As an adjunct to my blog, I thought I would add some stories about my passion for “all things guitar” which includes hundreds of photographs and dozens of writeups.
I began playing guitar about a year before I retired from a position as director of operations for a large pipeline and facilities engineering and construction company based in Houston. I was responsible for running the company’s northeastern operations near Pittsburgh. Prior to accepting the position, I’d spent nearly 30 years in Colorado, working across three industries: Mining and metals research and development, ecologically-based timber thinning, and then back to engineering, working in the field of oil and gas. When I was nearing retirement, I began to suffer with some serious back problems and knew that my extremely active life would soon be changing. Seeing the writing on the wall, my wife and I went to a guitar store one Saturday and spent the entire day while I worked with the store manager on finding a guitar and gear that would suit me for a long period of time. I’d never done anything halfheartedly and knew I’d be playing, or hard at work learning to play for years to come. I’d always had the inclination and desire to play, but between work, five mountain sports. and a number of activities which were important to me, I simply didn’t have the time to take on such a daunting pursuit which would have had me indoors far more than I wanted to be. But, like a fast moving train, I could see what was coming for me and that it wasn’t about to stop for some foolish person straddling the tracks. Over a span of roughly 30 years, I’d had a number of spine doctors tell me what my future looked like if I didn’t heed their warnings and take better care of my body. My time had come.
Closing time for the store was just moments away when I brought to the checkout everything I would need to start off on this new journey. I got home and had everything ready to go for the following day. It was getting late so rather than pushing my back any further that day, I went to bed dreaming about what the next day would bring. That day would end up being just as epic as the one before, as I played until my fingers bled, and played some more. I was absolutely bewitched, it seemed, for I could not put the guitar down and when I finally did, I realized that I’d been at it for ten straight hours. My back was on fire and my fingers weren’t much better. I had blood blisters where someday calluses would be. This was my introduction to playing guitar and I expanded the journey to include buying, selling, trading, and collecting guitars. And, I had a yearning to learn all I could about vintage acoustic guitars.
My first electric guitar: A 2011 Fender “Telebration” Series Reclaimed Redwood Telecaster, which was one of twelve Limited Edition guitars (one for each month) in commemoration of the Telecaster’s 70th year in production. I have a number of Telecasters but this one remains my favorite. There have been a couple of modifications: I switched the ’52 spec’d pick-ups for a custom ordered set from Porter Pickups out of Boise, Idaho, and I removed the stock “Bakelite” pickguard for a cool faux tortoiseshells design that really does the redwood some justice!
One of my favorite acoustics is this 2016 Furch D-31SM. Furch is an incredible brand based since the 1980’s in the Czech Republic but now has a factory here in the US. The D-31SM was designed to go head-to- head with Martin’s venerable model D-18, which originally hit the market in the 1930’s. It has been considered the standard by which other guitars are to be judged for nearly a century. I happen to have a 2012 Martin D-18 and actually prefer the D-31SM, though it is an extremely tight comparison and, depending on the day, could easily go the other way!
It has now been fifteen years and, though I’ve been forced to slow down in other important areas of my life, I have no intention at allowing my back to put an end to my playing, though, several years ago and after four more surgeries, the pain from merely sitting for too long or standing in one place with ten pounds hanging from my neck set me up for a four year hiatus. I began playing again nine months ago, and though it is just about as painful as it was back then, it is one of the few pleasures I have remaining and I will continue as long as I am able.
The more I got into playing, the more respect I gained for the trade of luthierie. I see gorgeously crafted guitars as usable art and finely tuned examples of wood and steel. I began to follow the work of the Fender and Gibson Custom Shops along with offerings made by acoustic “boutique” builders like Collins, Bourgeois, Santa Cruz Guitar Company (SCGC). There are numerous small to medium sized boulders out there who attended luthiery school, worked under master craftsmen and for the larger companies like Martin and Gibson of Nazareth, Pennsylvania and Boseman, Montana, respectively, ultimately making the decision to go out on their own and startup boutique guitar building companies. This has obviously been happening for decades with the term “boutique” a relatively new way of describing predominantly handmade guitars. Starting a new guitar manufacturing business is a difficult undertaking and it can take years to establish a clientele. Only the best (or those with the most “staying power”) make it in the business of crafting fine guitars.
It is the same for history’s best electric guitar manufacturers. There is some debate now over who can rightly call themselves “boutique”, mostly directed at production numbers. Some boutiques make 3,000 guitars a year while others have been contained to fewer than 300. I’ve read that one of the most important criteria is based on what percentage of each guitar is built by hand using both Old World and modern guitar making tools how much is done with the aid of high-tech machinery and automation. The debate will no doubt rage on as long as guitars are being built, but for the time being, let’s say that Collings, at nearly 3,000 builds per year is one the largest boutique operations and Boucher, a Canadian builder with a staff of just a handful of luthiers represents the smaller end of the spectrum. Whatever the case, each of the named manufacturers builds incredibly desirable guitars and in the current growth market, we will see each of these companies continue to expand until the smaller companies become larger companies, both in terms of production numbers and number of employees, while new “boutique” builders come on line. With most any of these companies, the current wait time for a custom built guitar is between six months and a year. It can be a bit faster and just as rewarding by going with the respective larger companies that have lauded custom shops such as stalwarts like Gibson and Martin. But the wait time is only slightly less. The pricing is about the same for a custom shop ordered guitar from Martin or Gibson.
From time to time, I will be adding more guitars to this page. Many are from my own collection which has taken fifteen years to build. I enjoy writing about and photographing them as much as I do playing them.
I’ll also be adding guitar pics which have been professionally taken for the various manufacturers, large and small.
The link will take you to many more photographs of my own collection and many of the guitars that I’ve owned for periods of time before selling or trading them for other choice guitars that became “keepers”.
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