Albert Upside Down (Albert the Tortoise)

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As you put it so well, the power and emotion in King’s playing is just phenomenal, and it still blows my head off listening to his playing after all this time! Albert has lived in Gravesend for more than 50 years, and will launch his latest work together with his owner and author Ian Brown at Waterstones in Bluewater. Author Ian Brown and his tortoise Albert, who is the inspiration behind Mr Brown's book series. Picture: Ian Brown Opting for a solid state amp eliminated this problem and gaveKing greater control over his tone. Amps to sound like Albert King

True to his name, King is arguably the monarch of upside-down-lefty guitarists, a distinguished company that includes Otis Rush, Doyle Bramhall II, Elizabeth Cotten, and Coco Montoya in the blues-folk realm, and everyone from Babyface to Bob Geldof in other genres. Garner, Bonita. "Albert King: A Biography". Mississippi Writers and Musicians . Retrieved April 19, 2022.Why King chose to tune in this way is somewhat unclear and I definitely wouldn’t recommend it. The tuning he used is not common. In fact, there are various stories of King turning up to a gig or the studio, playing out of tune and insisting that everyone else tune to his guitar! Few would have suspected that the Flying V was capable of such subtlety before King got his hands on one. His reversed strings meant King had to pull down rather than push up to bend the high E and B strings, and this enabled his immense control. Bernie had completely forgotten he had this. He said, ‘Oh, I looked in one of my old storage spaces today and I found another four guitars’”: Up close and personal with some of late guitar hero Bernie Marsden’s rarest vintage instruments Eric Gales and The Gales Brothers". 20 February 2012. Archived from the original on 20 February 2012.

The guitars have a vagueness and messiness – there’s a certain cloudiness that creates our perfect environment. That's our sound”: Blonde Redhead might not be the best of friends, but their otherworldly guitar textures are a match made in heaven Ian, who lives in Highams Park, is currently on a whirlwind tour of schools in east London promoting his book with readings also planned in libraries throughout Waltham Forest.Over the course of his career, King was nominated for two Grammy awards. In 1983, he was nominated for Best Traditional Blues album for San Francisco '83 and the next year he was also nominated for I'm In A Phone Booth, Baby. [27] A great little story of coming together to help those in need & fantastically illustrated' – Joe Sugg, star of Youtube & Strictly Come Dancing Engel, John (2006), Uncommon Sound: The Left-Handed Guitar Players Who Changed Music, Left Field Ventures, ISBN 2-9600614-0-3, archived from the original on 2007-02-08

According to Dan Erlwine though – the luthier who built King’s Flying V Lucy – King tuned all of his strings down a whole step. He then tuned his low E and A strings down a further whole step. So his guitar was actually tuned to C, F, C, F, A, D. Having said that, there were 3 amps that King did rely on during his career. These were the Roland JC-120, a Model 260 Acoustic head, and at times a 1969 Fender Dual Showman. Albert King was a massive man—standing 6'4" and weighing 250 pounds—who physically dominated his guitar. King didn't play a left-handed guitar, or even re-string his guitar—he simply turned the guitar around and played the instrument "upside down." The result of this was a big difference in his tone, because when bending strings, he "pushed" strings in situations where other guitarists would be "pulling" them.He didn’t use this until slightly later in his career, however he did use it extensively on a number of records, including In Session–the album he recorded with Stevie Ray Vaughan. Bowman, Rob (1997). Soulsville, U.S.A.: The Story of Stax Records. Schirmer Books. ISBN 0-8256-7227-9.