Another guitar prodigy in the family

[bonzoboy]

Recently we had a family reunion and the highlight of it was a huge jam session after our big family meal at the local church hall.Most of my relatives can play at least one instrument and one cousin is a virtuoso of the violin who when he was only 5 was beating 15 and 16 year olds in violin competitions.He is now 26 and his band-The Randells- won an Ontario-wide battle of the bands competition a few years back,he was the lead guitarist and main songwriter.Anyway my 71 year old uncle got up and did a pile of Elvis songs and we young fellas backed him up,switching lead duties back and forth.Anyway as things were winding down my cousin pushed her 11 year old grandson up to the stage with his lefty acoustic guitar.He was really quiet and shy all evening but had a real cool aura about him,when he started playing jaws started dropping,the little guy was blowing us all away and he'd only been playing for less than 2 years.The little guy reminded me so much of Jimi that I got goose bumps-with his quiet soft-spoken demeanor and his cool aura of self confidence and his left handedness,he really looked the part especially since his dad is black,he even has the same colouring as Jimi.I'm currently on the lookout for a decent but fairly cheap lefty Strat to give him because I want to give this little guy all the help and pointers that I can because I can see his love for the guitar and the massive potential he has with his inherent talent.BTW his name is Alan just like Jimi's middle name when he was baptized first.It's too bad that he lives almost a 2 hour drive away from me because I'd really love to take him on as my next big musical protégé.

 

At the jam we represented 4 generations of family musicians,with most of them being either professional or semi-pro and now with young Alan the family's musical heritage will be kept going and in very competant hands.

[duluthdan]

Wow does that sound like a great gathering ! Good luck in your hunt for a Lefty Strat. Its a good goal.

[FenderGuy1]

Lefty squiers. Easy to find so get him one of those

[bonzoboy]

I was thinking along those lines but I'm thinking that a used MIM Strat may be of a little better quality for around the same price or I could do the real "Hendrix Strat" thing for him and flip a righty,I flipped my lefty and found that it was absolutely necessary for doing some of Jimi's sonic tricks. There was a reason why he kept using righty Strats even after he knew about lefties,they had to be used for some of his hammer-ons,harmonics and pup switching tricks such as on The Star Spangled Baner and especially Machine Gun.There are parts of Machine Gun that would be pretty well impossible to do without a flipped Strat.

[bonzoboy]

I was talking to another cousin today and she believes that he only has that old no-name,cheap acoustic.I went to my buddy's music store this afternoon and I can get a Righty Squier Strat for about $130 or he can order me a better quality lefty for about $180,so that's the route I'm taking.I'm going to check Kijiji,Buy&Sell and the local pawn shop for an amp because you can pretty well pick up a higher quality used one for less than a new one. I have a Vox Mini 3 and it's a fabulous little amp for about $100 but I've seen decent used Traynors,Peaveys etc for that price too.Anyway when I find out for certain he only has the old POS I'll be ordering the Strat even though they have in stock a lefty Squier Tele for only $180.The little guy is like a reincarnation of Jimi,the rest of my pro musician cousins said,so he'll be getting a Strat.He was the talk of the town the next day when word got around about his first public .I'm willing to bet that some day we'll see his name in lights.