Midge Ure signature guitar

ICBM

richardhomer said:

Was he playing through an Ultravox AC30?

It sounded more like a Peavey Rage In Eden.

Although it was actually in Dalkeith Country Park...

kaypeejay

Gnat King Cole?

stimpsonslostson

We don't count spiders or scorpions as insects because they are not insects. 
Alien Ant Farm

Iron Butterfly
Alice Cooper's first band was The Earwigs. 

Back on topic- all the Vintage LPs I've played have been well put together, VERY heavy & good sounding. 
One thing to be aware of is the necks- they tend to be very thin. Which I don't like. 

MartinBush

TeleMaster said:

Is it just me or is he a a bit of a surprising choice for a signature guitar? 

I thought that. But there's also a Chad Kroeger one out there... I find that even more puzzling. 

MattNovak

Van Halen were originally called Daddy Longlegs.

MrBump

I'm a Midge fan.

I could take or leave the Vintage, but I loved this guitar years ago:



Loved his Visage/Ultravox tone too - really mechanical and processed.

ICBM

MrBump said:

That was in the National Museum of Scotland recently as part of the Rip It Up exhibition. It’s really rough when you see it up close!

(I do mean the guitar .)

I like that processed sound he used in Ultravox as well - but when I saw him with the Vintage it sounded like a constipated wasp. Not so bad when the band was playing, but when he did a solo noodle for a bit it was just awful.

EricTheWeary

The Vibrola on that Midge Ure is a particularly ugly thing, although presumably it does work better than a regular Vibrola. 
Midge was on one of the Prince's Trust shows a few years ago on TV and he did stick with his Vintage throughout. I have a vague memory of him playing some Peter Green choons even longer ago on TV on a Gordon Smith and at the height of his pop fame using Ibanez (? the grey one above). So, not someone too bothered using only the biggest name brands. 


As I understand it the name Midge is nothing to do with insects or his diminutive stature, it's just wordplay with his real name James ( say Jim backwards) that stuck. 

MagicPigDetective

My Vintage V100 PGM is very well made and a great guitar. It is heavy, but I weighed it recently and it's less than 9 pounds and lighter than the new Gibson Standards.

skullfunkerry

I believe the Midge Ure Vintage has a slightly oversized body...

MrBump

ICBM said:

MrBump said:

That was in the National Museum of Scotland recently as part of the Rip It Up exhibition. It’s really rough when you see it up close!

(I do mean the guitar .)

I like that processed sound he used in Ultravox as well - but when I saw him with the Vintage it sounded like a constipated wasp. Not so bad when the band was playing, but when he did a solo noodle for a bit it was just awful.

Do you know what the make and model are?

ICBM

It’s an odd Ibanez Blazer/Roadstar transitional model apparently...

http://www.ultravox.org.uk/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/7418/Re:_Ibanez_Guitar_loon_headscr

Basically a Blazer with different pickups, if you want to build a ‘tribute’. The grey paint looks like it came out of Rosyth shipyard .

tony99

EricTheWeary said:

The Vibrola on that Midge Ure is a particularly ugly thing, although presumably it does work better than a regular Vibrola. 
Midge was on one of the Prince's Trust shows a few years ago on TV and he did stick with his Vintage throughout. I have a vague memory of him playing some Peter Green choons even longer ago on TV on a Gordon Smith and at the height of his pop fame using Ibanez (? the grey one above). So, not someone too bothered using only the biggest name brands. 


As I understand it the name Midge is nothing to do with insects or his diminutive stature, it's just wordplay with his real name James ( say Jim backwards) that stuck. 

and Ure? are we supposed to try and pronounce that backwards?

EricTheWeary

tony99 said:

EricTheWeary said:

The Vibrola on that Midge Ure is a particularly ugly thing, although presumably it does work better than a regular Vibrola. 
Midge was on one of the Prince's Trust shows a few years ago on TV and he did stick with his Vintage throughout. I have a vague memory of him playing some Peter Green choons even longer ago on TV on a Gordon Smith and at the height of his pop fame using Ibanez (? the grey one above). So, not someone too bothered using only the biggest name brands. 


As I understand it the name Midge is nothing to do with insects or his diminutive stature, it's just wordplay with his real name James ( say Jim backwards) that stuck. 

and Ure? are we supposed to try and pronounce that backwards?

I think that's just his surname, although maybe he was James Eru.

richardhomer

EricTheWeary said:

I think that's just his surname, although maybe he was James Eru.

You might be confusing him with George Ezra....

HarrySeven

@Legionreturns may recall that we have discussed the Vintage MU signature model previously. I like the look and fancy ”test driving” one.

The weird thing is that I have yet to find one in a music shop (not sure whether that’s a good or bad sign!)

At the time, I too liked the look of the grey Ibanez (remember it discussed in an interview in International Musician & Recording World).

However, the Ure guitar which has always intrigued me is this:

https://i.imgur.com/G3C6V6Z.jpg

Kahler on a fat semi?

Lovely.

I've been tempted to explore that option on something like an Antoria Jazzstar, Hondo Fat Boy, etc, for ages...

artiebear

HarrySeven said:

@Legionreturns may recall that we have discussed the Vintage MU signature model previously. I like the look and fancy ”test driving” one.

The weird thing is that I have yet to find one in a music shop (not sure whether that’s a good or bad sign!)

At the time, I too liked the look of the grey Ibanez (remember it discussed in an interview in International Musician & Recording World).

However, the Ure guitar which has always intrigued me is this:

https://i.imgur.com/G3C6V6Z.jpg

Kahler on a fat semi?

Lovely.

I've been tempted to explore that option on something like an Antoria Jazzstar, Hondo Fat Boy, etc, for ages...

He liked those Yamaha AES2000's along with SG series guitars. The AES2000 is a fantastic guitar if you can find one these days, brilliant top end Yamaha quality as usual. That's the only one I've seen with a Kahler, very much a child of it's time and either a custom order or more likely an add on. The same guitar with a bigsby would be nice.

Rocker

Bee Bee King?

ICBM

artiebear said:

He liked those Yamaha AES2000's along with SG series guitars. The AES2000 is a fantastic guitar if you can find one these days, brilliant top end Yamaha quality as usual. That's the only one I've seen with a Kahler, very much a child of it's time and either a custom order or more likely an add on.

It was fitted by a British luthier - I forget who - he had to glue a solid block of wood on the inside of the top for it to mount into. There was an interview with Midge in Making Music magazine (remember that?) where he talked about it.

dazzajl

I’ve got the same trem on my Vintage SG’a like and it’s very good. I had pretty low expectations of this guitar and frankly bought it because it was cheap and it was pretty. It’s turned out to be really impressive and the trem particularly works better than most other varieties I’ve had. 

I’d definitely take a punt on one of those Midge Ure models, looks fab