“How do you keep your dream to play alive when you’re 300 miles from the nearest music store?”
That’s a question I got more than a few times over the years. Because it’s not as if we were in Vancouver where they had Long and McQuade Music and Bill Lewis Music - or Hoffman’s in Spokane. However, we had other ways to see the music instruments we so longed for.
One way was to get close to the other musicians and - as I stated before - help them pack their equipment in. The chrome mesmerized us - the mike stands were chrome, the drum gear was chrome, the snare drum was chrome. Chrome and sparkles from the metal-flake kit - that was the ticket.
Another way to get familiar was to look at record jackets and teen magazines. Although there was not much mention of brands except what you could see on the covers.
B.C. Electric never had expensive instruments. In fact that is where I bought my Kent bass. But Eddy Taylor used to let us hang around and go over the Fender catalogs again and again. He was really patient with us kids.
And speaking of catalogs, the Simpson’s and Eaton’s catalogs had various knock-offs that played even worse than the Kent guitars. However, I sure liked my Eaton Viking amplifier even though it never sounded like a Fender. It was light and I could take everywhere there was a plug - a sort of big, AC Pignose.
Then came Consumer’s Distributing and ACME Novelty. These had Teisco guitars and amplifiers which were the first Japanese guitars that you could actually play in a band and feel proud of your instrument. Eko guitars, the Italian instruments, that had mother-of-pearl pickguards like the Italian acordions. The switches resembled accordion buttons too. They were available at the guitar teacher’s store and were a decent guitar.
The Teisco’s were the first solid state amps we ever saw. Then the catalogs came out with the non-tube amps. Pedals were non-existent and everyone wanted reverb.
As I said before, the Holy Grail was Fender. And I even bought a Fender “How-to-Play” book. But it was not for the chords, it was to stare at the Fender logo and dream.