fascinated by the hidden stories

[fazool]

I refurb guitars for several reasons:

• I love the work as a hobby. Instead of woodworking to build something new, I love doing this.
  
• If I find a guitar I love, it's mine for a very, very good price.
  
• If I don't like it, I get to try lots and lots of different guitars out for extended periods.
  
• If I can turn a tiny profit, I reinvest it into tools or guitars for me which I then enjoy even more because those were the result of this work.

One thing though is that I find myself wondering "I wonder what the story is of this guitar?"

I mean some of these are relics of an inexplicable life....I won't bore you with details my current project guitar (a Martin DRS1) has led a rough life.....and the former owner did a lot of odd things.

The defining damage to this guitar are dryness cracks but they appear severe. Even the label peeled partway off (no water damage).

Well, I was cleaning up/fixing the case and the foam is so dry is crunches.

So I am imagining that this was in a garage or storage unit but it's only a few years old. And it wasn't there the whole time because there is substantial wear in places.

I'm fascinated because I can't figure out this story.

It seems like a guitar first owned by a nine year old girl, sold by a frustatred parent after she gave up after decorating the guitar. It was then bought by some hipster coffee-house singer who painted logos on it and used it aggressively, then it was locked in a desert storage unit during the owner's jail stint, then rediscovered by a family member and sold to a pawn shop.

[tahoeguitar]

I have a 1938 Washburn that I took in trade from a customer who got it from an old railroad worker who had it since the fifties. It was built by Gibson as Washburn did not make their own guitars during that time period. According to the labels inside and the SN It was wholesaled by Tonk Bros. to a music store in LA (Geo Brehm and CO.) I have pictures of the shipping ledger at Gibson where they shipped it to Tonk Bros on the Friday before Christmas 1938. So we know where it was born and when.

It was literally hanging in the RR guy's barn for years. It has a ton of cracks and playwear. At one point the top was sanded and refinished (badly) and thinned to the point where it failed in front of the bridge. Then somebody tried to counteract the bridge rotation with a bolted on truss behind the bridge and then took that off when it didn't work and covered the bolt holes with two MOP buttons off a western shirt. I took the back off and rebuilt the top a bit from inside. It's now one of my go to guitars partly because it has so much mojo, but also sounds great. I wish I knew it's story between the music store in LA and the rail worker in the 1950's... but I never will

[Silly Moustache]

I know what you mean. Some time ago, I bought this guitar :



This is the headstock :



This guitar was built at some time in the late '20s - '30s.

It was a very deep bodied carved archtop with a 12 fret neck and slotted headstock - a very unusual configuration.

With some assistance from Folkways Music in Waterloo Ontario, I discoverd that it was built by a chap called Hensall (a piano maker) who built some guitars to special order.

So how did it turn up in south east England ?

This is where my imagination takes over. The Canadian army assembled around this area in preparation for D-Day.

In my mind, I can imagine a soldier or airman brought this guitar over, but left it in the care of someone, perhaps a pretty young Sussex girl, until he returned.... but maybe he never returned, and it sat in a wardrobe of a broken hearted lady for many years.

With no proof of this, but with some feelings of respect for that unknown soldier (or airman) I paid quite a lot to have it refurbished.

It became quite playable but the configuration really didn't suit me, so after a while I took it back to the shop that had sold it to me, and they sold it giving me a small profit.

I often wonder where it is now, but more, who brought to south-east England.

[mirwa]

As a repairer I get to see and hear a lot of stories from customers, one that's always stuck with me is as follows.

Two boys grow up together, one plays the guitar, he has a Gibson, he lived at home and died in his twenty's, the brother (now in his late 50's) was cleaning his parents house and basement out 30yrs later, they had passed away.

Under rubbish in the basement, sitting in the corner was a Rotted guitar case, he opened the case to find his brothers guitar which has been sitting in water inside the case for how long, it was pretty bad.

The guitar sat / lived survived in the house untouched for 30yrs.

He brought the guitar in to be restored and made playable again.

When he picked the guitar up, he cried, its jobs like this, that make me happy I chose this profession to work in.

It now resides in his home

Steve

[HHP]

Many years ago, I attended a flea market in Coldwater, MS and one of the stalls had some guitars on offer. Most were unremarkable but I did recognize one brand name, Kalamazoo. It had seen a lot of use but was basically OK and I had some recollection that the brand was tied to Gibson. After some back and forth, I bought it for something under $75.

The strings were old but it did have an unwound G string so it was likely used for bottleneck. Given the area and its age (1930's) I figured it had been used by some juke joint blues players.

Several years later, Columbia released the Robert Johnson re-issues with some fanfare. One part of the release was an unknown photo of Johnson holding a Kalamazoo guitar. They noted that the guitar was missing the 14th fret dot marker. I drove home that night at about 100mph and rushed to check my Kalamazoo to see if it was missing the marker. My dreams of wealth shattered when I found it did have the marker in place.

[murrmac123]

Originally Posted by HHP

My dreams of wealth shattered when I found it did have the marker in place.

Maybe Johnson was able to afford to have it replaced after getting paid his royalties ?

[HHP]

Originally Posted by murrmac123

Maybe Johnson was able to afford to have it replaced after getting paid his royalties ?

Pretty confident no American Bluesman ever set foot in a repair shop.

[redir]

Just remove the dot

[Parlorman]

I've got a number of vintage guitars and often wonder who held and played them, what music was made on them. If they only could talk.