My father bought the family a phonograph. This wasn’t any old phonograph, this was a “stereo” phonograph. In those days, if your phonograph was a “stereo” phonograph you had major bragging rights. Everybody knew mono was for losers.
My older brother and I were getting into playing electric guitars at the time but there was one major obstacle standing between us and rock stardom fame – we didn’t have a guitar amplifier.
So I decided it would be a great idea to disassemble the family stereo and make it into a guitar amplifier.
When I was done there were wires and pieces everywhere. It was a mess, but I got it working.
It was after dark, I’m sitting next to my new amplifier, I hear my father’s key in the front door. He steps in and sees his phonograph wrecked.
He walks up on the mess I created and asked me what I was doing. I told him I made the phonograph into a guitar amplifier. He asked if it worked. I said, yes. He asked me to demonstrate. So I turned it on, plugged in a guitar and showed him how it worked.
He thought it was great, he says, “very good.”
No fuss, no muss.
This was my father when he wasn’t under the influence of my mother.