Wednesday 14 January 2015

"...each and every guitar is scientifically tuned - just as if they were real musical instruments!"

Wonderful (if somewhat condescending) British Pathé newsreel from 1965 showing electric guitars being made at the Burns factory in Romford, England.


Notice the monogrammed white lab coats and the tie and sweater-vest combo on the shop floor; it truly was a different era! Also interesting is the mention of Holland as the main British source for  electric guitars. They are most likely referring to the inexpensive instruments made by the Dutch company Egmond which were imported by UK distributor Rosetti and typically marketed under Rosetti's own brand names. It should be remembered that at this time very few American-made instruments were imported into the UK and those that were tended to be very expensive and accessible only to well off or well connected musicians. This is one of the things that made Pete Townsend's on-stage smashing of guitars so shocking for the time; not only was he destroying an expensive object, he was willfully obliterating something that was not easy to acquire in the UK at any price.

"All of this to make a Bedlam of adolescent noise."

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