History

I arrived at college in 1973 in my 1971 Chevrolet Impala with my sister’s 6-string Harmony guitar and immediately discovered that I was hauling around a toy.  So I looked at a host of guitars in the local music stores and found myself returning several times to play this big, blond maple Epiphone.  The day I made the final purchase I remembered playing this guitar in Mainstream Music in the Mainstream Mall in Greenville, Mississippi no less than two hours.  Laying down the cash, it was finally mine!

The “investment” was $200 + tax (which was 5% at the time) or $210.  My first gigs came shortly thereafter and I initially played with a very good AKG D1000E mic. See picture below.   Oh yea, I still have it too.

Later I installed a Barcus-Berry pickup in the Epiphone, and luthier Doc Savage of Monroe, Louisiana install the jack in the lower bout. I hated witnessing him drill a hole in my almost new guitar, but endpin jacks had simply not been invented, yet.  It was great being able to play without being connected to the guitar mic location.   That old Epiphone and I saw many bars and honky-tonks as well as several college campuses and coffeehouses.  I wrote my first songs on that old Epiphone.  I treated it pretty good and it treated me pretty good, too.

As more advanced pickups were developed I incorporated them into my latest guitars purchases, such as my Martins, Lowdens, Larrivees, Collings, Taylors, etc.  All of these high end guitars should outplay the Epiphone “hands-down”, but for the last couple of years I found myself practicing at home on my trusty old 1973 Epiphone.

The Epiphone had it’s issues.  In my youth I thought the black pickguard was not attractive, so I removed it.  Well it’s not the dumbest thing I did in college, so I’m OK with it.  Then I removed the internal label. It was orange like some Gibson labels, and who likes orange?   Later in life, when I began to collect guitars I decided to NEVER buy a guitar without a label (serial number) as it is a sign of a stolen instrument. Oh well, I think I still have the receipt on this one.

The original tuners were replaced sometimes in the 80s and were in need of replacement again.  And the sound of the vintage Barcus-Berry pickup could not hold a candle to current technology pickups.

So …..

This weekend I installed a fresh set of high end Gotoh tuners and a new K&K Pure Mini pickup.  I left the two sets of old screw holes unfilled, to add to the character!

After phonecalls with pickup manufacturer K&K, I was convinced it was OK to use the K&K Mini Pure Western passive pickup on my plywood-topped guitar.   I have this same pickup installed in my cedar-topped Lowden and I have been very pleased with the natural sound it delivers.

The Future

After transforming this old beater guitar with new tuners and pickup I’m anxious to hear how she sounds in church on Sunday morning.  She’s played the bars and dives.  Who knows, she might serve some of her old customers again, this time in church.

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The Process

Amp selection was simple.  There was Tatum’s Music, a local establishment, and Sears.  They were next door to each other on Washington Avenue in Greenville. One of the biggest purchasing errors I ever made was to buy the Sears amp.  A comparable outlay of cash would have bought a Fender Twin Reverb.  I liked the Sears amp, simply because it was BIGGER.  It was a Model 1484 Twin Twelve amplifier.  It was a two cabinet system.  Two 12″ speakers were in one enclosure and the power amp, controls, etc were in the other.  The only problem was that I could not carry the 60 pound rig by myself.  My solution … I cut the cord connecting the two cabinets and installed a 1/4″ phono plug at one end and a female 1/4″ plug on the other.  That allowed me to carry them separately.  Over the years, the Fender Twin Reverb has become a classic and has appreciated considerably since the mid 60s.

Silvertone Amp on Left - Tripp Edwards, Larry "Shine" Thornton, Paul Mauceli & Dave Sherman - CLICK TO ENLARGE

Our local band, The Illusion, played a few gigs. We practiced a lot and mainly had fun dreaming of making it big one day.

The band members included Tripp Edwards on guitar, Larry “Shine” Thornton on the bass and Paul Mauceli on drums. The group fizzled.  My interest in guitar faded and I loaned my amp to a friend.  That guy loaned it to another and before I knew it, it was gone and the trail was cold.

Fast forward about 5 years.  As a high schooler, I drove a blue 1971 VW Super Beetle.  I had driven my bug with some friends to one of their friend’s home on Wayside Drive in Greenville.  There in the garage was my wounded 1965 Sears Silvertone amp.  I was shocked to see the left face scratched to the point of scraping off the vinyl face that covered the pressed-wood cabinet. Whatever scratched it even gouged the wood below.  When I asked what happened to it and where he got it, he said “someone gave it to him.” He also said that it was in poor condition when he got it.  I asserted that if it had a 1/4″ phono jack connecting the head to the speaker section, I’d be leaving with it in my VW.  It was a job loading it in there, but I left with my long lost amp.

I never really used it much anymore.  I did gig with it a little in college and used it occasionally as a PA system, before I got a real PA system, but it mainly collected dust.   Naturally it was a tube amp and it would shock me quite often.

I ultimately traded the amp.  Sixteen years ago I traded my 1965 Silvertone amp, an empty Martin case and some cash for one of the first guitars Bill Collings built.  The Collings guitar was unnumbered, but was built in a batch with two others.  If numbered, they would have been Serial Numbers 0004, 0005 and 0006 according to Bill Collings.  Bill began building guitars from his apartment in Houston for his friends. Yes, mine was built in his apartment!  The Collings was originally owned by Jack Saunders.

My guitar purchase/swap was done at the 1994 Arlington Guitar Show.  My amp and the empty Martin case went to Rockin’ Robin Guitars in Houston, Texas, the prior owner of the Collings.

I never expected to see the amp again.  I have seen a few others like it at other Dallas and Arlington guitar shows, but not mine …. until today.  My sister, Frances, sent me a link to a music documentary called “It Might Get Loud” featuring Jimmy Page, Jack White and The Edge. It was filmed in Austin, Texas.  Hmm, not far from it’s almost final resting place, when I last saw it in Dallas, when I traded it to a Houston-based dealer.

I reviewed the movie trailer and the still promo pics.  THERE’S MY SILVERTONE AMP.

Click HERE for additional photos.  And to THIS link sent to me by my daughter Kate.  The amp lived in Kate’s closet  for a few years when she was a teenager.  This photo, however, looks like it got loaned out again!

and the last few seconds of this video >>

I can’t prove it unless I could check the 1/4″ phono plug connecting the head to the speaker section, like I had to do once before.  The uniquely scratched faceframe definitely leads me to believe that it IS my old amp.

Well, The Illusion never made it big, but my amp might have.  I may not ever know for sure.  I’ll just have to wait until I take that Stairway to Heaven, and ask then.

Nothing eventful so far.  Later that night I went home and looked in the mirror as I prepared for bed.  I noticed the sweetest little pair of “milk lips” on my shoulder.  They showed up quite well on my dark green T-shirt.

The ironic thing about this sweet experience is that I had written a song for AnnaLeigh a couple of months earlier.  The first draft of the chorus,

How could it be that I would deserve

These sweet little KISSES that I get from her?

The problem with the chorus is that it sounds too much like Bob Carlisle’s Butterfly Kisses. So I switched to:

How could it be that I would deserve

These sweet little HUGS that I get from her?

Well, after I got the milk kisses, I’m changing the words back!

A few of the times I wish I had recorded were spent with Sam Chapmon (sometimes listed as Sam Chatman).  I don’t even have a still photo with Sam.  I met Sam at an entertainer’s conference in Washington D.C. in 1975.   Another entertainer told me he had just met an old man in the lobby of the hotel / convention center.  He said the man was from the Mississippi Delta.  He thought that since I was from Greenville, I may know him.  His name was Sam Chatmon.  I was 19.  Sam was 78.  Nevertheless we became fast friends.  The convention schedule did not allow us to talk much or play together, so we agreed to meet back in the Delta.  Sam had experienced a colorful career.  He worked as a carpenter and played music with his brothers.  His music appears on 43 albums.  Some are solo works.  Some are the Mississippi Sheiks and some are collaborative works.  In his later years he gained notoriety touring with such popular groups as Loggins & Messina.

Sam never flew.  He toured all over the USA, but was a committed bus traveler.  A couple of weeks passed and I called Sam at his home in Hollendale, Mississippi.  It was Saturday morning and he asked me to bring my guitar and we’d play a bit.  Sam was a very soft-spoken man of few words.  My girlfriend, Teresa, and I made the first of three visits to Sam’s home.  Sam’s home was a typical “shotgun” three-room house that was so typical in the Delta.  The front room was the living room.  The middle room as the bedroom and the back room was the kitchen.  Often the bathroom was built onto the back porch.  Sam’s home appears in the album cover of the Mississippi Sheik album.  It was immediately clear that at 77 years old, Sam Chatmon had all the right licks.  He had lived the blues, played the blues and earned the right to sing the blues.  He taught me a lot in those three afternoons.  Mainly not to try to keep-up with my elders.

I was attending college in Louisiana at the time, so my trips to the Mississippi Delta were limited.  On one return visit I called Sam on Saturday morning and asked if we could “play”.  Sam’s voice was a little weaker that morning.  He told me sadly that he had buried his wife earlier in the week.  I felt awkward and was trying to find the reverse switch when Sam suggested, “Why don’t you bring your guitar and Ms. Teresa over this afternoon.  I could use the diversion.”  Sam delivered a thick layer of blues that Saturday afternoon that can only come from personal experience.  Sam passed away in 1983 at the age of 86.

I treasure those moments with Sam.  Neither Teresa nor I took a photo of the Saturday afternoon blues sessions, but every time we see the iconic pictures of Sam with his long flowing white beard, his vintage Gibson with that artificial rose around the headstock, the memories come back.

Sam’s Discography

Run Girl Run has a couple of borrowed tips. They are simple. Kyle Lake always ended his messages with “Love God” and Randy Brown challenges us to “Dream Big”

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Thanks!

Kathy Mattea

Songwriting is a lifelong process for most.  I began writing in college at Northeast Louisiana University (now The University of Louisiana at Monroe)  I’ve had the pleasure of attending several songwriting schools.  These were taught by great songwriters such as Steve Seskin, Tom Prasada-Rao, Cary Cooper and Kyle Matthews.  Most songwriting schools are 1 to 2 days.  In May I got to opportunity to learn from some of the greatest song writers in the business.  The Richardson, Texas event was three full days.

Kathy Mattea was joined by her husband, Jon Vezner and Pat Pattison.  John Vezner performs on his own, but has also written several of Kathy’s hits, including Grammy winning “Where Have You Been.”  The third instructor, Pat Pattison, is a professor at the Berklee College of Music. He has written extensively about the craft of songwriting, including Writing Better Lyrics.   The weekend study was quite comprehensive and covered other topic as wall such as voice.

During one of the breakout sessions Kathy used my old Maple Taylor 615 to demonstrate her point.