The Totally Miscellaneous non-Alembic Guitar and Bass Thread

[cozmik_cowboy]

That's interesting Dave; I half-expected your playing style goals to mirror your bass technique. 😊

#3 Son spent his college years teaching himself to fingerpick like Townes Van Zandt.

Near the end of that time, he was home, & the drummer & lead player from his high school band came over; the bass player not being in the vicinity, the lad pulled out his (now my, pretty much) bass, and they commenced in to jamming.

Townes on bass is a very nice thing; I bet a good bass player on guitar would work too (especially if you do fingers on the fat string thing).

Peter

Peter

[edwardofhuncote]

Kind of a fun watch. Geo. Gruhn with a trio from his personal collection;
1924 Gibson L-5,
1902 Martin 00-42
1852 Martin Custom, Size 1

Of course time only runs in one direction, but he's really aged since I last saw him. That was 29 years ago when I was living in Nashville. My boss at the case shop and him were friends so on a quiet afternoon we'd go down to the shop on Broadway. I got to see the cool stuff (and the snakes) upstairs.

[David Houck]

Kind of a fun watch. Geo. Gruhn with a trio from his personal collection;
1924 Gibson L-5,
1902 Martin 00-42
1852 Martin Custom, Size 1

Of course time only runs in one direction, but he's really aged since I last saw him. That was 29 years ago when I was living in Nashville. My boss at the case shop and him were friends so on a quiet afternoon we'd go down to the shop on Broadway. I got to see the cool stuff (and the snakes) upstairs.

Enjoyed this; thanks for posting!

Oh, and there were four; you left out the 1929 L5.

[edwardofhuncote]

Kind of a fun watch. Geo. Gruhn with a trio from his personal collection;
1924 Gibson L-5,
1902 Martin 00-42
1852 Martin Custom, Size 1

Of course time only runs in one direction, but he's really aged since I last saw him. That was 29 years ago when I was living in Nashville. My boss at the case shop and him were friends so on a quiet afternoon we'd go down to the shop on Broadway. I got to see the cool stuff (and the snakes) upstairs.

Enjoyed this; thanks for posting!

Oh, and there were four; you left out the 1929 L5.

Sure was. I was as much listening as watching my phone in the shop this morning. Had to scramble and get a couple jobs done for the store, then to get to town and get back before the mail ran today. I heard him doing a comparison and talking about the few Loar-signed examples then mentioned the later ones. I did stop and watch the bit about that old Size 1 Custom.

[cozmik_cowboy]

Very interesting - and, yes, I want them all!
But I'm disappointed in George, talking about the "double oh".  He of all people should know that model (like all Martins before the dreadnaught & OM) had a numeric designation, not an alphabetic one; those are zeros.  It's 00 ("double ought"), not OO.

Peter (who will admit to a tendency to pick the fly poop out of the pepper - but not to that being annoying........  )

[edwardofhuncote]

Nice story about Virginia guitar-maker Wayne Henderson ran on BT. 

https://bluegrasstoday.com/a-celebration-of-wayne-hendersons-1000th-guitar/

You can't work on guitars around here and not be a fan of Wayne. Another one of those guys I've known for years.

[cozmik_cowboy]

Heck, I'm not around there, and I only fiddle with them - and I'm a fan!

Peter

[David Houck]

Nice story about Virginia guitar-maker Wayne Henderson ran on BT.
https://bluegrasstoday.com/a-celebration-of-wayne-hendersons-1000th-guitar/


You can't work on guitars around here and not be a fan of Wayne. Another one of those guys I've known for years.

"Henderson has built guitars for many notable musicians such as Tommy Emmanuel, Doc Watson, Peter Rowan, Gillian Welch, Ricky Skaggs, as well as for Vince Gill and Eric Clapton ... In 1995, in a White House ceremony, he was awarded a National Heritage Fellowship by President Bill Clinton in recognition of his extraordinary instrument-making ... Wayne told the audience Sunday that making an instrument is pretty simple. "You just get a piece of wood and a sharp pocketknife and start cutting away what don't look like a guitar, and when you're through you've got a guitar.""

[lbpesq]

"Clapton's Guitar: Watching Wayne Henderson Build the Perfect Instrument" by Allen St. John is a wonderful book that anyone interested in guitars would thoroughly enjoy.

Bill, tgo

[edwardofhuncote]

"Clapton's Guitar: Watching Wayne Henderson Build the Perfect Instrument" by Allen St. John is a wonderful book that anyone interested in guitars would thoroughly enjoy.

Bill, tgo

I've forgotten who I lent/gave my copy of this book to. I think one of Dad's friends. It was pretty good. Won't spoil it, but I felt the end was a bit anti-climactic. It's been a long time since I read the book, but didn't he actually build two identical guitars in tandem, in case something went wrong in production with the one Clapton commissioned? That's pretty smart actually.

The book was a good representation of the rotating cast of characters that come and go through Wayne's shop. I guess all shops are like this... mine's no exception, just smaller scale. My cousin Graham spends a fair amount of time at Wayne's shop. I forget what number his Henderson is, but it's patterned after a '39 Gibson J-35.

[edwardofhuncote]

A buddy of mine sent me this November 1974 price list from Mandolin Bros. It's both interesting and funny to think about what some of these instruments' current values are.



*I gotsta' get back to work on that time machine... 🤨🤣

[cozmik_cowboy]

"Clapton's Guitar: Watching Wayne Henderson Build the Perfect Instrument" by Allen St. John is a wonderful book that anyone interested in guitars would thoroughly enjoy.

Bill, tgo

I've forgotten who I lent/gave my copy of this book to. I think one of Dad's friends. It was pretty good. Won't spoil it, but I felt the end was a bit anti-climactic. It's been a long time since I read the book, but didn't he actually build two identical guitars in tandem, in case something went wrong in production with the one Clapton commissioned? That's pretty smart actually.

The book was a good representation of the rotating cast of characters that come and go through Wayne's shop. I guess all shops are like this... mine's no exception, just smaller scale. My cousin Graham spends a fair amount of time at Wayne's shop. I forget what number his Henderson is, but it's patterned after a '39 Gibson J-35.

I read an article on Mr. Henderson a while back (about the time the book - which should arrive here tomorrow - came out, IIRC) that quoted him as saying part of why his waiting list is measured in decades instead of months or years is "if a kid up the road says he wants a guitar, I'll stop and build him one for $2000.  Then they'll show up used at Gruhn or Mandolin Bros. for $45.000."

Peter

[cozmik_cowboy]

A buddy of mine sent me this November 1974 price list from Mandolin Bros. It's both interesting and funny to think about what some of these instruments' current values are.



*I gotsta' get back to work on that time machine... 🤨🤣

$2500 for a '36 D-28?  $3000 for a '34??  Let me grab the checkbook; I'll take them both!
Actually, back then I would have been aghast.  That was the year everybody was mad at Stills for driving up prices by paying all of $10,000 for a '39 D-45 (in his defense, he was saving it; it was a bidding war with a Japanese builder who wanted to dissect it to see why it was a "39 D-45.  Go, Steve!)

Peter

[edwardofhuncote]

A buddy of mine sent me this November 1974 price list from Mandolin Bros. It's both interesting and funny to think about what some of these instruments' current values are.



*I gotsta' get back to work on that time machine... 🤨🤣

$2500 for a '36 D-28?  $3000 for a '34??  Let me grab the checkbook; I'll take them both!
Actually, back then I would have been aghast.  That was the year everybody was mad at Stills for driving up prices by paying all of $10,000 for a '39 D-45 (in his defense, he was saving it; it was a bidding war with a Japanese builder who wanted to dissect it to see why it was a "39 D-45.  Go, Steve!)

Peter

That same '34 is currently for sale at $400k. It's considered and debated to be the most original example of a first-year 14-fret D-28. Remains to be seen if anyone pays that.

*I wouldn't if had it, and another $400k under the mattress. I don't buy guitars for investment, and that's all that one would be. They're fantastic instruments. I played a '34 D-18 once that remains the yardstick by which my brain still measures a lot of guitar parameters. I played a '36 D-28 Tthat made my socks roll up and down spontaneously. But neither of them sounded $395,000 better than any guitar in my current locker. Better, yes. Not that much better.

[Nova Constellatio]

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