Glad to be here and contribute to yet another small forum of musical gear aficionados. The world needs more general gear forums like this.
Some who will come to post here will recognize me from EpiphoneTalk where I've been a member since 2015 and also the forum moderator. I'm also a member in good standing of Strat-Talk since early 2016 and post there as well. I tend to enjoy the openness and friendly camaraderie of smaller forums far more than those with thousands of members, the cliques, the periodic chaos, and "board wars" that happen all too often. In my past I found myself all too often getting sucked into one and later regretting it. Old age has finally settled me down on that score.....LOL.
About me?
I'm 73 years young and have been a semi-pro musician since my high school days nearly 60 years ago. I owned and played plenty of "vintage" Fender and other gear long before it was ever called by that name and it's prices inflated beyond all reason. In those days we had just two types of pro gear, new and used and to be honest none of it was all that special. But had I known what demand would eventually do to prices of '60s gear I would surely have stored some away. No one did and we traded a lot of stuff with one another as well paying little heed to equal market value.
Unlike many I actually started out as a bassist. Within six months of starting to play I became the bassist and lead vocalist in a rock band playing parties, bars, county fairs, high school dances, and eventually performing as the opening act for national recording acts who came to our area. It helped to have managers who were radio DJs. That got us a lot of free publicity for upcoming gigs with airplay of some recordings playing in the background, and much like the Oneders in "That Thing You Do" someone to sign the loan for a full complement of brand new Fender gear.
They say it's difficult to play bass and sing simultaneously. Maybe it is but since no one ever told me that 60 years ago I just went ahead and did it without giving it a thought and I still do. I didn't actually learn to play guitar until about 12-18 months after I began playing bass and though I've played both professionally during my career I still see myself more as a bassist which I prefer. I'm the "groove meister" and everyone is dancing to that groove I lay down. Another secret is bassists always get the best looking women too. But don't tell the guitarists or lead singer that. They'll want us to cut them in on the action and it ain't happening. They consider us an afterthought so we'll just let 'em keep thinking that.
So over 50 plus years of gigging I've been in and out of more bands than I can remember other than the special few that became really good at what we did. It's been a fun ride too getting to know players from some of the top national recording acts and their managers and producers. I may have missed grabbing the golden ring of fame myself but that's OK. I was never into music for the money or the fame but rather as Graham Nash so eloquently put it, it helped us get laid a lot, and that was an important side benefit when you were younger. It really was, trust me. So that's my story. I'm just an aging weekend warrior with too much gear, a lot of experience, and quite a few interesting tales to tell.
FWIW this is what a teen age rock band looked like in the mid '60s.
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The old fella with the earring is that same blonde headed guitarist from the other photos. After all the years we still stay in touch. He's still playing these days but mostly delta blues which is what happens to all of use oldsters when we get past the point of playing Bob Seger and ZZ Top tunes in bars any longer. There will always be the blues and it's truly a welcome home for '60s rockers since so much of the music of that era was based on early blues and so many British Bands cut their teeth playing American Blues and brought it with them during the British Invasion.
