I dont think there are any recorded examples where Marty used it.altho it could just sound like the b string bender higher on the neck. Roberts photo of the real Clarence give a great close up of the E string bender Marty added.note the E string goes around a little pulley between the E string saddle and bender finger and then thru a hole into the guitar.the E bender is activated by the black plunger to the right of the bridge. Ive got one of the Nashville West series.Clarence replicas made by Stringpull Guitar Shop in Virginia.the stringbender is mounted in the "top" body per current design.so the extended back is purely cosmetic.but it functions as a sound chamber and adds an interesting acoustic overtone to the guitar.I use it in my current band and when I play cowboy chord rhythm guitar the acoustic zing seems to really come out.hit that bluegrass G (330023) and it playing the NW a standard sized tele feels awfully thin. I swapped some emails with a guy who worked with Gene Parsons.and he told me that while the Double body (its actually like 1 and 2/3s bodies) was made to cover the stringbender mechanics on the back of the guitar, Clarence liked it because it made the guitar feel more like his dreadnoughts. I thought maybe it was just a double thick solid body because he was used to playing an acoustic. I thought it was amazing and wonderful that he was dragging that guitar to festivals. I spoke with Marty afterwards, and he told me the story of how he acquired it from Clarence's widow, and we spoke of my photographing it some day. It took a few minutes to realize, yes, that was indeed the same guitar. Some years ago I was standing in the pit at the Philadelphia Folk Festival, photographing Marty Stuart, and I felt my body transported back to that exact same place I was in a few decades earlier. Years later, I would spend countless hours with my reel to reel at half speed deciphering note for note Clarence's playing from my copy of the Kentucky Colonels album "Appalachian Swing". Corwin shares some stunning close-ups of Clarence Whites heavily modified Telecaster, now owned by country superstar/music historian Marty Stuart. And so he has, finding great success over the past 40 years. I still have the program book where my parents wrote the note in it "Doc Watson and Clarence White". But guitarist, mandolinist, and singer Marty Stuart was determined to break out on his own. It was the only one I missed of those early festivals. I didn't know at the time exactly who Clarence was - about four years before that I had faced the absolutely agonizing decision to take a cross country trip with the Boy Scouts and miss the 1964 Newport Folk Festival. Not realizing that it was not "these guys", but Clarence stood alone. Rockabilly strutter 'Jailhouse,' with Kenny Vaughans Telecaster snarling and spitting, is a disc highlight, while 'Geraldine' borrows simultaneously from Chuck Berry, Bo Diddley, and Charlie. (Boy, I had that part right!) And I was thinking, wow, these guys that play this kind of picking sure are great. Discover Saturday Night/Sunday Morning by Marty Stuart & His Fabulous Superlatives released in 2014. I still have a body memory - I look at that that photo and can feel myself standing up front, staring at this guy playing that guitar, and trying to figure out what it was.
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