Let's talk Terrible Ted

C

coyote

408/1=
Joined
Sep 29, 2015
Messages
232
Nugent, that is. Not his politics or personality, but his guitar playing.

I just found out today that, while Santana is of course PR Smith's most famous endorser, it turns out Nuge was his first big-name client. And Ted still takes that PRS guitar out and plays it onstage!

That's kinda cool. Regardless of what you think of Nuge, his personality or his politics or his juvenile songwriting, there is no question the guy can play guitar. He knows his chords, he has good phrasing in his lead playing, he played that wonderful feedback-laced Byrdland on the classic 60s track Journey to the Center Of Your Mind and virtually all the famous stuff from his headlining mid-70s period.

So then. What tracks did he record, if any, with the PRS? Maybe stuff from Damn Yankees?
 
Yeah, his main axe in Damn Yankees was his Zebra PRS.
 
AP515 said:
Yeah, his main axe in Damn Yankees was his Zebra PRS.
Click to expand...

This. It was my first exposure to a PRS. I'm a fan of his music. Never wanted a Byrdland, but I knew I wanted a PRS when I saw him playing it. Took a few years to get there though.
 
I think "Fred Bear" and "Spread Your Wings" are also PRS-based tunes.

I love Nugent's playing. I can take about 80% of the schtick. Unfortunately, the schtick has detracted from the playing over the last few years, at least as far as the mainstream is concerned.

PRSh has said that Derek St. Holmes was the first guy to be shown with a PRS on the big video screen at a concert. The return of Derek to Ted's band has been a huge improvement. Not because Derek is pretty much the classic voice for Ted's music, but because Ted needs that rhythm guitar. The trio years were not as good as when he's had a second guitarist. I finally got to see Ted and Derek together a couple years ago - it was kind of a holy grail show for me. And even though I was too intimidated to talk to Derek when he was at Experience, I got to meet him last November and he was the nicest guy. It was especially big for my buddy, who's been a Nugent fan for 40+ years.
 
Big influence on my early playing. I think I learned all the songs on Great Gonzos when I was a teenager. Haven't dug much more into his studio stuff, but I've always enjoyed his live work. I have a few of the live ones (Double Live Gonzo on vinyl!).

I had his instructional video on VHS. I loved Damn Yankees. Had both albums on cassette. Okay, I'm making myself feel old now. Anyway, for the more hard rock stuff and any whammy bar stuff I remember him saying that's when he grabbed the PRS.

I saw him live mid-90's sometime (I think it was with Bad Co.) and remember that he delivered as advertised. I'll agree Derek St Holmes is the glue that sticks it all together.

Just found this today and it is 100% fantastic:

 
On Ted's Facebook feed this morning he put up a video of Fred Bear on an acoustic around a campfire if you want to search for it.
I have not listened to it yet.
 
I have the instructional VHS, and just picked it up on DVD.

I've got most of the catalog. I loved the Damn Yankees stuff - when we saw Night Ranger last year, they did two DY songs, and I was almost in tears because I never thought I'd get to hear that stuff live.

I think I've seen Ted probably about 8 or 9 times, going back to the Little Miss Dangerous tour (I was a latecomer to the party). Never failed to deliver.
 
I saw Ted a few times back in the late 60s-70s, because we're both Detroit guys. Most recently, he played a Detroit Music Awards show I attended a couple of years ago.

He's a superb player. But I can't listen to his work because his personality is so offensive to me. Too difficult to separate the man from the music for this guy.
 
jimistephen said:
If I'm not mistaken some one here has that guitar now.
Click to expand...
Ted Nugent's "Whackmaster" was available for sale for a short time through his catalog. They were all CE-24's and there are a few of them out there. Ted only played Customs with the Whackmaster paint job; never a CE; though he did shoot a few with arrows.

Timmy Walls bought one of the CE's from Mike Hansen a while back. It had been stripped of it's zebra-striped paint job so Timmy had the PTC restore it. Pretty cool guitar that captured the spirit of its era, IMO.
 
Ted was a clown live (not in a good way). He thinks he's amazing (he's not). I still like Cat Scratch Fever but nothing else. Damn Yankees would have been better without him.
 
2 cent head. 2 Million dollar chops....and boy could he play and his stage presense, even though clownish, was massive. The snakeskin PRS was pretty cool too.

 
Not sure bob Dylan, the Beatles or quite a few others would agree. David Bowie that was once a gain a hero last week flirted with right wing German politics quite publicly.

Put another way protest music and military music have long histories. Guantanamera
 
Yeah! The ability to openly share an opinion should be reserved for us guitar forum nerds. Who do those uppity rock-stars think they are.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

alantig
Experience PRS 2014 - An Alternative Recap
Replies
0
Views
726
alantig
alantig
László
Why Tube Amps Still Matter - A Discussion Thread
Replies
11
Views
2K
László
László
László
A Chronicle Of A World Tour Adventure!
2 3
Replies
51
Views
8K
jfb
jfb
CoreyT
Another forum project
Replies
2
Views
1K
CoreyT
CoreyT
Back
Top