Kaye's Legacy

Hello all,
I was so happy to see the article about Carol Kaye [“Forgotten Heroes,” September 2012] that I had to write about a couple of amazing experiences I had with her.

I first met Carol when I was about 14, hanging out at Fife and Nichols Music on Sunset and Vine. Carol had just had their in-house repairman Milt Owen convert a Guild electric to 12-string for her. My mentor and savior Seymour Drugan introduced us and she was gracious and inspiring.

A couple of years later, when I was playing with the Mugwumps, I had Mr. Owen do the same thing for me. I didn’t see her again until I had opened my first shop in Denver. Carol came in to have me work on a couple of Alembics she was playing. She was already having a lot of problems caused by the car crash, and we discussed an ultralight bass. I loaned her one of my first five-pound basses, but she played sitting down and really liked to have more of a body than my ultra-minimal, right-hand-tuned bass offered.

I kept in touch with Carol from time to time over the years. While we were having lunch in Anaheim a couple of years ago, Stanley Clarke came over to our table and told Carol, “You’re the reason I play bass.” You can’t get much more inspired than that!
—Harry Fleishman
Fleishman Instruments

That One Moment

Shawn,
I enjoy your articles each month but this one, regarding Vai and those Zen-moments of oneness with your instrument [“The Phone Survey According to ‘Steve”, September 2012] especially rang true with me. See, I am 56 years old and have more playing days behind me than in front. This realization hit me onstage a couple of weeks ago and it was truly memorable for me. It was a cool Sunday afternoon at a venue on a lake in eastern Ohio. Usually my neck-hand will be sore and stiff after a gig, usually trying to wring out the songs in my excitement. This particular day, though, my touch was light, the tone on the amp and in-the-house monitors was right and my hand seemingly floated on the fretboard. Everything was effortless, which is not normal for my playing.

As I was looking out over the water and we were extending “Come Sail Away” to a packed dance floor, my eyes closed and I found that one elusive Zen moment when the world just fell away. The guitar was an extension of my body and it was just amazing. I’ll likely never have that experience again, but I am so grateful for that one moment. It truly is the reason we picked up the instrument in the first place. Too bad it took 40 years to arrive.
Regards,
—Mike Summers
Lancaster, Ohio

Hi Mike:
Thanks so much for writing in and sharing your Zen moment—what an exhilarating experience that must’ve been! Some people never get to that point, so don’t lament the point at which it occurred in your life. Now that you’ve gotten there, it’ll serve as inspiration and give you something to shoot for the rest of your life.

All my best to you, man! Shawn Hammond

Why Ask Vai

Dear Editors:
I’ve been a subscriber for several years, and while I thoroughly enjoy the magazine and have a lot of respect for your cover artist, Steve Vai, as a guitarist, I had no choice but to remove the cover from the September issue due to the sartorially challenged nature of Vai’s outfit. The pink-and-gray checked suit with the pink sunglasses and the pose were not something I could have staring at me every time I picked up the magazine. It was an outfit of incredibly poor taste. The content of the magazine and Vai’s music are another story, indeed, but please stop jolting us with something like this cover!
—Fred Centrella

Missed Match

Hi,
Re: Your review of the Gibson Les Paul Standard in the September 2012 issue, Mr. James Rotondi apparently does not know what the term “book-matched” means. A book-matched piece of wood is one where it was sawn—split in the middle, and then folded outwards so that the grain matches on both sides.

This is very, very obviously not the case with the Gibson L.P. Standard shown on p. 148! The two halves of the top could have easily come from two separate trees—they are that mismatched. He must have been looking at some other guitar when he stated it was “spectacular and inspiring,” because to me, that top shows obvious indifference by the folks at Gibson for any kind of “matching.” Please don›t get me wrong: I love Gibson guitars very much, but the words used to describe this one have very little to do with the product shown!
—Frank Mallory
Yucaipa, California