I have just met McCartney, held the Hofner, 59 LP, Epi

[Pilgrim]

Nice story!

I see the visual formula for news anchors is similar world 'round...attractive lady with at least two blouse buttons unbuttoned.

[Rhythm N. Bliss]

AWESOME! I'm a lefty....so I might have played something, but I'm not sure what!

I agree with Gearhed~ I'd be trembling. ...maybe get some good vibrato. 

[ilan]

AWESOME! I'm a lefty....so I might have played something, but I'm not sure what!

I agree with Gearhed~ I'd be trembling. ...maybe get some good vibrato. 

I did make sure I had 3 picks in my pocket, just in case the unbelievable does happen... but he didn't say I could play it, so I didn't. Had it been a righty, I'd  probably pick a few notes, but it was upside down. I held it like a righty, because that's how he handed it to me and also because that's how I can hold a bass and be sure I will not drop it... body in the right hand, neck in the left.

I ended up giving one of those picks - a white Carol Kaye pick - to a senior producer at Sky News in London, where we went to send the material via satellite to Israel. She turned out to be a bass player too, plays a '68 Fender Mustang bass in LPB with competition stripes. She's a Carol Kaye fan so the pick made her happy... It seems that bass players in general are very nice people. As if we didn't know that already...

Pilgrim: she's not only attractive, but also super intelligent and has a great sense of humor. When she interviewed President Clinton, you could see that he was impressed too...

[Dave W]

Ilan, will more of the interview be available online?

BTW, your anchorwoman looks much too slender to attract Clinton. 

[rockinrayduke]

That is so cool. 

[ilan]

Dave, the full piece will be online tonight. I'll post a link. The whole story is about 18:30 long, out of which about 12:30 is the interview itself, the rest is Hebrew narration segments.

I think Pilgrim meant the anchor woman! 

[Dave W]

Thanks, Ilan, I'm looking forward to it.

[ilan]

Here's a link to the full interview. For some reason unknown to me, the video link works only in IE but not Firefox.

http://www.keshet-tv.com/VideoPage.aspx?MediaID=45243&CatID=250&CurrentCatID=5155

[Dave W]

You know, from my standpoint it's remarkable how open and talkative he was. After all, he certainly doesn't have to be. Maybe you just put him more at ease than some Hollywood or London celebrity reporter would have, but still, it means he's that way when he's comfortable with the interviewers.

Also, he comes across as very intelligent. Not that I thought he wasn't, it's just that you don't know one way or other when all you hear are short sound bites or short quotes.

Well done. 

[Max Soren]

Ilan, you asked such good questions, although the other person did fine, too.  However, I think you asked much the same I would have asked if I had been there.  What's really on my mind at the moment is what I've just read earlier today about Paul being pressured to not play in Tel Aviv.  Of course, that is the first issue you addressed.  Then possibly the biggest question of all is why the Beatles broke up.  I really thought Paul gave quite a good answer to that without even mentioning John or Yoko.  Of most interest to me was the songwriting process question.  To top it off, there was the question about his attitude about the future.  I wanted to know that, too.  This was just a great interview.  The selection of songs was outstanding, too, although it would be very difficult to go wrong on that.

[ilan]

Update: in 2 hours I'm meeting with Keith, Paul McCartney's guitar tech. Anything that you think I should ask him? Other than what's it like to take care of such historically significant instruments, and doesn't he sometimes wish Sir Paul got some new basses with less maintenance than a certain 45 years old German bass that needs neck resets and refrets... And why does Paul hang to his old guitars, is he a sentimental guy or is it to please the crowd that wants to see him with the Beatle bass. I can't get into technical stuff (this is for TV...) but I'll ask anyway if there's something you want to know and can post here in the next hour. Thanks

[drbassman]

Wow, I want to be you someday!  Seriously, I am very envious right now.  You lead a blessed life for sure.  Thanks for sharing this with us!

[ilan]

Just got home, I'm going to crash now... the concert was great. Will post more about the interview tomorrow. The highlight from Keith is that Paul still uses the old Ric - "occasionally" was the word he used.

Another good look at the Hofner, the lacquer is cracked but it's very "deep", the bass looks amazing. Keith said it doesn't need much maintenance except for repositioning the bridge from time to time when it slips, for good intonation. The black insets that hold the switches permanently in place are in fact rolled gaffer tape. Cool trick! The "Flip Action" control plate is held in place with four screws in the corners, instead of the two original holes, and it's a righty unit with the lettering upside down from the player's point of view (never noticed that before). One of the teacup knob metal discs looks new.

Keith showed us the original Epi Texan ("Yesterday" guitar) next to a US-made replica - and they look almost identical. The pickguard is the giveaway: Old tort is hard to reproduce.

We talked a bit about the '59 Les Paul Standard. Keith confirmed that only 3 lefties were made that year. This was Paul's #1 guitar for many years (now the new pink LP with the custom paint job is his favorite). He said that in the 90's a guy came to them with another lefty '59 Sunburst - another one of the three - and offered to sell for $65,000. But Paul wasn't interested.

One last bass-related thing about the concert - the bass player had a Gibson SG bass, the new one with three knobs and mudbucker-lookalikes - and it sounded great (and by that I mean far away from an EB3) both for covering "Hofner songs" and "Ric songs".

[Dave W]

Thanks so much for the report, Ilan. As much as we've read over the years, you've told us things we've never heard.

[ilan]

Update: today I have edited the TV interview with Keith Smith, Paul's technical manager. It's almost 9:00 minutes long. We talked about the '63 Hofner, the "Cavern" reissue, Epi Texan, Gibson Uke, the '59 Gibson LP... and the old Ric. It will probably take a couple more days before it's uploaded, then I'll post a link. I have two opening sentences in Hebrew, then the interview itself is in English.