[freddairy]

Did Clarence ever use a backup guitar when he toured with the Byrds? I don't think I've seen any pictures of him playing anything but the sunburst bender. Maybe times were different back then and you didn't always have a backup everything?

[Johnny Isaacs]

I don't Clarence used a back up as on some of the bootleg live shows (Boston Tea Party show?) when he breaks a string and Roger announces that Clarence has to change a string right before they play Nashville West. So my guess is no back up. I don't think I've seen a pic of Clarence playing another electric guitar after Gene put in the bender in his sunburst guitar.

Of course that would never happen today! In most bands some guitar tech roadie would loose his job if somebody broke a string or within seconds of the string going "pop", a new perfectly in tuned guitar would magiclly show up around his neck!

Clarence rocks!

Johnny Isaacs

[bakerbyrd]

In the dozens of shows I saw between 1970 and 1972, I never saw another electric guitar on the stage.

[Bob Warford]

Remember that, at that point in time, there were very few bender guitars - Clarence's, built by Gene, mine, built largely on Gene's plans, and a few built by Dave Evans. As far as I know, that is all there were.

I think the world of Dave Evans, and his guitars were groundbreaking in many respects, and the first generation of his guitars still hold up wonderfully, but I don't think Clarence ever had one, and, to my knowledge, Gene never built another like Clarence's.

I remember buying an airline seat for my guitar at times, when I couldn't have the airline personnel put the guitar (in its case, of course) in the "closet" of the airplane. If it disappeared, I was lost, and I recall at least one occasion when I was with Linda Ronstadt when all of our equipment unfortunately got shipped to a different city from where we were going. The result was that we had to rent instruments, amps, etc., from local suppliers.

My guitar was with me, and the rented amp was not a big problem. The steel player, on the other hand, had a huge problem, because of the custom nature of his pedal and tuning setup.

Bob

[Silverface]

I had been told by Clarence (confirmed later by Dave, who even has a couple pictures of the unfinished guitar) that he was having Evans build him a Pullstring guitar precisely for that reason

After Clarence died, Dave was so upset (not at losing business - at the loss of Clarence) that he burned the guitar body in his fireplace!