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What's the story behind your guitar?


Jesse_Dylan

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I just made a very detailed post about a guitar I recently acquired, and we were musing about how every guitar has a story, and how often the guitars we choose even help us connect with past stories in our own lives.

 

What's the best story behind one of your guitars? Be as chatty or brief as you like, but keep in mind we love photos, videos and sound clips around here.

 

Even if there's no story behind the purchase of a guitar, certainly the story then transpires following the purchase.

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Splendid topic, but afraid I have to pass.

 

Keep a good herd around the house, no doubt, but not sure if there is a favourite.

There are highly respected ones, admired and adored, loved and celebrated even slightly problematic ones, but a favourite, , , hmmm. .

 

Actually the philosophy here might be that goin' from one guit to another keeps them all fresh and inspiring. Same with the playing itself.

 

As said before, , , , , play your Martin and get to know your Gibson vice versa - that of course can be taken further : Play your Bird and know your 45, play your maple and know your rose, play your silk'n'steel and know your bronze etc. . .

 

 

 

However I still owe the thread a story - there's a weekend ahead to get that together. Don't worry, won't be too long, , , or short. .

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Splendid topic, but afraid I have to pass.

 

Keep a good herd around the house, no doubt, but not sure if there is a favourite.

There are highly respected ones, admired and adored, loved and celebrated even slightly problematic ones, but a favourite, , , hmmm. .

 

Actually the philosophy here might be that goin' from one guit to another keeps them all fresh and inspiring. Same with the playing itself.

 

As said before, , , , , play your Martin and get to know your Gibson vice versa - that of course can be taken further : Play your Bird and know your 45, play your maple and know your rose, play your silk'n'steel and know your bronze etc. . .

 

 

 

I agree completely with you, Em7. The only thing I would add is....my favorite guitar is the one I'm playing at the time.....too many guitars, so little time.... [rolleyes]

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I went to my local guitar shop for a regular visit, saw it, played it .... and bought it.

 

That is not terribly different from the story of my 1965 J-50, although I had been looking for a 1960's J-50 and saw that they had a couple available. Have had it for less than two years, but I will write my own story as time passes.

 

Now my 1974 J-50 has a story, going back to when I bought it new, but it isn't my favorite guitar. It has followed me around for all these years, like a faithful pet that was often completely ignored by its owner.

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I am drawn to the Gibson L-00 look. No matter who the builder, I have to look. L-00 porn is my addiction :) Happily, I finally found one that allows my damaged fret hand to run joyfully up and down the fret board to my hearts content. And even better...it's a Bozeman built Gibson :)

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So I've been staring at the array of cases, pondering which of the contents thereof would qualify as my favorite, and growing more deeply conflicted. Each instrument has a story of its own, and I tend to move from one to the next as far as which I play - not in a strict rotation, but according to what suits my ear and the style of the musical masterpiece I intend to butcher at a given moment. The possibility of sharing the 'best' story comes to mind, but which one qualifies in that regard doesn't. Hence, I will get back with this thread once things become more clear.

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My only Gibson acoustic is my J50. A few years back I started listening to Slaid Cleaves. I really enjoyed his music and he was pretty much all I listened to for 3 or 4 years. Shortly after discovering him, I started wondering what kind of Martin he played. Everybody plays a Martin, right? Seeing the pictures of him with his guitar, it didn't look like any Martin I had ever seen. I soon figured out it was a Gibson, which should have sounded really bad, stuffed full of socks and all that. But it didn't - it sounded really good. The more I listed to his music, the more I gravitated to the sound of his Gibson, which is a 1964 J50. Pretty soon I knew that I had to have a J50 and began searching the internet. Then one evening I was looking around at a local mom and pop music shop and was amazed to see a J50 hanging on the rack. They were previously a Gibson dealer, but were getting out of the line so I got a decent deal and walked out of there with a new (old stock) J50 Modern Classic.

 

Since then, I've come to realize that the modern J50 is not braced like the 60's J50s, so the tone is not the same. Someday I'll own an early 60's J50, but just haven't pulled the trigger yet.

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Nothing exciting...have been playing guitar since Junior High School, and have owned a lot of nice electric guitars and amps over the years, but never owned any really 'nice' acoustics. I bought a Yamaha FG-441S brand new in 1997 and that was the only acoustic I ever owned over the years, bot playing it much. As I got older (40 now) and musical tastes changed/expanded I got more into acoustic music. Last year for my birthday I drove over to Wildwood Guitars in Colorado and wicked the best of the three J45 Standards that they had in stock. Didn't want to spend a ton, and initially kicked myself for not trying and springing for the more expensive models like the TV, but that guilt has subsided. I absolutely love my J45 Standard. It's just over a year old but already has it's share of little dents and scratches, but that's because I play it everyday, take it everywhere, and can't put it down. I've since bought and sold other really nice acoustics in the last year including another Gibson and a couple Martins but this one is the keeper. I plan on hitting the road again for work in the fall and will be traveling for the next couple years, moving every three months, and this is the only guitar that will be coming with me.

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Probably this little beauty... Over the last year I've been making an effort to buy new Gibby's from the smaller mom and pop shops just to balance out my purchases from the big shops. What was nice the folks from Dave's Guitar Shop let me take the guitar back to my hotel and play it for a day to make sure I really wanted it... I flew out to Wisconsin just for that instrument. Really great people and they gave me a smokin deal... But that doesn't imply I don't get good service from big box retailers, because I do. [thumbup]

 

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That's one stunning guitar . My special guitar apart from my J45 is my UK Burns Marvin Custom Shop made with original 60s wood from the factory in Romford Essex . It's now 15 years old and it was bought for me by my dear wife when we went to the London Guitar Show . It was a total surprise , well gigged but totally well looked after .

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I was at the music store returning a Taylor 714ce which I really tried to like but I wasn't feeling the sound. As I was leaving the store out of the corner of my eye I spotted a left handed J45 that wasn't there 2 weeks ago I picked it up and was instantly blown away by it's unique sound I was literally minutes away from calling a store in Ney York and ordering a left handed HD28. I decided the Gibson sounded too good to walk away from so I picked it up that day. I wrestled with my decision for a while because it was different from what I thought I wanted but I'm more than happy I kept it.

 

What's funny is Gisbon's weren't even a consideration more so because the store's stock of lefties weren't listed anywhere on the internet. Out of sight out of mind

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I was playing in a Rock/Heavy Metal band in the late seventies and we'd get asked to play More Than a Feeling by Boston all the time.

So I got elected by the band to get an acoustic and learn the acoustic parts. Bought a used Ovation(still have it) and the rest

is history. Have 5 acoustics, a mandolin and bought a Yamaha Key board which I'm still trying to play badly.

 

If More Than a Feeling wasn't so popular back in the 70's I may never have bought an acoustic. Now that's all I play.

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Apparently did well in school and my parents bought me a 75 model year in 76. Here is the photo of me picking it out. They knew I was dedicated to playing guitar (to losing my virginity and thought this was the fast track).

 

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Easter seals benefit - raised $20, 3 people in the audience.

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1977, late bloomer. Somewhere in this era, I stupidly switched out my T bucker and replaced it with a high output dimarzio. I guess we did things like that. (I did).

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Last year I switched out the dimarzio for a PAF that I scored and left the original neck pickup in. Now it is delicious. PAF treble pickup through a mesa transatlantic.

Fast forward to April,2016 where our old band in Arkansas got together to play a benefit concert for the Arkansas Alzheimer's association. We raised $12,500! Some of it goes directly to help my soon to be 91 y/o mom with dementia.

 

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Can't figure out how to imbed but I am playing it at the beginning this video:

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Oh man oh man!

 

 

I have a house full of guitars and they all have a story that I have banged on about before, and I could write more pages than...hey, whatever happened to that old windbag of the many pages upper and lower case?

 

But the worst guitar I ever owned was begged off me by a nutter sailing off around the coasts! I gave some other lowriders away, and now I love every angel guitar equally, depending on condition of the strings on he day.

 

[biggrin] [biggrin] [biggrin] [biggrin] [biggrin]

 

 

 

BluesKing777.

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Apparently did well in school and my parents bought me a 75 model year in 76. Here is the photo of me picking it out. They knew I was dedicated to playing guitar (to losing my virginity and thought this was the fast track).

Holy moly, what a story, with pictures and all! Nice playing in the video, too. I was going to congratulate the ventriloquist singer as well but finally worked out it was the drummer! :) I have to admit a little jealousy. It is of my own doing, however, that I have never managed to keep a guitar long enough for it to become truly storied like that one. That's the trouble of being revenue-neutral, I guess. :)

 

By the way, did your fast track work? ;) I always wonder what would have happened had I started playing guitar earlier. It really changed my life (mostly in good ways!), and my life could have used changing earlier than age 17, but then again, maybe playing guitar in jr. high would have caused me some trouble!

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By the way, did your fast track work? ;) I always wonder what would have happened had I started playing guitar earlier. It really changed my life (mostly in good ways!), and my life could have used changing earlier than age 17, but then again, maybe playing guitar in jr. high would have caused me some trouble!

 

Thanks! I thought afterwards that maybe it wasn't too appropriate to post an electric story in the acoustic section but that is the kind of weekend it was. [unsure]

 

Fast track didn't work until much later than everyone else. I am grateful that I learned how to play at a young age though. After a 20 year hiatus to concentrate on non music career, I am having a ball with the guitar now.

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This is about an ES 175 Custom Shop.

 

Anyhow, a friend of mine bought it new and after a few years he fell into financial troubles and was going to sell it. I offered to give him exactly what he paid for it and anytime he wanted it back he could buy it from me for the same price. One thing led to another and my friend could be considered the 1st, 3rd and 5th owner of that guitar. Making me the 2nd, 4th and present owner. He has since retired and moved 1500 miles away, so I guess the guitar is mine.

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When I moved to lake Charles, La. in 1982 I owned and gigged a '72 Les Paul "Recording". I wanted a new bridge due to wear and salt and visited an old music store owned by an old man. Zipiens. He was a very old Gibson dealer and when the bridge he picked for me didn't match mine, he was flustered and went into the back and brought out a NOS "Recording". (he was right, mine had been changed)

 

I almost fainted, but could no way afford it at the time.

 

Fast forward a decade plus and I read in the paper he died. I went to the big "closing" sale hoping to find that Les Paul, and his wife said there was only one Gibson left and went to the back and brought out this NOS 1979 S.G. This was in 1993, it was 14 years old and brand new.

 

I bought it right then.

 

Used it on the Double Aught CD and gigged it with Country Bands as well. This pic is from 1998.

 

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No particular guitar stories to tell. Just a lot of good times through the years, and so many of them associated with playing a guitar. One thing I do recall specifically is playing guitar ( cheap nylon string folk guitar) on the steps of my high school in 64-65 and how girls who hadn't given me "the time of day" would come over and sit with me. I wasn't very good, but I understood what made the world go around. The ladies like guitar players. Best story I know.

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I walked into a Guitar Center with my wife, idly looking for an archtop and hoping to find an ES-165. After many years of playing and chasing vintage guitars, I had a fancy Taylor 815C I had bought new a decade before, and that was enough acoustic, right? GC had no archtops that appealed to me, so I went into the acoustic room. I glanced over at the Gibsons on the wall, strummed the AJ a moment, hung it back up and saw the J-45 next to it. I thought, "I used have a J-45 from 1950 that looked a lot like this one," and I put out my hand to take it down off the peg. My hand curled around the neck, a neck that somehow reminded me of my old '60 LG-2 and the aforementioned J-45 and every other old Gibson I had ever owned or loved, and clear as day came the thought, "what is MY guitar doing hanging on the wall of this Guitar Center?" Later I would learn it was a 2005 Historic Collection guitar. At the time, I just knew I really liked it.

 

But no. The salesman brought in a Taylor T-5 for me to try out. Meh, despite the tempting price and a dangled financing offer. We left, and driving down the road my wife asked me about the Taylor, and I said, "It didn't speak to me." A mile later, I said, "Now, that J-45? It did speak to me." And it did. As in, I could NOT get it out of my head. I scoured the internet. I read page after page of online forums. I drove back up to Greenville again and played it and thought some more about it. Finally, after a month I went back up and bought it. It hadn't moved, partially due to the usual dead strings in GC, partially due to Gibson's decision to send it out the door with nut slots that were nowhere near deep enough. It didn't matter. It was mine.

 

It's not a high-zoot guitar, not a limited edition, not vintage or collectible or anything like that. It took me a while to dial in the nut slots and the neck relief. When Gibson quit making their own light gauge phosphor bronze strings - I forget the details, but the G and D were a bit thicker than the norm - I rediscovered John Pearse phosphor bronze, then took the plunge and discovered just how good Pearse acoustic nickel strings sound when played without a plectrum. It is MY guitar, my very favorite guitar ever out of a couple of hundred I have owned and more that I have played, and no other guitar has ever worked so well with what I do or how I play.

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. . .

 

That's a nice guitar story. But now you've got me curious- first, to see how you prefer to see the strings lay across the nut, and second- now I'm curious to give the nickel strings a shot when played without using the pick. Also- how's the string life of the nickel?

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Not a very special story, and not strictly a Gibson, but I went to a shop with a decent selection of vintage J 45s with the intention of buying one, but found my 65 Texan instead. You need to pay attention when you walk into a guitar shop at 11 AM and you keep coming back to one guitar, then look up and it's 4:30.

 

 

I've played a bunch of nice guitars, from Collings, SCGC, Huss and Daulton, Martin, et al, and can put them down in 5 minutes and say, nice guitar. But four or five hours is special and worthy of emptying out the bank account.

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