Carl Thompson guitar - just like Lou Reed used to play

guitarz.blogspot.com:

Rhodri writes:

Hi Gavin

You've featured my Andreas Shark and Dagrite guitars before. How about something from New York now? How about featuring a Carl Thompson - not his more well known basses, but a guitar with a little Lou Reed connection too. This would be a god time as Carl will not be taking any more custom orders after 5th Feb 2014

There's alot of CT youtube videos out there, such as these from 2011:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mz1JWfRDD8Y
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9tMEwmWHw3Y

Mine has the dots (where the larger wood bridge/tailpiece would have attached before Carl switched to the more simple wood bridge - one of the things he talks about at start of second video). Mine is one from an earlier 2007 batch of four made for Lou Reed. After he had selected two there were two left - of which this is one.

So, what is it like? Very, very light in weight and highly resonant when unplugged! ...and it's not for sale!

Cheers,

Rhodri K

Thanks Rhodri. Of course we have seen a Carl Thompson guitar on this blog before, in the piece about Lou Reed's sad passing. In the comments below the blog post there was some discussion about the guitar Lou is pictured with. I watched a few of Thompson's YouTube videos at the time. He comes over as a bumbling, eccentric, but very knowledgebale man.

G L Wilson

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Sad news: Lou Reed dies aged 71

guitarz.blogspot.com:

Very sad news: former Velvet Underground main man Lou Reed has passed away, aged 71.

Known throughout the world for songs such as "Walk On The Wild Side" and "Perfect Day", both from his hugely influential 1972 album "Transformer", Reed was also a keen experimentalist in the world of music.

He was a keen user of cutting edge guitar designs such as early versions of the Klein headless ergonomic guitar, and the Moog guitar as designed by Paul Vo.

His 1970 double album "Metal Machine Music" - a wall of "elctronically generated audio feedback" was interpreted by many as a comptempt-fuelled attempt to break his contract with RCA Records, but Reed insisted that it was a serious work and it was even adapted for orchestral performance in the 2000s by the German ensemble Zeitkratzer.

For myself, one particular Lou Reed innovation that I have enjoyed playing around with is Ostrich tuning, named after a pre–Velvet Underground song "The Ostrich" by Lou Reed and The Primitives, and which requires all six guitar strings to be tuned to the same note (effectively creating a guitar with a single course of six strings).

G L Wilson

© 2013, Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - the blog that goes all the way to 11!
Please read our photo and content policy.