08.30.09
Posted in Instruments at 5:02 pm by Administrator
..I was stuck in Connecticut for two years with only a 12 string guitar,one that was virtually unplayable. My parents had bought it for me and really made a point of asking me if it was a decent guitar..which I assured them it was..and it was..for about 5 minutes. After that,the distance between the strings and the fretboard required a superhuman strength to just play a chord.
But by the time I discovered this, I was in Connecticut…
Outside of the cafeteria at the school,there was a spinet piano.
Now..we grew up with a Steinway Baby Grand piano in our house…my father and mother were both amazing musicians and my two sisters took piano lessons early on (but not from my mother who was the music teacher at school). Piano always seemed intimidating (and not as cool as guitar) so I never had much interest in learning to play it. But I needed to play something that wasn’t going to permanently cripple my left hand or I was going to lose my mind. So I started out plunking a little every day until the layout and the chord possibilities started
to slowly make sense. The first song that I could play all the way through was ” A Whiter Shade Of Pale” by Procol Harum, one of my favorite songs (and records). Of course,my fingering was completely wrong but it was the beginning of my “keyboard” journey…and a whole new area of “gear lust”.
Permalink
Posted in Instruments at 4:35 pm by Administrator
As we all made our way through high school,my brother and sisters and I spent some of our years in the states which made it difficult to keep the family band ( with drummer Steve White) intact.
So,at the age of 12, my sister Wendy put together an all girl band with her pals Jessie and Cameron. Says Wendy:
“We eventually decided to add a guy to the group who could actually sing and play lead (he had an SG – way cool). He insisted that we have a Theme Song, just like the Monkees, so we called ourselves Nucleus. Still remember the chorus to our “Theme Song”
“Hey hey swingers, one and all
we’re a brand new group, wer’re the center of it all
Nuuuuuuu – cleous!”
Unfortunately, no known photos or recordings of Nucleus remain.
Please contact me if you have access to any of these.
Permalink
08.28.09
Posted in Instruments at 9:30 pm by Administrator
Somewhere around the end of high school, we wound up with a white telecaster that my sister Wendy played.
We also wound up with a Wurlitzer electric piano that my sister Sara played…or was it a Rhodes? I’m pretty sure that we bought it from Steve Boone of The Lovin’ Spoonful who happened to be playing in a band there at the time. I think that Rob was playing the aforementioned SG and I wound up with a borrowed Gibson EB3.
I know that we bought a bass amp from Steve that he had toured with..the Mighty Magnatone. This thing was serious…I think that he told me he toured with two of them.
Permalink
Posted in Instruments at 4:37 pm by Administrator
..that came through were an inspiration,musically and of course,gear wise. There were quite a few clubs for such a small island (approx.13×2 miles) and lots of bands were more than willing to come down over a Christmas or summer holiday for an adventure in the sun. We had a Grand Funk Railroad cover band,a few top 40 bands and a hard rocking group called the Masque who eventually became Orleans/Buffalongo. (The G.F.R. cover band played in a great bar called Duffy’s in Creque’s Alley,both of which are immortalized in a song by The Mamas and the Papas).
We saw all kinds of cool guitars (Les Pauls,Flying V’s) and most of the bands had some kind of keyboard (Wurli/Rhodes/Hammond)….
Permalink
08.27.09
Posted in Instruments at 11:16 pm by Administrator
Matt,Steve and Rob
Permalink
Posted in Instruments at 11:09 pm by Administrator
..as we start to head into the REALLY cool instruments. Rob kicked it into high gear with the purchase of a Les Paul TV Model for $ 65.
I thought that Rob’s guitar had only one knob….I do remember that the sound of this guitar had an extremely high “Holy Sh*t!” quality going for it. Rob traded this guitar in for two other guitars,a Melody Maker and a Gibson SG…and he gave me the Melody Maker for my birthday..that was some great year.
(Imagine the red guitar without the pickguard.)
I seem to remember a lot of trading around of things….
(A quick search on Ebay lists the TV model as currently going for $ 4,000 to $ 24,000.)
Permalink
Posted in Instruments at 5:35 pm by Administrator
..a little backtracking…
I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention the amp at our first actual “band” gig..it was a pool party at Guy Jackson’s house. Guy was the singer and he had an amp that we used for the P.A. system.
He was very cool but didn’t want to sing after that gig. His house was turned into a hotel and the beach on the property became part of a resort.
Permalink
08.13.09
Posted in Instruments at 5:46 pm by Administrator
My sister Wendy found this photo of the guitar that started us all down this road to ruin. The guitar that the gentleman is holding between his knees was probably only used for the photo..the thing was a beast.
The ladies in the pic are the Antilles School singing group that my mom (the music teacher) put together called The Humbugs (the name being kind of a tribute to The Beatles). I believe that the two gentlemen are the authors of the musical “Wait a Minim!”….I do remember that they brought a new instrument with them that we had never seen before called a kalimba. My sister Sara was also in the group..extra credit if you can identify her in the photo.
Permalink
Posted in Instruments at 5:35 pm by Administrator
My brother and two sisters have chimed in with some historical data about various instruments and instrument types that were around through the years..they would know,as we all spent part of our teenage years as a band (mainly with the amazing Steve White holding down the drums).My brother has identified his Teisco Guitar as an “EP 8T” Model.
Rob stripped the paint off of it and painted it black with white spray paint highlights.You have to remember that this was the age of customization and he was definitely inspired by the car stylings of Ed “Big Daddy” Roth….and it was definitely an improvement.
I have also finally found my first electric guitar, a Lafayette:
We were definitely playing through Lafayette mail order amps at this time but I remember that we entered into the world of “legit” amps with an Ampeg.
Of course,any amp with multiple inputs was big plus,as we didn’t have an actual P.A. system..probably a good thing,considering our budding vocal abilities. The only music store on the island had such a limited inventory of equipment that we always lusted over the gear that bands from St. Croix brought over..and a band from the states….? Their gear drove us in to a frenzy.
Permalink
