Things are definitely looking up for lunch today. I got me some sesame seed chicken salad and pasta salad to go with it. Makes me hungry just thinking about it.
Lookig back at all that has changed for me over the decades one thing that really jumps to the front is how long I used to hang on to a guitar compared to more recent times. I played the same 1958 Tele and 1930s Gibson L-00 for decades. Yeah, a couple of instruments came and went but these two were my constant companions.
It was after I stopped gigging regularly and, in fact, stopped playing much at all for a few years, that things changed. But man, over the past decade it seemed my guitars were in constant rotation. Geez, just counting G&Ls alone I owned one Broadcaster, two 1986 ASATs, an Interceptor (first body style) and a Classic S (the only brand spanking new guitar I have ever bought).
So my first point of inquiry. What guitar have you owned the longest. What is it about that guitar that makes you just not want to let it go.
The one that has been with me the longest is an acoustic. A 1960 Gibson J-200. The reasons this one has outlasted others is not that hard to figure out. First, it flippin' sounds great. Thumping bass, saturated mids, crisp highs with a dry and woody crackling edge to it. Second, the just don't make 'em like this anymore. There is nothing that Gibson has offered since the Bozeman shop opened in the late 1980s that is made with the same top bracing system (a combination fo arched and scallop bracing with a second wide angle brace above the soundhole) or has features like tone bars hand shaped for each individual instrument.
I was also thinking about asking about the newest guitar you own. For me it is a 1972 Guild 12 string (yeah, back to the 12 stringers) which I picked up a few months back. But this leads me to my G&L question. In my opinion Guild and G&L have a lot in common. Both are newer companies (at least formed after I was born). Both also are known for building incredibly high quaility istruments (although there was some apprehension about the future of Guild when Fender took the company over, Guild freaks tell me that the guitars are excellent). Yet neither is ever going to end up in the number of hands you see Martins or Fenders in. As such both Guild and G&L guitars are incredibly undervalued on the used market which pretty much makes me a happy camper.
Just a thought that came to me.
Before I go I got to ask - any other lap steel players out there. I love the things. You can get sounds out of these little guitars that no other guitar can produce. Hmmm, a nice G&L double neck with some MFDs seems like something I could sink my teeth into. Then again, maybe G&L should just stick with what they do best. Anyway, here is mine - a 1950s Valco-made Oahu Tonemaster with the now legendary "strings through" pickup which is about the nastiest most in your face single coil ever slapped on a guitar.
Simple, yet so incredibly elegant and well designed. That slightly different Les Paul shape is the only one I've seen that is better than the original. I love the way the white outline on the headstock and the white tuning buttons tie in with the rest of the guitar. Even that white strat-style switch tip looks in place. In all honesty, it has to be one of the nicest looking guitars I've ever seen.
most recent is the Tribute Classic
