Hank Playing On Des O'Connor Show 1984

[themase]

Hi Everyone i thought you would like to see this video of Hank playing Wonderful Land and a Buddy Holly number with Des,i believe it is Xmas 1984.I found it on an old video tape,the quality is not great,you can see Hank with a Mesa Boogie amp,i use to own one 20 years ago,in my opinion it is the best amp i have ever had for clean and distortion tones,i have owned numerous amps over the years from AC30 to Hughes and Kettner and everything in between.Sadly i sold the amp about 10 years ago because i stopped playing. Enjoy,regards John.
www.4shared.com/file/108314144/a6245d57/Hank_On_Des_OConnor_Show_1984.html

[BarryH]

Hi John,

Thanks for posting that, it was great.

I remember Des O'Conner being a regular visitor at my best mate's house when I was at school. I say best mate, I guess he was everybody's best mate because his big sister was one of the dancers on the London Paladium Show every Sunday night.

Cheers
Barry

[peterbower]

John

I have to agree with you about the amp, but more to the point, that was a very near identical sound to the original recording in guitar tone. You can see his Roland RE-301 sat on top of the amp.

The repeat rates may not be quite the same but that overall sound is much closer than he gets now.
I think the guitar he was using then had the DeMarzio FS-1 in the bridge and 2 Seymour Duncan's in the middle and bridge, but please correct me if I'm wrong.

What's the old saying, if it aint broke, don't fix it.

Peter

[peterbower]

Sorry

NECK'

Peter

[Tone]

Hi Peter

I, too, stand to be corrected but I don't think the guitar in the clip had the SD and Di Marzio's in view of the date (1984). I think the first red Strat with those pickups was the Custom Shop Hank Signature model which came out in 1992. The guitar could well be the one he bought from Patrick Bastien in France in the early 80s (referred to by Gary Allen in the thread about Hank's guitars on the FAQ board).

I agree with you about the sound and the echo - not only is the repeat pattern a bit different from the original record but the level of the repeats seems to be higher.

Cheers.

Tony

[garyallen]

Hi to all..Hope Im not sticking my nose in.....As far as i know the fs1 was used on string of hits.He was asked about the pickups in that strat (the red one in the vid)and said they were originals and were warmer than the norm.I myself had a mk2c and 301 and never got a sound that fat with standard p/ups..check out whats up doc on youtube where the other guy has the same set up...A big difference...........gary

[peterbower]

Guys, I'm only guessing re the pickups but i did like his sound and in some ways preferred it to his current sound.
I'm not that bothered if the echo is not exactly like the original.
The FS-1 does have quite a fat sound and i liked most of Hanks recordings with that pickup, he should go back to it.
I shall have to dig my old 301 out and do some experiments.

Cheers
Peter

[didier]

tone20002 said:

The guitar could well be the one he bought from Patrick Bastien in France in the early 80s
Tony

The guitar that Hank bought in Paris from Patrice Bastien in december 1980 was a 1958 fiesta red Strat with maple neck.
It's likely that it's the one on this video.
Patrice met Hank a few years ago (in Samois for the Gipsy music festival), and asked if he still had this guitar, the answer was yes.

Didier

[Tone]

Thanks, Didier. The suggestion seems to be that the "Bastien" guitar had the original pickups. An excellent sound!

Cheers.

Tony

[didier]

May 30, 2009 19:11:32 GMT Tone said:

Thanks, Didier. The suggestion seems to be that the "Bastien" guitar had the original pickups. An excellent sound!

Cheers.

Tony

As far as I know the guitar was all original when Patrice sold it to Hank, and it was in very good condition apart for signs of wear on the fingerboard gloss.
But I guess that Hank had it renovated.

Didier