About me...
I have been playing guitar since 1963 and I dearly
love Rock & Roll, and The Beatles and Uriah Heep in particular. I have played in many bands over the years,
and I am currently semi-retired from live playing, keeping busy recording original music here at home. Blind Date was my last band and it lasted for 10 years.
The most recent recording projects I've been
involved in are Heepheads and Fusionweld. I have found that as I get older, my guitar tone keeps getting cleaner and cleaner. In the old days I was pretty much a
MetalHead, now I feel like playing clean makes me a better player. I can't hide behind distortion anymore...I wanna hear TONE!
If you would like to listen to some of the music
I've made with my friends, please check out these songs below.
Below is a pic of me in about 1964/65. This was
my first guitar, which I still have. It is a Harmony and was a child's size guitar. I learned a lot on this little bugger.
All you kids out there, you don't need
a lot to learn on, just desire! If you have to have the best of everything just to play good, you're not gonna make it. You
will never be satisfied, take that from almost 40 years experience.
Desire is the key ingredient!!
Below is my newest aquisition, a 1992 Fender Stratocaster. It's a MIM
Strat, but the quality is excellent. I have played a few American Standards that weren't this good. I traded my Carvin Bel
Air amp for this. The Amp was on the fritz, and a guy offered to trade me even...I jumped. Don't regret the decision a bit!
I am now an officially converted Strat Man, never thought I would say that. I love this guitar. Thats the MIM Tele behind
me.
This is my latest aquisition and it is a beauty. A new 2006
Fender Super Reverb Reissue. 40 watts of the sweetest tube tones you have ever heard. I resisted Fenders for many years...but
I finally broke down and bought one, now I wonder why I didn't 30 years ago! This amp is sooo sweet and it is not even
broken in yet! There are some new tunes in this amp...I know it!
This is my new (old) Carvin X60B 60 watt amp. I picked it up for less than 2 Benjy's at GC
in Indy. I put a new Weber Cali ceramic speaker (JBL clone) in it and it just kicks major butt now. 2 6L6 tubes for power,
it will rattle the walls. Lots of tone possibilities in it, and gain that goes from nice crunch to near Mesa Mega Gain. A
great all around amp, and it even sounds decent clean.
I also bought a couple of effects. I'm not much on effects,
I am mostly a guitar>cable>amp kinda guy. But I figured I would make the Super Reverb a bit more versatile with the
ability to get some extra crunch at lower volumes with the Voodoo Labs Sparkle Drive. I also wanted a good Wah-Wah pedal since
my old Cry Baby sounds like crap...so I bought a Budda Bud-Wah. Very sweet pedal, not as screechy as a normal wah pedal. Besides,
what Uriah Heep fan WOULDN'T have a wah pedal?? Both of these pedals have "true bypass" which means when they are off, they
don't color the tone of the guitar/amp. Most lesser pedals suck tone out of your setup even when they are turned off, simply
by passing the signal through their electronic circuits. True Bypass cuts out the pedals circuit with a hardwire bypass when
the unit is off.
Here is a shot of the family guitars. Top row L to R, Epiphone acoustic, Fender Precision bass
(my son Ryan's), 1966 Vox Mark XII 12 string, 1977 Ibanez "lawsuit" Destroyer, Alvarez 12 string. Bottom row L to R,
1966 Epiphone Coronet (signed by the members of Uriah Heep), 1979 Hofner 500/1 Beatle Bass, MIM Fender Telecaster, 1975 Ibanez
"lawsuit" Les Paul, 2006 Carvin Bolt (owned and built by my son Mike), and 1992 MIM Fender Stratocaster.
This is a closeup of my 1964 Epiphone Coronet,
autographed by the members of Uriah Heep. The knobs are off an old Gibson BR lap steel guitar I used to own. Nice
little guitar, but with the one pickup it's not very versatile.
"Les Paul Blues"- by Bob Dreher
Here is a pic of me with my beloved...but gone
1955 Les Paul Goldtop. Click on the tune I wrote about this guitar, above. I bought it for $300 (honest) in 1983 with
a crack in the neck, had it repaired by Dan Erlewine at Stew-Mac. I owned it for almost 15 years, but got greedy and sold it, of course regretting it ever since. I will have
many more detailed pics of it after I get my new negative scanner. I am also in the process of trying to buy a new Fender American Stratocaster, so maybe my next update will feature it.
I have had the pleasure of getting to meet some of my heroes in the music biz,
most notably the members of Uriah Heep...especially Mick Box and former member Ken Hensley. I've also met and recorded with some great musicians. Below are some pics.
Here is a pic of me with Mick Box taken in Indianapolis on June 13th, 2001.
That night I saw Heep perform for the first time since 1978. I was totally blown away by the current lineup. Mick
is the model of the professional guitar player. I can't say enough about what a great guy and awesome performer he is.
Here I am with Warren Haynes, one of the all-time guitar greats with the Allman Brothers and Government Mule, and Ken Hensley. Ken's songwriting has been a great influence on my own songwriting. This was taken at Ken's
office at St. Louis Music in 1995. Ken was looking to buy my 1955 Gibson Les Paul at the time.
This is a pic of Ken trying out my Les Paul at his church where his band was
rehearsing.
Here is a pic taken Feb. 2, 2003 of my old band,
Blind Date. We did a benefit for a good friend, Mike Schaffer. It was the first time we had played together in a year and
a half.
A shot of me and one of my all time guitar heroes,
Rick Derringer. For those of you who have never heard of him, he was the singer of the 60s group "The McCoys" ... "Hang On Sloopy"
was their big hit. He went on to work with some of the greatest musicians in rock like Edgar and Johnny Winter, Ronnie
Montrose and others before embarking on a very successful solo career which included the mega hit "Rock & Roll Hootchie
Koo". A great guy who is a born again Christian.
This is my buddy Mike "Muzzy" Fedysky from Pennsylvania and his gear. Looks like he is loaded with money from the amount of gear he's
got. Thats why he's my buddy, he's got money ;-) He is the bass player on all of our "Heepheads" projects. One heck of a songwriter and an even better bass player, I'm proud to be able to work with him.
I first met Muzzy on the Heep website's chatroom, and we finally met in St. Louis in 1997 at the first Heepvention. He came here to the flatlands of Illinois in July of 2001 and we went to see Uriah Heep in Chicago together.
This is my buddy Dave White (here with Mick Box onstage) from Cleveland. He is one of the founders of the whole Uriah Heep presence on the internet.
A tireless man who is absolutely one of the best guitarists I know. His guitar and keyboard talents grace many,
many Heepster related recordings.
I met Dave on the net in 97 and we hit it off right off the bat and have been
great friends ever since. We have gotten together several times since then. One of our big experiences was recording
tunes for the Uriah Heep Tribute CD "Heepsteria" with our band Dreamer in July of 1998. We had the pleasure or working with Ken Hensley
on this project, and he even played on 2 of our songs!
Here we are in The Upper Room Studios in St. Louis.
From left to right standing are, Mac Steagall-bass, me-guitars and vocals, Dave White-guitars and keyboards, Lannis Etheridge-videographer.
Seated are Ken Hensley-guitars and keyboards and Joe Doran-drums.
Here are the members of Dreamer outside Ken's
studio with Lynn Arngrimson, fellow Heepster, who stopped by during the sessions. From left to right are Lannis, Joe,
me, Mac, Lynn and Dave. Lynn has since stepped up in helping The Heepheads with our CD release and this website.
Dave and I have worked on many projects together
and there seems to be no end in sight. We just love to make new music.
I had the pleasure to meet Louise Harrison, George Harrison's sister, when I was in Cleveland also. She was such a sweet lady, and she gave free hugs ;-)
I bought her book which told the story of George's
first visit to the USA, right here in Illinois, about 6 months before The Beatles made history on Ed Sullivan.
Here I am playing my Hofner Beatle bass with
Blind Date on New Year's Eve 2006.
I'd love to hear your feedback,
Thanks for reading my page and stay tuned!
bOb
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