Tondeleo: I am not a musician. So when I talk with Doc about music, guitars and equipment, I am clueless. I just like to hear the blues/roots music that he and his friends play. But I am clueless on how they get the sounds that they get from what is obvious, even to me, is cheap equipment. Much of it appears to be homemade.
I don't always know the questions to ask when talking about the equipment or instruments that these people use. When I DO ask questions, they are the wrong ones, and they end up teasing me relentlessly about my ignorance of guitars, harmonicas, dobros and amplifiers.
I asked Doc if he would be willing to talk to me about the instruments that he and Marilyn use, and he has agreed to give me enough information to have two or three "blob" postings.
Doc: OK, Tondy, I'll talk wi' you about some of the 'quipment what we use but I aint given away no secrets. A man's guitar is like his dog, and his sound is like his woman an' he ain't gonna have you pettin' his dog or comin' on to his woman, ya know. You ain't gonna tell someone else how to do it.
Tondeleo: OK, Doc, I won't press for any secrets, but I notice that you and your friends tend to have beat up guitars that, in all honesty, don't look like they were very good even when they were new...
Doc: Well, we ain't got the kind of money like them boys what goes out an' buys a new guitar every time they come out with a new one. I been up to that Hot Licks (Guitar Shop)in Waldorf an' they got more shiny guitars what is all perfect than I have ever seen in my life. They is shiny like plastic and got chrome like a mirror on them. Fact, they even got some what is already dirty an' worn like someone had already played 'em hard for a few years, but they is brand new! They got fake dirt on 'em Tondy! Called "Road Worn."
Tondeleo: That's nice, Doc, but back to your guitars and equipment...
Doc: OK. Mostly, we use what we got or what been give to us. I got a bunch of guitars what I have got over the years. Some been give to me. Some was payment to me, like when I fix someone's car or somethin'. Got a few guitars that way. Got a couple guitars what I made from old parts. Got some amps, too.
One my Grandaddy give me when I was 12 years old. He played it for a bunch of years then give it to me cause I started playin. I still got it. It is hogenny [I looked at it - it's mahogany] and is a archtop and is a Kay. It is from about 1940. It has a 'lectic pick up what he put on about 1950. I ain't take it out cause somethin' might happen to it.
Tondeleo: So tell me about some of the guitars that you DO take out to play...
Doc: I was gettin' to that. Mostly is about four of 'em. There is one what is called a Fender Frankenphantom. It ain't the real name. It means its made from parts an' Fender ain't never made one like it. If you heard it, you'd know WHY!
It is a 40 year old piece of crap guitar with a neck like a piece of beef. That means it ain't too good. I got it from Mitchell Cole's great uncle what died a few years ago. His widow charged $75 for it. I had to do some work on it to make it sound right.
Tondeleo: What kind of work?
Doc: Well, changed the pick ups. His was full of nicotene and mold and rust and sounded bad. I put some Tele [Fender Telecaster] pickups on it, three of 'em and it sounds good. That picture you got there is afore I swapped the pickups. Those ones in the picture was supposed to be white. They is the color in that picture, like a piece of caramel candy because of 40 years of smoke and nicotine which is why they ain't sound like nothin'.
I 'justed the neck. It needed spacers under it cause it was bowed. I put bass strings on part of it cause that's how I play. It sounds good now an' I like how it feels. And ain't nobody gonna steal it.
Tondeleo: Is that the one that's in a lot of the videos on YouTube?
Doc: Pretty much. I play it a lot. It gots that Cadillac emblem on it. To that man what owned it, it was his Cadillac.
Tondeleo: What else do you take out regularly... equipment wise, I mean.
Doc: It depends on where I am playin'. If I'm playin' outside to make a few dollars, I take out that guitar or another one, my foot box what has a tambourine on it, for rhythm, and one of my little amps what is battery powered. The tambourine gots a VW hubcap on it for people to throw money into. It's gots my name an' phone number on it too, so they can call if they want to get us to play somewhere else. I got a couple of battery powered amps. One of 'em I made from a old Peavey amp what someone backed they car into and busted it, so I made my own box for it and added that it can be powered by a car cigarette lighter, plus batteries plus plugged into the wall 'lectric. I use that the most for playin' on the streets.
When we play out on the streets, it is gettin' some money for the day, but it is also givin' away free samples.
People calls us after hearin' us almost every time and we play at pig pickin's, family reunions, for white and blacks but ain't never done no Mexican or Chinese, an' sometimes festivals an' other places. We played inside some hotels too, after people heard us playin' outside! Like a Marriott and a Sheraton. Some people what was stayin' there heard an' asked us to come in and play for them business people what was havin' a convocation or somethin' like that there. Guess what? The next year when they come up to Alexandria, they called us up again and we played there again! Gave us $500 and a hotel room an' all the food we wanted! Just to play two nights for about a hour an' a half! $500!
Some of them has had us fly to them down south, to Atlanta, to Florida down to Fort Lauderdale, which ain't no fort, and sometimes in Texas they did have me come, but not Marilyn cause she couldn't get off work. All because they heard us play on the sidewalk in Washington, DC! They put us up in Sheratons mostly.
I like that name Sheraton, cause I thought he said it was a Share a Twin and thought you had to share a twin bed to stay there! Had one of them innerspring mattresses...when you laid on it, the springs "inner" your body!
No, I was just makin' funny, there Tondy. But that's enough for today anyway. I want to go eat.
