What was good then . . .

Ah yes . . . the good ol' days. Back in 1959, when this ad came out, it was OK for kids to snuggle up to Dad's Fender Twin, and enjoy enjoy some smooth, tweed guitar stylings at point-blank range. And lucky for Dad - the American Auditory Society was still (15) years from forming.

As you can about imagine - things like this have a tremendous influence on youngsters. Around '68, Little Suzie became Moonbeam, the Grateful Dead groupie, and lost what was left of her hearing attending shows over the course of the next 5-6 years. She's now a counselor at a homeless shelter, drawing from her experiences on the road. In her spare time, she tends to her organic garden, and weaves on her homemade loom.

Dad sold his Twin in the mid 70's to some British guy named Keith, who was in town for some sort of special event. Appartently, he'd shown up at the house in a stretch limo, and walked out of the car with a bottle of scotch in his hand. Now Dad wasn't one to be impressed with this sort of thing, and decided to teach the young man a lesson. Knowing that his prospective customer was fairly wealthy, he said he woudn't take a penny less than $150 for the amplifier. This Keith guy then hands him three crisp $100 bills, and says, "keep the change, mate."

Dad still has that bottle of scotch in the liquor cabinet, too. J.

NOTE: If you enjoy vintage guitar / gear ads, you can check out a few more of the Fender variety at this link.