Dear Dick,

I have been telling this story at all my shows and everyone keeps telling me to send it to Martin Guitars, so here it is:

I was doing a tour over in Germany with my friend Wilfried Mengs, just finishing up the first show of a 30 day tour, when this nightmare occurred. Our show was over, we were driving the van towards home when I noticed that Wilfried was having trouble with his van's gas pedal. Within seconds the pedal sank to the floor and the van came to a complete stop. We were over fifty miles from home and now stranded on the autobahn at 2 in the morning.

We had no choice but to call a tow truck and get towed to a nearby VW shop. It was hard to watch as the whole evening's earnings went right into the pocket of the tow truck drivers wallet but that's sometimes the way it is in the musician's life. Now it was 4 in the morning on a Sunday. We knew that the shop was closed and we had two gigs to get to later that day, we also knew that we were in big trouble.

Wilfried made a few frantic phone calls home to try and get help but everyone was still sleeping. Finally he called an emergency number for road assistance. In about an hour a young man came, opened the hood, and said that the cable broke, but you are out of luck as I can't get that part for a few days. Then he left as quickly as he came.

We had no choice but to try to sleep in the van and wait for help in the morning. After a few winks in the seats of the van (like trying to sleep in a dentist chair) the sun rose, and Wilfried got a call through to his home town mechanic. This mechanic was and an older fellow, who lived during the hard times of the former East Germany, back in the days when car parts were not always available and you had to learn to just make do. After he heard of our plight he thought he had a possible quick fix that might get us home.

He said, "Find something, like a rope, to tie the broken cable back together. Then pull the rope tight and attach it to something in the engine. If you do this right, you should be home in time for breakfast!"

After tearing the van apart, The only thing we could find, were two used Martin Guitar strings, an A and D.

Following the advice of his mechanic, Wilfried tied the old strings together, then attached the guitar strings to the broken cable cord and pulled the strings hard till the gas peddle moved. He then wound the strings around the radiator, and to our amazement, the gas peddle slowly lifted from the floor. We did not know if it would really work, not 'til we started her up and heard the mighty vroom of the engine. It was as if a miracle occurred as now the gas pedal worked perfectly, and driving slowly we made it back home just as the old mechanic said, in time for a late breakfast.

Wilfried brought the VW to his Mechanic who was amazed that he fixed the problem with guitar strings and after taking a photo of the funny repair job, kept the van to fix it up in time for the next part of the tour.

For the rest of the tour we always made sure we had extra strings.

Rik Palieri

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Rik Palieri
www.banjo.net
www.myspace.com/rikpalieri

175 Years of Guitar Building Excellence