I saw Richard Thompson (voted one of top 50 guitar players ever!) at the Lama Tree Festival in the UK a couple of weeks back... I was in the very front, not 10 feet away from him.

On the stage was a glass of water and a bottle of Johnson's Baby Powder.

First thing he did when he arrived on stage was to put a large amount of Baby Powder on his hands and wipe it all up and down the neck of his guitar.

I've never heard of this before, presumably it helps him move around the neck and stop strings squeeking - anyone else tried it?

BTW, he is a fantastic player to watch close up - a lot of the time he plays bass strings with a pick and picks melodies and riff with his 2nd and 3rd fingers - amazing!

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I've never done it.

To me, this is simply yet another one of those idiosyncratic rituals that players (whether good, bad or indifferent) conger up where in their world, it gives them some sort of an edge.

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Jeff Beck does it too. It just keeps your fingers from sticking to the fingerboard. I use some mostly in August because of the humidity. It's not something weird or uncommon. I don't use as much as some people.

The powder act as a smoother and helps the fret hand move faster on the neck just like powder on a pool cue stick. I think it also helps absorb sweat from the hands. I'd try it but it couldn't be good for the strings unless you're going to change them or clean them everytime you do it.

Funny thing is, it seem to keep my strings from corroding. I don't use the amount that some people use though. I put some on my hands and put some on a towel and wipe the neck/fingerboard down with it. Seems like it could be a mess if you use a ton of it. If you have a Roadie to clean it up, I guess it's not a problem.

... and hell, I cant find my roadie at the moment...

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Mine left in 92.

mine has been a figment of my imagination, you mean to say they are not make believe?

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Fender Champion 600

I used baby powder or talc back in playing days ... it helps control sweat and so proved useful. We played school gyms and a lot of bars back then and many had no A/C or in the case of a hot, humid upstate NY summer night, the A/C was totally overwhelmed.

No question, it helped my playing because I wasn't sticking to the fretboard after the first couple of tunes. And though it might sound kinky, I'd use baby powder all over before a gig. I sweat a lot so without that, I'd end up looking like a pool of water by the end of the first set. (Trust me on this -- no one would have wanted to see me shirtless, so I had to keep the shirt on and keep dry somehow.) When possible, I'd put on more powder during breaks if I could find someplace to discretely take my shirt off and do it. But I also brought one shirt per set with me as well.

Our band had one years ago. We sub-contracted him on a as needed basis when we did larger gigs. We never used him full time. He worked for a lot of bands in the area. He was actually really good and had his own truck.

In my regular gigging days, we had two "full time" roadies who really were great. We payed them each as half a band member. So, the two of them put together were another band member. Everyone was happy with this arrangement and we didn't have to lift a finger other than to play; no talcum power required.

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ah, nice tipp. i never heard about before. thanx.

cheers

My band more or less "had to" get a couple roadies once our agent started putting us in higher end clubs. He told us it looked bad for us to be carrying our own stuff and we'd look like we had in situations where there was little time between load in and having to go on.

So we hired two friends who were pretty big and showed up at most places we played anyway. We paid them $50 a night (in the early 70s) and besides load in/out, they also doubled running the sound and our primitive light show.

Their names weren't John and Tim, where they?LOL

Your story is pretty much the identical to mine except for the 'salary'.

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Hmmmmm, I know I haven't been here long enough yet, but am I the only one who cringes when he thinks about what will happen to an unfinished fretboard when the talc/baby powder DOES end up absorbing the sweat? This is begging for grime to go even deeper into the grain of rosewood for example and it'll be a nightmare to clean up properly if the pores are deep (which is the case in the strats i've seen so far).

I fix/mod gutiars as a secondary job and I would personally hate it if someone brings me a guitar with that sort of grime and asks me to clean it up cause the fretboard "seems to not play so fast, ya know?"

I would understand powder on the back of the finished necks as that's very simple to remove. But on unfinished wood? *shudder*

That's my opinion though, maybe I'm wrong.