The Unique Guitar Blog: October 2020

The Gibson DRUM Corporation owes a debt of thanks to several great guitarists; Peter Green, Eric Clapton and Michael Bloomfield come to mind. I believe these these fellows cut back popularity to the Les Paul guitar, within an era where most guitarists were playing a Fender Stratocaster, Telecaster, or a Gibson Sera-335. Hendrix showed us what a man could perform with a Stratocaster and created a whole new method of playing, but it was Bloomfield among others brought the Les Paul guitar to our attention once more. Bloomfield was born right into a wealthy Jewish-American family members on the north aspect of Chicago. His parents believed he was destined to go into the family business, but when he discovered The Blues, that transformed everything. Bloomfield spent much of his youth going out in the South Side’s Blues clubs. He actually sat in, playing guitar behind some Dark Blues men that would become iconic; Sleepy John Estes, Yank Rachell, and Small Brother Montgomery. The young guitarist's talent "was instantly obvious to his mentors," wrote Al Kooper, Bloomfield's afterwards collaborator and close friend, in a 2001 content.

Among his early supporters were B. B. King, Muddy Waters, Bob Dylan and Buddy Guy. Great guitarists videos used to state, 'It's a natural. Dark people suffer externally in this country. Jewish people suffer internally. Michael Bloomfield regarded the guitar as an instrument of expression. Even though he is probably best known for using a Gibson flame top Les Paul, the device he was using probably was not on his brain. It had been a means to an end. He did not take particularly proper care of his guitars, despite their value. He would consider his Les Paul or Telecaster to a gig without putting it in a case. He required the bus to jobs, holding his guitar with the cable connection dangling on the floor. It is stated that he frequently would grab whatever guitar he found in a documenting studio and utilize it on a program. Knobs were sometimes missing on his guitars; the binding disappeared; cracks had been repaired with electrical tape. Much of the time, these defects were eventually repaired, but sometimes not repaired professionally.

Bloomfield began playing guitar at the early age of 12 using an inexpensive Harmony acoustic. His motivation sprung from the actual fact that his cousin, Charles who owned a resonator guitar. He learned the basics from his mother’s hairdresser, who sidelined as a guitar instructor. Tony Carmen possessed a dark Les Paul, Fretless Question, guitar that he occasionally let young Michael play. Around 1956 or ’57, Michael Bloomfield acquired a power guitar. This probably originated from his grandfather’s pawn shop, known as Uncle Max’, a business where Bloomfield sometimes worked well at on weekends. Bloomfield utilized this to play in a teen age garage area band. He was still young and living in the family’s North Shore home. At age 15 Bloomfield acquired a Gibson Sera175 archtop which he used in a school skill show. He also experienced a Gibson GA-20 amplifier. In this show he was reprimanded by the school’s dean for playing rock and roll. However in a few brief years Michael Bloomfield acquired already graduated to playing the Blues. He'd provide his guitar and amp to Southside Blues clubs and sit down in with the likes of Muddy Waters, Howlin’ Wolf, Sunnyland Slim among others.

He also got together with local men and played some college parties. As I often mention, through the early 1960’s The Folk Movement sprang up, at first in New York City’s Greenwich Village, and it seemed to branch out to many all college campuses. Among the first was the University of Chicago. This organization placed on a major Folk Event that attracted major acts from around the country. Section of the Folk Movement was its reputation of the Blues as a geniune American folk art. As a result traditional Blues players became a big part of the event. This caught the eye of Michael Bloomfield. He set aside his electric guitar and concentrated on acoustic selecting techniques and delta style blues. To this end, Bloomfield set aside his electric guitars and obtained a Martin D-28. Around this period Bloomfield participated in some recording session with local Blues players and occasionally visited Greenwich Village to play.

He didn't pick up the guitar again until 1964. This was in 1964 when Michael Bloomfield traveled to New York City and made a cool call on record producer, John Hammond Sr. Bloomfield had sent some of the recordings he had made and through some connections Hammond decided to listen to him. But Hammond wanted to hear Bloomfield play… John Hammond Jr. was scheduled to record what would become the first Blues LP done by a white artist. Therefore Hammond Jr. asked Bloomfield if he would play on the documenting on the Vanguard label. It had been here that Bloomfield met some yet-to-be well-known players that influenced him throughout his lifestyle. This included Levon Helm, Robbie Robertson and Ronnie Hawkins. These guys were working as Hammond’s back again up group. Bloomfield was relatively intimidated by Robertson’s skill as a new player. So Bloomfield opted to play piano on this session. Nonetheless it was this event that provided Michael Bloomfield the impetus to start playing electric guitar again. He went back to Chicago and purchased a 1956 Fender Duosonic, which he performed through a white Fender Bassman head and cabinet.