender
15:39
going and seeing Merle Travis perform
15:42
so uh I guess also we'll just go ahead
15:45
and mention that of course if you guys
15:48
like the Bixby vibrato well guess what
15:51
it wouldn't be there if it weren't for
15:53
Merle Travis so Merle Travis was using
15:55
the Kaufman vibrato which instead of
15:58
going up and down like we're used to it
16:01
went sideways kind of like the sideways
16:03
vibrola that Gibson used in the 60s and
16:07
it was terrible and it didn't stay in
16:08
tune and uh Merle kind of challenged
16:12
Paul Bigsby and he said I bet you can't
16:15
make a better you know vibrato than this
16:17
and he said you know of course responded
16:20
and you know the typical you know I know
16:23
you can't yes I can you know he said
16:25
absolutely I can do it and he did
16:27
and so the Bixby vibrato exists because
16:30
of Merle Travis it was because he wanted
16:32
a vibrato that stayed in tune better
16:34
than the Kaufman and also went up and
16:37
down as far as you know pressing up and
16:39
down instead of sideways and uh it's
16:42
been quite popular and uh yeah so that's
16:46
another way in which we need to give
16:48
Merle credit
16:50
so there are some other really
16:52
interesting things and I don't want to
16:54
you know give away all the fun stuff
16:56
that's in deke's book but there's some
16:59
fun stuff where Merle did some of the
17:02
Les Paul things that that he's known for
17:05
you know such as sped up guitars where
17:08
Merle did it beforehand and that Merle
17:10
actually dated Mary Ford then known as
17:13
Colleen Summers before she ended up with
17:16
less so there's a lot of uh really
17:19
interesting stuff in in the book and so
17:21
let's just go ahead and uh and and and
17:25
plug the book so
17:29
Deke Dickerson is one of my favorite
17:31
writers and he's also a wonderful
17:33
performer and he met with Merle's
17:39
daughters and they ended up showing him
17:44
the documents the the writings that
17:47
Merle had done Merle had basically
17:49
started writing an autobiography
17:52
so every chapter of this book starts off
17:55
with Merle's writings about a certain
17:58
time period and then Deke will kind of
18:03
take things apart expound upon them and
18:06
also talk about things that Merle has
18:08
glossed over and so you learn all sorts
18:12
of wonderful things about Merle this is
18:14
this is a wonderful book it has
18:16
wonderful pictures of you know the Bixby
18:19
guitar in in various States and and
18:22
these are books that aren't anywhere
18:24
else on the internet and that's why you
18:27
know I'm not going to post them here
18:29
because I think you need to buy this
18:30
book
18:31
so it's a
18:33
wonderful lovingly well-written book I
18:37
highly recommend it there's a link in
18:39
the description uh to Amazon you know
18:42
like Amazon affiliate but also I've put
18:45
a link to deke's website so that if you
18:48
want to order a signed copy so you can
18:50
get you know those signed by Deke
18:53
Dickerson
18:54
all right
18:56
let's talk about the Merle Travis guitar
18:59
album and let's talk a little bit about
19:01
the super the famous super 400. so of
19:05
course Merle played the Bixby guitar but
19:07
kind of kept recording mostly with his
19:09
Gibson l-10 with the d-armin pickup on
19:12
it and then in 1952 he ordered his
19:16
famous super 400 guitar with his name in
19:19
the neck and all the bling and
19:21
everything else and
19:23
this blew me out of the water because I
19:26
knew that guitar had to have been very
19:27
expensive he paid one thousand seventy
19:30
dollars in 1952 for the guitar taking
19:34
inflation into account that's you know
19:36
probably over ten thousand dollars in
19:38
today's money
19:39
so uh yeah so guy goes into it Gibson
19:43
you know dealer and orders uh you know
19:46
orders a guitar for ten thousand dollars
19:48
so that's what uh that's what Merle did
19:51
and so he had that uh beautiful you know
19:55
52 super 400 with those wonderful alnaco
19:58
pickups and of course the Bixby vibrato
20:01
which he had the first one and that's
20:04
what he made
20:06
what I think is the best instrumental
20:10
guitar album of all time especially if
20:13
you take into account a clean tone
20:16
and it is the most beautiful clean tone
20:19
there has ever been recorded this is the
20:23
album
20:23
Merle the Merle Travis guitar and so
20:26
this was a result
20:28
of Ken Nelson who of course a lot of you
20:31
might know him for from producing Buck
20:34
Owens and Merle Haggard and such well
20:37
also he was you know Capital before that
20:39
he also produced you know and and worked
20:42
with Jimmy Bryant and Speedy West well
20:45
Jimmy Bryant Speedy West had had some
20:47
success on Capital with their
20:48
instrumentals
20:50
and Ken thought it'd be a great idea for
20:52
Merle who of course is a wonderful
20:54
guitar player to do an instrumental
20:55
album because mainly before that he had
20:58
been doing uh you know songs where he
21:00
was singing and playing guitar to back
21:02
himself up and wasn't really featuring
21:05
his guitar playing
21:06
so he convinced Merle to do it and so in
21:11
Hollywood California they recorded the
21:14
Merle Travis guitar and it most of the
21:18
cuts are just him playing guitar by
21:20
himself
21:22
and
21:23
they are just the most jaw-dropping
21:27
beautiful playing and tone and tunes
21:31
you're ever going to hear
21:33
and uh
21:35
I I love this album and it shocked me
21:40
um but also made sense when uh in in
21:43
deke's book he says that it was recorded
21:45
direct so there was a engineer at
21:48
Capital there in Hollywood named John
21:50
Krauss and he recorded it and Merle
21:53
tried to replicate that tone many times
21:56
you know through the years and he was
21:58
never able to get that same sound so
22:01
this is a must-have so I highly
22:05
recommend that you find it either
22:06
digitally or uh or of course vinyl and
22:11
you know mine's a later reissue probably
22:14
you know from the late 60s early 70s but
22:18
it's a it's a wonderful wonderful album
22:21
I love Merle Travis I love his style of
22:25
guitar playing
22:27
I uh I love the thump of his playing
22:31
I just I love everything about it and I
22:35
hope that you will take the time I hope
22:37
that you will get deke's book and if you
22:40
don't do that I hope that you will
22:42
listen to the Merle Travis guitar album
22:44
and I'll put links and such in the
22:47
description
22:48
all right guys well I really appreciate
22:51
you uh listening and watching today and
22:54
I'll see you next time
22:56
and thank you again to TruFire for
22:59
sponsoring today's episode again use the
23:02
link and ask Zach 30 to get 30 off all
23:06
right bye-bye