Tondeleo: I finally got Doc to trust me enough to let me take pictures of some of his guitars and equipment, and to tell me about them. Here is the first one.
Doc: Tondy, this one come from Mitchell Cole's great uncle, like I said before. He played it in the 60's and 70's in bars in the Maryland and DC and Virginia. He was near about 80 when he died. It was covered in nicotene and the pickups was orangey yellow from it, instead of white like they came. They sounded bad. I put three Tele pickups on it, and now it sounds like a train comin' through.
I left his emblems on it. He gots them Cadillac emblems, cause to him, that was his Cadillac. He loved it like a Cadillac. The other one I don't know what it is. Meant somethin' to him. I left it on there.
Let's see. I put that handle on it so I can carry it round better. I got handles like that on a few of my guitars. Make's 'em easy to carry. I don't know why the factories ain't never put them on. But I do put them on.
I put them rubber legs on the bottom, too. That's so it don't roll over when it's leanin' against the amp or against a wall. I seen a boy's Les Paul [guitar] leanin' against a amp a few years agao, down Kingsport [a city in Tennessee] and the neck snapped right off there at the end, between the neck and the tuners! He broke down and cried lie a baby an' I went an' looked at it an' I cried too, right there with him. I went back to my room and took the legs off a radio an' screwed them onto my guitar so it ain't never happen to me. I got them little legs on a few of my guitars what I take out.
I already said Tele pickups. I like how a Tele sounds so I put three of them on here. I changed some of the wirin' so they sounds better.
Tondeleo: What did you do, to make them sounds better, Doc?
Doc: I ain't sayin. Just it ain't hard. If it was, I couldna done it. Ok, I'll tell you. Take a piece of wire and solder it to the tone pot at the bottom thing where wires can get soldered. Then you solder the other end to the middle one on the volume pot. It's already got a wire to it. That makes it sound better. That is one thing I done but ain't tellin' the rest. Let 'em find out like I did. Won't hurt no one.
Tondeleo: Anything else that you did to this guitar, Doc?
Doc: Yeah. I put two bass strings on it. That gives it more bass sound. I play bass with my thumb and play the rest of the guitar with my two fingers [index and middle finger] and then the other two. It sounds real full that way, an' I don't need to bring a bass player along, to have to split the money with. Mostly just me an' Marilyn unless Big Dave or someone else comes along. Then we just split the money by however many people it is.
Tondeleo: And the bass strings just fit right on it?
Doc: No, they don't just fit right on it. You gotta drill out down there at the bridge and then drill out your bottom two tuning keys, cause a bass string's fatter and won't go through the holes what comes on a regular guitar.
Tondeleo: Did you think of this yourself or did you see it somewhere or what?
Doc: Nobody showed it to me. I was comin' up the road real late one night after playin' up to DC, and thinkin' about how to get a fuller sound. I already play fingerstyle with a thump-thump bass style. Then I heard a voice, what mighta been the Lord, sayin' go to Wal-Mart and get some bass strings and put it on your guitar. So I did and that is how it got started. I ain't never seen no one else do it. That's all I done to this guitar, basically.
