GitarBob's Corner

Now at the ripe age of 57+, I started playing the guitar when Mom and Dad bought me a Dixie Bargain Center, $14-Special for Christmas when I was 14 years old. If you do the math, you'll soon wonder why I'm not any better on the thing than I am! ;-)

After a year of passionate self-learning the Mel Bay guitar chord books, I started out in a rock band back in the good old days when we carried all of our gear in with ONE trip from the trunk of the car. I still remember that first gig at the Pittsville, MD High School dance; wow what a great time! I thank God for leading this old country boy (who could easily have gone far astray) to those GREAT guys; Carmen Yates, Michael Campbell, MB Gordy, Paul Yutzy and Mike Messick, who were the salt of the earth and awesome musicians. We were just typical young/dumb guys, but we loved music and somehow avoided all the mess with drink and drugs that many others didn’t avoid. They say “if you remember the 60’s, you weren’t really there.” Well, I DO remember them and I WAS there! ;-)

Michael joined the Navy first, and I right after. Just before I went to bootcamp, Michael reappeared in our hometown (hair a bit shorter). Navy life was just NOT for him, but now, over 32 years later, I am finally retired from the Navy. Didn’t really play much for the first few years of Navy-induced personal crisis, but while on a ship, I got seriously into Rush, and decided that maybe I could play some of that stuff. Started hard at it again, buying effects pedals and even a Randy Rhodes-style guitar (didn’t keep that thing for very long though).

The Lord reached down and Saved me in 1980, and I first and started jamming for the Lamb while in Key West. My neighbor, the Gospel Service Chaplain drafted me for the Black History Month Gospel Service, and I've been doing my best to stay active in the Church ever since. Played for the Base Chapel in Key West, a Methodist Church in San Diego, the Base Chapel Gospel Service in the Azores, by far my most WONDERFUL musical experience with the Heritage Church in Severn, MD. Played with my brothers and sisters there for almost 6 years before shipping out again to Rota, Spain and playing with the Contemporary Service at the Base Chapel and with Mission 3:16 out in town. After that, played with the contemporary Service in Rota, Spain, a small Baptist Church in Tennessee, the International Baptist Church in Stuttgart, Germany, and now back at True Life Church in Atoka, TN.

My "styles" swing from rock electric to mellow acoustic. On electric, I sound like a poor rendition of Clapton, Hendrix, Van Halen and SRV. On acoustic, I sound a little bit like James Taylor.

My gear is as professional as I can afford, so as to compensate for lack of talent with the best possible sound. I use rack-mount DigiTech processing and 400 watt stereo power amp, Roland GR-50 synth (to sound like flutes, strings, drums or whatever) along with power filter and tuner. I run stereo with two Carvin 2x12 cabinets.

I still have my 1970 Stratocaster which I bought brand-new way back when, but primarily play a PRS custom 24 electric (with the Roland synth set-up) and Taylor 714-ce acoustic. Rig is pictured below …

As far as Contemporary Christian music goes, I like a whole wide variety of stuff. 3^rd Day, Whiteheart, Danny Chambers, Ron Kenolly and most of the Integrity and Hillsong stuff, delirious?, all the Praise songbooks, etc. I have never had a lot of trouble playing anything as long as I get to hear it first.

A couple of mp3 files are below with samples of my playing. These were created with Cakewalk Guitar Studio Pro, and edited/converted to mp3 for this website with Cakewalk Pyro. With the exception of percussion, all instruments are either guitar or the Roland GR-50 (actually guitar also).

- 1 is a cut from "Summertime." There are two rhythm guitar parts, lead, strings and bass are Roland GR-50. All guitar on this cut is the PRS.

- 2 is an original piece that my Son, Micah came up with while I was showing him how to use the Cakewalk software. Micah is playing rhythm and I am on lead using Fender HM Strat and the PRS at the end. This certainly leans in the direction of Micah's heavy-metal venue.

In His Love, bob

SummerTime_Split.mp3

Son-n-Dad-Demo1_Split.mp3