Friday, July 21, 2006

Notes on guitars



ABOUT the worst experience in writing is putting an error into print. A whole lot of errors are made – rather, particular errors happen frequently – with the spelling of the Fender Squier guitar. I now know the correct spelling. My defence of my most recent mistake is that I asked someone I trusted would know more than me, and that person got it wrong. Writers and reporters get accustomed and toughened to taking the blame for other people’s mistakes that the writer has repeated without attribution. But wouldn’t it be so cruel to identity the culprit who confirmed "Squire" for me before I wrote the following column for today’s Redland Times? Critics will say, "He should have simply looked it up on the official website" (http://www.squierguitars.com/, the source of this picture) , or "He calls himself a journalist-come-guitarist and he didn’t even know that!". Oh well, I’ll just dust myself down, pick myself up and start all over again. For the guitar players the emphasis is on "pick".

THE sweet sounds of music have been common around a certain Sheldon property in the seven years since the Kelly clan moved in.
The Kellys like nothing better than to get together for a jam session. Cunnamulla-born Tom Kelly, who is now close to earning the title as "veteran" drummer, is proud to have programmed the beat genes into the best of rhythm machines.
All his three children – Renee, 15, Shane, 19, and Steven, 21 -- have become accustomed to presiding on a full set of skins when the family gets rocking 'n' rolling.
The drums and guitars have always been set up and ready to go but the jams have taken a new sound for the past year or so, since Renee started "dabbling" on guitar, mainly her dad’s Fender Squire.
"She gets a good tune out of it and she’s learning ‘tab’ as well as the chords we are teaching her," Tom said.
He said Renee, now a student at Cavendish Road High School, Coorparoo, had been a "premmy bub". She had been blind since her premature birth.
Tom said Renee had always loved music and it was great to see her progress on guitar.
The family is preparing to move to another home in the Redlands, so Tom made an inventory of the musical equipment with the aim of saving space.
The "go" list included a drum case that he made about 10 years ago and advertised for sale.
In the 1990s, Tom’s band, Crossroads, helped brighten up the nightlife in the central Queensland coalfields, where he had a day job with Australia Post at Moranbah.
Tom joined Australia Post in Chinchilla 29 years ago and now manages one of its sales departments from a city office, while his wife, Donna, works as a teachers aide at Mt Gravatt Primary School.
Tom has not played drums professionally for about 10 years but the case appears to illustrate his management and design skills.
"I built it to make transporting everything a bit easier," he said. "I welded a frame from box steel and used plywood for the casing. It is all painted matt black and fits into a seven by four trailer and folds out to a drum riser with a carpet floor."
Don’t bother to ask if the drums are for sale too.
THANKS for joining me to meet the great people in the marvellous community of classified advertising. More stories on classiecorner.blogspot.com.

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