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#32
08-16-2014, 05:24 PM
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Since Oldguy64 alludes to it, I should probably put a link to it. Here's the opening couple paragraphs, also:
The Saga of Old '199 Quote:
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#33
08-16-2014, 05:45 PM
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Wow, lot's of great stories. here's mine. In 2001, I was coaching my step son's little league team. Lot's of fun and really enjoyed it, looking back now, I don't know how I made the time.
Towards the end of the season it didn't look like we would make the playoff's. I bought tickets for a John Prine show on the west coast of Florida, 3 hours away. JP is one of my hero's and I had never seen him before, so I was pretty psyched. Well, the team started playing better, we made the playoff's and the dates collided so i couldn't make the show. No problem, the kids were more important. A week or so later, I'm napping on the couch when the doorbell rings. it's my neighbor, who buys stuff at garage sales and resells at the flea market. He knew I played guitar and wanted to show me the guitar he'd bought for $35. Martin headstock, peeling pickguard, loose bridge, rusty strings, original case. Would I be interested, give him $50? Yes, i said, i can probably get it cleaned up. Took it to a local luthier, he reglued the bridge, replaced the pickguard, repaired a small crack under the pickguard(pretty common), charged me $75. So, for $125 I'm into a 1969 martin D-28. Brazilian Rosewood, spruce. I like to think it was my reward for my sacrificing for the kids.
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#34
08-16-2014, 05:50 PM
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I have a fresh one: I was in California, where I'm from. My family was with my mom in the Monterey area. One day, my 78-old mom, who plays uke, went with my guitar-playing son and I up to Santa Cruz to check out guitar stores.
The first one was Steve's Guitar Post. A charming, almost-pawn-shop-in-a-good-way place. Within seconds, my son pulled down a 1958 Harmony h1215 archtop. He was all over it immediately. I played it - it sounded good, had a straight neck. For an archie, quite strummable. As my son said, it sounds like a flattop recorded through a Gramophone. $225. Repaired top crack - very well done - and a bit of glue, I assume reglued, at the neck joint. But very stable. I was worried about the niche-ness of an archie, nonetheless. And you never focus on the first guitar - you note it and keep moving. He got great grades his sophomore year, so we were discussing a J-35 - he is a great player. This trip was for my mom to hang with her music boys. We went to Starving Musicians, the grabbed some great tacos. Then we headed to Sylvan Music, to check out the high end and vintage stuff. Then my mom fell. She was on her way back to the restroom and missed a small 3-inch step. Noone's fault - things happen. Strong bones! Bruised a hip, but dislocated a pinky. It wouldn't reseat, so we headed to the urgent care place close by. They couldn't do anything at first either. After an hour, she came out and said they needed to take an x-ray. She turned to me and said "Take Jake back to the guitar shop to check out that guitar. I'll be fine." So we did. He was working me hard as he checked it out. "It's gotta lot of songs in it, Dad." he says. I got it for a good deal and it would ship in a few days. My mom is fine - minor surgery and the stitches are already out. She'll be back to the uke in a few days. The guitar just arrived today. We spent the morning getting the bridge in place, intonated, messing with the tuning keys to get them moving, adjusting the action. I holds a tuning amazingly well and sounds like a flattop recorded through a Gramophone. My son is downstairs right now finishing the first song he wrote on it. He called his grandma today - it was her birthday - to thank her for sending me back with him. Nice gift  .
__________________
An old Gibson and a couple of old Martins; a couple of homebrew Tele's
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#35
08-16-2014, 06:43 PM
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Quote:
I'm glad your mom is doing well. I'm originally from California. I spent my formative years on the Monterey peninsula. I often miss it....
__________________
A bunch of guitars I really enjoy. A head full of lyrics, A house full of people that “get” me. Alvarez 5013 Alvarez MD70CE Alvarez PD85S Alvarez AJ60SC Alvarez ABT610e Alvarez-Yairi GY1 Takamine P3DC Takamine GJ72CE-12-NAT Godin Multiac Steel. Journey Instruments OF660 Gibson G45
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#36
09-17-2014, 11:05 AM
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Marvellous reading!! Wonderful stories!
 I wish this thread could go on forever...
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#37
09-17-2014, 11:19 AM
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I have a good one, I am currently fighting stage 4 cancer as some of you know. I worked for my employer for 9 years and when I had to go on long term disability it killed me. I truly loved going to work and the company I worked for. The owner son and CEO found out that I play guitar and that I have always wanted a 000-28ec. I always had pictures on my background of my desktop and they were always martin. Well anyway I was working with sweetwater on getting deal that I could afford. I got a call from my sales rep and told me that I was a new owner of the guitar and that my employer bought it for me and cost me nothing.
Every time is get it out I think how lucky I am to have worked for that company, they have truly been a light for me during dark times. They have also filled my oil tank, fixed my roof, did yard work, paid for my daughter dance lessons and brought my family dinner after a long day of treatments. They are truly a great company.
__________________
Guitars: 2013 Taylor 810 Prototype Martin 000-28EC Sunburst Epiphone Masterbuilt AJ-500M Epiphone Les Paul Custom Pro
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#38
09-17-2014, 11:54 AM
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My story is my Martin D-15M. Last year in august my mother was being placed into life saving surgery at 96 years of age. The doctors and nursing home staff informed me that my mom needed to go through a 5 to 8 hour procedure where she could die on the table durring it. Her left leg veins and arteries were fully blocked and I was informed without doing anything that she would die a very painful death. So the the morning of the surgery comes and the surgeon all of a sudden presents me with options.
Now mind you my wife is with my Mom while I am talking to the Surgeon, to make it worse my Brother never shows up at all. I am the only one who has been the soul care giver in my home for 10 years along with my wife. So i opted to have my Mom's leg amputated instead of putting her through such an ordeal. After I made this choice the surgeon informs me if it was his mother he would have done the same. Surgery takes an hours and her leg is amputated. Her life is out of danger. I felt like a piece of horse poop. The next day I take off from work because I was extremely upset and questioning myself as to what I had done the day before. Please understand my mom had dementia and could not make a choice for herself or order a sandwich for that matter. I came home from the hospital and my wife calls me from her work and knew I was going through quite a struggle with myself and the decision I had to make. I tell my wife I am not God and have no right to take some ones leg. My wife calms me down and tells me to relax and go and play some guitars at Sam Ash and try to forget about things for just a while. So off I go to Sam Ash and played everything. One guitar truly caught my eye and more so my ear. It was that Martin D-15M. I played that guitar for an hour and was just amazed of the sound. I come home and my wife ask's me if I seen anything that interested me and I told her yeah one that I really loved. She took me out to dinner and then over to Sam Ash and bought me that guitar. She told me it was for doing the right thing and that I deserved that guitar for all the stress and pressure I have been going through. I was teared up a bit and decided to take the guitar home. That guitar was played 3 hours straight that night and when I was done playing it I was tired and went right to bed. I truly love the sound of that guitar and still do to this day. I cherrish this gift and just always love hearing this guitar being played. It is my favorite. I am haunted by the 15 series sound.
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Taylor 214e SB DLX Taylor 214e DLX Limited Edition Taylor 217E SB Plus 50th Anniversary Edition LTD Last edited by GuitarDogs62; 09-17-2014 at 11:59 AM.
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#39
09-17-2014, 02:54 PM
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My first guitar was a seventies model Martin knockoff made by Aria. I was told my Uncle B. had picked it up at a pawn shop but I’m not sure he ever played guitar. My mom had helped care for Uncle B. after he was diagnosed with cancer, and she brought the guitar with her when she came home to Texas. I’m not sure it was meant for me, but I ended up with it.
There was a lot of stuff going on in the background in our family that summer -the kind of stuff that sometimes leads fourteen year olds to bad places. I spent some time in those places, but mostly I leaned into that guitar. I came by a Roy Clark Big Note Guitar Songbook somehow from which I learned four or five chords and played the fool out of every song in the book that did not have an F or B chord. I rounded out my guitar education with an Eagles songbook, forcing myself to learn a B chord since you can’t play Peaceful, Easy Feeling without skipping it and I had no idea what a capo was. The F would come a few years later so I could play Alabama’s Dixieland Delight. That family stuff made it to the foreground by the time the next summer rolled around, and my entire life was different. I was now from a “broken home”. My mom was working for the first time in my life so we could afford hot dogs and beans, and I had been dumped by a girl that I thought was the one. I adjusted to this new life mostly from behind that guitar, playing the fool out of twelve or so chords and writing songs for a brown eyed girl who is still the one. In a weak moment, I gave that guitar away to a friend who was going to learn to play. I sure would like to have it back. I would love to give it to my daughter who is pursuing a degree in music therapy. That guitar already has some therapy experience.
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#40
09-17-2014, 05:38 PM
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n 1976 I was doing seasonal agricultural work in several states. It was the only time I've ever gotten unemployment compensation. Due to it being an interstate claim, it took forever to get the checks but when I did I got 15 at once.
I went out that afternoon and bought the only Martin {D-35}in the small music store in Eau Claire Wi. A few months later I was at the dorm room of a younger musician friend and a big gust of wind blew through the room and knocked a speaker over which fell on the top of my guitar {which was in the case but the case was open} putting a hole the size of a half dollar in it. So I dropped it off in Nazareth and got it repaired. I did a lot of hitchhiking in the 70's and never had any major problems so I guess I had gotten too trusting of people. While hitchhiking in eastern Tenn in 1980 I came out of a Rockwood gas station bathroom to find the 2 guys {my ride} had taken off with my backpack and D-35. As you can imagine I was frantic and couldn't even get any police to come there. A friend who lived near Crossville came and picked me up. The next morning we got a call from the Crossville police saying they'd arrested 2 guys who fit the description I'd given. My friend gave me a ride to the police station and it was the same 2 guys. They played dumb {Who are you?} and apparently they'd already stashed the guitar and backpack. I told them I wouldn't press charges if they gave me the guitar back but they continued playing dumb. So I hitchhiked back twice {for the grand jury and the pretrial} Was supposed to be there for the trial to but I missed it by a day. They said they used my previous taped testimony. Both guys were convicted of grand larceny. I thought that was the end of it. About a year later I got a call from the Crossville police. They had arrested the brother of one of the guys who ripped me off and searched his house and found my guitar and backpack. There was sort of a secret hiding place in the backpack and the $80 I had stuck in there before it was stolen was still there when I picked them up. That guitar had a hard life. I carried it all the way to the top of Blue Mountain in Jamaica. {What, me worry about humidity?} I never really did bond with that guitar that much though. Maybe because I didn't play enough { I'm still bad but I was Really bad then} or else it just wasn't the right one for me. I sold it about 10 years ago to finance knee surgery that I was planning on having in Bangkok but Bumrungrad didn't recommend it at that time. I'd like to play it again if I could now that I've played a few more guitars and know a bit more thanks to the helpful people on this forum. At this point though I may have bought my last dreadnaught. Sorry this was so long. I cut it down as much as I could.
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#42
09-17-2014, 09:08 PM
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Some great stories. Keep them coming. My family emigrated to US in February of 1996, we came from ex Yugoslavia. Within a couple months we were all working and acclimating to life in US. One of the things I missed was not having a guitar to play. At that time I was working at Jack in the Box. My first paycheck came and I promptly went to my local guitar store, once there I liked feel of this certain Ibanez PF5, bought it and enjoyed playing it and learning for well over a decade. It is on a permanent loan to a good friend. Still thinking about buying a different guitar to gift him with and bring the old friend home.
My recently acquired Harmony archtop is battered from use and I would love to hear its story  , just fitted a new rosewood bridge courtesy of StewMac. Not letting this one go anywhere. Has that old woody sound that just envelopes me.
__________________
2004 Martin D15M 1998 Fernandes Strat 1999 Gretsch MIJ 6120-60
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#43
09-17-2014, 09:18 PM
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This thread delivers!
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#44
09-17-2014, 09:47 PM
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Fan-freakin-tastic Thread!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
__________________
Tina Yamaha FG-75 - "Candy" ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ "...Don't surround yourself with yourself, move on back two squares." YES
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#45
09-17-2014, 10:18 PM
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The Story That Goes With Your Guitar
The year was 1984, and I had been without a guitar for 4 years, when my no name used 12-string dread has suffered water damage and a neck separation. Insurance had paid me replacement value, but at the time, we needed the money for raising our family. But, when we sold our house, and moved, we had some extra money and I told my wife I want to use some of the money to get another guitar. I wife had other plans, but I managed to get $400 and headed for the music store to see what they had. I told the salesman I wanted to see his best acoustic guitar under $400. He brought out a Yamaha FG-375S Jumbo Folk for me to try.
It had fantastic tone, and was gorgeous looking with the wood marquetry body purfling, back strip, matching rosette, bound headstock and fretboard, MoP logo, and gold tuning machines. A solid Sitka spruce top with rosewood b/s, it was LOVE at first sight. I asked how much, and he said he'd let me have it for $400. I looked it over, it was pristine, so I left with what I thought was my "new" guitar. I discovered many years later it was either NOS or used, as that model had only been made for 1 year, in 1977. It was their top-of-the-line acoustic guitar, but they made some changes in their model numbers, in the following years, so it ended up being quite rare. My wife was NOT happy, but it was easier to ask forgiveness than permission. I had done something without her "consent" and she never let me forget that. I played it everyday, and she just didn't understand how important it was to me, and by '91 we were divorced, but I still own that guitar, and it sounds better today than the day I brought it home!  Glen
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Yamaha FG-375S Jumbo Martin DXME/D-35E/DC Aura/000-14 Custom/D-16E Custom/ 000C Nylon/0000-28HE/Concept IV Jumbo/00-16C/D-4132SE Gibson LP Deluxe/ES-347 TD/Chet Atkins CE Fender MIA Deluxe Strat Art & Lutherie 12-string Bellucci Concert Sigma CR-7 Recording King ROS-06 FE3/RPH-05 D'Angelico "New Yorker" New Masters "Esperance SP" Hermosa AH-20 “I never met a guitar I didn't like.” 
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