[Silly Moustache]

Just thinking today about the various things we discuss here - Sitka Vs Adirondack, Hog Vs Rose,. Will ivory bridge pins make my Martin sound better? Should I have a popsicle brace? What strings are best? Blue Chip picks or not? Will binding affect the sound? Which capo sounds best? etc etc.

It suddenly occurred to me that whilst so many of us are searching for a "Holy Grail" acoustic sound even when we already have it, and that maybe we are searching for tone controls like electric guitarists do - fiddling with knobs and kicking pedals and chaning amps and speakers and all that stuff.

Can you imagine the guys back 'tween the wars worrying about such things ?

For them I guess it was just a matter of an arch-top or a flat-top, and if the former a Gibson or an Epiphone or a playable Martin or Gibson flat-top.

I doubt that they thought about temperatures and humidity, bronze or nickel strings - celluloid or Tortoise picks etc., and they tuned to the nearest piano - or by ear judging by some old records.

I wonder if Jimmie Rodgers, The Carter Family, The Stanley Brothers, or Hank Williams traveled with guitar technicians and a selection of different instruments, microphones . cables, and p.a. systems ....I suspect not.

I remember reading or hearing about one of the famous old itinerant bluesmen being asked about their choice of guitars - he replied - "Oh we didn't travel with a guitar - too much trouble - we traveled with a mouth-harp. Got t the next town - played and sang on the corner until we had enough for a meal and to buy a guitar from the local pawn shop, then we'd p[lay that guitar 'til we had to move on , then we;'d sell or pawn that guitar and repeat the provinces from town to town.

What guitar did Robert Johnson play ? - possibly whatever the local pawn shop had at the time?

We are almost cursed by choice nowadays.