E-minor7 Posted May 9, 2015 Share Posted May 9, 2015 No secret that I hold a serious interest in the times where the music I lived with and loved all life was born. And this Board of course is a great oppotunity to call for anecdotes and - rare as well as common - eyewitness accounts. So this time the code-words are : Lundbergs Fretted Instruments - and The Steppenwolf - not the band, mind you, , , but the bohemian bar founded as early as 1958. Any echoe and tale would be welcome, , , lite up the lamps on Memory Lane. . . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave F Posted May 10, 2015 Share Posted May 10, 2015 My earliest memories were in 1962 and having to go to the corner drug store to purchase Black Diamond strings and 355 Fender picks for my Kay acoustic that my Mom got me by cashing in her Top Value stamps she acquired while shopping at Krogers. A couple years later, a local group that later on hit it big, Gene Hughes and The Casinos ( Soul Serenade / Then You Can Tell Me Goodbye), opened up a record store in our neighborhood. By that time I had my first electric (Kingston/Teisco Sorrento Swinger) and at least I had a choice of strings. When they hit it big, they closed the store. I never saw a real guitar shop until I got my drivers license and started venturing out of our neighborhood. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zombywoof Posted May 10, 2015 Share Posted May 10, 2015 Buying guitars with Green Stamps and Black Diamond strings in a display at the hardware store and Five and Dime. Those were the days. Remember the tube testers every hardware store had? 1962 or so I auditioned for a local talent show. I played "Washington Square" by the Village Stompers. I did not make it but there was a guy there playing an electric guitar. For some reason I also remember that he chewed gum the entire time he played. Made me want an electric so bad I could taste it but I had no way of acquiring one. So I took a couple of bucks I had saved up and bummed a ride over to Sal's Ossining Music to rummage through his parts boxes looking for pickups, switches, knobs and such so I could convert my acoustic into an electric. Walked out with a Gibson PAF humbucker and a few other things. Got it together but then alas, I had no amp. My parents had one of those big old Curtis Mathis floor standing radios with an input jack. When all was said and done it was not the neatest of jobs but with some duck tape holding it all together and an adapter from my Dad's workshop I finally plugged in. At that moment I knew that fame and fortune were just around the corner. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BluesKing777 Posted May 10, 2015 Share Posted May 10, 2015 Buying guitars with Green Stamps and Black Diamond strings in a display at the hardware store and Five and Dime. Those were the days. Remember the tube testers every hardware store had? Got it together but then alas, I had no amp. My parents had one of those big old Curtis Mathis floor standing radios with an input jack. When all was said and done it was not the neatest of jobs but with some duck tape holding it all together and an adapter from my Dad's workshop I finally plugged in. At that moment I knew that fame and fortune were just around the corner. Not very historical for Em7, apologies, but I too had promises of the big lights when a friend came over and said he plugged his LP copy into his dad's big radiogram and....I too could probably plug my Kyowa not much of a copy of anything electric guitar in to my dad's mod looking 60s record player and while dad was still at work, we soldered some wires and an old guitar lead to it somehow and it did put out some great distortion guitar sound until the smoke signals began at the back of the unit........ BluesKing777. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hall Posted May 10, 2015 Share Posted May 10, 2015 Whenever this comes up: Dodd's in Covington, Guys N Dolls in Cold Spring, Yorkshire ,Flamingo & Schmidt's Clubs in Newport; ... Lonnie Mack, Carl Edmondson Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fromnabulax Posted May 10, 2015 Share Posted May 10, 2015 Hey Emin7', As a youngun' barely able to form a B7", Let alone a barred F chord, I had the experience of a life time fumbling through a few old tunes at a place called The Blue Unicorn near the Fillmore District across the bay. You ever hear of it? It had been there for some time when I found the place. It was one of the first places I ever dared play as a solo. I guess I would've been in late Junior High school. At the end if my dreadful set a basket was passed and I collected almost enough dough to pay for my tuna sandwich and coffee. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tpbiii Posted May 10, 2015 Share Posted May 10, 2015 Here is a post I made recently on Facebook. It is talking about the song UNDER THE DOUBLE EAGLE I first became familiar with the song in about 1950 (at the age of 7). Not only did my Dad play a simple version of it, but I had an uncle (from a different family and a totally different region -- south Georgia) who played a much more complex version. He came from a very musical family, and he and his bothers wore cowboy shirts and sang the western harmonies from the 30s -- the were cool. They all played "Under the Double Eagle" and "Steel Guitar Rag." Mostly they strummed -- those two songs are all I remember them picking in anything like a modern sense -- but they did it very well. And of course "Steel Guitar Rag" came from Merle Travis I guess, but they flatpicked it. Let's pick "Under the Double Eagle" the next time we get together -- for old time sake. It is definitely the first picking song I ever attempted. For most of my youth, the only guitar in the house was an old archtop harmony with a mile high action and no high e sting -- but you could play "Under the Double Eagle" on it. Let's pick -Tom Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave F Posted May 10, 2015 Share Posted May 10, 2015 Whenever this comes up: Dodd's in Covington, Guys N Dolls in Cold Spring, Yorkshire ,Flamingo & Schmidt's Clubs in Newport; ... Lonnie Mack, Carl Edmondson I played at the Flamingo in Newport and Chuck's Inn in Alexandria/Cold Springs in the early 70's I bowled at Glenn Schmidts for years Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cougar Posted May 10, 2015 Share Posted May 10, 2015 ...lite up the lamps on Memory Lane. . . Well, this would have been 45 years ago. I just got back from 2 years in the Peace Corps in Kenya, and an old bass playing buddy from college hooked me up to play keys with Bobby 'Boris' Pickett, who was going to do a quick, halloween, 10-year-anniversary-of-the-Monster-Mash tour of a couple of theme parks in Dallas and St. Louis. Piled 10 people into a big motor home and hit the road. Crazy times! Guitarist Brian Ray, with his 57(?) LP Goldtop, was musical director even then, even though he couldn't have been more than 19 or so. Good friend, though I haven't seen him in ages. Brian's sister and singer Jean was there too, RIP, and drummer Brian Englund, RIP. Bobby's dead too. Jeez, music is a tough business! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ajay Posted May 10, 2015 Share Posted May 10, 2015 I see that "Banjo Ben Clark" gives a pickin' lesson on YouTube for "Under The Double Eagle". My band directors wife in high school was the daughter of Forrest McAllister, who used to play in John Philip Sousa's Band. He was a very rich guy, and was our guest conductor at several concerts. It's wild to think that He played for Mr. Sousa.If You love that song it MUST be a great tune! One other thing, Tom. Have You ever played a modern Advanced Jumbo, and what is Your opinion of them? I have an East Indian 2002 that I ordered from Gibson, and they picked me out a beauty. It has opened up into my dream Gibson. They did so many things right on my EIR that I've looked for Ren's signature on the top. The only thing wrong with it, no matter how careful I was with temperature and humidity, it developed two finish cracks off of the bridge. I also bought a 2002 Brazilian used, and I should have saved my money, because I like the tone on the quartersawn Indian Rosewood more than the Brazilian. It is cool to have a rare bird though. I'd love to play Your AJ sometime. It looks awesome. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
onewilyfool Posted May 11, 2015 Share Posted May 11, 2015 I think I see a Harmony Sovereign 1260 on the wall!!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zombywoof Posted May 11, 2015 Share Posted May 11, 2015 I think I see a Harmony Sovereign 1260 on the wall!!!! Good eyes for an old dude. That pinless bridge does tend to stick out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tpbiii Posted May 11, 2015 Share Posted May 11, 2015 I see that "Banjo Ben Clark" gives a pickin' lesson on YouTube for "Under The Double Eagle". My band directors wife in high school was the daughter of Forrest McAllister, who used to play in John Philip Sousa's Band. He was a very rich guy, and was our guest conductor at several concerts. It's wild to think that He played for Mr. Sousa.If You love that song it MUST be a great tune! One other thing, Tom. Have You ever played a modern Advanced Jumbo, and what is Your opinion of them? I have an East Indian 2002 that I ordered from Gibson, and they picked me out a beauty. It has opened up into my dream Gibson. They did so many things right on my EIR that I've looked for Ren's signature on the top. The only thing wrong with it, no matter how careful I was with temperature and humidity, it developed two finish cracks off of the bridge. I also bought a 2002 Brazilian used, and I should have saved my money, because I like the tone on the quartersawn Indian Rosewood more than the Brazilian. It is cool to have a rare bird though. I'd love to play Your AJ sometime. It looks awesome. Hi ajay, I have not really spent a lot of quality time with a lot of modern AJs -- so I just have impressions rather than opinions. Early on I got to play Little Roy's -- I don't know how many he got, but this one had a hole in the top ak Willy Nelson. It was a great guitar -- of course it had been played almost to death. My overall non scientific impressions over the years is that they are somewhat variable and some are really good. All the best, -Tom Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
E-minor7 Posted May 11, 2015 Author Share Posted May 11, 2015 Hep for the contributions guys as always a pleasure to dive back in time a imagine the different sceneries. Thanks ^ After all this was the days when rock and modern folk was born. It came from somewhere, but oozed between the lines everywhere, , , or tickled under the surface like seeds sown, not yet seen as more than tiny green spearheads. And that urge to plug in - wow, , , simply plug in NOW, even dump a mike inside the sound-hole was WILD ! If young people only knew the power by which their grooves'n'licks were started - and the excitement it created almost regardless of actual sound. Still no tales from the Lundbergs Fretted Instruments shop in Berkeley emerged. I just heard about it recently and thought it would ring bells here and there. Anyway here's a link to a little text about the affair. Worth getting in the album, if you ask me. . . http://www.fretboard...er-jon-lundberg Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tpbiii Posted May 12, 2015 Share Posted May 12, 2015 I have only been in Berkeley a few times and I am bad about remembering names sometimes. However I did buy a vintage guitar there in 2004 -- a 1959 LG-1 rescue. I went and checked the receipt -- the was Blue Note. I did buy it because it was almost the same guitar I owned in 1962 -- the one in my icon. Here is the other -- at least it came fro there . It is being played in the first minute of this LG demo. Let's pick, -Tom Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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