RIP Dave Mason

@wharfy 

I am an electric guitar player/collector, and I'm very familiar with both Winwood and Mason and the sounds of vintage Fender and Gibson electrics.  On the Welcome to the Canteen track you reference, neither sounds like they're playing Strats.  Winwood was well known to play a 3-pickup Gibson Firebird during this period, which eliminated the hum of the Strat pickups, and that's what it sounds like he played on this track.  Similarly, Dave Mason played an older two-pickup Firebird with a Bigsby vibrato bar, and that's what it sounds like he played on this track and throughout his Alone Together album.

Here is a video from 1975 showing Mason playing the Firebird:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=qdUdvY80jak

Like many rock guitarists from this period--e.g., Clapton, Garcia, Beck--Mason eventually came to prefer Strats for much of the rest of his career. Winwood also returned to playing Strats when they came out with noiseless pickups.

BTW, the 1995 MCA "Heavy Vinyl" version of Alone Together sounds great--quiet surface, dynamic sound, mastered by Kevin Gray.

I saw the "Split Coconut" tour at the Orlando Sports Stadium with the band Mountain and Spooky Tooth.  I was working that show, so I don't remember the ticket price, but usually a triple band headliner like that was under $2 general. I was a spot technician, and moved around, so at any time I had the best "seat" in the house. 

To all us boomers the great ones are dying of too frequently. RIP to all of them. 

I'm not trying to be disagreeable, but "We Just Disagree" was written by Jim Krueger, long-time friend and guitarist for Dave.  They put out a very good live album of just the two of them playing acoustic guitars, Dave on a 12 string and Jim playing most of the leads titled "Live at Perkins Palace" also on DVD.  They both seem to be enjoying themselves quite a bit.  Jim died in 1993 at the age of 43.