If you're going to demo Mike Bloomfield's old '63 Fender Strat on video, you better be bringing chops. Nashville's Carter Vintage Guitars knew who to call: JD Simo has them to spare – the word accomplished barely does him justice.
"I don't think I've ever talked on a Carter Vintage [demo] video before," the shop regular and recording pro admits below. "But Michael means a lot to me and I just wanted to talk about him and this guitar."
Unaccompanied, except for a room full of guitars and a 1965 Fender Vibrolux he squeezes bite, beauty and several shades between from this black beauty.
"I have literally hundreds of heroes, but Mike is a special one and a very important one to me," says JD.
Bloomfield's playing is a cornerstone of guitar history, but he remains an unsung figure in the pantheon of guitar heroes. He was a blues-rock firebrand ahead of Hendrix, Page and Clapton in the early to mid-60s with the Paul Butterfield Blues Band, later playing on Bob Dylan's 1965 album Highway '61 Revisited. Bloomfield was in his band for the infamous Newport Folk Festival appearance that year when Dylan went electric.
"Mike was the original guitar hero for the baby boomer generation," notes JD. "In the '50s you had Scotty Moore, you had Chuck Berry, Bo Diddley, you had Buddy Holly, and between that – the birth of rock n' roll as we know it – to the late '60s, the era of the guitar hero, that's where Mike fits in.
Bloomfield would go on to form The Electric Flag with vocalist Nick Gravenites and future Hendrix drummer Buddy Miles in 1968. Further acclaim would come that year with Al Cooper and Stephen Stills on the trio's Super Session album with Bloomfield playing on the first side of the record before he left the sessions after the first day due to his insomnia and Stills took over for the rest.
Session and solo work would follow, but Bloomfield's career waned until his untimely death from an accidental overdose in 1981 at the age of 37. But there's one unexpected album he made in the '70s that JD has grown especially fond of.
"As I've gotten older, the record that he made in '75/early '76 which was initially meant to be an instructional album for Guitar Player magazine. It's called If You Love These Blues, Play 'Em As You Please, and this is the guitar Mike used on that record.
This one is the one he used probably the longest – he had this up until his death
"Mike only had five very sort of iconic instruments in his life, and this one is the one he used probably the longest – he had this up until his death.
"This was a special instrument to him and it's kind of crazy to get to look at it and play it. Unfortunately, a lot of Mike's instruments have gone under heavy modification or alterations – this is, as far I know and I'm not the expert here… this is in the condition it was in when he used it. Which makes this much more special."
The Strat isn't the only Bloomfield guitar Carter Vintage has – it also houses his old '66 'Blue' Telecaster (available to buy for $235,000). And you can see JD Simo demo it below too.
- Stay up to date with JD Simo's tour dates at simo.fm
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