KING ALBERT, THE ESSENTIAL. A Step-by-Step Breakdown of the Styles and Techniques of a Blues and Soul Legend. CD TABLATURE
The Essential Albert King
A Step-by-Step Breakdown of the Styles and Techniques of a Blues and Soul Legend
Series: Signature Licks Guitar
Format: Softcover with CD - TAB
Artist: Albert King
Author: Wolf Marshall
Learn the trademark riffs and solos of this blues King! Provides in-depth analysis of 12 songs: Angel of Mercy • Answer to the Laundromat Blues • Blues Power • Born Under a Bad Sign • Crosscut Saw • Don't Throw Your Love on Me So Strong • The Hunter • I Wanna Get Funky • I'll Play the Blues for You • Laundromat Blues • Oh Pretty Woman • Personal Manager. CD features full demonstrations.
Inventory #HL 00695713
ISBN: 9780634049064
UPC: 073999957136
Width: 9.0"
Length: 12.0"
88 pages
A highly revered member of the King blues guitar triumvirate (B.B., Freddie, and
Albert), Albert King differed significantly from his musical brethren. Though he named his
guitar Lucy (after Lucille Ball, not B.B.'s Lucille), that was where any similarities to B.B.
ended. In contrast with B.B. and Freddie, who preferred the more traditional look, feel, and
sound of semi-hollow Gibson ES-355s and ES-345s, Albert favored a modernistic solidbody
Flying V-which eminently suited his unconventional style. Where B.B. and Freddie
played right-handed in standard tuning, Albert was a southpaw who played his Flying V
upside-down without reversing the strings. Unlike his blues brothers-in-arms, he employed
an unusual open E minor tuning, usually dropped down three half steps, sometimes with
the low E (sixth) string dropped down to a low C note.
Albert's most famous Lucy was a 1958 Gibson Flying V. This is the instrument
heard on his classic Stax recordings. Announced in 1957 and phased out by 1959, the
original Flying V is one of the rarest and most collectable guitars in history. It features a
two-piece solid Korina hardwood body in a natural finish, gold-plated hardware, and a
twenty-two-fret unbound rosewood fingerboard with dot inlays and a 24 3/4-inch scale.
The unique visual aspects of the Flying V include its symmetrical V body shape, arrowlike
headstock with a raised gold-painted Gibson logo, four-ply angular pickguard and
round jack plate, and a V-shaped tailpiece with through-the-body stringing. The guitar was
equipped with two humbucking pickups, two individual volume controls, a master tone
control, and a three-way pickup selector switch. Albert acquired other Lucys, based on his
Gibson Flying V, including a custom-made 1974 model by Dan Erlewine and a 1980
model by Radley Prokopow.
Albert usually played Lucy with both pickups engaged. He generally turned the
bridge pickup volume all the way up and adjusted the neck pickup volume during his performance
for tonal variations. (He set the tone control on full.) Albert used a mixed set of
Black Diamond strings: light-gauge (with a wound G) on the first three strings, and medium-
gauge on the lower three strings.
Albert cultivated a unique blues guitar sound based almost exclusively on a
streamlined, largely pentatonic single-note conception and distinguished by his sharp,
percussive attack and bright, twangy tone. He plucked and pulled the strings with his bare
fingers, usually his thumb, and employed a strikingly economic approach emphasizing
vocalesque string bends, dramatic use of space, and short rhythmic phrases with few
notes. In Albert's hands, these ingredients produced an immediately recognizable and
highly influential style.
Songlist:
- Angel Of Mercy
- Answer To The Laundromat Blues
- Blues Power
- Born Under A Bad Sign
- Crosscut Saw
- Don't Throw Your Love On Me So Strong
- I Wanna Get Funky
- I'll Play The Blues For You
- Laundromat Blues
- Oh Pretty Woman
- Personal Manager
- The Hunter
Italiano
English
