The guitars
|
The oldest photo I know where we see Rene
Thomas playing guitar dates from the beginning of
the 40's, with Gaston Houssa Orchestra. The guitar
is a kind of "folk" acoustic guitar. For
his first recordings in 1943 with Hubert Simplisse,
Rene played on an acoustic guitar, probably one of
the same model as on the photo. Thomas was really
inspired by Django until the end of the 40's, and
it seems that he played very well in this style :
Django himself was impressed by him when they met
themself in Brussels in 1947-1948.
|
|
During the years 1950-1953, we can see
on the photographs of the galleries four different electric
jazz guitars. It is generally difficult to say if Rene Thomas
was the owner of these guitars or if they were lent by a
friend here and there.
The first one, a Gibson ES 125,
appears several times on the photos, which makes
me think that it was not an occasional one and probably
Rene's guitar for a while. I know he used it in
1953, but perhaps the previous years too. The Gibson
ES 125 looks like the ES 150 but it's a cheaper
model, a kind of "student model". It was
done from 1941 to 1970, is 16 1/4" wide, has
a non-adjustable P-90 pickup with "dog ears",
the pickup being near the neck. Rene Thomas probably
played on it because the ES 150 was then too expensive,
and more hard to find in Europe.
|
 |
.
|
The second one maybe a Hofner
guitar, but I'm not sure about it. The machine heads
of this guitar seems to be the same as the Hofner
ones, and the markers on the fingerboard, though
we can't see them clearly, are not far from the
Hofner model. The general form with this tailpiece
makes me think of it too, so that's probably one.
It was maybe a jazz acoustic model with a pickup
added near the neck. I've got two photos with Rene
playing on it.
|
This one is a Gibson ES 300 that
was made between 1948 and 1952. It has 2 P-90 pickups,
2 volume knobs on lower treble bout, and a master
tone knob on upper treble bout. This model was probably
lent to Rene because it's the only time I see him
on photos with such a guitar, which moreover was
a quite expensive one. The photograph has maybe
been taken in 1952 or 1953. Furthermore, you can
check on the entire photo (gallery 5) that Rene
already had a Gibson EH 150 amplifier, the Charlie
Christian model.
|
|
There is another funny story, related
by J.M.Hacquier, on a guitar which was a copy of ES 150
model and seems to be one of Thomas' guitars during the
early years (cf. the year 1968 of diary for additional
informations) :
 |
This photo has
been taken in Sedan during the 1968 french mini tour
with the Robert Jeanne Quartet. In the early 60's,
J.M.Hacquier bought this guitar to his close friend
Gustave Smeets, the man who was nammed "Samoht"
(Thomas anagram). "Samoht" told him that
it had belonged to Rene Thomas in the past. Several
years later, Thomas made some concerts in France,
and especially a concert in Charleville where he broke
his ES 150 Gibson. It was a difficult problem to find
another guitar for the remaining shows of the tour,
and after trying all the guitars of Reims, the only
one that suited him was this copy of Gibson model,
without trademark. The fingerboard was very used and
it needs a huge attack to sound that only Rene Thomas
could have.
|
|
