On May 24 and 25, the Eastern Madera County Chamber of Commerce (EMCCC) held their 25th annual Mountain Peddler's Fair in Oakhurst, California on Saturday and Sunday of Memorial 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 manned by Steve, our guitar builder, and brother-in-law Kenny, who also helped set up & tear down everything Saturday and Sunday. We handed out a couple hundred business cards and flyers, and at least 25 different musicians played our instruments. With prices ranging from $225 to $800, we didn't expect to sell much product, but viewed this as an opportunity to put SMCTek instruments in the hands of some California musicians so that they could experience first-hand the quality of the guitars and basses we build. Here's what our booth looked like when we got started at 8:00 am on Saturday morning:   Until noon on Saturday, our neighbor to the left was Oakhurst's local AM radio station KAAT. When they took down their booth at noon we became the corner booth in our row, so we removed the side panel of our booth so that people approaching from the side could see us and the guitars as well. A view of the crowd at about noon on Saturday: Later in the afternoon: Another shot of the crowd at around 12:40 on Saturday after the side panel had been removed, with our two hand-made instruments in the foreground. When all was said and done, we sold only one instrument, a black P/J bass with a used body and new neck, very nicely set up. This gentleman played the bass for quite a while, then played the hand-made guitar on the left in the above picture. With our own master guitar builder Steve playing bass, he did a beautiful rendition of Eric Clapton's Wonderful Tonight, then went away to think about that bass. About 30 minutes later he came back and bought it for $225, and went away happy. And in our excitement, we forgot to get his name! That's Steve on the right in the picture below: On Sunday morning we set up again, with some of the instruments placed up on the tables to show them off better. The two instruments on the right below are the two hand-made instruments SMCTek has been working on over the last 6 weeks, in the process of developing a new product line in which the bodies and necks are made by hand right in the SMCTek shop. All of the instruments previously built by SMCTek used bodies and necks purchased from various vendors online and on Ebay. Over the course of the two days of the Fair there were perhaps a dozen jam sessions, and perhaps 20 to 25 different people played our instruments. One of the high points was on Sunday afternoon when a fellow who had a hotdog cart in the Fair came by to buy a set of guitar strings and stayed to play and sing Johnny Cash's Folsom Prison Blues with Steve playing bass. We also had three members of a motorcycle club from Fresno play some of their songs for us, and one young fellow jammed with Steve on bass, playing with a style that reminded Steve of Mark Knopfler.

All Pictures and Text (c) Copyright 2003 by Stephen Cyr Last updated August 15, 2003

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