Boy Howdy!

[JimPage]

Hey!

No Mosrite content, but nonetheless a blast from the past! This photo was sent to me this afternoon by my best friend, John Klingler, who was in various bands with me in high school and college. He's the one on the left in this photo, the drummer is Mike Collins, and I'm on the right, with a cigarette hanging out of my mouth!


Taken in (I think) 1972, it shows the Boy Howdy band, or part of it, at a Naples club (Al Bolton's Aquarium Bar).

I'm playing my Gibson EB-3 bass and you can see the top of what I think was the Twin Reverb amp I then played through. I think the white cabinet in back is my old white-Tolex Showman cabinet.

John's guitar is a 1952 Telecaster he bought in Tampa for $150 and proceeded to sand down, refret, and route for two humbuckers!!! Oh, well!!! After that, he sold it for $250 and bought a reissue Firebird, if I remember correctly. He's playing through an Ampeg, which was the first solid-state amp we ever saw and it melted down the first gig we used it on.

Those were the days! Notice my artwork on the drum head!

--Jim

[dubtrub]

Great ole' memories! At least yours is in color.

[stl80]

Fun stuff.
Jim

[mrmomo]

Cool stuff, Jim!
Dig the Keep On Truckin' and other period correct posters.
Who is that little bottle guy on the bass drum head?

-John

[JimPage]

Hey, John!

In the late '60s/early '70s, before Robert Crumb became as famous as he later was, he came up with the Boy Howdy icon and it was used by Creem Magazine as their mascot. Since I used that expression a lot, the guys in the band called our band Boy Howdy and we used that little icon beer-bottle man on our posters and, as you can see, on our drumhead.

No connection with the later country band also named Boy Howdy!

--Jim

[Dennisthe Menace]

He's playing through an Ampeg, which was the first solid-state amp we ever saw and it melted down the first gig we used it on.
Those were the days! Notice my artwork on the drum head!
--Jim

Hey Jim, the Ampeg that John's playing thru is a V-4 model, which was a 100 watt all tube amp designed
by none other than Dan Armstrong. Though Armstrong was more well known for his Lucite guitars and basses, he also
was responsible for designing and codesigning the V series amps (V2, V4, VT60, etc, etc). I sold my V4 years ago, but I
sure do miss it at times. Those amps were built like a brick sxxthouse!

[JimPage]

Hey, Dennis!

Yes; after the initial meltdown I mentioned, that Ampeg amp lasted a long time through pretty togh use. I wanted one of those lucite guitars until I played it.

It was so danged heavy that it wasn't practical, at least for me.

--Jim

[panther]

Jim;
It appears John is getting ready to kick his amp over, maybe you beat the Who, Is that why it failed.
Dan

[Veenture]

LOL, Jim.
Do you still smoke? I've given it up 20 years ago (better late than never, ha!)

[JimPage]

Hey, Paul--

Yes, I still smoke, though I go through an attempt to quit about once a year.

--Jim