Ya, 1965, Dylan ruined guitar playing.

Early Everly Bros, Peter Paul and Mary, Lightfoot, et al. Then we got overamped, screaching.

I understand that you can't do acoustic in front of 20,000 people in central park without a mic but holy heck I hated it when Hendrix turned the American Anthem into a whacked out drug infested..never mind, you guitar players all probably liked that.

I took a video recorder to a cover band I was playing in and listened to each song, made some suggestions and just dropped out. As hard as I tried the bass guitar guy just cranked and the lead guitar guy cranked and then the other and back and forth and all you could hear was noise.

Something to be said for hearing the frets and a real accoustic guitar played by someone who has the thing down.

And even the big ol' grand can be muted..about 4 ways.

My upright has 4 inches of foam behind it between the piano and the wall for a reason.

I have run into venues where their acoustic piano won't play the hall due to the configuration. And I drag out the amps and the Roland, but it's still too loud at the front and not enough at the back and the audience has 1/2 the people with hearing aids running out the back door. The other half can't hear properly.

I guess that's part of playing in the 60's and being old. Means everyone in the room is 60 to 70. And like me awake at 4 am 'cause it's gonna storm and my knees ache.

John Conley
Musica est vita