Tondeleo: Now that Doc has opened up to the idea of talking about some of his guitars and letting me take pictures of them, he is opening up quite a bit. He has also told me to make it clear he does not keep them all in one place, or even in his house. They are different places, for security reasons and so if his bungalow burns down or something, he won't lose all his beloved guitars and equipment.
Doc: This here is an Inez [Ibanez] seven string guitar. I aint use it too much. It sounds good though. I got this over to Tennessee about ten years ago. A long haired boy what played what I call devil music, that kind where all they do is scream like they is already in hell, was bein' picked on by some rednecks. It weren't right.
I ain't like devil music and I ain't like how that boy looked, but he was still a human bein' and should not be treated like they treated him. So I dived in there and showed them how a country boy can come on like a big dog. I ain't really big, maybe 200 pounds, but I am pretty quick and I had a equaliser which shall remain nameless and I was in it just long enough to help that boy out, and for them other guys to leave cause they saw a cop car comin' up. I was glad they did cause they would have whooped me too, if they had got their minds to it.
Anyway, that boy down there gave me this seven string guitar cause he didn't use it too much he said and he wanted me to have it for savin' his rear end. I didn't want to take it but he wanted me to have it so there you go.
It was chipped up and dinged up so I fixed the bad parts and painted it and pinstriped it. I used to do a lot of that kind of work. I still do some of it. Pinstriped it and then put clearcoat on it, like you use on a car. I think it is from 90's. I don't know. I ain't never seen one afore. Ain't seen one since. This the only one I seen.
A seven string ain't used much as far as I know, ceptin' in like heavy metal music or whatever it is called. I put two bass strings on it for a while, so I had five regular guitar strings and the two bass. That was pretty fun, but then I loaned it to a boy for a while and he took 'em off and put on regular, so I just kept it that way.
It ain't been hot rodded or nothing as far as I know. Just painted. Sometimes I want to sell it, but then I play it to make up my mind and decide to keep it. I don't know, I might ought to sell it. I don't play it that much and probably will get rid of it or trade it for something else. Seven strings. That's a lot of strings. But it sounds good.
