European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - June 30, 1968, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Are strummin1 by Charles Graham staff writer even the most casual listener to America s popular music knows tha Tyoung wandering minstrels with their guitars Are among us in Force making Money hand Over fret Board with Folksy laments. At the same time the psychedelic set is tuning in on the hyped up Flat out screaming scene with electronic sounds powered by amplifiers filled with Banks of Over heated vacuum tubes and stacks of solid state transistorized circuit boards. The Mai medium for their musical soul search ing is also the guitar electronically amplified. As a result of this popularity the number of Amateur guitar players in America has quadrupled from 1956 to1966, the latest year for which figures Are available. Industry sources recently reported that these pickers Strum mers Thumpert and stoppers Multi plied from 2.5 million to 10 million during that  of the new musicians the re port added Are teen agers. In fact i seems that the guitar is identified with the Young generation. The american music conference a Trade association reported teen agers feel a close Kin ship to this ancient instrument. Beethoven had his piano our generation plays the guitar one youth told the conference. Another said teen agers enjoy the driving sound of the  a third summed up the guitar s popularity with i like it cause it s  whatever the reason the Ameri can music conference said it All Cajeput to a $135 million business in 1966, including the amplifiers and electronic do dads. Not bad considering that in 1956 less than $24 million Worth we resold. While no data Are available to prove it the Industry generally feel that booming sales for the fretted instrument have been fuelled by the Strong guitar flavor of popular music in the last 10  the . Military and their dependents in Europe the guitar has also soared in popularity. Officials re port some 10,000 guitar instruction books have been sold through stars an stripes bookstores since August 1965. Sales Are running about 1,000 instruction books and several Hundred song books every Quarter year. Debbie Goodman program director for the Patton service club in Hei Delberg said the guitar is certainly the most popular Choice in her lending Library of instruments. The electric guitar just seems Roget More and More popular miss Goodman said. A lot of Fellows relearning the instrument and some of them Are really Good. Usually the learn How to play from each other although we have instruction books Here to Check out too. Quite a few play ers even write their own  sgt. . Ernest a. Burton a professional guitarist who has been polishing his Talent for 32 years and is now stationed in Mannheim Germany de scribes himself As  to play guitar is easy As Pickin Cotton he said in a slow Alabama drawl. It takes Between 20 and 30 lessons to learn Well enough to perform in a band or  Burton has played professionally for 13 Yea Sand gives guitar lessons when he in t soldiering or performing himself. I5pec. 4 James a. Parlier a guitar Man for seven years stationed in barn Berg has a guitar playing father. We would play Rock n Roll tunes at Home he said. That s How i , who has been playing in beat bands for a few years and has just formed a new group prefers soul but said psychedelic sound is the new est thing  versatile guitar which has been used to accompany everything from ancient madrigals and flamenco rhythms to protest songs also seem Sable to make a psychedelic sound  the electronic gear now on the Market like re verbs and Echo Cham Bers the guitar can sure keep up with the psychedelic sound Parlier guitarist Burton right coaches John Riddle Mannheim easy As Pickin  Sis Dodson guitar sales boomed from $24 million in 1956 to $135 million in 1966. Said  buddy Lerch a dependent living in Darmstadt Ger Many prefers soul to psychedelic. I think psychedelic is phoney he said. Soul turns me on More than any thing  the guitar also had its clays of glory a couple Hundred years  the 18th Century the guitar was tops in popularity when an English Man named Kirkman started introducing a new instrument called the piano. He bought a Cap guitars and gave them to some of England s Mostu Savory characters and also taught his new guitar students a number of ballads so Baudy they were Seldom heard even in the roughest taverns of the time. The troublesome troubadours soon gave the guitar such a bad image the instrument fell into disrepute while piano sales not coincide entry registered a tidy  of today s Middle aged conservatives May suspect a similar plot against the guitar is afoot today. Only now they would say. The guitar s image As an instrument of hippies and loafers is having an opposite effect on its popularity. Buddy Lerch. With rhythm guitar i think psychedelic is  is  fag i Jun 30, 1968 the stars and swipes