90.5 "the Night" 6th Annual Guitar Show
Feb 16, 2003

Sunday, I drove down the Garden State parkway for an hour or so the the Jesery Shore. There was a major snow storm coming so I wanted to leave by 1PM. That gave me about an hour and a half of browsing through the 90.5 Guitar show. The show was about 50% bigger this year than last. I guess the word is getting out. I sold an old guitar that I bought at a flea market at a $75 profit, and I bought 6 octal tube sockets for $2. After gas and entrance fee, I was ahead about $50 since I didn't buy any amps or mics.

First, for all of you who say they can't find a good harp mic. Here is a new in-the-box Hohner Blues Blaster. It had a tag for $79.95, but the guy at the table would take $70 and probably less if you dickered for a while.

There was a sweet little ampeg Rocket for $225. This is a good all around amp. It's loud enough for the jams and sweet enough for a chromatic solo.

This nice litle Danelectro Cadet was marked $100 and probably sold for $75. It is a nice, light-weight amp. It is not very loud, but it sounds nice.

This 50's Fender Tweed Deluxe was selling for $1150. I bet an even thousand would have bought it. For all of you do-it-yourselfers who paid nearly that much to build you own; here's the original. (It's a little rough, but that gives it charm - smiling sweetie doesn't hurt either.)

Ny favorite was this butchered Fender Blackface Deluxe. Dating from early 60's, it's been recovered with a cream naugahide (not cream tolex). The baffleboard was replaced by 4 Lafeyette hi-fi speakers. (I thought they were 8 inch when I looked at it close up, but in the picture they look like 10 inch. The big bell on them is misleading.)
The chassis had major alterations also, so I don't know what it sounded like. The price was $425 and if I had had a job, I would have taken it home in the back of the truck. It's a great restoration project.
Here's the rub, my brother saw it after I left and talked the guy down to $250 without the speakers. He got a black face concert and empty cabinet (albeit modified) for a song. These concerts are the Fender replacement for the 59 bassman. They are almost identicle to the 59 bassman except for the solid state rectifier and a few component values. They sound great. If you load them with 12AU7's instead of the 12ax7's they have a sweet sound that you can overdrive.
The amp is sitting at Carlos Colina's houes waiting to hook some speakers up to it.

The show also had events. Here's a nice seminar with some harp playing.

Sandy Mack ran a seminar, but this was after I left. My brother screwed up the pictures and wound up taking pictures of some Les Paul Guitars so there was no room left to take pictures of the harp workshop. (Here's the pictures he took if you are intereseted in guitars: Les Paul 1, Les Paul 2)
Here's a picture of Sany Mack setting up:

Here's the usualy gang of suspects waiting to hear him play:

Finally here's a panorama of the show:

 

Buy the Book!

I cleaned up my tab for Sonny Boy's Help Me and made it into a short book. There's a Kindle version for 99 cents, and if you buy the paperback you get the Kindle free.

Playing "Help-Me" In the Style of Sonny Boy Williamson II: A step by step, note for note analysis of some of Sonny Boy's Signature Riffs