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GeoB
June 11th, 2012, 11:58 AM
I started playing guitar at 10, I'm in my late 50's and still playing. I was also in a drumline at 10 banging away on a bass drum, our drum line was pretty good, and alongwith rudimentary drum lessons my rythmn has always been tight. I now play percussion drums, some conga, djmebe, steering wheel, knee slappin' it don't matter.
Played trombone, went to tuba, and in the 9th grade I didn't feel like marching so since I played guitar (a fender Mustang at this point) and I dinked around on this POS Kalamazoo Bass, read bass clef, I became the bassist for Orcheastra.
Uncle Joe was a great influence and a superb teacher. He was in the "territory bands" of the 20's and 30's, a mulit-instrumentalist, great guitarist, banjoist, and pianoist. He would come out to Virgina during the summers and stay about a month and give me INTENSIVE music lessons. He wrote everything out on manuscript, all the GAS greats, drilled me on the chord structures and inversions and then head back to San Leandro. It would take me year to figure the pile out and get it down pat... and he would show up again the next summer. That happened for 4 years and I really learned a lot from that man. I was strumming away in a swing guitar style. Mickey Baker books helped alot too.
I rocked in high school, the usual stuff, Led, Allman Bros, Stones, Guess Who etc... then after school I worked at a couple of jobs, mowed lawns etc... and bought a few guitars/basses mostly pawn shop Tele's and Srats (we called them junkie trade-in's). I had a really beat up '59 Les Paul, that was in terrible condition, dropped glued, no gold top finish left at all, heavily resined to keep it together, really bad, but it sounded absolutely fantastic... P-Basses, Jazz Basses, swapping, trading, fixeruppers and sellers. I don't even want to get into how many "classic" guitars have passed through my fingers over the years because I don't feel like weeping right now.
Guitarwise I now play a MIM Jimmy Vaughn strat which took a bit of ironing out to get it the way I wanted it set up and I have a beater MII Squire Modified Tele SH and the ever-present jazz box archtop.
I do my own setups and fret dressing etc... no major surgery, but the Leo Fender concept is my inspiration and if I have to bolt something on, it just ain't no big deal.
I like prog rock, instrumental rock, trad jazz, big band, swing, and fusion; I also like world music of all types and surf music... elevator music isn't so bad either.
Uncle Joe told me that musicians needed to have big ears (listen to everything)... my bassist work saw to that as I had way more opportunities with more different types of genre's playing electric bass than I ever had on guitar.
Played trombone, went to tuba, and in the 9th grade I didn't feel like marching so since I played guitar (a fender Mustang at this point) and I dinked around on this POS Kalamazoo Bass, read bass clef, I became the bassist for Orcheastra.
Uncle Joe was a great influence and a superb teacher. He was in the "territory bands" of the 20's and 30's, a mulit-instrumentalist, great guitarist, banjoist, and pianoist. He would come out to Virgina during the summers and stay about a month and give me INTENSIVE music lessons. He wrote everything out on manuscript, all the GAS greats, drilled me on the chord structures and inversions and then head back to San Leandro. It would take me year to figure the pile out and get it down pat... and he would show up again the next summer. That happened for 4 years and I really learned a lot from that man. I was strumming away in a swing guitar style. Mickey Baker books helped alot too.
I rocked in high school, the usual stuff, Led, Allman Bros, Stones, Guess Who etc... then after school I worked at a couple of jobs, mowed lawns etc... and bought a few guitars/basses mostly pawn shop Tele's and Srats (we called them junkie trade-in's). I had a really beat up '59 Les Paul, that was in terrible condition, dropped glued, no gold top finish left at all, heavily resined to keep it together, really bad, but it sounded absolutely fantastic... P-Basses, Jazz Basses, swapping, trading, fixeruppers and sellers. I don't even want to get into how many "classic" guitars have passed through my fingers over the years because I don't feel like weeping right now.
Guitarwise I now play a MIM Jimmy Vaughn strat which took a bit of ironing out to get it the way I wanted it set up and I have a beater MII Squire Modified Tele SH and the ever-present jazz box archtop.
I do my own setups and fret dressing etc... no major surgery, but the Leo Fender concept is my inspiration and if I have to bolt something on, it just ain't no big deal.
I like prog rock, instrumental rock, trad jazz, big band, swing, and fusion; I also like world music of all types and surf music... elevator music isn't so bad either.
Uncle Joe told me that musicians needed to have big ears (listen to everything)... my bassist work saw to that as I had way more opportunities with more different types of genre's playing electric bass than I ever had on guitar.