Fame Guitar Revisited

The Fame Guitar and Fame Guitar Classes

Earlier in this blog, (June 2012), I talked about restringing my Fame guitar for the first time ever. Over the past few weeks, I've stumbled across three of these bad boys for sale, and interestingly enough, all three still have their chipboard cases.

I don't remember how much these cost way back when. I know that I got it some time in the early to mid 70's, and that it was a fairly significant expense for my family.The book has a copyright of 1971, which sounds about right-I would have been 8 or 9 years old when I took the classes. 

To repeat what I have written previously, it is a Japanese guitar purchased when everyone still believed that Japanese stuff was junk. In doing some research, the Japanese had enough practice to be making some pretty decent instruments by the early 70's, and they were still using good tone wood. Unfortunately, I haven't been able to figure out which instrument factory made this guitar.

 I believe it is some sort of laminate, but I can't be sure. I don't think that I've done anything to the guitar except change the strings. The neck is interesting, a C-shape that feels both thick and narrow. It appears to have a rosewood fretboard, and the frets are still all in reasonably good shape. Pulling it out of the case, it's still pretty close to in tune, even though I strung it up back in June. Grant it, I don't play this one that often, but holding a tune is still a good thing.

I saw something on the internet that said it came with a record album, and that does sound familiar and could be somewhere in my mother's garage with the amplifier that came with it. I do have the book, and tried a few of the exercises in it. I might try some more, they aren't bad.

If I recall, you bought the guitar/amp package and signed up for lessons for an extended period of time. I recall going to a music studio in South Gate, CA (the same one that Weird Al Yankovic learned accordion, from what I can gather), where for one hour a week I would sit with a few other beginning guitar players. The instructor, some young guy with long hair and a tie, would fire up the projector for the "Chet Atkins Fame" method of guitar lessons. We would all dutifully play along with the recorded sound that matched with the slide in front of us.

You can see where I wrote "complete"
many years ago.

Though I wasn't too thrilled about it at the time-I really wanted to play drums-at this late age I'm glad that I did. I can read music slowly, and I learned several chords so I can actually play along with people. Some basic music theory stuck with me over the years, which I refine every time I go for guitar lessons. I can pick up most stringed instruments (ukulele, bass, mandolin and banjo), and make something that resembles music.

If you were part of the Chet Atkins Fame method, let me know. And if you know anymore about these guitars, let me know that, too.

I've downloaded video before, but for some reason I can't get the video to load on this. Check back and I'll have a video uploaded using the pickup on the guitar. That was the whole reason I was posting in the first place.

April 14, 2013 Update.

It took me a few weeks, but I got back out in the garage yesterday and redid the video, using the camera in my iPad mini. I thought about this after I made the video last night-the tone nob on the guitar was acting up just a bit, and I think it took a bit of treble out of the guitar. On my other Fame guitar post (June 2012), you can hear the sound without the pickup. I'm still using those strings on the guitar.

Please write back with any comments or info.

Thanks!

Fame Guitar

In the early 70's, the music man came to my elementary school. Just like in the movie of the same name, he came, promising to create a school band, with uniforms and everything. I sat at the school assembly and listened to what he had to say, and knew that I wanted to play drums.

I convinced my parents to come and listen to him that evening, when he gave the same spiel to the parents, and I proudly told my parents that I wanted to play drums. My parents were having none of that, but were interested in me playing some sort of instrument. They offered me guitar.

In the same South Gate music school where Weird Al Yankovic learned accordion, I learned the Chet Atkins'  "Fame" method of guitar lessons, a system involving film strips, a record and an instructor. As part of the plan, it was necessary to buy the "Fame" guitar. Interestingly, it had the pickup that you see in the picture. It came with an amp, probably still in my mother's garage, and a cord.

I diligently took lessons for a few years, until I broke my arm bike riding. By then, I could play the usual beginner folk songs, "On Top of Old Smokey," "Little Brown Jug," and "Tom Dooley," among others, but I would always try to speed them up. I could play the chords A, C, D, E and G, but the F and B were too hard for me.

Though I didn't realize it at the time, I learned to read music slowly. After I stopped taking lessons, the guitar stayed in my room, where I would occasionally take it out and play, but not well. When I went off to college, I took it with me, but again, didn't play very much. I did have a roommate one summer who showed me a couple of things, and would occasionally run into someone willing to teach me more.

As I've mentioned elsewhere in this blog, I ran through several electrics (including the unplayable-until-recently Crown, and a very difficult MIJ Fender Stratocaster), but never bought another acoustic until '95, when I bought a Epiphone PR-5E, an acoustic-electric cutaway, which was then followed quickly by a Baby Taylor and a Mitchell 12 string. The Fame stayed in the case, and I almost threw it away before moving to Ventura, but was talked out of it.

It's been in the garage since then, and I'd take it out once in a while, but the strings were so old that I never played it. But the summer's coming up and I like to barbecue and I don't really want to take the good guitars into the yard while trying to cook, so I thought maybe I could restring the Fame. I know it was made in Japan-the label is still on the headstock. Back in the 70's, everything made in Japan was still considered cheap, but everything I've been able to find on the internet suggests that by the '70's, the Japanese craftsman were able to make better instruments than what was coming from the USA at the time. The tuning machines still seem to work well. I believe the guitar is a laminate, but the fretboard is rather nice, and as you'll hear, with some decent strings it has a pretty good tone.

I took all the strings off for the first time ever. I remember when I was young, I would only replace a string when it was broken, so it is possible that some of the strings had been on the guitar for the entire time I owned it-in all of my recent playing, I can't think of any time that I broke an "A" string. I dusted and polished the whole guitar with some wood wipes I bought from Lowes. I thought the neck was separating from the body, but now I think the finish is just cracking. It doesn't really show in the pictures.

Considering it's age and the age I was when I got it, it's in very good shape. I always took pretty good care of my stuff, and the guitar came in a pretty good chip board case. There's a few blemishes, but overall, the guitar shined up pretty good.

Using a quarter, here's where the action is at the 12th fret. It's about the same as the Japanese Sigma that I had set up for me not too long ago, which I found rather surprising.

Okay, now for the part you've been waiting for, the sound. I used the iPhone to record, and I'm sitting outside, so there's probably some backyard noises as well. I checked the pick-up a few months back, and it worked. I didn't have an amp to plug into, so I'll try to get another post up with the pick-up plugged in.

If you know anything about the "Fame" course, or you still have your "Fame" guitar and know more about it's manufacture, let me know and I'll post it up.