Guitars, Guitars, and More Guitars

        

    Like just about everyone, or most guys, my age, I got into music because of guitars, or more accurately, a guitar sound. An evocative calling luring me into a lifelong obsession. In my case, it was the opening rhythm guitar refrain from the Doobie Brothers, “Long Train Running“. The guitar of my early adolescent crush was a Gibson SG, which, unremarkably, I could not afford, nor would anyone buy one for me. Even now I have a certain longing to have one. The problem is I don’t need one as I have way too many guitars already, and, as then, an authentic SG ain’t cheap. This got me thinking about guitars in general. After many years of playing and recording, I stopped mainly due to time restrictions, and feeling played out and having nothing left to say. I believe I was 30 at the time. Listening back on all that stuff I created, I probably blew that call, but that’s how life can occasionally run you off the road.

            Lately, however, I have given in to my singer/songwriter jones and have been doing my part to increase the amount of modulated sounds, or noise, being sent out into the ether. To do this I had to retrieve my collection of instruments from their cases in the crawlspace. Remarkably, 15 or so years in hibernation did them not real damage. I also felt the need to subscribe to a few guitar magazines, one electric; one acoustic, so that I could become hip to the times, if you know what I mean. Amazingly, little has changed overall. A lot of the same old bands get covered, still, and there are many, many bands and players I know nothing about, and won’t if I try to find them on the radio. Fortunately there’s Spotify, but I’ve whined about that before. As for guitars, there is no lack of interest in that. Vintage. Faux vintage. Knockoffs. Cheaper Asian versions. Cheaper Mexican versions. Oddballs. Very expensive luthier grade one offs. From a mere mental sampling, I believe there are about a thousand different Strat version from Fender alone. Amps galore, and an incomprehensible number of stomp boxes to do what about 5 used to do in the old days when we cursed analog tube powered crap that had to be babied, but is now viewed as like really cool and stuff.           

            The process by which I acquired my beloved collection of non-Fenders, Martins, and Gibsons is a tale told by need proffered by economic reality. It’s not that I didn’t want a Fender or a Gibson, I was either too poor or too cheap to pony up the requisite dough. I started playing young and had 2 seriously cheap guitars, one a Mosrite knockoff; which is a cheap version of a cheap guitar, and a cheap acoustic. Both buzzed, had high action, and sounded tinny. Fortunately, I marshaled on despite these afflicted instruments. However, when I was shipped off to Hawaii ( Navy days ), I got rid of the terrible two and vowed to never buy another cheap crappy guitar. This led me to the world of good, sometimes great non-Fenders, Martins, and Gibsons. I have a Peavey, a Takamine, a Ibanez, an Ovation, a Dobro, a Godin, a Fender Squire bass, a Mexican Martin ( so yes, I have a few name, though non-US made, instruments ), Nancy’s Yamaha, a banjo, and a homemade Strat made with the guts of a guitar I inadvertently ruined. I think that’s all of them.

            They were all bought to do, or produce different sounds. So you have the Peavey, which is like a Telecaster, good rhythm guitar, bright sound. The homemade Strat, with the guts of an old Vantage guitar, has a thicker blues/lead sound. The Ibanez, a semi hollow body has that fat twangy sound. The acoustics are pretty straight forward, the Takamine is an excellent Martin copy, the Ovation a 12 string, the Dobro is a resonator, the Yamaha a classical, the banjo’s a banjo, and the Godin is the mutant nylon electric which can be used with a guitar synth. The bass is a bass, and the Mexican Martin is for performing as I couldn’t bring myself to drill holes in the Takamine. All are well made and serve a different purpose.

            I don’t know exactly where I’m going with all this, other than to say that I have a lot of guitars that are exactly what I needed them to be: playable and affordable, and that there’s a world of them out there for those so interested. The only problem is actually finding time to play them all, because I know that, though they are inanimate objects, like dogs, they are people too and long for human contact. So I do what I can. Now I just have to figure out how to work all of the new digital recording stuff. Fortunately, it’s all  sort of the same.

            Wish me luck.