[atlantaprog] Re: female guitarists

In a message dated 11/26/2003 12:30:29 AM Eastern Standard Time, 
lordonly@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx writes:
> >Does ANYONE still recognize classic vintage amps
> >anymore *sigh* *shaking head*  lol
> 
> I have a 1960 Gretsch Chet Atkins Country Gentleman 2x12.  2 channels, 5
> guitar inputs plus a phono input, bright circuit, tremelo, and tuner.
> Pretty advanced for its time.  It'll distort nicely if you drive it with a
> hot pickup and run it wide open.  I wonder if that was considered an
> unavoidable design flaw at the time?  ;-)
> 

Fender Strat Plus+Rickebacker 330+Vox Valvetronix modeling amp=My electric 
guitar setup.  Of course, I probably play my beat up Washburn acoustic that 
I've 
had since I graduated from high school a bit more than I play electric.

I have a few vague theories on the female guitarist thing to bounce off you 
cats.  

Guys seem to be wired to be more prone to obsessive, compulsive, borderline 
autistic, lock yourself in a basement for hours and ignore everything else even 
though people think you're kinda kooky behavior.  That would explain the 
largely male followings for things like sc-fi fandom, sports, music collecting 
and 
also the electric guitar.  A lot of women, at least the ones I seem to meet, 
think that kind of stuff is a mark of silliness and geekery.  Most of the 
female musicians, including ones that I know personally, that  I think are just 
insanely gifted seem to come largely from backgrounds of either classical music 
or folk.     

Another factor is that women didn't get a decent chance to get into the 
electric guitar game until the late 70s, early 80s and, by that time, so much 
of 
the electric guitar landscape had all ready been codified and established by 
male players from Charlie Christian to Eddie Van Halen.  To be honest, I don't 
know that there's much of anything left for someone of either gender to do on 
the instrument that would be particularly striking and original.  It seems to 
me 
that all the bases have been covered and all that's left to anyone, as far as 
electric guitar is concerned, is just various degrees of influence blending.  
I'm reasonably happy with my playing, but I can't say that I have anything 
innovative to say with the instrument myself.  

CH

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