INSTRUMENTS: PART 1

Keeping with the original intention of this blog, this post is to keep everyone up to date with my acoustic instruments. (I'll do the electric instruments later, after I get the Jackson.)

I'll start at the beginning, because that's a good place to start.

The first acoustic I ever played was my dad's Guild, but I have no picture of that and it wasn't mine, nor is it a guitar on my wishlist. The first acoustic guitar I owned was Chico.



Chico is an aptly named Spanish Classical Gianinni Student Guitar. He was built in 1969.
See:

You need to look inbetween the B and G strings (second and third from the right.)
Chico's so old that I'm afraid to tune him up to standard tuning, so the strings are actually the Bb and Gb strings. I got him from a guy my mom used to babysit, or from my Grandma-I can't remember which. If he's from Grandma, she got him at a tag sale for $10.

I played Chico all throughout college. He was my favorite guitar, but now he's retired. See how much he's worn:


Since Chico retired, I got Hector. I only have one picture of him because he is relatively new. Hector is an Ibanez Classical. He has a pick up in the bridge. He can never fill the shoes of Chico. Never! (But I still like him.)


I got my steel string acoustic-electric from my paw as a gift, which is, of course, the sweetest gift anyone can give you. This guitar is a Johnson Dreadnought Guitar. I had a hard time coming up with a name for this little fella, and then one day Michelle and I were watching Bloomberg TV. (We do that sometimes because we are strange.) The guy on TV was talking about securities involving piers and shipping and such. Michelle burst out laughing and said, "What a funny name!" Of course, under the commentator's picture was not his name, but what he was talking about: Wharf Holdings. Thus, this guitar was named Wharf Holdings (unlike the Star Trek 'Worf') to commemorate her silliness. I tune him 1/2 step flat so I can play along with G 'n R and Alice in Chains, or Coheed and Cambria.


Last year, I bought my first high end acoustic (but not my last.) I was insprired by my dad's Guild, so I bought a Guild too. I love this guitar more than Red Fusion. It is not acoustic-electric, but I have Wharf for that. I tune it up to 'concert pitch' so I can play along with Tony Rice (yeah right) and my other peer master guitarists.


You can probably recall the effort I had to put into to name this guitar.

That's all the acoustic guitars I have--for now. Here's a picture of my father's mandolin. He let me borrow it for now, but if he forgets, I'm gonna keep it for longer. I call this little guy Skinny.


Also, I am indefinitely borrowing my uncle's acoustic double bass. This beast is still missing a string and I need to call Von Schmidt to get the bridge replaced, but I still tune up the remaining strings sometimes and pluck some jazz or jam out to some swing. This is simply known as 'The Reverend.'


Here's a shot of the whole crew:


Next time, I'll show you my electric instruments.