I was sad to discover this AM that Charlie A’s website, gigdust.com, is no more. I know that since Charlie’s death a few years ago, his family had been trying to keep his business going, but things had not been working well there for some time. So the demise of gigdust.com is not really a surprise.
I first found out about Charlie in 2000 when I was in New Orleans, and Steve Goodson gave me some of Charlie A’s Gig Dust and Crud Patches. I had never heard of them, but after trying the products, I was hooked. They were amazing! I had never found anything that worked as well as those 2 things for curing and ultimately preventing sticking pads.
When I checked out Charlie’s site, I noticed he had great prices on Fibracell reeds. So I from 2000 onwards, I bought all my reeds, my Gig Dust, and Crud Patches directly from Charlie.
When Charlie began working on a new tenor saxophone mouthpiece, which ended up being called “BBQ”, I was one of the players who play-tested the prototypes. When the the BBQ was available for purchase, Charlie sent me the one I had originally play-tested, because I had liked it so much, even in its unfinished state. I still have the piece, and it sounds great on my Martin. Once my 10M comes back from the shop, I’m looking forward to seeing how the BBQ will sound on it.
I was very saddened to hear of Charlie’s passing in April 2005. Now with the closure of his business, it really seems like the end of an era.
Although I did not know Charlie personally, and did not know him for many years, the time we did spend talking via email and on the phone, was very informative.
Since his BBQ mouthpieces were handmade, I don’t imagine that they will be available any longer. I assume that all remaining stock has now been sold.
Hopefully the manufacturing & distribution of Gig Dust and Crud Patches will continue, since they are available through places like WWBW, and a number of other retailers.
