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[This message was edited by BobbeSeymour on 13 January 2006 at 02:28 PM.]

Bobbe

[This message was edited by BobbeSeymour on 13 January 2006 at 08:04 PM.]

No kidding, classic movie star looks.

Jerry Byrd told me in a letter that he knew him well.

Johnny Sibert had the best Fender steel guitar tone I have ever heard. He was a great, dynamic player.

Rick

In 1959, Johnny left Carl's band to play for Johnny & Jack and Kitty Wells. He recorded and toured with them until 1961, when he went back to Carl's band (during this time, Bob Foster played steel for Carl on tour).

Johnny did indeed go to pedals, as he played a Fender 1000 on Kitty's biggest 60's hit, "Heartbreak USA". He still played his Stringmaster with Carl, however (Carl didn't want to sound Webb Pierce), until 1966 when Johnny went to an Emmons.

He never touched the E9 neck with Carl, and had a pedal that put the C6 neck to A6, so he could play all his solo's just like the record.

In 1969 he left Carl's band and played locally in Nashville until his complete retirement from music in 1977. He said he and Carl had a "conflict". He then worked as a security guard at the Tennessean newspaper here in Nashville. Three years ago he retired, and he says he never missed playing music.

ABOUT HIS GUITARS:

D-8 Bigsby-
He played a National Grand Consolle when he joined Carl, but Carl wanted him to play a Fender (Carl LOVED treble). Johnny didn't like the Fenders available at the time (Dual Professionals and Customs), so they settled on a him buying a Bigsby. He says he never recorded the National with Carl, so the Bigsby back-order must of been a pretty short line in 1952.

After "Slowly" came out, Johnny had P.A. Bigsby put two pedals on this guitar. Carl didn't like the sound, and he never played it in his band. But when Bus Isaacs went into the Army, Webb Pierce needed a pedal steel guitarist, the problem being, there weren't any pedal steel guitarists. Webb decided to buy a pedal steel and hire someone to play it. He called Paul Bigsby about building him a guitar, but Bigsby said it was a three year wait. Bigsby told Webb he had recently put pedals on Johnny Siberts guitar, so Webb called Johnny and bought it from him ($600 vs. the original $300 paid, he said Webb insisted on this deal).

Strangely, this guitar's 1954 pedal conversion from the Bigsby shop had "split" pedals, not the early Isaacs setup. When Sonny Burnett got this guitar, he thought it was a stupid idea and had Shot Jackson change it to the Isaacs set up. The next year, Jimmy Day moved to Nashville and (no big suprize) Sonny had Shot split the pedals back like they originally were.

Sonny plays this guitar on the Al Gannaway "Grand Ole Opry" TV show from th 50's. This guitar was played by Sonny on most of the classic Webb Pierce pedal steel recordings ("More and More", "Tupelo County Jail", "Yes, I Know Why", etc.) While Bud Isaacs lit the candle, it was Sonny Burnett who kept the flame burning...

For a brief time in 1963, Lloyd Green POSSIBLY might of owned this guitar, but as a converted "Sho-Bud" with six pedals and wooden necks. Shot told Lloyd the Bigsby he was selling him had formerly belonged to Sonny. After he bought his first "real" Sho-Bud, he sold the guitar back to Shot. What alot of history that guitar has! I don't know if if has ever been accounted for (or if it's even the same guitar).

Fender Dual 8 Professional-
This is what Carl originally wanted Johnny to play, but Johhny NEVER liked the short scale Fender guitars. He only bought this one because he couldn't play his bepedaled Bigsby with Carl. This guitar was played for a very brief period. Since there's so much treble on all those records, it can get kinda hard to tell them apart, so I can't really name a record that defenitely has this guitar on it. This would of been briefly in 1954, as according to Mr. Sibert, it's the Stringmaster on "Loose Talk" (recorded September 1954).

After the Stringmaster came along, Johnny had a Shot Jackson coat hanger pedal installed on this one. He later sold the guitar to someone in Mississippi who never finished paying him for it.

T-8 Fender Stringmaster-
This is the guitar most associated with Johnny Sibert, probably because he played it on the Technicolor "Grand Ole Opry" TV show Al Gannaway produced in late '56, early '57.

Johnny liked long scale guitars, and finally Fender had one to offer him. This guitar was aqquired directly from Fender. With this triple neck, Mr. Sibert added Leon McAuliffe's E13 tuning (outside) to his previous d-8 tunings of C6 (middle tuning, high E through low F) and A6 (inside, and a good 90% of what he played)

It was converted to a three leg guitar by Shot. Johnny was annoyed with how the fourth leg would become wobbly if you moved the guitar around on an uneven stage floor. It seems the long scale was hell on tuning pans, as this guitar stripped out tuners constantly. The early Stringmasters didn't have individual removable pegs, so every time a peg went bad, he had to get a whole new eight string pan from Fender. The last time he did this, someone at Fender told him,"You better make this set last, bacause we just pulled these pans out of Leon's old guitar!".

Johnny said it was the best tone he ever had. He gave this guitar to the Steel Guitar Hall Of Fame the year he was inducted. It hadn't been out of the case since the late 60's or early 70's.

Fender 1000-
This was an early model, but with a black frame. By the early 60's, he had had Sho-Bud pickups installed so his California guitar could compete the thick tone of his fellow Nashville players. This was played on many a Kitty wells and Johnny & Jack song.

After hearing "Together Again", Johnny put the G# "Mooney" string on his E9 neck. Johnny Wright hated the sound and threatened to fire Johnny if he ever played any of those new "Mooney licks". Soon the sound became standard, and Mr. Wright had to put his foot in his mouth months later by asking Mr.Sibert to play some "Mooney licks" on a Johnny & Jack session.

This guitar broke alot of high strings (you'd never of guessed, right?), so Fender sent him some paper-clip like things to loop in between the ball end of the string and the changer. This was to take some tention off the strings and seemed to do the trick.

D-10 Emmons-
This guitar was given to Johnny by Buddy, as in 1966 Emmons was a new company and needed some exposure. Johnny was back in Carl's band, the Tunesmiths, and they were going to Canada to tape a country music TV show. Buddy gave the Guitar to Johnny the day they left for Canada and this was the first national television exposure Emmons guitars had. They taped two seasons worth of shows and were syndicated up through the 80's.

This guitar had many "firsts" for an Emmons. I don't know all the details, but I believe this was the first Emmons to have a 26 fret fretboard. It was Weldon's idea, but this was supposedly the first one built. I believe it also had a laquer finish instead of mica. This is the only guitar Johnny still owns today (hasn't been out of the case since 1977).

Hope I didn't ramble on to bad. I don't post often, so I figure I'd make it count...

Wow, you really know your stuff. Thanks for taking the time to give us a history on Johnny.

We have a mutual buddy, Chris Casello, in your neck of the woods. I built him a website this year (chriscasello.com). Say "hi" to him for me.

cheers,
Drew

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Drew Howard - website - Fessenden guitars, 70's Fender Twin, etc.

[This message was edited by Drew Howard on 19 January 2006 at 07:22 AM.]

Bobbe

[This message was edited by BobbeSeymour on 19 January 2006 at 11:31 AM.]

Love it. Thanks guys.

This picture was taken on Jan., 19th 2006

Bobbe

After seeing that I don't think I can get any more work done today.

Yow.

1. Bud Isaacs-
This guitar changed the sound of steel guitar and country music forever (and in just two recording sessions!)

2. Speedy West-
The first Bigsby with pedals, definitely the most famous and possibly the most recorded Bigsby (how many sessions did Speedy work again?)

3. Johnny Sibert/Sonny Burnett/Lloyd Green-
For the reasons listed above, a guitar that tells the history of country music in it's golden era; early 50's Hillbilly to mid 50's Honky Tonk to early 60's Nashville Sound. A guitar worked on by Bigsby, modified by Sho-Bud, played by Sibert, Sonny, and Lloyd, and recorded with Carl Smith, Webb Pierce, and countless others by "Mr. Nashville Sound" himself.

Wow...

CS

[This message was edited by Chris Scruggs on 19 January 2006 at 07:23 PM.]

Chris, you are better than most books on roots country!

quote:

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Mike W., how did you know about the $22.00 a month deal

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It should be an album of all songs recorded on that guitar! There's definitely a wealth of material to choose from...

Faron purchased the guitar from a woman in the Nashville area. Somewhere here on the forum is a Bigsby original owners list, and her name is there.

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“Big John”
a.k.a. {Keoni Nui}
’05 D–10 Derby
’65 Re-Issue Fender Twin–Reverb Custom™ 15”
Current Equipment

Lynn Owsley was on the way with his camers and never showed up. Well,

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“Big John”
a.k.a. {Keoni Nui}
’05 D–10 Derby
’65 Re-Issue Fender Twin–Reverb Custom™ 15”
Current Equipment