My early jobs were on a 1952 Gibson 295 at Ladd AFB in Fairbanks, Alaska at the officers club-late 1956. I started at 11 years old. Still have the guitar.

Played Les Paul and Mary Ford tunes, Marty Robbins, Rosemary Clooney, Nat King Cole, Doris Day, Fats Domino, etc. but didn't know anything about his (Les Paul's) electronics used to record (multi-tracking-echoplex, etc.), so I could only play Mary Ford's lead lines and the changes with a trio.

* Amp-a little Gibson tube job with a 10" speaker. Still in the back, somewhere.

* PA- some kind of high impedance Dukane, or equivalent, with no active EQ, 1/4" in, volume and tone control, speakers in the ceiling. Upgraded to a crude Standel system a few years later, with reverb and thought we were in heaven.

* No monitor system at all.

* Bass player played upright through a mike.

* No piezo pick-up options.

* No effects of any kind-amp did not even have tremolo.

* Made $10.00 per three hour gig. Paid in silver dollars (the Air Force did that for some reason-probably to show the community the financial impact of the base). Put the dollars in a large glass promotional whiskey bottle-still have the bottle full of coins; now probably collectible.

* Band wore matching royal blue jackets with black lapels-patent leather black shoes-the works!

Things have really changed in 54 years!

But now the big stuff is disappearing, and I'm back to playing lite equipment, and, every once in a while, I play the old 295 thru a little 15 watt Super Champ...think about the gigs and years gone by...


And SMILE!


Russ

[This message has been edited by captain Russ (edited 11-09-2010).]