Ed King's Guitar Collection | Marty's Guitar Tours

[Music] how's it going out there you guys we've got ed King here founding member of Leonard's we're hanging out in out Nashville Old Hickory Old Hickory Nashville and you know somewhere on the lake yeah really cool house and Eadie once again thank you though for climate leisure time thank you very much so quick one thing that's super cool is you're playing this sweet strap yes you did use I use this I didn't use this on Sweet Home Alabama for sweet home I used I'd say I had a Gibson guitar and those other guys played Gibson's right and I wanted to stand out so I took my Les Paul it was a 72 deluxe or 71 deluxe wasn't a great guitar I took it to a music store and I traded it in a few bucks for a brand new I think was a 72 or 73 strat and I used we use it a little bit on the first album pronounced but I played bass on that first album oh well I actually was after that albums recorded Ronnie fired me as a bass player he said you're the worst bass player would play so then I took the strat out to rehearsal the very next day and I walked into to the rehearsal cabin and Gary Rossington is sitting over in the corner playing this [Music] you got it familiar yeah it's behind the vs so he'd gotten there before me so I just I've got there and plugged in my Stratton right off of that I went and Ronnie Vanzant her singer and he always sat on a couch in the corner and if he really liked what he heard you know he would just you have his eyes closed and just go like this but wasn't until I picked up the strap that he you know run like this and he looked at me he says don't stop keep that going and so probably within I don't know 15 minutes he got up and sang the first lines while we were playing over a mic Wow and he wrote that and then I immediately I wrote the course I just felt like going [Music] notice the course isn't it's not that okay you've missed some of the downbeat Sassoon now kick the damn beats two three four [Music] nice yeah so if if you didn't catch on adhere wrote one of the most iconic riffs of all times I was in the right place at the right time believing yeah I mean it's just a matter well we were always so inspired Joey when do you ever have seven band members arrive every morning at 8:30 that can't wait to get to work and work all day long every day yeah and sweat and I'm talking about the Florida heat in a little cabin with no air conditioning six more three Marshalls and who knows what other sound equipment right got hot in there yeah I loved it I mean I sweat all over our guitars but the end of the day we usually had a good tune how did it feel to when that took off and became a huge hit well I remember myself and the roadie I just hired to take care of our guitars John Butler we were riding in a car through I think we're going to Athens Georgia way out in the country and it came on the radio about 2:30 in the morning we were driving around oh it sounded so good on the radio that first time I ever heard it and it still does yeah it still does little pickup no it is just I don't know it just sounds really bright and cheerful and hanging out in your house here I was going through one of your hallways and you have a bunch of movie posters up yes and it reminded me all these classic movies and obviously new TV shows soundtracks what I mean commercials commercials I mean so you get to kind of have all continue to have different it's kind of adventures right it's amazing and things like this yeah I mean it's it's really incredible one I'm truly thankful oh I really am so you were we chatted a little bit I wanted to save the discussion for when we were actually you know doing this but you were saying you were more of a Gibson guy right well in the beginning I was a bass player in my life okay yeah I started out oh I'd start out with guitar but I quickly scrapped that and I got okay I've traded my one of my good cheap guitars for a $25 basis back in 65 I think okay and I was right away playing with these guys or in their 20s and stuff because they knew where all the notes were all the chord progressions yeah yeah when one summer my mother went to New Jersey because a family friend had passed away she left me for three months all by myself how old were you was 1965 oh no 15 okay yes she got in any trouble no I did I stayed in my room the entire time and listened to radio and played bass with it I learned all these songs it was an education yeah and and well and this is something I don't know yet and I'm very curious because when we were just kind of chatting here earlier you said you're from Glendale California so I would love to hear and definitely while we're rolling here how musician from Glendale ends up in Leonard Skinner I'll be glad you said yeah yeah I'm I can't wait to hear it well I was in a band called the strawberry alarm clock in 1967 we had a number-one record called incense and pepper I've heard that yeah yeah I know that I know that band that was I was one of the founders of that band well eventually a number one hit record went off the charts gigs started getting really bad and eventually we fired our manager because it was a really bad guy well he went out and got all these other fellas and put them together and called them the strawberry alarm clock sent them out on the road that was a big craze back in the late 60s all these bogus bands there were all these British bands were really American guys posing we happen to find out about it we filed an injunction against them and stopped them and we figured we're bankrupt let's do the tour ourself right so we rented a motor home went down to the South says three months steady gigs college gigs and Leonard Skinner was there opening back I was the opening band and I got real tight with Ronny right just was special from the get-go yeah and I remember one day he called me to come over to this club where they're rehearsing he said we just wrote a new song I was always on them just right I go don't play the cover tunes are nice cuz that's all they did and this is right just right and there I had had two originals when I met him they were really good but invited me to this biz bar and afternoon where they were rehearsing and I sat in the center and I watched them play this song called need all my friend and I still get a chill down my back when I when I think of it because they had everything it it wasn't a power a fast song was necessarily loud you know but it was heartfelt it was it was right from the heart great great tune I'll never forget it and that's when I asked him I said if you ever need a guitar player or a bass player you know give me a give me a call and then one day he did I was playing in a bar in Greenville North Carolina and they called me up and said war bass player just quit I said well I'm broken without a car I just sold my car all I had I had one I had one guitar left I'd sold it at Les Paul Goldtop an old one I had this SG over here I had that I said you have to come up and get me so it'll be right up Wow that was it Wow and so you started on bass I started on bass when I was a kid because I was getting all these jobs playing lounge music and all that the Naval Air stations Marine Corps bases army bases up and down the coast of California and I was making I was like 15 or 16 makin 50 bucks a weekend yeah and that was really good money yeah yeah but then it came a time when I think I was asked to join a band oh yeah there was a band together and one of the guitar players his mother made him quit because he was too young mm-hmm and the friend of mine asked me to join up so I bought this guitar and I I joined up so I really had to learn an incense and peppermint's really I was learning my way right I was I mean cuz we had an album we do with that you can obviously tell I'm learning how to play by the second strawberry alarm clock album I was getting I was getting pretty good no absolutely now is there anything about Ronnie that you would want to share or like debride guy's clothes and we were very close yeah I asked my wife Oh a few months back you know they were always joking around we've been together 25 years and man we are like peas and carrots it's was just a wonderful relationship it's great and as you're open around and I said you know I've never had my heart broke before and she goes no wrong she said Ronnie broke your heart yeah and he really did because we were close but it got so bad on the road when he was home he was fine but on the road that non-stop alcohol Ronnie got drunk and he just abused p.m. and that began to wear on me and wear on me and finally in about the end of May is 75 I felt it was like this dark cloud hanging over everything and I was trapped in this cloud yeah and even though this is my dream coming true we have hit records hit albums I am miserable and you can look at me on stage as some of those shows I am just miserable because I wished it was a good experience sure it's the only real good experience that I had in that band was the writing of the songs because the only beer with only alcohol we had out rehearsal was beer and we got down to business we practiced from morning till night and not practice it was writing writing was creative and inspiring and oh absolutely inspiring and we got out in the road and all that was gone it was just alcohol and a lot of abuse yeah and finally one night after a show in Pittsburgh where something happened that's just I said that's it I've had it and I packed up all my stuff and I left in the middle of the night because I knew if I waited till next morning I changed my mind or somebody changed my shirt I didn't want my mind changed so I left go to a certain place New Jersey everybody need to ban called me Al Kooper called me wanted me to come back the Ronnie never called me and if he had called me maybe we could have worked it out and I would have gone back because he was the only reason I was there I mean he was wonderful to write with I mean I just come up with a few to guitarists one day I came in with this for this riff [Music] you know I love to open the open string vibe when you use the open strings with top there that's the great sound and I really wanted to play solo on that here's my song yeah how do you how do you do that with three guitar players well you know people there's a myth going around there's a lot of Skynyrd miss I mean yeah I'm line I hear so many one is that the wheat there was always just brawls a rehearsal knock-down drag-out fights nothing could be further from the truth okay we got along it was a totally diplomatic and it was common sense right I wanted to play lead on Saturday night but then Gary start saying this [Music] and I said you got it you know it's just an ayah you can't deny it yeah it was it was a perfect setup all three guitar players we do what we could to complement each other it wasn't an ego man there was an an ego thing at all wow that's that's you know and which you rarely see yeah even in a two guitar band or one yeah I guess you're right yeah BAM I mean we had egos sure you know we had egos yeah but they really were only we were only concerned about arrangement mm-hmm well I don't like that part of the arrangement here I think this should have just turn around I would like to turn around that's all in place the ego showed up sure sure we never fought over guitar parts it was a beautiful thing that's great I love hearing that yeah I mean you know cuz it's it's just hard to have a relationship with six other artists oh when they're costly at each other's throat yeah you know but rehearsals will never never like that the road was you know when you really think about it a touring what is it two or three hours is the fun part hours yeah and the job part is everything but the sheriff about the show is actually the reward but we can't it's too bad that towards the end I didn't consider it a reward right and that is it's it's a shame but it's probably pretty common what was a good thing in my case I let my conscience be my guide yeah and I got out and Steve Gaines eventually took my place who was born on the same day month and year that I was and he wound up dying in the plane crash Wow on the front I didn't I didn't realize he didn't know that now yeah on the very first cover of our first album we had taken pictures all day south of Atlanta eight hour photo shoot we were really tired yeah Gary had a hangover Bob but just two days prior and had his head knocked him was a brass knuckles brass knuckles he if you look some of the pictures you can still see his eyes are all blood oh man so we're standing on this on the street in Jonesboro Georgia it's late in the afternoon and the very last shot of the day that photographer says ooh I think I got a bolt of lightning in that one there was a storm coming down for Atlanta yeah and that's what they used for the album cover and the Lightning vocals right through my head it's almost like I was singled out or something Wow just got some stuff did this guitar when I when I started playing a Stratocaster with a band I bought a 73 strat which was made during the seventies and everybody knows 70 strats aren't worth crap right bad right mine was particularly bad I couldn't get it was hard to play and it's funny we groped Sweet Home Alabama one day and four days later went to the studio to record it because Cooper wanted it down right away right and I struggled through that but the solo was a first taker oddly enough I played it in one take it's nice but the aren't those always the best when you get it well that was very fortunate I was lucky because it was the guitar was new to me the longer scale and it was hard but I was very thankful to get it and we have it over with lightning in a bottle yeah but it wasn't long before I got a I think it was a 66 strat and that was a lot better I had that set up pretty well for a while nice I tried a few maple neck strats which I I loved I didn't know anything about guitars at the time but now I realized the frets were too small maybe I got a bent neck right a maple neck they're a totally different animal than a rosewood I like rosewood I prefer it but this guitar I've been buying stratocasters pretty cheap on the road and taking necks off of one putting them on another because doing it yourself I'm doing all myself yeah because all the rosewood necks all felt different I mean the difference between that one and this one is remarkable that's a thick neck this one is kind of thin as though this is a 59 neck actually as whole guitar is really a 59 but it's from two separate guitars so yeah yeah so I finally put this together and I took it to strings and things in Memphis they fashioned me the shell pickguard for it in 73 I guess something like that can you tell me real quick what you're using for a pick there this let me tell you I've lived in New Jersey for a while okay and every once in a while meeting the family we'd take a motorhome down to Assateague Island off in Maryland where the horses run wild have you ever been there not a beautiful place okay walk along a shore one day and there was a few of these laying around and you see it or not and and they're kind of shaped like a pic and I just saw well I'm kind of bored I think I'll try it and I took a few back I started playing guitar with it and I loved it because some of them have serrated edges okay and you make a lot of mistakes but but if they light a with a rip they go through strings like crazy but I don't care but they sounded real good because they're hard compared to plastic these are really anything here long oh yeah so I started picking them up and I as funny Sharon makes fun of me because I have names for him I have a box right keep for every hundred you pick up maybe four maybe five or good so you you know what you're looking for yeah I know what I'm looking for I broke one the other day fell out of my pocket before I went swimming I was in my parents took my pants off and they fell out and broke it broke on that dial okay so I laid it on the counter out there with a little note mend me you know she's got some glues you put it all together because one of my sweet is it's an idiot synchronous yeah yeah I want to ask about Sweet Home Alabama real quick what pick up so that you use for it on their original it's a combination of the they call it the rear I guess we're in middle okay yeah that sometimes they call that like the out of phase yeah it's not really out if I phases just two pickups yeah the Strad I had of course did not have a fly or they call them quack oh it is a quack yeah this well this one has a PT likes a quack this has a five-way in it now but before I had it wired where the bottom was the trouble pick huh and all the way at all the way forward was the to these to pick up oh okay and I think the middle was just the just the neck because I was just going like this pretty right between those two this is now a 5-way switch that one there that has the originally yes no I did hear some I don't know if it's true or not but like for instance when Hendrix wanted to you know yeah get that spot he would kind of find it and he put a matchstick in there to kind of hold it in place we did that too oh you piece of tape so it is true both true yeah you were right here you heard my secret Unleashed okay so one of your biggest influences right growing up was James Burton yeah and when I heard the solo - hello Mary Lou I don't do it justice but every time I pick up a guitar it's still my warm-up to see you see if you know it okay one [Music] and you think you learned the most from listening to records eat absolutely that was it I did that thing when I was a kid has slowed him down Thanks you know they have programs now that'll do that for you yeah that's so cheating yeah well even YouTube in general right like it's a good thing yeah I think so I mean honestly at this point in time just keeping guitar and rock'n'roll alive yeah it's great it's great for the how I wish I had tools like that how I wish I could have gotten in touch with some of the people yeah one thing I'm curious about is I mean I this thing is just playing so nineteen sixty-five sixty-five yeah it's all original except for new frets okay how did you end up getting this one well I I bought it here locally at Carter's and walked in the shop and it it just spoke to you played like a guitar that I borrowed many years ago I mean he has the same dings and as everything friend of mine had a 65 blonde strat like that and I borrowed it for one show and I tried to buy it from you wouldn't sell it to me and this is like it could be the same guitar for all I know yeah I mean I've seen I have pictures of me playing they had my borrowed guitar and and it's got the same enough and but anyway I play is nice so it just shout it out at you yeah and this is interesting where on the back here cuz it's dark well played yeah I don't know exactly what makes that happen obviously some there's some big giant don't maybe you gotta wear belt buckles yeah so that well real quick tell me the story on this one like how it where'd you get it and use this one in Leonard Skynyrd yeah I did yeah this was the there's basically a 59 but it's from two guitars of another 59 Roddy 59 neck one of the first rosewood boards right I didn't like to finish it was a sunburst finish but the guitar was kind of light so I liked it I had strings and things refinished it in black back in 73 or something like that and manufacturers she'll see yard do you think you put your most of your life gigging hours on this thing you think this baby I must have because before I was always changing guitars I was making new guitars out of necks and other bodies right until I found this one I kind of settled on this you think I could find some old footage of you jamming on that thing all over the place okay yeah so I do know that pretty much no one is playing Sweet Home Alabama the real way well there's a little little wrinkles in it that a few people get like it's funny this part in between the verses there's a little musical interlude that goes up right that one right there yeah heard a lot of people just go they go I mean how other people play it like you know let's let's not worry about them don't worry about how to make people play yeah [Music] see I thought that last chord was right here oh you did an open a right I got it I thought it was G now what do you play in it no oh oh right oh yeah yes I was going I was just sliding right oh yeah you know I think it's maybe we can do a little graphic you know they do the special effects now which is a simple slide show that are really really critical watches I'll slow it down for you [Music] and quickly it's like yeah and and as as you as I learned earlier from you with a little shimmer I was good to say the shimmer yeah but the end of the guitar solo I do when it goes back to I go so harmonic here it's very fast yeah yeah okay yeah so did you guys record that all live and no actually that was recorded with me on rhythm guitar bass and drums Ronny did scratch vocal on the when we first recorded right then I went back and overdub two solos nice and I was always on the [Music] [Applause] [Music] like I'm so rusty I can't play it's how Cooper used to say amigos what why do you write guitar parts that you can't play this guitar I've my most history with the 19 this is 1964 SG standard and how I got this guitar was real funny I was with the alarm clock we were doing a little tour of actually were playing those little bar in Richmond this is towards the end of the tenure right and anyway I'm taking a nap on the band bus and rhythm player who was real good friends with Lee frame and he's passed away sadly he came down to the bus and walked in where I was sleeping and woke me up he goes just look what I've got yeah I go oh man where did you get that he goes it's yours what do you what do you mean I had a backup guitar ES 330 I think in 1967 ES 330 it was just a back of guitar he said I just treated you straight up your guitar for this without even asking because he knew yeah I would love it I mean I I've gone through so many SG standards I mean I was buying them and the next or too thin or so this the early 60s have real thin necks the 64 is a nice nice chunky not real chunky bit it's very nice weight you prefer a little chunky little chunk here little chunk a little chunky not real not real fat yeah but I was gonna say one thing I never do is play with my guitars on full volume okay my motto is turned the amp up turned the guitar down okay yeah and also if you need the tone control or whatever because I think you have more control over it that way I'd never I mean I will run even at the hottest solo I don't think I ever run this above and maybe nine but I'll back it off it just takes the edge off and I think I makes it sound a little bit does you like the tone yeah I mean like listen to this right I turn it up well you might like that but I don't I I get I get what you're saying it kind of softens the it softens it takes a little bit of a bite out but you know yeah you know like a warm and soothing way yeah when talk about this one solo I did on a Skynyrd album lease nothing fancy is the song is called am I losing and it's about we had to let go of our drummer Bob burns because we had an incident in London they just I don't know I just kind of cracked up a little bit and we had to sadly replace him so Ronnie wrote a song called I am I losing one of my good friends and as a pretty cool song there's a solo in the middle of it where I wanted to want to emulate a friend of ours toi call well we'll play with Marshall Tucker really life toy a lot so it was a real good guy and he used this tone a little bit but this is really my homage to toy play a D chord for me absolutely yeah [Music] indeed [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] yeah like that but in the middle of solo I have the tone knob all the way down yes on this pickup here so it has a real nice weight so show me again when you're you're using the middle selector the middle selector by the 2-tone on the bass pickups turned all the way off all the way [Music] [Applause] then I hit the switch oh right you can hear it on the record and they hit see [Music] [Applause] [Music] anyway after I already told your story about how I got it in this my friend traded it straight up and you were happy oh absolutely I was I mean I knew this guy we knew each other real well he knew that it was gonna be he knew he just yeah I mean it's a really good have a friend like that yeah for sure anyway when years later when I joined Skynyrd this was the Ashley I had a that time I after that incident I bought a 72 yeah 72 Deluxe maybe or 71 Deluxe Les Paul it wasn't a good guitar so when I joined Skynyrd I had the Les Paul deluxe and I traded the Les Paul deluxe for the 73 72 strat that I recorded Alabama with but this one you know always cope with me and I'm on stage I use this one for free bird only and then on later in the later records I used it for other songs Wow because it's I didn't want to play Gibson's too much anyone sound like the other guys but that solo I just showed you I wanted to play Gibson is because TOI played one I wanted to I wanted it to be my homage yeah at all well yeah that's awesome yeah there's so many pictures me playing free bird on this guitar oh really but I tell you though originally the guitar of course had this is the regular configuration but back then this pickup went bad on me I guess the the wires got messed up inside so I had to take it out and back then you could not buy replacement pickups can you ever imagine an age where you could not find them you know and I didn't I mean I could have maybe taken a 70s pickup off something but there were very bad pickups in the 70s and the pickup that burned out was all it's a great big guy I don't miss it today because I got a good replacement but back then we took this out and we carved a hole for a p90 one of those large chrome p90s so that was there for a long time but now it's been restored back what it's supposed to be actually these pickups are made in Croatia by a company called Wiz that's easy and they do the best of replicating the old Gibson PAF and they sound as you can tell they sound great how did you hear about the company in Croatia oh I know a guy in in New Jersey Greg Platzer runs BCR music he said I think you're gonna like these pickups so I bought bought a set I have five of them now I'm making mental notes yeah yeah ed King thank you so much for letting me into your home certainly wife was wonderful your pups were wonderful don't forget to grab a shell pick on your way thank you so much really generous of you I can't wait to start messin with that yeah so I just want to thank you again the stories were great the guitars everything I had a real inspiring time you inspired me today so thank you so much and want to just end it with a little jam yeah just one jam in the end of Alabama okay all right [Music]

Channel: Marty Music

Views: 1,425,531

Rating: 4.905386 out of 5

Keywords: Marty Schwartz, music, guitar, lessons, marty music, generic atlas feet, ed king, lynyrd skynyrd, leonard skinard, linard skinard, guitarist, fender, gibson, gibson sg, fender stratocaster, sweet home alabama, rip ed king, ed king tribute, ed king 2018, r.i.p. ed king, les paul, crazy guitar collection, unique guitars, unique guitar collection, guitar history, historical guitars, famous guitars, lynyrd skynyrd guitar, ed king guitar, sweet home alabama guitar, vintage guitar

Id: KnmdyejQYsk

Length: 34min 52sec (2092 seconds)

Published: Sun Aug 13 2017

Reddit Comments

[u/2kless]

first few minutes in particular are interesting