How Attached Are You To Your Guitar?

chinmusic · #1 03-31-2012, 01:21 PM

Around these parts, lines like "it's THE one" and "I'll never let this one go" get tossed around a lot- only to have those same lines in the eventual/inevitable classified ad. (That goes for me, too!)

I recently struck up a deal to trade my main guitar (a Collings dread) for a guitar that I was absolutely certain I wanted and just had to have. And yet, when I tried to pull the final trigger, I found that I couldn't do it. For better or for worse, my guitar is mine. I know her, she knows me and I just know that there is more music in there for me. We've given each other bumps and bruises and have played many a gig together, too. It's a marriage at this point and divorce just isn't an option.

So- what's your longest lasting guitar? Why are you so attached to it? Sentimentality and history? Sound? Playability? Tell your story!

jpd · #2 03-31-2012, 01:29 PM

It's a 1982 D-18 knock-off that was a present from my brother. After 30 years this guitar has aged w/a sound like no other that I own. It is a keeper!

JoeCharter · #3 03-31-2012, 01:31 PM

I have a couple of instruments that were gifts from my family -- and I would do ANYTHING to protect them.

For the rest of it, I have good insurance and don't really worry.

Glennwillow · #4 03-31-2012, 01:31 PM

I value my guitars greatly because I value being able to make music on them. But in the end, guitars are just things. They can generally be replaced. If I had to trade off some of my guitars -- and I will have to thin out the herd eventually -- I would have trouble letting some of them go. It's hard not to feel attached to the wonderful sounds they are capable of making. But again, they are only material things. I can let go if I need to.

I do have an attachment to my 1967 Martin D-35 that my dad bought for me when I turned 21 in 1969. Of all the guitars I own, this is the one that matters the most.

My dad really did not want me to learn to play the guitar when I started at age 16. I think he was afraid it would somehow derail my education. It didn't. But I did a lot of playing in the dark in essentially a closet where my dad couldn't hear me when I was 16-18 years old.

When I was very close to graduating from engineering school, my dad took me down to a Martin sale where we picked out this amazing D-35 after playing everything in the store. I know this guitar meant a lot not just to me but also to my dad. He asked me if I was still playing it just a couple of months before he passed away, just 3 years ago.

Music really can bring people together...

- Glenn

thedarkestnight · #5 03-31-2012, 01:34 PM

I get pretty attached. I go months really enjoying 1 or 2 guitars. I always switch it up though.

gitgal · #6 03-31-2012, 01:35 PM

This looks like it could be an interesting thread.

My guitar is brand spanking new and while I'm already thinking about what other guitars might be like to play, I don't want to even entertain the thought of letting my first Martin go. While it isn't the prettiest guitar I've ever seen, it plays perfectly for me and has a wonderful tone (000-15M).

I hope we're together for many, many years.

=========

I need to come up with a catchy signature line.

kydave · #7 03-31-2012, 01:37 PM

The 1971 Martin D-28, which I bought new in 1971 as a 20 year old working musician, selling all my electric gear to get it.

I have a very long story written about it, which I won't bother posting here, but it has supported me both financially, emotionally, aesthetically... It has dissappeared & returned twice - once innocently mixed in with another band's gear, once stolen. It has been with me writing and recording songs, performing them, enjoying them and sharing it and them with other people.

At times it has been my only musical instrument period. At other times it has been the yardstick with which many other guitars in the house are measured against, when buying and when keeping.

It still is often grabbed, both in the house and taken to jams and gigs...

It is my friend who has outlasted many now-gone musician friends, more than a few family members, tons of other guitars.

For 41 years now we have been virtually inseparable.

Yeah, I'm attached to it...

Dr. Jazz · #8 03-31-2012, 01:41 PM

I have a couple dozen old Martins (1898 - 1964) that I really enjoy and play often on rotation. Many of them have great stories that travel with them.
It's the old guitars I own that have the most meaning and give me the most pleasure. In the store inventory I have 100 or so new instruments ($4K - $15K) that all sound great, but I don't mind passing them on to new owners to enjoy. It's the old ones I can't bring myself to part with.

Glennwillow · #9 03-31-2012, 01:43 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dr. Jazz

... It's the old ones I can't bring myself to part with.

Hi Mike,

Yes, I very much can identify with that.

Opa John · #10 03-31-2012, 01:57 PM

Well, it was just a month ago that I sold a D-28 knock-off that I swore I'd never sell. Bought it new in 1981....so, I had it for over 30 years and loved it and played it all those years. I wouldn't have sold it except for the fact that a good friend of mine was madly in love with it and really needed a decent guitar. At least, better than the one he's been using.

Strangely enough, I found I don't miss it nearly as much as I thought I would. And, I'm thrilled that it went to a good home......to someone I feel is going to love it as much as I did. Not only that, but I hadn't been playing it nearly often enough in the past couple of years or so.

I'll admit, however......I DO tend to get "attached" to some of them and I don't think I would've sold it to a total stranger. At least this way I get to see it and say "HI" once in a while.

I've had other guitars over the years, bought 'em new, never bonded with 'em, and sold 'em within a matter of months. Some are just different than others for a multitude of reasons.

williejohnson · #11 03-31-2012, 02:05 PM

These threads pop up every now and then but I never get tired of giving some props to my favorite guitar (not the best sounding) but I just cherish my 1966 Epiphone Cortez. This is the first guitar I ever purchased with my own money (I was seventeen at the time and I am now 63.) This guitar has been with me,comforted me and brought me joy through my entire adult life, I took it to war with me, I played it when I got married, I played it when all of my children were born, I played it when relatives and close friends have passed away, I played it at my daughter's wedding and I still play it everyday. As I said, this is not the best sounding guitar I own but it is by far the easist guitar I own, to play (probably because I have played it practically everyday for the past 46 years.) I am somehow comforted everytime I pick it up and play it and it is my most cherished possession. If the house was on fire, I'd be headed in to get "Little Queenie" (and I hope everybody else makes it out OK!

)

random works · #12 03-31-2012, 02:15 PM

I have a Barbarossa small body guitar that I am very attached to. I have it set up and tweaked just perfectly. It's my go-to guitar and brings out the best in my playing...it has some dings here there, but one special one.

My precious granddaughter, who I sometimes get to sleep by holding while playing this guitar, left a couple of small teeth prints on the neck. She was teething and I guess thought the guitar felt good to bite. I have nicknamed the guitar "Baby Bite" and plan to pass it on to the granddaughter if she ever wants to play.
She can strum and pick in her own fashion, but she's only 11 months old

A77Guy · #13 03-31-2012, 02:30 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kydave

The 1971 Martin D-28, which I bought new in 1971 as a 20 year old working musician, selling all my electric gear to get it.

I have a very long story written about it, which I won't bother posting here, but it has supported me both financially, emotionally, aesthetically... It has dissappeared & returned twice - once innocently mixed in with another band's gear, once stolen. It has been with me writing and recording songs, performing them, enjoying them and sharing it and them with other people.

At times it has been my only musical instrument period. At other times it has been the yardstick with which many other guitars in the house are measured against, when buying and when keeping.

It still is often grabbed, both in the house and taken to jams and gigs...

It is my friend who has outlasted many now-gone musician friends, more than a few family members, tons of other guitars.

For 41 years now we have been virtually inseparable.

Yeah, I'm attached to it...

WOW!!
How did she come back after the theft?

Im just getting started at 45yrs old and I hope to one day have that feeling about a guitar. Just knowing that anytime I pick her up she'll play beautifully.

Arrowsmit · #14 03-31-2012, 02:32 PM

I just got my HD28 a couple weeks ago & we have bonded marvelously in that short time. It's an incredible guitar, not to mention that I waited over 30 years for my first Martin. Yep, we're attached & she ain't goin nowhere!

A couple years ago I sold my '85 strat (bought new) to help finance a custom built (Meredith) reso. I hadn't played that guitar since quitting the bar band scene. It had lived a lonely life stuck in a dark closet for the past 5 yrs, so no biggie, right? Besides it needed to be played. All was good until the buyer started out of my driveway w/the guitar in his truck, then I suddenly felt like I had lost an old friend. Dumb I know, but I won't soon forget it...just sayin.

catdaddy · #15 03-31-2012, 02:35 PM

My 1969 Gibson Hummingbird was a HS graduation gift from my parents. My father worked for the company that supplied lacquer for Gibson and was able to get a great deal on the guitar at the factory.

Later in 1969 I left for college with the Hummingbird in tow. Met my future wife there and she fell in love with me in no small part (she says) because of that guitar.

In 1972 the top of the guitar was accidentally crushed in an airline luggage compartment and extensive repairs were required. Cosmetically the guitar was damaged but much to my surprise and to the credit of the luthier who did the repairs it still played and sounded great.

It was my only acoustic for the next 20 years. After that, the guitar was the one I continued to write with but I used others for gigging. About 10 years ago some of the bracing started to crack and the neck required a reset. I had a luthier do the repairs but as he explained to me, the original damage from years ago made it almost impossible to restore a good neck angle.

Since then the old Hummingbird has been hanging on the wall next to the fireplace. My wife told me she'd leave me if I ever consider getting rid of it. So for the sake of my 39 year marriage and half a lifetime of great memories that is the one guitar I own that won't ever belong to anyone else.