Today is my Distillate's 35th Birthday... it came off the line in California on December 11th, 1981, eventually landed in a guitar shop in New Jersey, and somehow made it's way to Illinois from there. I don't know anything about where it's been in between all these years, but someone took really good care of it.
This one came along last Spring at one of those rare 'just the right moments', and, well... I just
had to adopt it. Going back to playing with only four strings was a little uncomfortable at first, but has turned out to be a good exercise in "Don't Think - Just Play". Since early last May, it's been regular rotation on my weekend travels.
So to celebrate, I got up yesterday morning and put on a new set of Pyramid Golds, taking a few extra minutes to tweak the intonation back in from the ultra-lite TI Jazz Rounds that have been on there all Summer. One quarter-turn tighter on the truss rods and she was ready... took it to play a set of Carols at a local Christmas parade and tree lighting. Yes, it was COLD - 35° F when we started playing (or 1.7° C for my international pals here...
) but then the sun went down and I was afraid to look over at the bank sign anymore.
Here we were, layered out in fleece next to the Town Hall on Main Street in Buchanan, Virginia.
