43 Years of Guitars

My first was a Kay brand Acoustic Archtop with F holes. My dad paid 35 bucks for it at a music store on the main drag of Barstow California in 1967. I think it got picked out for the price as it wasn't the kind of guitar that a 7th grade wanna-be rocker would want. As I look back now, that Kay guitar was beautiful and might have been the nicest I've ever had, and I've had a few.

So I get this huge Acoustic guitar while all my buddies had electric guitars with amps. Mike Casey had a Fender Mustang, Steve Ashford had a Sears Silvertone that was metalic red. So to my parents credit, after one whole year of sniveling they allowed me sell it and then go to the Fort Irwin PX and buy a made in Japan hollow body electric guitar. I was set. Kind of. It wasn't long before the bridge seperated from the sound box making this guitar almost impossible to play. So, a couple years later in Denver Colorado the folks got me a Yamaha nylon string folk guitar. It actually helped me alot as I learned a little finger picking and how to sing Peter, Paul and Mary's 'Leaving on a Jet Plane'.

So now I'm in High school and the folks aren't sponsoring the music habit anymore. I worked as a Lifeguard at the YMCA and at $1.25 an hour earned enough to go down to Clarks Music store and buy a regular old run of the mill, plane Jane Yamaha steel string acoustic dreadnought style guitar. This was the guitar I dragged to Alaska to play on the beach. This was the guitar I dropped in the creek at Roger Nelsons cabin and had to shake water out of the sound hole. I kept this guitar for many years but I still had to upgrade so I traded it for my first acoustic-electric, an Ovation Celebrity Balladeer with the round plastic back that never fit my body especially in my 'large years'. This was in the 80's and I also got an Aria acoustic dreadnought from a guy in the Maverick Club that needed a hundred bucks to visit his ailing mother. I still have the Aria and Sam and I both agree its a great guitar.

By now its the mid 90's and I need something nice and the Ovation just wasn't working out. So I take it to my friend Mike Silba at the Music Box and he trades me (and considerable $$$) for my first nice guitar. A Black Takamine G series electric-acoustic. I loved this guitar and it inspired me to practice. Then as I'm prone to do I gave it to Sam one night in a beer fueled spell of generosity. So now I'm down to the Aria, so its finaly time to upgrade considerably. After hinting for years to MP and leaving the Musicians Friend catalog open to the Martin page I finally said screw it and ordered my dream guitar, in fact just about anybodys dream guitar. Its a Martin HD-28 Vintage with an slick Fishman Eclipse pick-up system. My friend Hobo Jim www.hobojim.com plays a Martin and this might be the finest sounding rythme guitar ever made. But now I have a problem . I need a guitar for everyday use and one to take to Mexico so I start researching medium priced guitars when my friend Anita Archaleta gives me Jimmy Buffets License to Chill CD for my birthday. In the CD is a picture of Jimmy walking the beach at sundown with a ......you guessed it ....Black Takamine F series guitar over his shoulder. Well, thats was good enough for me. The black Takamine is the guitar that I travel with and play daily. Talkamine calls the F series their 'keystone series' and theres something about that I like.

The third guitar in the picture is my Gibson. I think I was driven to this guitar by the need to get something cool like I could have used in high school. You know, the mid-life deal. I'm actually not very good with the Gibson but its just a neat object. Sam can make magic with it. Its a 1979 model called ' The Paul'. It was meant to be a no frills version of the Les Paul and is known as a work horse by giging musicians. I saw it on Craigs List and got it from a well known musician up in the Valley by the name of Wes Hamrick. I told him to stop by anytime now that we're related.

I now own 5 guitars but as my friend Dave Unruh says, "only 3 that matter". So thats the guitar story. Check back and I'll relate 46 years of struggling to play them...........