Second Stringers

[Chickee]

Do we all have these? The red headed stepchildren of our collections?
I like them. They do their job. But...there is no love for the instrument. Dispatched to the darkness of the closet, or shoved under the bed to give the dog hair a place to cling? Dings, scratches, broken strings, who cares. It’s only “that guitar”.
Attachment 37974

[KevWind]

My "collection" is not that big, 3 acoustics and one electric that all get played, albeit with different frequency (ha pun) at different times..... AND Yes just one more, my older (70's) Takamine mohogany "camp guitar" Since we don't camp anymore, it sits unplayed in the case sometimes for a year or more .

[Dru Edwards]

My first electric guitar was a Series A I got in the 80s. It's no longer a second stringer though ... or even a third or fourth since it was demoted to the minor league's farm team (never gets played). But, it was my first electric and I loved it for that first year before I upgraded. It sits on the stand and isn't going anywhere.

[reeve21]

I've got an old Goya plywood job that sits in my basement next to my first set of golf clubs.

Paid $125 for it new 30+ years ago. I never played it all that much, but it kept the dream alive while I was busy with job and family. Haven't touched it in 15 years. Hoping to gift it to a grandkid someday. Sounds pretty good for what it is--according to the label it was built in Korea and designed by C.F. Martin and Company in the USA.

[Steve DeRosa]

Nothing I would really call a second-stringer - there are rotating backups I take to every gig ('82 Yamaha SSC-500/'86 Fender/Squier Strat/'12 Godin CW II, '82 Ovation Custom Balladeer for acoustic gigs), special-purpose instruments (banjo, mandolin, electric "quart" guitar - think solid-body guitalele - acoustic-electric bass, etc.), niche items (Rick 360, 5-string bass, 12-string electric), and those awaiting repair/restoration as soon as my tech finally reopens...

[Chickee]

Le me change this up a bit.

Have people, over the years, given you guitars just because they don’t know what else to do with them?
I’m talking strictly beginner or entry level type acoustic and electric guitars that most likely were left behind by a family member, or an I give up instrument collecting dust for twenty or thirty years and now has to go!

These are the candidates most likely to becoming the “second stringers” that I’m referring to.
You didn’t seek them out or choose them, they just end up with you by default. You don’t dislike them, after all you are a guitar player. But, they do nothing for you emotionally. You would never intentionally damage, destroy or god forbid throw a guitar in the trash, so they exist unplayed and unloved.

[Steve DeRosa]

Originally Posted by Chickee

Let me change this up a bit...
I’m talking strictly beginner or entry level type acoustic and electric guitars that most likely were left behind by a family member, or an I give up instrument collecting dust for twenty or thirty years and now has to go!

You didn’t seek them out or choose them, they just end up with you by default. You don’t dislike them, after all you are a guitar player. But, they do nothing for you emotionally. You would never intentionally damage, destroy or God forbid throw a guitar in the trash, so they exist unplayed and unloved.

Not exactly entry-level or beginner and none of them were mine, but I've encountered several such instruments during my lifetime:

• 1920's Martin 00-28: College ex-GF's BFF got it from her mother, who inherited it from her grandmother; wasn't interested in playing it, couldn't be convinced to sell it, probably still owns it
• 1941 D'Angelico New Yorker: Owned by a '60s bandmate, got it from his father who hadn't played it since the late-40's - one of the guys offered him $750 cash on the spot, turned it down; found out from a mutual friend he still had it in the late-90's, never learned to play it, still untouched in the case
• ca. 1950 Epiphone Deluxe 18": My father's mechanic bought it new but never learned how to play, sat in his closet for almost 20 years when I saw it - should have given him his $200 asking price, guitar was lost in a house fire three years later
• 1954 Gretsch Electromatic 17": Belonged to a church choir member whose husband could no longer play, wouldn't sell it to her headbanger grandson/great-nephew (or me) - passed away in the early-2K's, still had it TMK
• 1958 Gibson Les Paul goldtop/darkback/PAF: Local WW II vet's closet queen, hadn't played it since the late-60's until I set it up for him about ten years ago; passed away a few weeks short of his 100th birthday, guitar went to his son who doesn't play and keeps it solely as a memento
• 1967 Gibson ES-175D: Former colleague's father-in-law was a "Chitlin' Circuit" blues musician in the '50s-60s, left it to her husband when he passed in the late-70's and remained in her attic (!) for 30 years until I asked her to bring it to work for a restring/setup; Stan Jay gave us an in-hand phone appraisal of $3500-4000 at the time - went to a more climatically-favorable section of the house (at my urging) but hasn't been touched since

[Chickee]

Originally Posted by Steve DeRosa

Not exactly entry-level or beginner and none of them were mine, but I've encountered several such instruments during my lifetime:

• 1920's Martin 00-28: College ex-GF's BFF got it from her mother, who inherited it from her grandmother; wasn't interested in playing it, couldn't be convinced to sell it, probably still owns it
• 1941 D'Angelico New Yorker: Owned by a '60s bandmate, got it from his father who hadn't played it since the late-40's - one of the guys offered him $750 cash on the spot, turned it down; found out from a mutual friend he still had it in the late-90's, never learned to play it, still untouched in the case
• ca. 1950 Epiphone Deluxe 18": My father's mechanic bought it new but never learned how to play, sat in his closet for almost 20 years when I saw it - should have given him his $200 asking price, guitar was lost in a house fire three years later
• 1954 Gretsch Electromatic 17": Belonged to a church choir member whose husband could no longer play, wouldn't sell it to her headbanger grandson/great-nephew (or me) - passed away in the early-2K's, still had it TMK
• 1958 Gibson Les Paul goldtop/darkback/PAF: Local WW II vet's closet queen, hadn't played it since the late-60's until I set it up for him about ten years ago; passed away a few weeks short of his 100th birthday, guitar went to his son who doesn't play and keeps it solely as a memento
• 1967 Gibson ES-175D: Former colleague's father-in-law was a "Chitlin' Circuit" blues musician in the '50s-60s, left it to her husband when he passed in the late-70's and remained in her attic (!) for 30 years until I asked her to bring it to work for a restring/setup; Stan Jay gave us an in-hand phone appraisal of $3500-4000 at the time - went to a more climatically-favorable section of the house (at my urging) but hasn't been touched since

Those six stories about unplayed, unloved guitars is heartbreaking, Mr. DeRosa.
And I bet there are a million stories like that, if not more.

Oh, BTW Steve, do you get a bottle of champagne at 10,000 posts???? You are truly the elder statesman of this forum. Good on you!
Frankie D.

[Ian111]

My acoustic. I’ll pick it up now and then but with an electric I can open her up full throttle whenever the mood strikes me. Yeah you can bang on an acoustic hard but its like a horse drawn carriage at full speed vs a jet fighter screaming overhead.

[Steve DeRosa]

Originally Posted by Chickee

...do you get a bottle of champagne at 10,000 posts???? You are truly the elder statesman of this forum...

Champagne??? - thanks for the props , but around here I'd count myself lucky to get a warm can of Genesee Beer...

[Chickee]

Originally Posted by Steve DeRosa

Champagne??? - thanks for the props , but around here I'd count myself lucky to get a warm can of Genesee Beer...

Congratulation to you all the same Steve!

[Steel and wood]

I've got a lap steel that a Luthier friend of mine built for me many moons ago which has gathered dust in a gig bag in storage for years and has hardly been played.

I had this fleeting inspiration of playing country inspired lead tones over the top of others in mostly standard tuning similar to that of a pedal steel player playing in a band. (And who doesn't love the the sound of pedal steel?). No real interest in playing my lap steel on its own/by myself so it stays in the cupboard and never gets played.

[Chickee]

Originally Posted by Steel and wood

I've got a lap steel that a Luthier friend of mine built for me many moons ago which has gathered dust in a gig bag in storage for years and has hardly been played. (And who doesn't love the the sound of pedal steel?). No real interest in playing my lap steel on its own/by myself so it stays in the cupboard and never gets played.

I know this intimately. My steel became the worlds most expensive clothes rack!
My son is now it’s caretaker and it get regular workouts.
Attachment 38071

[DukeX]

No, not anymore. I traded them all away for first stringers.

[FrankHudson]

Mostly acoustics in that classification. I don't even put them in my sig because they are obscure and therefore not likely to be of any interest or informational value, and because I don't play them much.

My original guitar, a inexpensive all laminated Checkmate nylon string I bought at J C Penny off a table of just after Christmas clearance items at J. C. Pennys in 1974. Larger body, brass frets, painted barely-"ebonized" fretboard that is just the top of the beefy neck. Still works, still sounds better than you might expect. I took it out of a chipboard case I keep it in and played it last a couple of years ago for old times sake. Turned out to be one of the most popular pieces in my entire project, though not likely because the guitar sounded so wonderful.

On the troop ship to Gallipoli

A non-name nylon-string 12-string guitar, probably Mexican market, bought in Minnesota used 35 years ago or so for a pitance. Full scale, larger body, but not jumbo size. Has very high action and inexpensive parts. I played it a few times just out of curiosity, but not in this century.

My original electric guitar, a Kingston branded solid-body with an elaborately carved dual cutaway horns and greenburst finish. I took the now sought after gold-foil pickups off it and put a used Gibson humbucker in the neck position and a Tele pickup in the bridge, replaced the trem with a Leo Quan wrap-around bridge and played the heck out of it in my punkish years. Frets are now fully "fretless wonder" level low and I keep thinking I should get it out and play it at least one last time.

My Cortez late 1970s 12-string, which I play much more often than these others this century. I put a DeArmond magnetic soundhole pickup in sometime in the early 80s, and used it as my 12-string in my gigging days. Now have it in a variation of "Tibbetts stringing" with unison D G B and E strings and octaves only on the low E and A strings.

Doesn't sound to bad if you think of it like one might think of a all laminated electric archtop that isn't an archtop, but still derives its sound from a vintage neck position pickup and an substantial air cavity.

Prologue to the Canterbury Tales


The OP brings up the biggest problem with these instruments. They have no market value as instruments, and I wouldn't wish them on a beginner, even though I began on some of them. I can't bear to throw them in the trash. Non-emotionally, that's were they should go I suppose as that's where they'll go when I get recycled I expect.

As I typed this and was reminded about the Kingston, I started to think about getting a complete refret done on it, which of course is not an "investment" move, but it might be fun to revisit old times without harming my old finger joints trying to cleanly fret it.