Robbie Robertson thinks he is responsible of Seymour success!!

[mongrollo]

This a piece of an interview I took from this web page:

http://theband.hiof.no/articles/rr_musician_sep_87.html

The interesting part it is (it is on the last part of the side column on the web page):

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Robbie turns conspiratorial: "Now this was a style of playing I had learned traveling around the country with Ronnie Hawkins. People asked me about it a lot and I got bored so I used to make up stories. I'd say, 'I soak my guitar strings in hair oil,' or 'I cut swastikas in the speakers with razor blades.' So Seymour Duncan says to me, 'What have you done to your guitar to make it sound like that?' And not being able to think of anything better I said, 'I've got more windings in the pickups.'

"So anyway, I'm reading this article years later and Seymour Duncan says, 'Robbie Robertson told me about more windings, so I've put more windings in my pickups and I've gone on to make The Seymour Duncan Pickup!"' Robertson lets out a laugh. "And this whole business is based on a big lie! It never existed! I couldn't think of anything else to say!" Robbie takes a drink and smiles. "I never told this story before. I wonder what he's gonna think. " So do our ad guys, Robbie.
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[mongrollo]

Re: Robbie Robertson thinks he is responsible of Seymour success!!

I don't know... but it seems he is simplifing things a bit...

 

[guymanperson]

Re: Robbie Robertson thinks he is responsible of Seymour success!!

Robbie Is The Man

 

[Artie]

Re: Robbie Robertson thinks he is responsible of Seymour success!!

I think Robbie R. is a reasonably credible source. He's not actually saying he's responsible for Seymour's success, just that he may have sparked the idea to rewind pickups.

 

[Evan Skopp]

Re: Robbie Robertson thinks he is responsible of Seymour success!!

Actually, there's some truth to what Robbie says, but it wasn't a big lie... Here's what Seymour told me.

As a teenager in the '60s, he used to play up and down the Jersey Shore; and one of the bands he opened for was Levon & the Hawks, which featured Robbie (and which later on morphed into The Band). Robbie was a Tele player and so was Seymour.

One day Seymour let a girl-country singer borrow his Tele for her set. She was a strummer; and she strummed the high-E string right into the bridge pickup. It broke the pickup and Seymour was forced to play the rest of the night on his neck pickup.

Next day, Seymour set out to fix his bridge pickup. He got some magnet wire from his uncle and rigged a record player to work as a winding machine. He had no idea how many turns to put on it. But he wound it to what he thought was the right number of turns. Then, after he installed it, he noticed that the pickup didn't have the fat output of Robbie's Tele. So he took the bridge pickup out of Robbie's Tele and compared it to what he just wound.

The first thing he noticed was the the coil on Robbie's pickup was fatter than the one that Seymour had just wound. Seymour and Robbie discussed it and Robbie said, "Mine has more turns." So Seymour re-wound it with more turns, so it looked more like Robbie's. When he dropped it in, he noticed it had more output and a fatter tone.

And that, folks, is how this whole thing got started...

 

[STRATDELUXER97]

Re: Robbie Robertson thinks he is responsible of Seymour success!!

Actually, there's some truth to what Robbie says, but it wasn't a big lie... Here's what Seymour told me.

As a teenager in the '60s, he used to play up and down the Jersey Shore; and one of the bands he opened for was Levon & the Hawks, which featured Robbie (and which later on morphed into The Band). Robbie was a Tele player and so was Seymour.

One day Seymour let a girl-country singer borrow his Tele for her set. She was a strummer; and she strummed the high-E string right into the bridge pickup. It broke the pickup and Seymour was forced to play the rest of the night on his neck pickup.

Next day, Seymour set out to fix his bridge pickup. He got some magnet wire from his uncle and rigged a record player to work as a winding machine. He had no idea how many turns to put on it. But he wound it to what he thought was the right number of turns. Then, after he installed it, he noticed that the pickup didn't have the fat output of Robbie's Tele. So he took the bridge pickup out of Robbie's Tele and compared it to what he just wound.

The first thing he noticed was the the coil on Robbie's pickup was fatter than the one that Seymour had just wound. Seymour and Robbie discussed it and Robbie said, "Mine has more turns." So Seymour re-wound it with more turns, so it looked more like Robbie's. When he dropped it in, he noticed it had more output and a fatter tone.

And that, folks, is how this whole thing got started...

Thanks for the cool story...And Man,do I own alot of Duncan pickups Evan! Just great stuff!

John

 

[mongrollo]

Re: Robbie Robertson thinks he is responsible of Seymour success!!

yeah, things ussually are never that simple...

Thans Evan!!!

 

[Zerberus]

Re: Robbie Robertson thinks he is responsible of Seymour success!!

Cool story, thanks Mongrollo for starting it and Evan for "The Real Deal with Bill McNiell" :friday:

 

[Curly]

Re: Robbie Robertson thinks he is responsible of Seymour success!!

cool story

as far as Robbie goes, his first solo album is definitely in my top 10 all time albums!

 

[hacker]

Re: Robbie Robertson thinks he is responsible of Seymour success!!

Was his first solo album the one with "broken arrow?"

I love his tele tone-but his strat with the rear and middle pickups joined(?) together that he played in the Last Waltz sounded better!

 

[Curly]

Re: Robbie Robertson thinks he is responsible of Seymour success!!

Was his first solo album the one with "broken arrow?"

yup

"Broken Arrow"
"Fallen Angel"
and several other good tunes

a great album

 

[Jeff5]

Re: Robbie Robertson thinks he is responsible of Seymour success!!

Awesome story thanks for sharing!

 

[dr.barlo]

Re: Robbie Robertson thinks he is responsible of Seymour success!!

Kool!

B

 

[Tweed]

Re: Robbie Robertson thinks he is responsible of Seymour success!!

Cool story. Robbie's one of my faves. That 1st solo record is very good. I think my favorite era for Robbie is when he was backing Ronnie Hawkins. I have some of those recordings on the Roulette label. Some great, raw, soulful playing. Best version of Who Do You Love I've ever heard. Robbie doesn't get mentioned too much when we talk about great guitarists, but he certainly should.