Highly reliable sources have identified the guitar Zappa is playing in the picture from his graduation book, in 1958: it’s a Supro Dual Tone, manufactured by Valco in the ’50s. Oh, and the picture of the Blackouts that is in The Real FZ book (pag 45), well it doesn’t feature Frank!, apparently that’s Ronnie Williams. Here’s another pic with both, Ronnie with the Telecaster and behind him, Frank with the Jazzmaster. I knew you could not have a good weekend without knowing this! (Thanks Old Zircon from zappa-es yahoogroups)
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That last picture is actually quite interesting. Look up close at Zappa’s right hand and you’ll note he already had that peculiar, typical way of hovering over/picking at the strings way back in ’62. I’ve never seen another guitarist with a similar right hand picking style.
Awel,ja.
Oh yeah, that’s Frank, alright. I was always intrigued by his facial expression while he plays. He emits an aura of unwavering concentration. Yes, Barry, his right hand technique is a one-of-a-kind. He seemed to favor upstrokes.