Hi,
So I'm Pat, I stumbled upon this site looking for pick guards for my girls, Blondy 'n Honey. Both are incredible Super 400's. Blondy is the first guitar I bought in '68, I was 20. First off is the disclaimer... Nobody believes the incredible carrier I've had, snicker, snicker, I don't care. I've had more fun in the trenches than anybody I know....
I grew up in Seattle, my parents displayed no interest in music, at all. It must have been when I was 3 that I pulled my mom from the kitchen out to the living room, pointed to the TV and said "I need one of those", a guitar was being played. That Christmas, a brand new Silvertone acoustic 5 dollar plywood guitar and cardboard case was sitting under the tree. I can still smell and see the colors in my head. At the lake house dad had some clay drums & snake skins from Trinidad, he tapped on one for me once. My parents said if I wanted to play the gtr, I had to learn the piano first - KRIPES !
That was a fiasco, I'm dyslexic, I fumbled my way through 1 year of lessons, but at the beginning of the next year, Sister Mary Obnoxis whacks me off the piano bench, so I bit her on the angle ;)) She says, "That's it, no more lessons for you". I say, "If I knew 'that,' I'd have bit you last year". Needless to say, it was a while for gtr lessons. I had about 5 when mom asks if I liked the lessons, I say I love them and mom says good, because if you don't do what we say any more, you won't get lessons. I respond, actually, it doesn't matter, he showed me the cords, gave me a chart, what else do I need?
At 13, I was playing bass, dad rented me a black Supro and Gretch 2 12" @ 10 bucks a month for 3 months. At the end he asks if I liked the equipment, I say yea. He says good, you pay for it. I did. then I ask, why don't you just co sign for a loan to buy my own? he says yes, I buy a Vox Couger and a new '63 black Fender 5 knobbed Vibrato channel, single 15 Showman rig, just under a thou. I'm off 'n running, joined the union at 14.
I'm from Seattle, there is no better place in the world to be influenced by gtr players, Nokie & Bob, Bob had a place by school where he would let kids play his gars, he'd also take a blond Showman & twin to the beach where we lived and let kids jam, quite fun. Jimmi was just off the Main Street where I grew up. I was there when Leon almost drown in the Green river, our paths crossed a lot. But when he came out I had no idea my uncle, the commander of the 101st, and also a Garfield hi grad, told Jimmi, "take advantage of your injury and go back to Seattle and play music like my nephew" (me :)) Both Jimmi and Harrison confirmed that... Jimmi wanted a 400, just like our idols had (Richard Dangle, Joe Johansen & Larry Corieal). He loved the idea that I bought my cousin, Danny Hofer's '67 big head strat, like his 3 touring gtr's. He thought Strats were the closest to a 400 in resonance and feel. He liked the big V necked '54's.
By the end of the '70's, I knew just about everybody in the biz, played 2 Super Bowls, had 5 Guinness book of records for live performances, 1 for breaking the Beatles at the Super Dome in early 78, one for biggest varity prime time '50 years of Country music', one for biggest radio listeners, 'King Biscuit flower power hour', and the 2 Super Bowls. Opened for the Stones, after they broke our record, sadly 3 months after ours at the same venue... Then eventually came back to Seattle to play in the 80's. Did well too. Did the demo's for SRV 'n Thunderbirds for Bill Carter, with Eric Apoe, in my basement. Those gtr licks are mine... He was a big fan, I'd see him and his brother in the audience every once in a while. Opened for the T'birds a lot back then. The girls have had a lot of fret jobs.....Them '90's Seattle bands, they opened for us in the '80's.
Not as easy these days, being older is harder to get gigs, I record a lot.
The Girls, Blondy 'n Honey, they are fine. I was asked back in the '70's why I bought a Super 400 as my first gtr. I said, when I know how to play, I'll have a great gtr that I broke in. let me tell ya, they've been broken in. Still have the original cases & straps.
And those are just the mostly believable parts. It gets crazy from there. The opportunities were incredible in both good and bad, I came out unscathed. And can still talk about it.
Other than that, even in these strange times, I feel like I'm in heaven, no matter what it feels like in the moment. There is always happy, grateful, beauty 'n hope.
