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 GEAR FOR THE GIGGING MUSICIAN

Many products have been born out of necessity. Such is the case with Shredies. I’m a physician and lead guitar player for an awesome (my opinion) rock band out of Southern California.

I’ll never forget the beautiful fall day at the Southern California beach where I made the ill fated decision to climb the deserted lifeguard tower to better enjoy the spectacular view.

Upon my descent I slipped and fell. In grabbing the hand rail, I sliced open my entire left palm on a sharp weld. The deep jagged wound fortunately didn’t compromise any nerves or tendons.

I knew the 24 stitches I received wouldn’t interfere with my ability to practice medicine but how was I going to play our gig Friday night?

The swollen and tender wound did compromise my ability to move my left hand up and down the neck precisely and efficiently. I knew I couldn’t play like that, but I knew the show must go on.

So I traced out my hand on an old T shirt, grabbed some scissors, and an old sewing machine and made one of the ugliest fingerless gloves you’ve ever seen. But it worked great. In fact, I realized that my hand movement was more smooth and efficient than playing with my bare hand before the injury. My hand actually felt liberated from the friction normally there between my palm and the guitar neck.

I wore my home made glove that weekend at our gig and loved it. I actually played better with my hand all sliced, diced and sutured.

I also found I no longer had to wipe down my guitar neck between songs or wash my hands between sets to keep my hand movement up and down the neck smooth, fast, and consistent.

Since then I’ve developed Shredies, which is a vast improvement over my prototype in function and fashion. Today, I wouldn’t think of playing a gig without my Shredies anymore than I would think of playing without my pick.