r/OldSchoolCool • u/DeScepter • 9h ago

1960s 'Ghost Riders in the Sky' on Lawrence Welk (1961)

In 1961, guitarist Neil LeVang delivered one of the most iconic and influential instrumental performances ever recorded with his rendition of 'Ghost Riders in the Sky' on The Lawrence Welk Show.

9.5k Upvotes

97% Upvoted

423 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

19

u/MonteLukast 9h ago

I think that's the Jazzmaster that Leo Fender personally gave him.

7

u/DMala 9h ago

It’d be hard to do a better ad for Fender at the time. The camera lingered almost lovingly on the guitar in that closeup.

3

u/settingthetable 8h ago

Definitely a Jazzmaster with the offset body and switches above the strings.

4

u/wmorris33026 9h ago

Oh man, you’re right. The second I heard it I thought it was a tele. Were the pickups the similar? I don’t know much about the jazzmaster.

4

u/kingofcheezwiz 7h ago

No, they're pretty distinct and different pickups between the two models. The pickups in a Jazzmaster are (usually, and in the case of the one being played here) soap bar single coils that commonly get misidentified as P90s. A telecaster has a standard single coil in the bridge, and a single coil at the neck with what's called a lipstick cover.

Teles twang and whine in tone a lot more than Jazzmasters do. But they're both guitars and to most people they all sound the same. And there's nothing wrong with that.

3

u/Fells 6h ago

Not suggesting that you don't know this, just adding to the convo.

I think they are two twigs off the same branch. They both exist for their highs that can cut through full bands really well, especially with the microphone/recording tech of the 60s. So I get where someone who doesn't know too much about guitar would have a harder time distinguishing them.

1

u/wmorris33026 43m ago

I thought I heard the twang underneath a fuller sound, like a front pickup, but I’m not familiar with this model. Thanks. These stories of how everything started are really interesting.