|
On August 30
and 31, 2003, the Eastern Madera County Chamber of Commerce (EMCCC)
held their 25th annual Fall Mountain Peddler's Fair in Oakhurst,
California on Saturday and Sunday of Labor Day weekend. About
15,000 people were expected to attend, with about 450 vendors,
selling anything from antique glassware to hotdogs, candy and
popcorn. And SMCTek was there to sell (or at least try to sell)
guitars and basses.
The SMCTek
booth was again manned by Steve, our guitar builder, and brother-in-law
Kenny, who also helped set up & tear down everything Saturday
and Sunday. Like the event on the Memorial Day weekend, our objective
was more to get our guitars into the hands of musicians than
to sell product. And true that objective, we didn't sell a single
instrument this time.
The high points
of the Faire were:
- Ray, who bought
the black P-Bass at the Memorial Day event, paid us a visit and
played four or five of our instruments for about 1-1/2 hours
on Saturday, and fell in lust with the newly-constructed 12-string
Oakhurst electric guitar
- Bruce, who
tried out our guitars in May and signed up to have a Jazzmaster-style
guitar built, came by to pick up the guitar and jam with Steve
- Kenny's dad,
Bethel, brought along his mandolin, and jammed with Steve on
bass and Kenny on the 6-string Oakhurst guitar on Sunday afternoon
As we did in
May, we made a lot of contacts and handed out a couple hundred
business cards and 50 flyers. And Steve & Kenny wore their
fingers out playing those guitars almost non-stop for two days! |
 |
Here's some
folks paying to get into the Faire at the Chamber of Commerce
booth:
Kenny working
on setting up the SMCTek booth on Saturday morning:
Ray (who bought
a black P/J-style bass at the Peddler's Faire in may) playing
a newly-built Jazz-style bass on Saturday morning:
This is Adam,
a 17-year-old guitarist who jammed with Ray. Adam is one of the
several people who played that 12-string, and (we could tell)
lusted over it. It's one awesome axe: it plays with the ease
of 6-string. Steve's not quite sure how that happened, but he
hopes he can do it again!
And this is
"Doc," whose name is actually Bruce, a teacher from
Fresno who signed up in June to have a Jazzmaster style guitar
built. Bruce and Steve spent about two weeks exchanging emails
while working out the details of this design, which they started
calling the "Docmaster" about a month ago, when the
guitar was nearing completion. Steve did the final setup and
intonation after Bruce arrived. After all was said & done,
Doc gave it his approval. Here's what he said in the email he
sent to Steve on Sunday night:
Steve,
Gotta
tell you that i am thoroughly pleased with my Docmaster guitar!
It feels great, sounds terrific, and plays remarkably. It is
by far, the finest guitar in my collection! I am so glad that
I met you at the Peddler's Faire and we were able to collaborate
on building my dream guitar!. Kudos!!!
Bruce
Finally, here's
Kenny and Bethel doin' some Bluegrass pickin' on Sunday afternoon:
 |
