The final installment of Comedian Guitars is about Tommy Smothers, the guitar playing brother of The Smothers Brothers. He was the one his mother did not like best.
By 1965, CBS television offered them an hour long variety show. The brothers agreed to the show and it was a huge success. By 1967 their contract came up for renewal. In the contract language, they insisted on total creative control.
Now this was at a time when the United States was in the midst of the very unpopular Viet Nam War, social unrest was rampant due to the war and civil injustice to Black citizens. The drug culture was emerging, as was free love and an interest arose in alternative forms of religion. The Smothers Brothers, led by Tom, felt a calling to speak up on these topics by use of their humor. This did not sit well with the CBS censors. Each show became a battle. This led to the show’s demise.
Tom became very politically active. At one point he joined his friend John Lennon on the recording of Give Peace A Chance.
Tom Smothers found other work in the entertainment industry and won acolades for his talent and determination to take a stand. He owns a vineyard in Sonoma County and creates wines under the Remick Ridge Vineyards label.
Tom Smothers has used only two brands of guitar during his career. He played a Martin or a Guild.
The guitar that he is primarly seen with is the Guild D-55TV. This is Guild’s top-of-the-line dreadnaught. Although it is not as fancy as a Martin D-45, the Guild is a fine instrument.
I have heard it said that in Guild’s nomiclature, the designation T, noted an instrument with a natural top. I cannot find evidence to support this claim. The D-55TV is an updated and fancy version of their model D-50.
For those unfamiliar with Guild’s history, the company was founded by Alfred Dronge and George Mann in 1952. The Epiphone guitar company had been sold to Gibson by the Stathopoly family. This left employees of the Manhattan firm out of work. Dronge and Mann put together a Guild of the finest luthiers in New York to start up their company. Their venture was a big success and the headquarters moved to Hoboken, New Jersey, since the company outgrew its original plant.
The advent of folk and blues music was a big assist to Guild and they concentrated less on archtop jazz guitars and more on flattop guitars in the Martin style.
The Fender Musical Instrument Corporation never seemed capable of producing a really great acoustic guitar.
The company was in an acquisition mode in the late 1990’s. They had purchased the small, Washington State based Tacoma guitar company and next set their sites on Guild.
The Rhode Island plant was old and the machinery was not modern. In Fender’s eyes, it was inefficient. Fender had just built a brand new factory in Corona, California. The employees in Westerly were offered jobs, if they wanted to relocate to California. I don’t believe anyone took up the offer.
Production of Guilds in Corona did not last very long, before Fender moved Guild to the Tacoma facility in Tacoma, Washington. It was during this time that Fender started importing Asian made Guilds, using the Guild name.
Kaman Incorporateds main business was building precision industrial parts and building heliocopters. They had devoted almost 40 years to their founders dream of building a guitar by using synthetic materials. This was the company that made and sold Ovation Guitars.
The company decided in 2004 to unload the guitar division. Fender was right there and bought the company and their facility in New Hartford, Connecticut. Fender not only went on the manufacture Ovation guitars in the Connecticut facility, but moved production of Guild there as well.
American made Guilds are a bargain when compared with similar Martin and Gibson instruments. Their D-55 model sells new for around $2800 USD, with a hardshell case included.
This last video features The Who on the Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour. They are singing My Generation. Stay tuned for the end of the clip. Keith Moon put explosives in his bass drum, however without Moon's knowledge a stage hand put in extra explosives. Moon is stunned at the end of the clip. Townsend blames this for hearing loss.
This last video features The Who on the Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour. They are singing My Generation. Stay tuned for the end of the clip. Keith Moon put explosives in his bass drum, however without Moon's knowledge a stage hand put in extra explosives. Moon is stunned at the end of the clip. Townsend blames this for hearing loss.
7 comments:
Interesting series on Comedian Guitars. I would point out though, that the explosion at the end of the clip of "My Generation" was the result of Moon bribing a Smothers Brothers stagehand to pack the drum with additional explosives, not a rogue stagehand loading it up himself.
Maybe as part of this series you could write about Flight of the Conchords' Bret McKenzie and Jemaine Clement, two fine musicians who also happen to be very very funny. They both play a wide range of instruments, including Maton (Australian) guitars.
Love the blog!
I had forgotten about those guys. They had an HBO Special a few years ago. They were awesome. As I recall they did one song with a plastic Casio synth-guitar thing, that had the cheesy drum machine.
The were a hoot.
Thanks for stopping by and don't be a stranger.
~Marc
I recall Mason Williams appearing on The Smothers Brothers show, sitting on a stool while performing a solo rendition of his hit instrumental tune Classical Gas on an acoustic guitar made entirely of clear acrylic, the lower bout filled with water up to the soundhole, and a goldfish swimming around inside.
Mason Williams was one of the writers on the Smothers Brothers Show. He happened to be a gifted guitarist. I think he went on to work on The Glen Campbell Show. The last I heard was Williams was still playing guitar and living in the Northwest.
I played for the Smothers Brothers show when I was with Eddy Arnold in the 80s.Tom asked me to take his Guild to New York when we were at Harrah's Tahoe. He swore it needed fret work. I played it. There was nothing wrong with it. My buddy and fellow guitarist Jim Lance, Eddy's other guitarist took it to Nashville to have it looked over. Supposedly, they changed the strings, tweaked the truss rod, cleaned off the gunk on the fingerboard and sent it back to Tommy in Santa Rosa. I think Jim got a case wine from their winery in return.True story.
Chuck Corbisiero
(Michael)
That sounds just like Tommy; one of the sweetest and most kind old souls on this great earth.
PS -- Tommy gave me his original Martin 1963 D-28 and told me to sell it.
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