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It Has To Be Love


zombywoof

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A while back when we were moving out of state, even though I know that selling/trading guitars have been some of the worst mistakes I ever made, I got into the frame of mind that I should lighten the load so let go of three guitars - a 1930s Monkey Wards Recording King, a 1946 Gibson LG-2 and my 1953 Epi Triumph Regent. As the months went by I found myself haunted by one of the guitars a whole lot more than the others. You guessed it - the Epiphone. This was the one that was nicknamed "Bloody Mary" as the streaking left by the off gassing pickguard looked all the word like dried blood. So last week after a bit of persuading I managed to buy it back. The check went out in the mail last Thursday. Part of it was certainly the sound but I also worked on this guitar for weeks slowly bringing it back to life putting a lot of my own blood, sweat and tears into it. I even offered to pay a couple of hundred more than I had let it go for. Ain't love grand (and sometimes expensive).

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A while back when we were moving out of state, even though I know that selling/trading guitars have been some of the worst mistakes I ever made, I got into the frame of mind that I should lighten the load so let go of three guitars - a 1930s Monkey Wards Recording King, a 1946 Gibson LG-2 and my 1953 Epi Triumph Regent. As the months went by I found myself haunted by one of the guitars a whole lot more than the others. You guessed it - the Epiphone. This was the one that was nicknamed "Bloody Mary" as the streaking left by the off gassing pickguard looked all the word like dried blood. So last week after a bit of persuading I managed to buy it back. The check went out in the mail last Thursday. Part of it was certainly the sound but I also worked on this guitar for weeks slowly bringing it back to life putting a lot of my own blood, sweat and tears into it. I even offered to pay a couple of hundred more than I had let it go for. Ain't love grand (and sometimes expensive).

 

Great story! I fully understand what you were going through, leading to buying it back!

 

QM aka Jazzman Jeff

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Congrats on getting that back. That's a good one! A much more desirable vintage than the 1939 Epi Zenith I've got up for sale...

 

 

The sad thing about the Triumph is that when I first ran across it the guitar had been cannibalized because with the defaced top its breakup value was worth more than the guitar itself. The plan was sell the parts and then outfit the guitar with new parts and sell it for whatever the guy could get for it. I ended up initially buying just the carcass but managed to get all of the original parts back except the pickguard which was so deformed it could have served as a dip bowl. I do not really need a cutaway as I rarely play that high up the neck but they just look so darn cool. This one is also a blonde which are far harder to come by than the bursts.

 

I have a 1935 Gibson-made Capital archtop that has almost identical specs to your Zenith other than the fact the Gibson is X braced. You wouldn't happen to have an extra case for the Zenith laying around would you? I have been thinking about buying one of those Masterbilt cases to put the Gibson in.

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Every time I read stories like this, it reminds me why I won't (can't!) part with any of my guitars. Some days I look at the "herd" and think to myself, "Man, I got a lot of guitars!".

 

Needing a vehicle, I decided I would try selling a few that I just don't play as much as some of the others. So I began by taking pictures of them to prepare my ad on Reverb. Doing so, I started to fall in love with them again. Still, I carried on and put the adds up for them, anxiously awaiting any sellers. I purposely...or subconsciously...set the prices a bit high, yet still at fair prices. A few days past and then *zing*, I had a buyer for one of them. Instead of joy for bringing in a nice chunk of cash, I felt sick to my stomach and began to feel a slight panic attack. In the end, I just couldn't do it, kids, I just couldn't sell her nor the others.

 

Am I a crazy guitar guy? Apparently I am. I have read too many stories of guys selling their guitars and some time later lamenting over the loss. In fact, I read an overwhelming majority of those stories than I do from guys who proclaim, "I'm glad I got rid of that guitar!" Yes, we're all a bit crazy in love, is all. Glad you got your ol' friend back!

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I have a 1935 Gibson-made Capital archtop that has almost identical specs to your Zenith other than the fact the Gibson is X braced.

Be still, my beating heart. Tonally, one of my favorite acoustic archtops was a '30s Wards made by Gibson. It had a carved sold spruce top with X-bracing. Unfortunately, I wasn't very fond of the fairly large V-shaped neck, and eventually it got traded off for something, but the tone of that one remained stuck in my memory banks.

 

So in 2014, I purchased a recently released Guild A-150b Savoy (Fender had speced these to be built before selling Guild to Cordoba in 2015), and it does a very nice job of recreating the Wards' tone. It's got a pressed solid spruce & X-braced top, along with a floating D'Armond single-coil pickup. The neck scale is 24.75" & super comfy for my hands.

 

Who says you can't go back?

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Be still, my beating heart. Tonally, one of my favorite acoustic archtops was a '30s Wards made by Gibson. It had a carved sold spruce top with X-bracing. Unfortunately, I wasn't very fond of the fairly large V-shaped neck, and eventually it got traded off for something, but the tone of that one remained stuck in my memory banks.

 

 

The Capitals were sold through Jenkins music which apparently moved enough Gibsons to merit their own brand. Mine is virtually identical to a Cromwell including the skunk stripe down the center of the fingerboard. Seems odd that Gibson would go through the trouble of inlaying the stripe on a bargain basement instrument. I gotta say though that V neck is one of the features the endears the Capital to me.

 

At the risk of giving you a coronary -

 

L1010945.jpg

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