Mispronounced Guitar Names

[JimPage]

Hey!

I am having a mellow day which consists of playing my new Stradette for a while and then going through every post on this forum one by one. Super interesting, but that may be the Bloody Marys talking.

Anyway, I was reminded of the Mosrite bass I had in the very early 1970s. In the small Florida towns I lived in back then (Apalachicola, Marathon Shores, Naples) there were no real music stores with good guitars, and we all learned stuff the hard way. I still have "Black Diamond grooves" in my finger tips.

When I got this Mosrite bass, we didn't know if it was pronounced MOSE-RITE or MOSS-RITE. We finally settled on the correct pronounciation. I had an Epiphone Rivoli bass, and I knew a guy who insisted that it was pronounced EH-PIFF-UH-NEE.

Those were the days.

--Jim

[Haole Jim]

Ain't that the truth...

...and in this life, even more daunting than mis-pronouncing a name like Ricenbacker , was total ignorance of music while desperately trying to gain entry into the sacred realm of being a guitar player. In this picker's instance, there was after caddying during the summer between soph and junior years, catalogue-store purchase of a Harmony H-78 Jazzmaster-sorta-looking electric guitar as first ever. No money for lessons or transportation to get there, no musical background other than listening to the Top 40 on AM radio. But some months later, a few bucks earned as a stockboy bought the first two "Play Guitar With The Ventures" records, and as you said, "Black Diamond Grooves."

And while enduring the grooves and struggle, thinking one was surely a mmental midget, even tho on the honor roll, because it was so (bleep) ing hard to play "Raunchy" or "Tequila." even tune the thing. Fortunately, "Walk Don't Run" was on that album, to the rescue. With those guitar heroes holding Ventures Models. Oooo....

[JimPage]

Hey, Haole Jim--

My catalog-bought Silvertone Teisco had SUCH a bad action and bowed neck that it was almost impossible to play. It never occured to me or my friends that it could be adjusted.

I remember sitting in the Marathon, Florida, school lunchroom in 1966 looking at a friend's Fender guitar catalog. At that time, I had been playing that Silvertone as a bass in a band and didn't realize that a normal person could go out and purchase a "bass guitar."

Anyway, we all sat there oohing and ahhing over that catalog. The first Fender guitar I ever saw in person was owned by Gram Parsons, who was a by-marriage cousin. His family had lots of dough and he was a real wise-ass, but he did tell me that the Beatles were the real deal as musicians. He also let me borrow a Les Paul Junior for a couple of years; wish I had kept that!!!

--Jim

[101Volts]

You should have heard me, I was pronouncing Mosrite "Mawz Right" For a long time until the last month or so.

[Haole Jim]

Hilarious, Jim Page,

Thank you for sharing. Now that you mention it, 'dunno if the Harmony even had an adjustable neck. 'Do remember the bridge was like an archtop's and not fastened down. 'Used to scare the wooba-wooba out of this then-young picker, the thing would move and never, ever go back into position and the guitar would be "ruined." Duh; as a student who had passed physics, it should have occurred how to set intonation, but ignorance was wildly rampant, back then and musical knowledge all but subatomic in size and scope.

'Got a '67 Gibson catalogue in early '68 and almost explosively excreted multile times as pages were leafed through; 'never saw so much cosmic-hip stuff so far in life. And yup, 'scored a '67 Fender one, too. That was confusing, as there were dang few Fenders in Chicago back then.

And 'had a Teisco solid bass, two single coils, three tuners on one side, one on the other, two pointy horns. Uglier than a 3-legged goat with progressive tail mange. 'Cost $52 in a mismatched chipboard case with a tear next to one snap-fastener.

They were the days, eh, Amigos?

[JimPage]

When I think of those crummy instruments, it is a miracle that any of us stayed with it. In my case, it is a miracle I am still alive. My dad caught me, at age 13, with a homemade cable I'd made-- a 1/4" RCA jack, swiped from his toolbox, on one end and a two-pronged electrical plug on the other-- ready to plug my brand-new "electric guitar" into the wall!!! "Uh, you need an amp for that thing, son."

heck, I didn't know!

My first real bass was a black Univox Beatle bass and the day I got it, I popped the G string trying to tune it up to my friend's Fender Mustang. Didn't know it had to be an octave lower!

That same friend, who is still my best pal, and I used to buy these 3-inch speakers from Radio Shack and hook them up to his Fender Twin. I'd play a low E on my bass (by now the Epiphone Rivoli) and watch the speaker cone burst into flames.

Yep; those were the days, alright!!!

--Jim

[Veenture]

...I used to buy these 3-inch speakers from Radio Shack and hook them up to his Fender Twin. I'd play a low E on my bass (by now the Epiphone Rivoli) and watch the speaker cone burst into flames.

That is funny Jim...in the old days (just left school) I once built a speaker cabinet and put in a 12 inch Jensen speaker. I thought that I did a really cool job ...with Fender-like grill cloth in gold and all. But NOT so cool was I had fitted the connecting cable with a two pronged plug which fitted into my normal household amplifier of the day...BUT...also the mains socket!
Need I say more? Yes it did happen ...with all that spaghetti from my gear getting entangled under my desk it was merely a matter of time for the speaker to go with a bang... One fine day I was messing about and thinking I was plugging in my tape recorder, just heard a single loud THUD...and some smelly solder fumes filling my room...heh heh.

[edit] I'm laughing now but talk about mispronouncing...I uttered some 'mispronunciations' at the moment it happened

[JimPage]

Hey, Veenture--

OUCH!!!

It is nice to be able to laugh about something now that had us so upset at the time! One thing I have learned, to quote the old Dirty Harry movies, and that is "A Good Man Knows His Own Limitations."

I stay away from electrical wiring and from power tools.

I have many other limitations, but those are big ones.

--Jim

[mark1]

I don't know how many times over the last forty or so years I've heard Ricken-bocker!I guess the way the name is on the headstock looks like it has an (o) instead of an (a)!?!?!

[Veenture]

I don't know how many times over the last forty or so years I've heard Ricken-bocker!

...yeah, goes well with those boys' baggy leather knee trousers called "Knickerbockers"