Chief Mack Thomas

Jussi Huhtakangas · Post by **Jussi Huhtakangas** » 4 Apr 2002 4:42 am

Well, I recently scored an old Thomas Indian Family LP from ebay. I placed a bid mainly because it has one of the coolest covers on the album business; indian dressed family with a Bigsby pedal steel, a Bigsby doubleneck standard guitar ( if you can call that a standard ), Standel amp, Fender bass, etc. On top of this, the music is a nice mixture of hawaiian, a touch of c&w and old hymns. Mack Thomas' style is something between Jerry Byrd and Sol Hopii ( he studied with Hopii ). Anyone else familiar with Mack Thomas? I searched the forum, but found nothing on him.
Jussi

Dirk B · Post by **Dirk B** » 4 Apr 2002 6:15 am

I don't know anything about him, but Jeremy Wakefield has his old guitar.

Darvin Willhoite · Post by **Darvin Willhoite** » 4 Apr 2002 9:46 am

He lived in Claremore, Ok. for a while in the early '70's and worked for my Uncle in a music store there. I was just learning to play the steel and his playing blew me away. He had a custom pedal steel that had been built by a jeweler, that had ball bearings on the crossshafts and maybe in the changer fingers. I haven't heard anything of him since.

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Darvin Willhoite
Riva Ridge Recording

chas smith R.I.P. · Post by **chas smith R.I.P.** » 4 Apr 2002 11:36 am

The story I heard was that all of their instruments and amps, with the exception of the steel guitar, were left at their church, on loan for anyone to use, and ultimately they all dissappeared.

Tom Bradshaw · Post by **Tom Bradshaw** » 4 Apr 2002 12:40 pm

Has Mack passed on? I checked my database and found two addresses for him. They are: PO Box 349, Ashley, ND 58413 and NE 76th St., Apt.A3-80, Vancouver, WA 98662.

I haven't heard from Mack in at least 15 years. I once sold him a D-10 MSA. If anyone locates him, let me know. If these addresses are wrong, let me know that too. ...Tom

Paul Warnik · Post by **Paul Warnik** » 4 Apr 2002 12:58 pm

Jussi-Chief Mack-had two Bigsbys made for him-the one that Jeremy has is a rather standard feature looking triple eight-but the other was like no other Bigsby made-it is a triple ten with like fifteen pedals,an extended cabinet made mostly from mahogany(I think) and it has rollers at the nut-also it has some unique extended endplates-I believe that it is owned by Larry "CASH" Briggs in Tulsa,OK.-I had heard that it was the largest and probably the heaviest pedal steel ever made!

Jussi Huhtakangas · Post by **Jussi Huhtakangas** » 4 Apr 2002 9:43 pm

Yep Paul, the album I have has pictures of both of those Bigsbys, at a first glance, I didn't even realize there was the big one, because it looked like he had a lap steel on a huge desk, but on a closer look, good lord!... And the cabinet indeed looks like it's either mahogany or rosewood. I've seen JW play the other one, at some point someone had made some minor ugly modifications on it, but of course, in JW's hands it sounded like a million bucks!
Back to the album, there actually might be two steel players, the youngest of the seven children, a little ( around ) ten year old kid is also mentioned playing the hawaiian guitar. The scary thing is, that it's really hard to tell the difference between him and his older brother Mack!

Jussi

chas smith R.I.P. · Post by **chas smith R.I.P.** » 4 Apr 2002 11:36 pm

The monster Bigsby is walnut. I was offered both the guitar that Jeremy has and the "worlds largest steel guitar". At the time, I figured since I already had a T-8, I didn't need another one, and I didn't really need an expensive monster conversation piece that was going to need a lot of work restoring it. The big one had cables on top of cables, changes on every string and at least one of the heads had a change on every key, it is not a practical instrument. It would have been great for parts, but parting out a "historical" Bigsby is not something I could do. Instead I bought a couple Standell amps and Jeremy and Larry got the guitars.

Ardell Thomas also played steel and at one time owned the D-8 lap guitar that belonged to Joaquin that I now have.

Jussi Huhtakangas · Post by **Jussi Huhtakangas** » 5 Apr 2002 12:42 am

Aw, c'mon Chas, are you saying a triple neck steelguitar, sized of a pool table, almost 200lbs is not a practical instrument!!??

Jussi

Jerry Hayes · Post by **Jerry Hayes** » 5 Apr 2002 6:21 am

I met Mack at Blackie Taylor's Music Store when it was in Hawaiian Gardens, California. He came in there a few times and I got to hear him play on some of the guitars in the store. At one of Blackie's Store Shows he showed me the guitar that a jeweler built. I didn't see the top of it as he had it in his trunk and we just opened the case and looked at the bottom of the thing. It must have cost a fortune because of the way it was built. I never got to hear him in a band situation but just playing around in a music store on unfamiliar guitars you could tell he was an awesome player.

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Livin' in the Past and the Future with a 12 string Mooney tuning.

bob grossman · Post by **bob grossman** » 5 Apr 2002 7:12 am

I think that guitar was made by a Mr. Hammond. Tom Bradshaw has a picture or two I took way badk when. It was very pretty.

Darvin Willhoite · Post by **Darvin Willhoite** » 5 Apr 2002 8:40 am

I think he told me the custom guitar he was playing when I met him, cost $6000. That's a lot of money today for a pedal steel, and this was around 1970.

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Darvin Willhoite
Riva Ridge Recording

George Macdonald · Post by **George Macdonald** » 5 Apr 2002 9:09 am

I knew Mack Thomas when we lived in So. Calif. in the 70's. He introduced me to the Gospel group that I played with for about 10 years. One time both our groups played at the same Church one Sunday night. He wasn't playing with his Family group at that time, and was using a D10 ZB through a Standel amp. He also used a "Leslie" which I later bought after hearing him.

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Darvin Willhoite · Post by **Darvin Willhoite** » 6 Apr 2002 9:13 am

I just heard from my Uncle in Oregon that Mack used to work for, and he said he talked to Mack a few months ago and he was still living in North Dakota. He had a bout with cancer and other health problems, but was in good spirits when Uncle J talked to him. I don't know if he's still playing or not.

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Darvin Willhoite
Riva Ridge Recording