Nice coverage in the January/February Premier Guitar Mag

[RedHouse]

Some pickup content...

Rick Turner: The Father of Boutique Guitars - Premier Guitar

Nice to put a face to the alias.

BTW, you don't look as grumpy as you sound

(just kidding Rick)

[hariossa]

Great article! being a big Zappa fan I wonder if you have any memories to share, he was known for having heavily modified equipment, even on the early days he added active electronics and EQ to his guitars, did you have the chance to talk about that sort of stuff with him?

[Rick Turner]

I never really talked gear with him. It was kind of a crazy time...he was practicing the Mothers of Invention at the Garrick Theater upstairs and a couple of doors down Bleeker from where we played a fair bit...the Cafe Au Go Go. He was going to produce our first album, but wound up getting an offer for his first European tour, and we got antsy and did the album at RCA with Bob Cullen. We should have held out...but...

[Mark Hammer]

I got to meet him and do an interview the weekend of Woodstock. My dad wouldn't let me thumb to Woodstock from Montreal when he saw the news footage that Friday, so I had to stay in town. Frank and the Uncle Meat-era band (the Underwoods, the Gardners, Preston, the late Jimmy Carl, Motorhead Sherwood) played five free shows in Montreal that weekend and I went to every one. I presented myself as a "freelance writer" and ended up backstage, exchanging pleasantries with the band before a bunch of us were ushered in to meet Frank. Gotta say, of all the interviews I did in my previous life, he was the second most intimidating (#1 was Van Morrison....I can never tell when people with thick Irish accents are being sarcastic). Probably just as well that the guy I loaned the tape to skipped town. I'm sure if I ever listened to it, I'd be embarrassed.

The tour had been a discouraging one for them. Bunk Gardner said that they had shown up to one show they were booked for at some sort of stadium, and the "PA" they were promised turned out to be a 35W Bogen paging amplifier or something equally ridiculous.

It's funny, in a way, but consoling in another, that the impression you have of somebody right away is precisely how others describe that person decades later, after they're gone. Yeah, he could rip your head off (and I probably deserved it), but if you discussed something that piqued his interest, Frank just came across as this diligent dedicated guy with a phenomenal work ethic. He told me he worked on arrangements constantly, and that whether on the bus, in the hotel or on a plane, he always brought a pad of music paper, a box of HB pencils, and a portable electric pencil sharpener. And of course, following his passing, one of the things that constantly came out in comments from those close to him was his work ethic. Of course, I can't think of any other way to have a body of work as large as his unless you worked that hard and tirelessly.

While he told me that if only one person in the audience "got" what he was trying to do, then it was worth it, the Monday after the shows, he broke the band up, declaring that "people wouldn't know good music if it bit them on the ass". Like I say, it appeared to be the tail end of a frustrating tour. A couple months went by, and then "Hot Rats showed up in stores.

My mom ran into him in 1966 or so. The Mothers were in Montreal, playing a wonderful and legendary (to us, anyways) little club called the New Penelope, and somehow ended up at the recording studios of the National Film Board (also in Montreal), ostensibly to record a soundtrack for something. My mom was working there as a secretary at the time, and one of the other secretaries said "You gotta see these weirdos in the cafeteria", so they went. To her, of course, he was just a weirdo, but I was one of those nerds who had memorized every line and riff of "Freak Out". When she told me that she had run into him, my jaw just about hit the floor.

If you ever have a chance, give a listen to the wonderful radio documentary "I am All Day and Night". Ruth Underwood gives some fascinating insights, not to mention some astounding mallet work. PRX » Piece » I am all day and night: The Music of Frank Zappa Part 1 of 3. She was really the underappreciated star of the band.

[hariossa]

He was going to produce our first album, but wound up getting an offer for his first European tour, and we got antsy and did the album at RCA with Bob Cullen. We should have held out...but...

Seems like there's still people who think he did produce it, according to one of the comments here: YouTube - Autosalvage - Auto Salvage (1968)

[RedHouse]

Hey Rick, in your picture from that article, is the matting that the guitar is sitting on the silicone rubber type mat?



The reason I ask is because I have used some material that looks just like that in your picture for several years on my bench and now the pieces are getting old and I want to get some more but cannot find it anywhere. All I can seem to find these days is a foam-rubber type of mat that looks similar (meant for use as drawer linings) but it doesn't work very well on the bench and certainy doesn't hold the work still like the silicone rubber type of this matting.

[Mark Hammer]

Looks to me like carpet underlay.

Am I close?

[RedHouse]

Looks to me like carpet underlay.

Am I close?

I don't think so (if it's the stuff I'm talking about). The stuff I'm looking for is definately silicone, it's squares are slightly raised on one side and flat on the other.

Here's a pic of a piece in my hand:

[Mark Hammer]

Not that it is necessarily what I'm thinking, but if you do a simple Google image search with "carpet underlay", you'll see an awful lot of lattice-pattern foam rubber things just like in the picture.

[RedHouse]

Not that it is necessarily what I'm thinking, but if you do a simple Google image search with "carpet underlay", you'll see an awful lot of lattice-pattern foam rubber things just like in the picture.

As I mentioned a couple times now, it's not foam rubber it's silicone that I'm looking for.

I'm not trying to find foam rubber, I'm trying to find the silicone stuff I've been describing in my last few posts.

[Joe Gwinn]

As I mentioned a couple times now, it's not foam rubber it's silicone that I'm looking for.

I'm not trying to find foam rubber, I'm trying to find the silicone stuff I've been describing in my last few posts.

I think I have seen the silicon stuff sold by scientific supply houses for cushioning scientific glassware.

I would poke around the websites of Fisher Scientific, WVR (?), and the like.

[frankfalbo]

I got some of the stuff with my router, pitched as "non-slip pad". It melted into a rattle can project I had resting on it for a week or so. I'm sure the drawer liners are of the lower cost and probably gassing off eternally.

[David Schwab]

As I mentioned a couple times now, it's not foam rubber it's silicone that I'm looking for.

I'm not trying to find foam rubber, I'm trying to find the silicone stuff I've been describing in my last few posts.

I have a bunch of it that was sold as carpet underlay. I'm trying to remember exactly where I got it, but it was probably Home Depot.

[David Schwab]

I got some of the stuff with my router, pitched as "non-slip pad". It melted into a rattle can project I had resting on it for a week or so. I'm sure the drawer liners are of the lower cost and probably gassing off eternally.

That is an issue with that rubber. I put a towel between it and painted guitars now because it leaves marks. They clean off, but it makes me worried.

[RedHouse]

That is an issue with that rubber. I put a towel between it and painted guitars now because it leaves marks. They clean off, but it makes me worried.

Yeah that's not the silicone stuff I'm looking for, that's the foam rubber stuff that is found everywhere now-a-days.