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Martin 1940D28

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Guess old age must be really setting in. Seems all I see are limited editions of every guitar out there, no matter the builder. This will be great 10 or 20 years down the road. Ten thousand Clapton reissues, ten thousand plus Les Pauls, ten thousand

"whosie whatsy" models. Oh so many to choose from. Ohhh, where to begin!!!

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Ahh, jedzep, i see you noticed my forum ID. You may be correct, as this may have been my dream guitar when I was beginning puberty, as you must be now. Don't worry too much about it now. Someday soon, you'll be a man (or woman) and outgrow your little whims. Remember, my opening, "Guess old age".

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Ha! Puberty? I'm an old freak in my sixties living in the paradise that is upstate NY, who took his first lessons from the Lawrence Welk guitarist Buddy Merrill in 1965, and have only marginally improved over the decades. Buddy played in my father's little jazz combo so my pops hooked me up with lessons, hoping to keep me engaged and out of trouble. Unfortunately I became DISengaged and got INTO trouble, but got a feed for my addiction to playing and owning old acoustic guitars. Before I die I'll buy one more... Dog willing. A 1940 Martin would be a candidate, but it would be a 00 or 000.

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@ jedzep - you took lessons from Buddy Merrill? What was that like? I ask because I'm of a later generation to grow up watching LW (born in 1970). Those guitarists on the show always looked like they were just hanging out and not working too hard...Neil Levang comes to mind as a particular favorite - but every once in a while he'd tear through a few bars, lightning fast but impossibly smooth. Occasionally we'll watch the reruns on PBS and Neil always plays something interesting - vintage Fender acoustic with the Strat headstock, Gibson hollowbody, or something unusual.

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Yes, I have a 'limited edition' that has sold so many, they have decided to make it 'unlimited', soon to be followed by 'limitless' I suppose.......

 

There you go - the new "Limitless Edition" :unsure:

 

 

BluesKing777.

One of the finest post ever here.

 

I mean, just HOW limited is a D-28? It's literally, limitless. LIMITLESS I tell you!

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Ha! Puberty? I'm an old freak in my sixties living in the paradise that is upstate NY, who took his first lessons from the Lawrence Welk guitarist Buddy Merrill in 1965, and have only marginally improved over the decades. Buddy played in my father's little jazz combo so my pops hooked me up with lessons, hoping to keep me engaged and out of trouble. Unfortunately I became DISengaged and got INTO trouble, but got a feed for my addiction to playing and owning old acoustic guitars. Before I die I'll buy one more... Dog willing. A 1940 Martin would be a candidate, but it would be a 00 or 000.

 

I don't men to hijack the thread but.... Buddy Merrill is the reason I wanted to play guitar. When I first saw him on Lawrence Welk I couldn't believe my eyes or ears. He made the Strat come to life for me and thousands of others to follow. I would have killed to take lessons from him.

 

Being from a little town in Montana we were isolated from a lot of pop culture and Buddy was the original number one, first Strat player. He was a guitar player I could actually see and try to steal licks from. Just amazing. Thanks for the memories. Thank you Buddy wherever you are. And a big shout out to the late great Ricky Nelson as well. Buddy and Ricky were pioneers and brought guitar to many kids in little town all across America.

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Apology on hijack as well, but likewise on Buddy Merrill and The Lawrence Welk Show. My father used to quietly insist I watch the show with him and mom always saying I would thank him one day. He was right ... for certain.

 

steve

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Hate to bore..but my first memories of Buddy's house next door to us was a wall of reel to reels, Fender's on stands and an 18 string pedal steel, which he could make talk. I was 14 in '66 and he must have been in his mid 20's, having left the Welk show to do his 2yr stint in the Army at West Point with the USMA band. I remember watching in my basement when they rehearsed for weekend gigs, my father being a Paul Desmond style sax player. Awesome guitar experience, but not a Stone's song in the set. I immediately wanted to play and my wonderful dad bought me my first guitar, a humongous (it seemed) Orpheum archtop with high hard action and off I went, lugging it next door to 'Uncle' Buddy's. He would whip out a gorgeous '37 (I think) L5 or L7, his only acoustic, to play along with me (Mel Bay method), which showed up on Ebay a few years back, but was bought or kept by his sister Gloria. He said he stopped playing when he realized the young studio players had left him in the dust. I visited him in So Cal years ago and called him up a couple of New Years eves ago to catch up. He's had some hard days. Couldn't believe he had put up his guitars and stopped playing.

 

He had his start in his father's country band playing the pedal steel. I've seen pics of him as a kid, but when Welk found him he insisted that he wouldn't be hired until he learned to read music. Buddy said it was a real struggle to do and wouldn't let me continue lessons without learning as well. I gave up within a year, one of my dumber dumb moves, and picked up my guitar education with a neighborhood pal who could play 'Satisfaction'. My ear was the pathway to learning songs and regrets about blowing that opportunity still nag at me.

 

My parents still hung out with Buddy and his wife for the 2 years he lived next door, and needless to say my father's band drew bigger crowds during that time, but I remember more barbecues and swimming outings with them than guitar lessons. Nonetheless, the basement rehearsals were a high point of my musical experiences. I owe him a call as his long ailing wife passed away a couple years back. Both of my folks are dead so the links break down over time, and it looks like his sister has taken down the website she maintained for him. He wasn't at all interested in owning a computer.

 

I'm trying to recall, but I think Kaiser Bill here on the forum has played gigs with him and sent me a pic of them standing together in a publicity shot. Pardon me if I'm wrong about it being him. I'll check my memory.

 

Boy, those old Fenders must be worth a small fortune now. I don't think he got the spotlight enough on the TV show, as we always watched as kids on Sunday nights. Welk was odd, but Levang was scary wierd. Both were masters, and as you said, smiled casually as they played as if it was effortless.

 

I appreciate that many here remember watching as I did. That Lawrence Welk music was just godawful, but the artists shined through.

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Weird how old memories stir up more memories. Buddy had a full blown recording setup in his Palos Verdes basement when I drifted out to California to visit back in 1976, just as a dopey friend of the family soul-searching after college. Didn't hear him play a note the whole time, but he consistently kicked myass in ping-pong all week.

 

Yea, BK, there's a bunch of stuff on youtube, but it makes me feel old to look. His guitar was a tool to make a living. I wonder how much more than that it was to him. There's a lot of 'technician' in that type of cool calm playing. Hope he got great enjoyment out of it. I would rather have played with Chuck Berry's band.

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My Mom grew up in South Dakota - And when the Depression hit - Her Dad ( A Homesteader) moved the whole family to Phila for work. While living in S. Dakota she knew Myron Floren and always had something nice to say about him. After the Big War my parents moved to California for 10 years and had Myron over for dinner on many occasions. My Dad always said he had arms like a body builder. I have to agree Welk's show was kind of last on my list - But he really did have allot of Great talent on their. And I loved Larry getting down in that Buddy Video.msp_thumbup.gif

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Weird how old memories stir up more memories. Buddy had a full blown recording setup in his Palos Verdes basement when I drifted out to California to visit back in 1976, just as a dopey friend of the family soul-searching after college. Didn't hear him play a note the whole time, but he consistently kicked myass in ping-pong all week.

 

Yea, BK, there's a bunch of stuff on youtube, but it makes me feel old to look. His guitar was a tool to make a living. I wonder how much more than that it was to him. There's a lot of 'technician' in that type of cool calm playing. Hope he got great enjoyment out of it. I would rather have played with Chuck Berry's band.

 

 

 

Long story short:

 

 

After annoying my parents to go to guitar lessons, they relented but there is always a catch: the teacher held a group class and he looked like Lawrence! We kids sat through buckets of shite while learning rudiments and I can say that I was an inch away from giving him the heave-ho and all that would imply with my oldies, when he played a version of Guitar Boogie Shuffle.... Fainting spells all around - we are going to learn that? I think the teach was from the English Bert Weedon school of guitar, so we learned a strange version that was a cross of the Arthur Smith, Ventures and of course, Bert Weedon.

 

So years later, I had just bought my first Fender Telecaster and was playing in a strange sort of rock & roll band and a guy said he had a gig for me if I wanted - dualing Telecasters!!!! But it was really a Lawrence Welk type format like a review where we played a couple of progressions of Boogie Woogie Shuffle at the start of each set while the big 'Elvis-ish / Wayne Newton-ish' singer warmed up a bit......should have stuck it because the pay was humongous, but I too, JZ, preferred rock and roll with more grit like Chuck, Stones.......

 

 

 

BluesKing777.

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Although I would love to have the Martin 000 28 EC it will never happen I will just stick to the standard series in most guitars, I just agree it is too expensive to play their game.

 

 

I wanted a 00028 and tried both the standard and the EC. The spces read the same apart from the EC has a V shaped neck. I don't like V shaped so saved myself some money but if you really want to splash out on a 00028 go for a 00045 that is different.

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I have owned a 000-28 and 3 Different Clapton's at one point - Wanted to like them - But never cared for their sound - I like my LG-2 Eagle all around -more. But hey thats just me - Those Martin's - mainly the EC'S where really dark sounding.

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