Hi Everybody from the BluesRiffer

[BluesRiffer]

Hello Everybody,

I'm new to this forum and I would like to introduce myself. I live in South Louisiana near or considered in the Atchafalaya Basin, a huge fresh water swamp. A lot of people when they drive over the I-10 Bridge over the Atchafalaya say "Oh what a Beautiful Place." Due to the illness and the death of my father we moved from New Orleans to Southwest Louisiana. Actually my grandfather and his brothers were saddened about the Basin because the Levees that hemmed in the Mississippi up North that turned Swampland, Natures Water Cleaning and Purification Project, into Farmland. This brought sand down the Mississippi Valley and buried the original Atchafalaya Basin with as much as 30 feet of sand in some areas. This killed all the great stands of hardwood forest. Forest with trees so tall that you could ride a horse anywheres as there was no thickets of thorns and there was a whole niche of birds that lived in the Upper Stories of the Trees. There where the Great Brown Eagle, Bald Eagle, Horned Owls, and Screech Owls. Some are still there but not near as many. There were hardly any willow trees but mostly Live Oak, White Oak, Pecan, on the ridges and Cypress in the low areas. The Cypress were 170 feet tall and could produce beams 70 feet long by 5 feet by 5 feet with virtually no knots. Here was the habitat of the Ivory Billed Woodpecker.

Well, I am going to write about my guitars and stuff but this place where I lived and still live places a Central Role in my persona and in the music I love the Blues. Got to go to Church right now. Will edit in about my guitars.

Well, my first guitar was an electric solid body called an Apollo. It was funt to play and I had a little tube amp. I thought the guitar was not nothing you know. I was about in the 7th grade. Much latter in life I read about a slide player Hound Doy Taylor whose signature slide playing was on guitars just like that. Thats when this revelation started to break through itsn't how great your gear is. Its wether or not you can find the best voicing of your gear. Its not the gear that makes the music its the man behind the gear.

Well, I never was serious about music. So I quit for a long time. Then a friend would come over who played a lot and he left me a guitar. Then I bought an Alverez WY-1. Then a MIM Strat in a Pawnshop for $70 because it looked like it had a broken Tone Pot. All it needed was a new Cap. Then I got a brand new American Deluxe Strat with everything sealed at a Pawn Shop for $700. Then I found a Pre-1940 Gretsch Archtop with a DeArmond Guitar "mic". This was the Gretsch clone of the Gibson L-5. I had seen the guitar in Lafayette and heard it was originally for a famous Bluesman but I forgot who. I think that Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown would maybe know because I was hanging a little with him at about the sametime.
Then I got a Strat-Pluss which turned out to be a 1987-88 one. Strat-Plus's are GREAT Guitars.

Then I got a Tele, a Daion Power Mark XX, and an Electra Les Paul clone that for the Bluse is perfet. Somewhere in there I picked up a Twin Reverb, VibraSonic, a Crate 20 watt tube with 2 EL34 Power Tubes, and some old Hybrid Amp tube/solid state. But I always have a guitar plugged in a Gorrila Amp someone gave me. And I have some amp projects that I'm working on.

I'm going to take pictures and describe all the good and bad points of getting these instruments into playing shape. The main thing is to know what you like an amp or a guitar to sound like then research what is the market for it and compare prices with what you can get for it. I won't sell a guitar or an amp that I have now. I like them to much.

Here is a picture of my Pre1940 Grestch Archtop that was Gretsch attempt at making a Gibson L-5. It has a solid Adirondack carved top, carved Honduran mahogany back, maple sides, a laminate neck with two pieces of maple sandwiching a thin strip of rosewood, and an ebony fretboard. I had to have it refreted and the previous owner had it rebound. It has a DeArmond Guitar "mic." It plays very well and it nails the "Ole Delta" sound perfectly. I have seen Muddy Waters with the same rig and others have written also that they have seen the same picture. Its an acoustic archtop and it sounds the best with heavy strings 11's or 12's. This is my baby. Its shiny because I buffed and I didn't want to overspray it. Its probably nitrocellouse laquer. Its really a jewel.





This is picture of my Daion Power Mark II that has a laminate through body neck with alternate rosewood and maple. The body front and back is rosewood sandwiching maple. It has an ebony fingerboard, a brass nut and saddles with a locking bridge that appears to be steel. It really plays well. I had to to extensive work freeing up the screws on the saddles that were frozen. The intonation was off by a great amount and there were deep scratches in the finish that a couple weeks polishing watching TV got out. It really playes great.



I will be posting my Electra, Strats, and my Tele.

Thanks for all the encouragement. This is realy a great forum and I'm proud to be a part of it and I promise I will help with problems that I faced myself and solved. That is I never messed up a guitar yet; but, I work with care and caution and do my research.

[oldguy]

Welcome to TheFret, BluesRiffer! Glad that you joined us. There are many of us here who love the blues also.
That is a sad story about the Atchafalaya Basin. Man has destroyed so much beautiful habitat it is horrible.
Looking forward to your posts on your gear.

[Hogfullofblues]

Welcome to the FretNet to a fellow lover of blues. The basin sounds unique and beautiful still. It is truly a shame when the wheels of progress run over such a place. Looking forward to hearing about your pawnshop collection.

[warren0728]

welcome BluesRiffer....this is a great forum....i think you will like it here....

ww

note: this welcome copyrighted 2007...no unauthorized use of this welcome will be tolerated

[sunvalleylaw]

Welcome! Blues influences are certainly favored here.

[stingx]

[Spudman***]

Welcome aboard the Love Train. I used to live in Gretna, LA and am a southern boy now living in the north. We don't have a Mason Dixon line here. We are all one mind...the I gotta have more gear mind . Hide your credit cards and enjoy the ride.

[SuperSwede]

Welcome.. and do what Spud says.

[Robert****]

Welcome, we are many blues lovers here so you are in good company.

[Tone2TheBone]

Welcome welcome welcome.

[duhvoodooman***]

Can never have too many blues riffers here! Welcome to The Fret!!

[Janarm]

Damn how I love Blues.Welcome

[tot_Ou_tard]

Welcome Bluesriffer, it is amazing how much of the natural world we've eaten up during our lifetimes.

[BluesRiffer]

Hi Everybody,

I am certainly glad that ya'll have taken interest in the Atchafalaya Basin. It was a beautiful place and I hope that our combined efforts can help bring it back. During the high water 1972 or 73 a Army Corps of Engineers clocked the river flowing at a latitude even with Lafayette, Louisiana at 14 knots which is about 17 mph. Now we are talking about a major river flowing at that rate not a mountain stream. I remember seeing the water hitting the I-10 bridge over the Whiskey Bay Pilot Channel and it was splashing up about 6-7 feet. Way too dangerous to get close and make a measurement. I saw 70 long young thin cypress that dissappeared in this big whirlpool on the down river side of the bridge and pop out of the water shooting up about 1/2 their height.

I know this is straying off of the topic of music but to me music is the World relecting back on its self and We are just the mediums used for the expression. So for me its hard not to write about something I grew up Loving and Appreciating. I also like people and I love to hear their stories.

[M29]

Nice collection and thanks for sharing your experience with the Atchafalaya Basin, very interesting.

I don't get to do it much but I love checking out the pawn shops, lots of goodies in there.

Welcome aboard!
M29