Topic: Your main guitar(s)?

[oddenda]

Hey, folks -

This'll be different! I do not play, but regularly hit the pawn shops while doing my Piedmont field work in the SE states - 1969-1980. BUT it was a good idea to carry some DEPENDABLE guitars for recording purposes, for not everybody had one available. To whit:

          1. a 1939 National - very mellow, non-plangent sounding: Dated by Bob Brozman on one of his trips to Oz. Back when I was teaching Biology at a state college/university, I had a student who got #4 in the draft/conscription lottery and did the only sane thing, sold all his personal belongings and went to Canada. I bought the National from him for US$400.00. It's missing the pick guard, whose plastic out-gassing ate away the chrome finish underneath it! As the Broz explained it to me. A small crack in the resonator plate, too. See Tarheel Slim LP/CD cover.

          2. a Gibson SJ - purchased in a pawn shop in Charlotte, NC in 1970... seemed new then. Back then i really didn't know s**t about guitars, but the guy in the pawn shop knew even less than I did! A friend told me to loosen the strings, feel around inside, and mumble something about loose bracing... it worked! Records like a dream, is in tune all the way down the neck, and has lovely, low action for finger-picking. An absolutely beautiful instrument - see Homesick James LP cover, or Honeyboy Edwards liner notes. EVERYone I recorded wanted it!!

          3. a Gibson 335 purchased from my youngest sister's first ex-husband - I also carried a herringbone Fender Princeton amp along as well. Be prepared. And I was!

          4. a Gibson LG that I picked up in poor shape - cracked on one side. Had it repaired and it was my "truck guitar" (I travelled in a van w. two dogs and instruments of destruction, plus recording machines, et al), the one I handed to someone who said, "Oh, I play a little". Henry "Rufe" Johnson was one of the first to benefit: no worries if it got damaged or anything like that. It WAS a Gibson, though, and that impressed folks a bit!

Have a bunch more, Nationals, a.o., with my stuff in storage, but these were used no many a TRIX session and appear on many a TRIX album cover! I have the National and the Gibson here with me right now. Eddie Kirkland played the National on two radio shows in Melbourne, and Eugene "Hideaway" Bridges played the Gibson at an in-store in Sydney! They still "work"!! May the farce be with you all.

yrs,
     Peter B.

[Dave in Tejas]

You know that old saying that "the cobbler's children have no shoes"?
I always had to sell the good guitars I built, and just have the rough beater for myself. When someone wanted to see one of my guitars, I was ashamed to show my beater.
I finally decided to keep one of the nicest guitars I've built, and am really enjoying it, and I haven't put a scratch on it yet, it won't be truly mine till that happens.

[Blue in VT]

Dave...you've out done yourself!!!  she is a beauty...hang on to her for ever!

Enjoy that prize pony!

Blue

[Parlor Picker]

Sweet guitar, Dave.

Also enjoyed the TV slot about your building activities.

[Mr.OMuck]

Nice vids there Dave, your guitars sound terrific! I applaud the slightly adventurous pickguard shape too.
This is probably a new thread topic but do you talk aesthetics with other luthiers, and if so what exactly gets discussed? Do you talk about furniture makers, like Chippendale at all, or is the discussion pretty much confined to historic guitar models?

[waxwing]

Works good over here, Mr. O'M?-G-  If you want to start a luthier discussions thread, that'd be fine but it could just as well happen in this thread.

I moved this post here from the Blind Willie Johnson thread, folks, since there was already discussion of Dave's latest.

And it is a real nice guitar, Dave.

All for now.
John C.

[Dave in Tejas]

Thanks for the nice comments on my guitar guys. I tried to copy the L-00 pickgard as closely as I could, look at Parlor Pickers there, almost identical.
The grand concert guitar is actually an L-00 shape enlarged proportionally to 15" wide at the lower. It has moved the tone range down more into the bass, but is pretty balanced overall. I built it a year ago to have a show guitar, and didn't play it much for fear of scratches, since I wanted to sell it. I'm glad I didn't. It is great for "city-country blues" and old-time, my current interest. The guitar isn't a true blues box, it has too much sustain, not that short thump that most blues guys want.

OMuck, furniture doesn't enter much in luthier discussions, but my taste is in Shaker and Arts and Crafts. You can see that in my "plain and simple" styles.

I've been listening to Ms John Hurt lately, and his deep voice would go good with this guitar. I'm trying songs with that big "round" sound. Do you know "What are they doing in heaven today" and songs like that.

You guys have been a real welcoming bunch, maybe we could talk religion and politics! <g>

[Mr.OMuck]

Its ALL religion and politics.

[Mr.OMuck]

Your pickguard reaches up a little bit into the upper bout. Its a more fluid seeming, visually satisfying solution imho. It enters into, amplifies and continues the rhythm of the guitar's shape, keeping the eye engaged and circulating around the face of the guitar. The original shape's more truncated upper form actually interrupts the eyes progress around the face. Congratulations you improved on a classic. A+
What is the luthiery community's assessment of the very early Gibsons, like the large black ones with the carved tops, oval soundholes, rounded headstocks with crescent moon inlays and butterfly pickguard inlays? I don't know their model number and have never seen or played a real one. I think they are incredible looking things however, built with an eye towards projecting anthropomorphic qualities, and indulging in fanciful Tiffany-esque -Art Nouveau design elements. Are these things ever looked at a possible design options by anyone these days, or is design primarily focused on functionality? If so why do you think that's the case?

[Dave in Tejas]

Thanks, OMuck. I like to play with the shape of the "white space" on the top, with the dark gard. See how the white narrows down as it passes the waist then widens out quickly. It's hard to do it completely, the size of the plastic blank limits what you can do.

There aren't too many of those "Orville" guitars to sample. Those are the ones built by Orville himself, not the Gibson company. You have to go by what someone says they sound like. I'm not too much into arch top guitars. Most builders consider them heavy and not very acoustically lively, but again, there are so few and not many get to try them. Back when I did repairs I would get a teens or 20's L-1 from time to time, and they were interesting, but I never wanted to copy one. The shape is ok, I guess, but when the 30's L-0 & L-00's came along they left the older ones in the dust.

I specialize in L-00's and martin sized 00's 

[Parlor Picker]

I specialize in L-00's and martin sized 00's 

Wise man - they have to be the ultimate body shapes.

[Richard]

Dave, could I send the two I made over for a re-finish?

[Parlor Picker]

Dave, could I send the two I made over for a re-finish?

Please define "re-finish" (!!) 

[Lyndvs]

a 1915-20 Stella concert,a Richter decal guitar,a 1920`s Regal parlour guitar,a 1938 Regal 12 string and my personal favourite a 1935 Oahu jumbo with a round neck the best guitar i`ve ever owned or played.

[Dave in Tejas]

Can you show a picture of the Oahu?