Guitar Dreams

[Platefire]

Back in the early 60's, the Ventures were 90% of my guitar influence. That changed as the years rolled on and I actually started liking songs with vocals


This picture on this Ventures album made me dream of having a Sunburst strat with a maple fingerboard but I ended up getting a 1966 Jazzmaster because I caught it on sale with a music store going out of business, so I got it new with case for $300.00---to good to turn down. So my strat dreams were put on hold

 
About 2000 my Son called me about selling one of his guitars to me. Guess what----a CIJ 50's RI 1998 sunburst strat with maple fingerboard with hard case. I ask him how much, he said $300. So yeah, finally got my dream guitar! Ain't God good!

[mresistor]

Definitely a very nice strat ..   

[Platefire]

Thanks! It's probably hard to imagine a strat being a dream guitar these days because they are so common and plentiful. In the town I was raised in a strat, tele or a jazzmaster was pretty near unheard of  in the the early 60's except on TV. My first guitar was bought at a place called, United Jewelers and my guitar playing buddy bought his solid body guitar and SS amp at Western Auto. Don't sound like music stores, huh! A guitar picking friend of mine in the mid 60's got a Fender Duo-Sonic and a Deluxe Reverb amp. We all marveled at "what a rig"!So a higher ended Fender Guitars and Amps was a big deal in my home town back then.

[66Strat]

Nice guitar!

[Platefire]

Thanks! I been a strat man for years but have been drifting to tele more lately. I think it's because my HF hearing loss has me starving for treble

[PRR]

> bought his solid body guitar and SS amp at Western Auto. Don't sound like music stores, huh!

Western Auto sold a LOT of radios. Not a shock that they branched into amps and axes.

The town I am near now, we recall in the 1970s there was still a Western Auto on the main intersection Main and High St. Now a real-estate office.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Western_Auto

[Platefire]

Here is a picture of Charlie and I posing with our first guitars. His brand?? I can't remember from Western Auto and mine Harmony Arch top with Kent pick-guard with pickups added. I didn't have a amp at the time, so we both played through his SS amp.

I did buy a lot of bicycle parts from Western Auto. You could buy every part imaginable for a bicycle there. That was the time that almost all bikes just had coaster brakes---Bendix, New Departure and etc. There were a few "French Bikes" around that were 3 speed, but was very rare. I literally lived on a bicycle in my pre-teen years that is until I got my Allstate MoPed:>) I was a good bike mechanic back then and could fix anything on a coaster brakes type bike.

[PRR]

I have a tool with a good color-film correction. And I cropped you an avatar.

[Platefire]

Wow! Thanks a bunch PRR! That's a big Improvement. I'll have to send a copy to Charlie. Enlargement and much better color.   


You won't believe this but.........there is a Western Auto store in my old home town Zwolle La, about 20 miles away from where I now live. It's now on front street instead of a side street where it use to be. I bought fishing worms there last week. That's pretty diverse, from electric guitars, amps in the 60's to fishing worms in 2023. Next time I'm in there, I will have to check out their inventory. My wife's old childhood bicycle needs restoring:>)

[sluckey]

I bought a lot of Black Diamond guitar strings at WA. Also bought a Marlin golden 39A 22 lever action rifle and a Steven's model 94H 16 gauge single shot. Still have the guns. I abandoned Black Diamond a loooong time ago.

[Platefire]

In Zwolle, I don't recall WA having any guitar strings. I got my Black Diamonds from our local Drug Store. I would buy a whole set of Black Diamonds plus and extra B string. Then I would throw the big E away and just use the A, D, G, use the extra B for a unwrapped G, and the other B and little E in normal positions. My way of making a light gauge set
I finally started getting Ernie Ball Super Slinkys in Natchitoches, La---but I had to drive 60 miles round trip to get them:>( but gas was cheap
 
I have a couple of Marlins myself but they came from United Jewelers in Shreveport, same place as my Harmony Guitar. Got a 12 and 20 Ga shotgun repeaters(Bolt Action). Had the 20Ga since I was 13. The 12 belonged to Dad. 

[PRR]

I didn't enlarge. (There isn't enough detail to be worthwhile.)

A old image tool I have "knows" how color film degrades, relative red green blue shift. You start with the estimated age, 59 years here. That was way too much, I think I ended at "37 years". Slight touch of contrast and sharpen but too much looks bad.

Western Auto is dead. Nobody should be using their signs. But one of the last owners is Sears, and they have their own troubles. I bet nobody is going around removing signs.

There's a dead Radio Shack here. I really want to rent a bucket truck and steal the sign.

[Platefire]

I believe your right! I think it's just a general store with the old WA sign still intact.

We also have a Radio Shack in the town I now live at but I quit going there years ago.Their main function is a Verizon dealer. They quit restocking most electronic parts years ago.


That's a cool image tool! Thanks again for the rework!