1965 Letter From Noel Boggs

[Tom Bradshaw]

While searching for an item in my warehouse I ran into a letter I received 51 years ago from Noel Boggs. I thought I'd share it here on the Forum. It appears that I wrote him asking about his tunings and his recordings. I believe I was also trying to find out where Joaquin Murphey was, probably wanting to get him to reveal his tunings to me. Noel's reply was in longhand. I'm going to provide it exactly as he wrote it (misspellings included). Some sentences seem to run into others, but I think what he says can be deciphered satisfactorily. ...Tom

Dear Tommy:
Thanks for your nice letter the other day & I'll attempt to do my best to answer it properly. First off: I didn't use my pedal guitar on either album but have been using it to fatten up chords, for several years. Basically it's an A6th, E, C#, A, F#, E C#, A, F#. My first pedal or 8 as they call it lower's the 2nd and 6th C# to C, making a nice voiced 9th. The next raises 3rd and 4th strings A to Bb - F# to G - DIMINISHED CHORD. Next one raises - First string to F - lowers 5th string to Eb making a combination Aug9th. The others I just keep changing & when I decide what to stay with I'll let you know.
I stand up when I play & this complicates the use of too many pedals. I have one of the new 10 strings with 8 pedals, but it is a Brute to play & I have some of the pedals pulling & lowering 4 strings, but old faithful is the Double Kneck 1000 model. Thanks for asking about the album, it was an Era album & the next one I do in Jan. will have Standard's like Once in a While - The Alamo etc. I will use the Pedal's much more on these. Thanks again for writing & do it again, won't you? Sincerely Noel Boggs

[Noel continued on the back of the page]

The other Neck is E, C#, G#, F#, B, D, G# E - E13th
P.S. "Murph" resigned from the Union last year & quit playing. He still lives in Burbank but I don't have his address. I saw him about 6 months ago & he was selling his Guitar, it is a real crime. Such a Talent is going to waste, but Rock-N-Roll got him along with the Pedal Boys. He is a Gardener, Caretaker for some Church in Burbank I hear.

Noel also enclosed a postcard-sized notice of his latest albums. It appears to be a handout at his performances to those who might have shown an interest in his recordings. It read:

NOEL BOGGS
Repeat Stereo Album
WESTERN SWING
Album No. 310-8 (Mono or Stereo)
Made Without Microphones

Repeat Records
5782 East Second Street
Long Beach, California

Three years later Noel showed up at the Steel Guitar Show I put on near Napa, California. That was quite a surprise. Maurice Anderson was the headliner for this show. Noel played too, which was a thrill for all those who came. Maurice was in top form too and they shared the stage at times.

[Mark Eaton]

Now that is a cool rediscovery!

Tom, thanks for sharing.

[Mitch Drumm]

Here's a couple of pix from that 1968 Dream Bowl show; Noel playing a brute.

[Frank Freniere]

Tom and Bobby Black with Mr. Boggs?

Cool stuff!

[Mitch Drumm]

Tom and Bobby Black with Mr. Boggs?

Cool stuff!

Not Tom in first pic.

Here's a clue: his California license plate was VATCAT.

[Herb Steiner]

That be Vance Terry in the first photo.

[Jonathan Lam]

Does "made without microphones mean it was all direct?

[Mitch Drumm]

Jonathan:

Yeah, but I never liked the sound of those LPs he did that way. I think there were two of them for Repeat. The "Magic Steel Guitar" album on Shasta is of course a knock-out just dripping with his classic Fender tone.




Here's a review of the LP from "Audio" magazine, December 1965:

[Bill Cunningham]

I surmise the reviewer was not a fan of “western” music, steel guitars, and especially scrape style fiddles.

[Tom Bradshaw]

I hadn't looked at this 7-year old post in years. Seems like the first two pictures need an explanation. In the first picture, Noel is playing my guitar, with Vance Terry playing Maurice Anderson's MSA.

In the second picture, it is the very young Bobby Black with Noel.

The show was held on May 19, 1968. In the months to come I will have a summary of that show and other events in an article on my free download website: www.songwriter.com/bradshaw/chord_construction.php

[Joe Cook]

Thanks for posting this, Tom! There is so little info out there about this steel guitar history. I soak it all up.

[Gary Spaeth]

i was at the isgc in 1974 where scotty made the announcement that noel boggs had died. i didn't know who he was at the time but thanks to youtube 40 years later i found out how great he was.

[Andrew Goulet]

What a story! And so nice that Noel asked you to write him again.

Also, that's the first Brads Rack I've seen in the wild!