Getting that Robert Johnson tone...

Seems backwards to try to get that tinny tone, but I love the sound of it.

How does one get that? Parlour guitar? (you know, without spending $2K on a Gibson Robert Johnson model). Certain strings?

Thanks in advance!

Clay

I have a similar tone in my 1954 Levin Texas with silk and steel strings. Go for cheap but not crappy guitars. it's hard to describe, but you'll no it when you hear it.
Then to play like Johnson, that's an whole different thing.
The Texas is a parlor with small scale too. Mine is tuned to an open D.
When i record it i get pretty close. In the US the're named Goya.
But i think every guitar in that genre will do.

RJ mainly played Kalamazoo guitars. I have a 1941 Kalamazoo Oriole and it has that vibe. I paid $600 in 1998 for it, not sure of the value now.

Go for cheap but not crappy guitars.

Yup. Epiphone makes a nice small RJ-style blues acoustic and it's pretty cheap. Any decent playable acoustic will get you most of the way there--as far as the guitar is concerned. The real mojo is in the fingers!

It would help a lot to record with 1930s recording gear.

It would help a lot to record with 1930s recording gear.

Jimmy Sutton is using vintage equipment to record now. Still newer than 1930's stuff, but people are digging the vintage sound:

Y6WobcGun2I

In this video at the 4:29 mark, Jimmy brings out an old portable Ampex 600 reel-to-reel and says Lomax used to take it down to Mississippi to record Delta Blues artist.

wxin0CGBQxA

I think it probably has a whole lot to do with the way it was recorded. I bet if you were sitting in the room, it would sound a lot different! If you're trying to approximate that sound, I would think any small bodied guitar with some dead strings should get you most of the way.

Yup. Epiphone makes a nice small RJ-style blues acoustic and it's pretty cheap. Any decent playable acoustic will get you most of the way there--as far as the guitar is concerned. The real mojo is in the fingers!

This one?

http://static.musiciansfriend.com/derivates/19/001/422/518/DV020_Jpg_Jumbo_518369.015.829_vsb_chrome.jpg

http://www.musiciansfriend.com/guitars/epiphone-el-00-acoustic-guitar

This one?

Yup.

cheap radio shack cassette recorder in mono...?

I've picked up a few of the lower line laminated Martin's and Taylor's and found they seem to be able to pull off this tone somewhat

Doesn't this require a trip to the Crossroads, and perhaps a deal being made?

Carbon capsule mic direct to disc. Rent a hotel room (a cheap one) Put the mic in the corner, set up a chair facing the corner and start playing.:grin:

First they ain't parlor guitars but more properly concert size meaning they have a lower bout of at least 13" or roughy the size of an 000 Martin. You usually could not get the kind of volume you needed out of a parlor guitar.

And has been pointed put - Johnson was never kown to have played a Gibson. It was probably a guitar borrowed for the photo session. The "photobooth" does show Johnson with what appears to be a Kalamazoo KG-14.

If there is an iconic blues guitar out there though it remains the Oscar Schmidt-made Stellas. If you are interested in something like that you might check out Neil Harpe's inventory.

Thing is though there is no special gear required to play da' bluz. It is all in the right hand. You get that down and you are on your way.

Carbon capsule mic direct to disc. Rent a hotel room (a cheap one) Put the mic in the corner, set up a chair facing the corner and start playing.:grin:

I think it's highly symbolic this was fezz's 10,000th post.

In the Hal Leonard guide for Robert Johnson, I believe the author describes the Kalamazoo he's pictured with as one which was somewhat famous for imploding if setup with heavy gauge strings, so I'd venture a guess he probably played light or medium at most.

The hotel room and the cassette recorder are both good ideas. Or you could just muck around with the EQ. Or do all three!

Doesn't this require a trip to the Crossroads, and perhaps a deal being made?

As stated above, there may be a price to pay...

The hotel room and the cassette recorder are both good ideas. Or you could just muck around with the EQ. Or do all three!
rDkKA4hnmJ4

^that was awesome



So, it's settled then.



Cassette recorder, umm, let's go with motel room, and, well, you're going to need a sweet ol' truck too!:lol:


(great clip Fezz, I love me some Kristofferson)

As stated above, there may be a price to pay...


Not to worry - the crossroads with all the signs and stuff ain't the right one - any of the old folks will tell you that. So the only price you will pay is a stiff butt from sitting around waiting for something to happen. Don't matter anyway as it wasn't Robert but Tommy Johnson (no relation) who actually made the deal with Old Scratch.

What ya might do though is wander over the the graveyard just outside of Beauregard where Ike Zinnerman used to play and where he told Robert to go if he wanted to learn to play them blues.

I don't mean to step on anyone's toes here on this subject but here goes.

I shouldn't say that Robert Johnson didn't have any real "tone", he just played what he had. What he had is most certainly probably equivalent to an old ragged-ass "Stella" with Black Diamond strings that we bought from the drugstore. You could actually buy them single (in drugstores) and didn't replace them until they broke. Nobody gave a precious damn about tone, they just played. You have to realize that some of these guitars hanging in merchantile stores or drug stores sold for around $5-10. If you had someone that could "set it up" so that your fingers wouldn't bleed, you had it made. A lot of the good stuff was "mail order". Almost unaffordable to people in the Delta. My Dad was able to scrap together enough to buy an archtop which was shattered by a drunk at a gig. Never able to get another again. He was born in 1904.
People just played what they had. And learned from each other. I remember my Dad took a mail order guitar course from New York. He had to complete lessons (and written) and send them in for his grade. This is a very poor area to this day. Be careful about your assumptions of "Delta Blues" guitar players back in the day. It was in it's infancy. Most of them did not even know what chords they were playing. They just knew what "went together". What is it that someone said on this board? If it sounds right.........it IS right. Well that sums it up. Find you a cheap-ass guitar or a nice-ass guitar and just play it.