RIP Nokie,
Jim,
Did we go together that year to Deke' s Guitar Geek?
I had the honor of meeting Nokie a few times and especially at the NAMM show a few years ago.
I went to see the Ventures play at their booth and at my surprise, they came to see me play at the Minarik Guitar booth where I
was featuring the "Diablo" Minarik guitar, a weird looking but extremely well sounding one.
It didn't have a vibrato, so they fitted a Floyd Rose tremolo bar on it and it played beautifully. The neck was one of kind.
At my first set, Nokie, and the Ventures came to listen and I was stressed and intimidated.
At my second set, Dick Dale came surrounded with a big crowd following him everywhere he went, and he asked me to play my version
of "Maria Elena" that he had previously listened to in his small plane out of the CD I had sent him.
In addition to his immense talent, Nokie was a very humble, courteous and amicable person.
Below, the Ventures in their prime years:
Blessings,
Abel