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Who Invented the Whammy Bar?

Lonnie Mack Memphis Wham

It’s weird how one thing leads to another…and all of a sudden you realize, “wow, that’s weird…that’s deep.”

On the heels of Prince’s shocking death, music fans, musicians and historians have been additionally stunned and saddened by the death of Lonnie Mack, in a Nashville hospital, April 21, 2016.

Lonnie was a MAJOR innovator himself and influenced every guitar player, including Prince, that followed him.

Lonnie Mack literally created the WHAM in the WHAMMY BAR…his Memphis Wham sound. And the Flying V.  A style innovator, he was.

“Mack, who is of Scottish and Native American ancestry was attracted to the arrow-shaped instrument because of his ethnic heritage. He was pleased that it sounded like his Les Paul. Dubbing his guitar “Number 7″, Mack used it almost exclusively during his career.” —Wikipedia

Today, the 1958 Flying V is now considered highly collectible, as fewer than 100 were produced in that inaugural year.

What a concert must be airing on some obscure but powerful channel right now, with Prince and Lonnie Mack joining the show. Bowie will surely appear.

Rock Heaven of Fame.

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