| This is Alan's letter to me shortly after
the 2003 CAAS Convention.....
Palmer,
It was great seeing you again at CAAS; my brain is still there at "pickers' cloud 9", but the
ol' bod is still recovering and catching up on sleep!
Well, I did it again--got myself involved in a "crusade"; you can read about it in the
attachment of an email I recently sent to
Gibson.
In a nutshell, my modified DelVecchio caused unexpected crowds and high interest among all CAAS members who saw and tried it; John McClellan even used it for a couple duets with Kirk Hanser at their Thursday afternoon mini-concert and loved it! I was happy that my experiments had finally come close to the sound of Chet's
DelVecchio, BUT I felt guilty because I couldn't help any of these great people get their own such instrument, as Chet had helped me years ago. Since Gretsch and Paul Yandell have recreated Chet's 1959 Country Gent, and Gibson will build his old L-10 on a custom basis, I approached Scott Harrison (R & D Luthier for
Epiphone) and Mike Voltz with the idea of cloning a higher quality version of the Delvecchio for all of us to enjoy. I believe they are really interested, but I'm also trying to stimulate enough mail to them to begin a serious project. Scott did say that I should keep "bugging" him about this, so I'm petitioning as many fingerpickers as I can find to do the same! Use the email addresses on the attachment.
I seek no money or fame from this; I simply feel I owe it to Chet, my life-long hero, to help create another tool for us to preserve and enjoy his music. That said, if you are interested, would you please so advise Scott and Mike? Better yet, could you mention this "crusade" in one of your emails or "snail-mails" to OFGC members? Feel free to use my addresses as in the attachment, in case anyone wants to contact me.
WE NEED A GOOD DELVECCHIO; IT WAS ONE OF CHET'S FAVORITES AND IT'S OVERDUE! That's my opinion and it oughta be
your'n!!
THANKS for any help you can give,
Al Buhoveckey
P.S. In talking with Mike Voltz, it turns out that he was the guy who overhauled Chet's
DelVecchio, and thus is very familiar with its construction and problems. Did I talk to the right guys or what??!!
P.P.S. Do you have a name to go with the email address awykle@co.hocking.OH.US? He's interested in contacting Gibson, and I think he said he lives in Logan, Ohio. I forgot to ask his first name; hopefully he's in OFGC and I can email him with something besides "Hey you"!
|
