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Webmaster: Wayne Scott Joness

His Boy Elroy - Charlottesville Guitar Synth Band
Mineshaft Cellar
April 1985

I purchased my first Roland Guitar Synthesizer in 1985, a Roland GR-700 with a cherry red G-707. This was (and still is) a pretty exotic piece of gear to own, and I had to drive from Charlottesville to Chuck Levin's Washington Music Center to pick up my rig. While majoring in English at the University of Virginia, I was in a cutting edge guitar synth band called "His Boy Elroy" with my best friend Stu Wamsley on bass, and our drummer Fred who played Simmons Syndrums!

L-R Stu Wamsley, Wayne Joness, His Boy Elroy
His Boy Elroy
Stu Wamsley, Wayne Joness
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Check out the newpaper clipping, 'TR3' is the Tim Reynolds Trio! Tim Reynolds later became famous as the lead guitarist with the Dave Matthews Band. This was in 1985, a few years before Dave started playing in Charlottesville and later taking the world by storm.

Stuart and I also planned to take the world by storm, moving to London, England after graduation to continue playing music. We reheased and recorded demos in London, and had the opportunity to meet with record execs at the time, but sadly there were no takers, and we returned to the United States.


Rude Buddah Band Members
Rude Buddha
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But get this: we were not the first synth guitar band in C'ville! We were overshadowed by the immensely talented trio Rude Buddha that included Brian Daley who played a metallic blue Roland G-505 guitar and GR-300. Brian was joined by Jenny Wade on bass, and Spencer Lathrop on drums. At the time, they seemed to come out of nowhere, juiced on pure creativity, though in retrospect Brian had a pretty heavy King Crimson influence.


His Boy Elroy - Charlottesville Guitar Synth Band
Your Guitar Synth Band:
His Boy Elroy

Since college I have continued to work in music on and off, and now live in Los Angeles. I toured nationally with Jane Powell as keyboardist and guitarist, composed songs, scored films, and worked for a period of years as a sound editor. As a life-long electronic experimenter (I started UVA as an engineer), I started building my own interfaces for my vintage and modern Roland guitar synths. This eventually became a second business for me to supplement my composing income, and I have had the opportunity to sell my hand built processors to every guitar synth legend in the book.

In the last few years I returned to college to earn a degree in computer science, and taught introduction to Web Design and Technology at West Los Angeles College. I now work full-time as an information systems manager at fusionZone Automotive.