tonemonster58

For those of you that want to know WTF the new guy is I thought I'd put a little blurb in here to introduce myself. It's not something I have ever done before, but after hanging out for a while I have found I really like the pulse of this place and the people that hang out here. One of the first boards I have been to that does not have all the nonsense, fluff and most importantly peacocking so common across the Internet.

My name is Gene and I am a child of the 60's that came of age in Eugene, OR amongst all the migrant Haight & Ashbury hippies that sought refuge there in early 70's. Having lived that, I am surprised I still have enough brain cells left to even write this.

I have been playing since the mid 70's. My claim to fame was that my band originally called "Knightmare" then changed to "Presence" opened for Dio on the Holy Diver tour and Motley Crue for a couple dates in Oregon in the 80's. That was pretty cool. I got to hang out and jam with Vivian Campbell for a very short while. I did not however enjoy the gigs with the Crue, they were all major douchebags at that time, especially Vince. Our band took 5th place in the Miller High Life "Rock to Riches" (a nationwide talent search) contest losing out on the Recording contract to Queensryche. Other notables finishing ahead of us were Nu Shoes, Quarterflash, Black and Blue and Rail. The drummer for our band went on to major things with a big hair band called Bad English and later became the drummer for Journey. Some of you may have heard of him as he has been featured on the cover of Modern Drummer a few times, his name is Deen Castronovo.

I stepped away from music for over a decade selling all my gear except an acoustic and my prized vintage 1959 PAF's I pulled from my LP to do the John Q Public thing for a while, Over the past decade have been diving back in to varying degrees just recently going through serious case of GAS. Just picked up my first Marshall a JVM205H (I was a Hiwatt man back in the day). Though I am not a serious collector I absolutely LOVE Hamer guitars and at present have two. Currently I'm Rusting away on the muddy banks of the Wishkah here in coastal Washington and mostly playing alone and working on putting together a new catalog of original songs. I love all the knowledge here and have been lurking for a while. As a matter of fact I just purchase the BCR Artist that Ray/Bloozguy had on the board. You probably won't find me posting too often but I just wanted to take the opportunity to let everyone here know that this community is a welcome and valuable resource.