Tondeleo: This posting and the next one are the ones that I am most pleased with. As you know, rural Americans are very suspicious of outsiders and it has been a monumental task to get Doc, Marilyn and their friends to open up enough to grant me these interviews. Over the past three years, they have grown to basically trust me and have allowed me into their lives and circle of friends.
I have wanted to have photos of Doc's home made guitars ever since he first allowed me to see them, hold them and attempt to play them about two years ago. At first he was embarrassed about them precisely because they are home made and not "storebought."
Poor people do not make instruments because they are in vogue, but because they want to make music and they do not have the money or credit to go to a music centre and buy pre-made instruments. So they scavenge what they can and make what they need.
When Doc first felt that he could show me his home made guitars, I was amazed. He was ashamed of them because they came from a time that he was in total poverty, but I was quite impressed with them. I think you will be, too.
Doc: OK Tondy, this is one of my home made guitars. I had to put this together a long time ago. I was broke and didn't have no money for a store bought electric guitar, so I made this one here. I HAD to play and make some money, an' a man what had a club said I could play there if I had a 'lectric guitar. This was down Goldsboro, NC.
I didn't have no 'lectric guitar. So I had to make one. A lot of country boys makes they's guitars if they is broke and needs to make one.
This one here is made from a box what paint samples came in. I think it is from the 60's. Says Precision Paints on the side. I found it in the trash and had kept some tools in it.
Anyway, I needed a 'lectric guitar an' didn't have one. This was in the 80's. I went to a music store and the guy there what fixes guitars gave me some parts for free - I told him 
what I was needin' to do and asked him if he had any old parts other people didn't want. He gave me the pickups and knobs and the volume control and tone control. They come offin' someone's guitar what had him put better stuff on it. He didn't want them so he give 'em to me.
I glued that million dollar bill onto it a couple of years ago. Someone give it to me, an' this guitar needed somethin' to make it look good. I glued it on there. Now it is a million dollar guitar.
I got the copper for the mounting plates outta the trash behind a cabinet shop over in Mount Olive. They had an alley out behind the stores their on Main Street and that is where they put the trash. You can find some good things out there, and food too. Mount Olive is a good town, Tondy.
Another dude I knew gave me a old neck. It was offin' a guitar what he had that got tore up in a bar fight. I ain't know what brand it is. I have played it long and hard for about 25 years. I stopped tak
in' it out when I got a real store bought guitar, but I have played it local at peoples' houses what already know me. About last year I took it out and played it in public and people did like it. Even guitar players liked it. But I don't know why.
The boy over to the sign shop made me some stickers what say Doc Stevens. I put one on the neck here so people know it's mine and not someone else's.
I put the handle on it so I could carry it easy. I put a handle on most my guitars for a while so I could carry them easy. I put those 
rubber feet on it, too, like on some of my other guitars. It keeps it from slippin' an' fallin' and keeps it from gettin' cracked if you set it down too hard. I got the handle and feet from a old amp that was bein' throwed out from behind a music store in Raleigh - that's in North Carolina, too, Tondy.
So pretty much that was it. It's just made out of old trash what other people din't want, but I did. I put it together there in my motel room apartment and was able to play and make a few dollars an' the man at the club let me eat there for free, too, so it was good.
It sounds pretty good for blues. The neck is good, and it is set up right. Good action, good tone. What seems funny is that nowadays people with money like these old home made guitars made by poor men. We ain't made 'em to be collected. We make 'em so we can have a guitar when we ain't got no money but need a 'lectric guitar.
Tondeleo: What about the case? That's not home made. Where did that come from?
Doc: YOU know where it came from! I already TOLD you.
Tondeleo: OK, well tell me again where it came from.
Doc: That case came from a dude from out west, Wyoming, I think. We was playin' down south, down to Atlanta in Georgia. This dude what also played music hung around afterward talkin. He went back to our room, and he saw this home made guitar and the other one, and went nuts over them.
He played 'em a while an' asked me about did I have a case for them. I said, "no." He said they needed a case so they didn't get tore up. He also said I needed to stop takin' my Fender Super Reverb [amplifier] out. It is a 1967 one, and he said it is worth too much to take out much.
So guess what? The next night, he came back, with this case what holds two guitars! I never seen one like it afore! It's gots wheels on it so I can roll it, too! But more'n that, he brought me a AMP with 8 inputs and a 15 inch speaker, and electric plug ins and some other tricks and it all packs down real tight in it's own case with wheels!
He GAVE 'em to me, Tondy! For FREE! He said he liked what I was doing and that he could afford to do it, and it made him happy to help me out! He also had already had Doc Stevens wrote on them! I could not believe it, and it made a tear roll down my eye! I will never forget that as long as I live! I will never forget that!
