Hello fellow players,
As we all watched television today, we all have to admit that Charley Sheen is pretty interesting to watch doing his rant on the news channels. I wouldn�t do what he�s doing. I�m sure most of you wouldn�t either. However, when you�re making over a million dollars an episode on your own television show, about anything you do and say will command attention.
This goes back to what Faron said that I quoted in my last newsletter. Nobody wants to see anybody ordinary rant and rave, but being famous takes on a whole new meaning. Here�s an email that I received from reader Rich Peterson.
Bobbe, that might be the best newsletter you ever wrote. It’s great to read stories of people joking, kidding and having fun.
Faron hit it right on the head; people won’t pay to see someone normal. We are musicians, but most of the audience aren’t going to judge us on our musicianship. But they will remember being entertained. The only thing I hated about the “Outlaw country” fad was that you could no longer tell the entertainers from the crowd. The bands didn’t wear uniforms anymore, and didn’t dress fancy; jeans and tee shirts aren’t showy.
I don’t think it is coincidence that soon after, we had lip sync contests, (air guitar contests) karaoke, and the public developing an “I could do that!” attitude. As entertainers stopped behaving like they were different from the audience,the audience lost respect for us. So the lighting and loudness became
more important than the playing.
So it is nice to remember the time when it was fun. Thanks, Bobbe.
Rich Peterson
Anybody that loves country music is impressed by people that play rhythm on a flattop guitar. Little kids when they see Gene Autry, Roy Rogers or even Roy Clark, they hear them singing and strumming on the guitar and there�s just something magic that makes them want to play guitar.
This seems to be a never ending thing throughout the years. When we are watching a Tex Ritter movie or something with Smiley Burnette in it, out comes the guitar when they start singing. This is why you never saw many grand pianos on the prairie in the middle of a cattle drive. The guitar was a lot more portable. You can tell I�ve been watching Encore Classics for awhile.
Steel guitar sorts of fits in between. It�s a lot more portable than a piano but not as much as a standard guitar or a harmonica. But steel guitar is a lot more fascinating to the general public. Everybody knows what a regular guitar does and how it works. After all, we all grew up with it.
But there�s something a little more fascinating about a pedal guitar. That big bank of chrome plated tuning keys, the gorgeous pedals, fretboards, necks, all that shiny stuff and then it comes down to that hauntingly gorgeous sound, that flowing, rolling, cascading sound that engulfs the senses.
It�s as fascinating to look at and watch as it is to try to understand. Next time somebody looks at you and your guitar and exclaims �Wow. What is that thing?� Just look at them and say, �It�s just a fascinating thing.� Which we know it is and they are learning it is.
Sort of makes you wonder why the Opry fired all the great guitar players. Legendary players like Leon Rhodes and Joe Edwards. But then again, they also fired Buddy Harman, Pig Robbins, Walt Cunningham and several other founders of the Nashville sound.
It�s nice though that we have YouTube where we can punch up these great players and hear them anytime we want. Maybe computers aren�t so bad after all and I hope to be able to run one someday.
One of the hardest to find parts to restore a Fender steel guitar with is the fretboard. I just ran across 100 brand new twenty two and a half inch scale Fender fretboards. I�m sure most of you guys that have these twenty two and a half in scale great classic steels need fretboards. Here�s your chance to get them while they�re here and available. I will be keeping some of them for guitars that I restore at the store. Email me and look for pictures and descriptions of them on our web page.
Check out our monthly specials at http://www.steelguitar.net/monthlyspecials.html and we�ll try to save you a lot of money.
Your buddy,
Bobbe
www.steelguitar.net
sales@steelguitar.net
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