Bad Co. Mick Ralphs Vintage Tobacco Burst

[todd richman]

There are a lot of youtube clips of the classic lineup. The tones on the solo on this one are awesome. Must be early seventies since MIck still has the Ampeg V-4's left over from Mott.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BfHDJYvZPwg

 

[zosolp]

that guitar was for sale on ebay for a steal of 95,000

 

[DHBucker]

I saw the auction too, but I was skeptical that it was Mick's guitar.

 

[lpnv59]

That was their first tour. The burst actually was more of a faded cherry than a tobacco color in person.

 

[todd richman]

How long ago was that ebay sale?

 

[Demon]

How long ago was that ebay sale?

No more than a month or 6 weeks ago. The guitar had issues, that escape me right now. I think it went around twice on ebay actually. I don't think it sold either.

 

[mingus]

I don't recall it selling. It has a shaved/contoured neck heel as its biggest issue. (also Bigsby removal and top refin)

 

[mingus]

You can check it out here: ebay link

 

[58burst]

Another one of those "hot-rodded" vintage guitars...

 

[zosolp]

its got a pretty color either way

 

[todd richman]

Are you sure that is the same Burst. I remember Mick playing a Tobacco Burst like the one on youtube in the early era of the band. I know he owned several originals including a Lemon Drop that sold a few years ago.

 

[Ian Anderson]

There are a lot of youtube clips of the classic lineup. The tones on the solo on this one are awesome. Must be early seventies since MIck still has the Ampeg V-4's left over from Mott.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BfHDJYvZPwg

It's a shame when you listen to his playing in Bad Co, just sounds like a Kossoff clone. His playing in Mott was much more inventive and had it's own style (Def Leppard certainly though so as you can hear all the Mott riffs they stole)

:2cool

 

[fatneck]

How many bursts was Ralphs known to have?

 

[fatneck]

How many bursts was Ralphs known to have?

 

[todd richman]

I can think of at least 3 assuming the ebay guitar is not the tobacco burst in the video. I know in the last few years he had a boat load of Historics, many with Brazilian Boards-(2003 models)-I actually owned one of them for a while!

 

[lpnv59]

It's a shame when you listen to his playing in Bad Co, just sounds like a Kossoff clone. His playing in Mott was much more inventive and had it's own style (Def Leppard certainly though so as you can hear all the Mott riffs they stole)

:2cool

Mick had a cool singing voice too. His version of Jesse Colin Youngs "Darkness Darkness" on Braincapers. The original version of "Ready For love/Afterlights" thats on All The Young Dudes. And "Im A Cadillac" off his final MTH album Mott. Great voice and I agree, in retrospect, his pre Badco playing is more creative and very exciting. At the time though, I thought Badco was the shit. But years later when compared to Free, they were nowhere near as good as that band.

 

[GuitarsfromMars]

Interesting that BadCo sold so many more albums than the Free did.Much more focused in terms of musicianship,not so inventive or groundbreaking as the Free,but the songs they did right,were quite good.Commercial and appealing to those who bought the albums.Several platinum sales,iirc.

 

[mistersnappy]

Interesting that BadCo sold so many more albums than the Free did.Much more focused in terms of musicianship,not so inventive or groundbreaking as the Free,but the songs they did right,were quite good.Commercial and appealing to those who bought the albums.Several platinum sales,iirc.

+1 I think Rodgers and Ralphs wanted to form a "stadium" band that would carry on the blues-rock thang that Free had w/o the personnel "issues"...

 

[BobbyS]

I worked backstage at a Bad Co. show during their Burning Sky tour. I remember carrying a couple of coolers of iced down beer into their guitar room and there were 4 bursts set up on stands including a lemon drop and the tobacco burst. Most interesting to me at the time was a burst that Paul R. played for a couple of songs that night. It had little to no flame but had faded to an almost peach like color - very beautiful. Their guitar tech even let me strum a couple of chords on it.

There must have been 20 guitars in that room including several 50's Teles and Strats.

How many bursts was Ralphs known to have?

 

[sgtJoe]

+1 I think Rodgers and Ralphs wanted to form a "stadium" band that would carry on the blues-rock thang that Free had w/o the personnel "issues"...

Remember also that they were on the Swansong label and had a lot of marketing help. This was also at a time when there was that "supergroup" mentality going on with a lot of record comapnies, seems like they all wanted a cash cow any way they could get one. TV was also starting to get involved in the rock and roll business, I'm sure a lot of you remember Don Kirshner's Rock Concert and the Midnight Special all spotlighting lots of great bands of that time.

Mick Ralphs also did some great post BadCo time with Pete Townsend and Dave Gilmour.