How did you get the oldest guitar you have?

[Wade Hampton]

And what’s made you keep it?

This thought came up this afternoon as I changed strings on MY oldest guitar, a custom 000-42 built for me by Scott Baxendale. I’ve kept it because it’s a great guitar: it’s super-versatile, sounds great plugged in, through a mic or just by itself, and is everything you want a guitar to be, really.

It even handily cuts through a scrum of other guitars and banjos, which you really wouldn’t expect from a Triple O.

I got it from Scott but it took some persuasion to get him to build a Triple O - he was only building dreadnoughts at the the time, so he turned me down flat.

In the meantime I wrote an article about Bob Baker of the Blue Lion Musical Instrument Company using silicone rubber thermal blankets glued to a body mold to bend the sides of his guitars and mountain dulcimers. Fine Woodworking Magazine bought the article and published it, and within a day or two Scott called me up and said he’d read the article and that that technique gave him a way to build a Triple O for me.

So he did, and I’ve been happily playing it since 1989.

So how about you? What’s your oldest guitar in terms of being in your possession, how did you acquire it, and what do you especially like about it?

Just curious....


Wade Hampton Miller

[Lkristians]

Wade, my 94 year old dad passed away last month and is the reason why I play guitar. He was a really good player and taught me the basics. I learned on his (circa) 1950 archtop Gibson. Last year he told me to take it home, as he hadn't played it for some time. It's been through the paces and needs work and TLC, but I will always be grateful for having learned to play on this little gem.

IMG_9557.jpg

[Rad]

Bought it new in 74’

[Wade Hampton]

Larry, I’m sorry to hear about your dad passing away. My father died just shy of his 92cnd birthday in 2016, and I still miss him every day.

You’re fortunate in getting your basic guitar tutelage from him, and of course the guitar itself is priceless.


whm

[Brucebubs]

By sheer coincidence Wade I put a fresh set of strings on my 1972 Takamine nylon string guitar today.
Those wonderful Thomastik-Infeld 'John Pearse' Folk strings had worn out long ago and the guitar was sitting 'dead' in a corner.

Bought it new in 1972 for $49.95 with my first 2 weeks wages as an apprentice in the printing industry.

Never heard of the brand before, friends had Yamaha's, I liked this for being a little different.

[jaymarsch]

Well, since I generally had to sell one to help fund an upgrade, my oldest guitar is currently a 2001 Wingert 00. I bought it used in 2003 to play while waiting for my custom Wingert grand concert. I had planned to sell it about 2 years later when I took delivery of the custom but couldn’t part with it. I still have a line of people who want a chance to buy that guitar should I ever decide to sell it.
Best,
Jayne

[letterk]

My parents gave me my Guild back in 1994.

[Mr.Woody]

My oldest is a 1941 Gene Autry Melody Ranch kid-sized guitar that belonged to my grandmother. I believe she bought it for my uncle who would've been 8 or 9 at the time. I don't think he ever learned to play, but it has been played a ton which would've meant my Grandmother did the playing. She stopped playing before I was born, so I never got to hear her, and I didn't know this guitar existed until she passed away in 2010. I had always heard there may be a guitar up the attic (open hole over the porch and not insulated or anything) and when she passed, i finally went up to look. I wish I had looked up there earlier and could've asked her about it.

The bridge had broken in half, the tuning buttons had rotted away, and there were many cracks, but overall the structure was in good shape, though not playable. I found a guy in Vermont who specialized in these little parlor guitars and worked out a trade for the repair work. This little guy now has a new fretboard, added truss rod, fresh tuning buttons, and some fixed/replaced braces along with an enlarged soundhole and a K&K pure Mini pickup.

It's still a boxy little kid's guitar, but it means a lot to me.

[Glennwillow]

My oldest guitar is my 1967 Martin D-35 that I acquired new in 1969, now 54 years old. I was turning 21 and was home on spring break from Purdue where I was in my 3rd year in engineering school. I had been saving money to pay for college since I was 7 years old, so all the money I made from summer and part time jobs (mostly life guarding, lots of lawn mowing) went into paying for my education. As a result I had no money for anything else.

I had an $80 Harmony 12-string that I bought with life guarding money and my dad knew I really wanted a good guitar. He was not very happy about the guitar when I started to learn at age 16, but as I got better, he slowly realized how important the guitar was to me. He also could see at that stage in my life that I was not going to mess up my education to be a musician, which was a big fear of his. So when he saw a sale on Martin guitars advertised in the paper he suggested we head into downtown Cleveland and look at what they had.

I started with a D-18, which would have been wonderful, but my dad suggested I try the D-28, then after that the D-35. Since even back then I was primarily a finger picker, my style worked best on that D-35, so my dad bought it. I was dumbstruck, and felt completely unworthy of that guitar for some time. But, after a while I built a repertoire around that guitar, and it started to feel like home. I still have it, still cherish it, still play it often.

About two months before my dad passed away in 2009 from the effects of Alzheimer's Disease, I had flown back to Cleveland, OH to see him. He thought my younger brother, who lived locally, worked at the nursing home, but he recognized me and was visibly excited to see me. And one of the things he asked me during that conversation was whether I still played that Martin.

He didn't remember that my brother was his 4th child (I was 2nd) but he remembered that he had given me that Martin guitar back 40 years earlier. It shows how important it was not just to me but also to him.

I am reminded of my father every time I play that guitar.



- Glenn

[Mr.Woody]

Originally Posted by Glennwillow

I am reminded of my father every time I play that guitar.

Wow, Glenn, that is a great story. What a great dad!!!!

[BluesKing777]

[QUOTE=Brucebubs;6711110]By sheer coincidence Wade I put a fresh set of strings on my 1972 Takamine nylon string guitar today.
Those wonderful Thomastik-Infeld 'John Pearse' Folk strings had worn out long ago and the guitar was sitting 'dead' in a corner.

Bought it new in 1972 for $49.95 with my first 2 weeks wages as an apprentice in the printing industry.

Never heard of the brand before, friends had Yamaha's, I liked this for being a little different.

[/QUOTE



HA! Not my oldest but I have one of those Taks, was my younger sister's!
I was living interstate when she was forced to have guitar lessons at school and the teacher had a deal at Helmut's Music for bulk Taks! I don't know how she got the money out of my father, but I would have liked to see the look on his face when she quit after one lesson! It lay in the corner of her room until the bridge blew off on a hot evening and Dad stuck it back on with Araldite.

She gave it to me, I played it twice and it went from cupboard to cupboard for about 35 years. I took it to Cargill Guitars a few years ago and got it repaired and set up professionally. And it sounds really good! I have already forgotten how to change those strings.




BluesKing777.

[pieterh]

I got my 1977-77 Guild D35 from my Dad around 1984 when I was 18. Had it ever since and am never getting rid of it.

Edit:

What do I like about it? It’s an old Guild, need one say more? Joking aside, I’ve had it ever since I was 18-19 and it has followed me to drama school in Guildford where it appeared on stage with me in our first public production in 1991; it kept me company on my first theatre tour in Germany 1992-93; I used it on stage on my last professional theatre production touring East Anglia in the autumn of 2001; it was my main guitar for our bluegrass quintet here in Sweden until I got my Taylor in 2006. I changed the stock tuners which were frankly scrap for open back Sta-tites (so more like the D25…). It then got a bit neglected because it didn’t play as well as the Taylor - until last year when I saw a Guild d25 that my new guitar tech friend had restored. He had fixed the bridge and sanded down the neck and it was beautifully playable. I told him he had free reign to do what he wanted to mine to make it as playable. He didn’t need to do as much but now it plays better than ever!

It has serious signs of wear and tear but it’s a much loved workhorse with plenty of mojo!

[KenL]

I walked into a music store in Omaha in 2000 or so to buy some strings for my Taylor 710. Glanced over at the guitars hanging on the wall, nothing but the usual new offerings. But wait, what's that? Sitting on the floor in a stand in the corner was something different. I knew it was a Guild, but I had never played one. Picked it up and strummed it a few times and was intrigued. It was loud, it was balanced, and it flat-out rumbled. Got to talking to a sales guy, who said some guy had brought it in and traded it for a Martin. Turns out it was a 1981 Guild D-46, one owner, in excellent condition. I played it for quite a while and reluctantly put it back, but thought about it all the way home. Grabbed my wife and took her back to the store; she agreed that it was a fine guitar and gave me her approval, even though our kids were little and money was tight. They knocked $100 off and I took it out the door in the original case for $600. The manager told me that he was glad that I had bought it because all his sales guys were fighting about who was going to buy it in 30 days when the sales staff got a crack at it if nobody bought it.

In the case was the original sales receipt. It was purchased in Norfolk, Nebraska in 1982 for $489.00.

That was 21 years ago, and many guitars have come and gone at my house, but this one remains. It plays perfectly, has a great neck for me. The swamp ash back and sides are like rosewood, but more so. It is loud and powerful, but can whisper too. I flatpick it, strum it, fingerpick it, it does it all well. It is a very heavy guitar, and bulletproof. I put a K&K in it many years ago; did it myself, as I was too dumb to realize how I could have screwed that up. It is my main working guitar. The first time I took it to our local open mic, the sound guy told me to strum it a few times so he could dial it in. I hit an Em and he about fell out of his booth; he squinted down at me and said "what is that?" I said "an old Guild," and he commented that I got "one of the good ones." I guess it sounded extra good that night because when I came off the stage I had three guys waiting to check it out. It never fails to get noticed.

That was my lucky day when I stumbled across it.





20210111_090338.jpg20210111_090754.jpg

[Kh1967]

Originally Posted by Glennwillow

My oldest guitar is my 1967 Martin D-35 that I acquired new in 1969, now 54 years old. I was turning 21 and was home on spring break from Purdue where I was in my 3rd year in engineering school. I had been saving money to pay for college since I was 7 years old, so all the money I made from summer and part time jobs (mostly life guarding, lots of lawn mowing) went into paying for my education. As a result I had no money for anything else.

I had an $80 Harmony 12-string that I bought with life guarding money and my dad knew I really wanted a good guitar. He was not very happy about the guitar when I started to learn at age 16, but as I got better, he slowly realized how important the guitar was to me. He also could see at that stage in my life that I was not going to mess up my education to be a musician, which was a big fear of his. So when he saw a sale on Martin guitars advertised in the paper he suggested we head into downtown Cleveland and look at what they had.

I started with a D-18, which would have been wonderful, but my dad suggested I try the D-28, then after that the D-35. Since even back then I was primarily a finger picker, my style worked best on that D-35, so my dad bought it. I was dumbstruck, and felt completely unworthy of that guitar for some time. But, after a while I built a repertoire around that guitar, and it started to feel like home. I still have it, still cherish it, still play it often.

About two months before my dad passed away in 2009 from the effects of Alzheimer's Disease, I had flown back to Cleveland, OH to see him. He thought my younger brother, who lived locally, worked at the nursing home, but he recognized me and was visibly excited to see me. And one of the things he asked me during that conversation was whether I still played that Martin.

He didn't remember that my brother was his 4th child (I was 2nd) but he remembered that he had given me that Martin guitar back 40 years earlier. It shows how important it was not just to me but also to him.

I am reminded of my father every time I play that guitar.



- Glenn

Wonderful story, Glenn!

[Dru Edwards]

Originally Posted by pieterh

I got my 1977-77 Guild D35 from my Dad around 1984 when I was 18. Had it ever since and am never getting rid of it.

It's a great hierloom, Pieter.

I bought my first acoustic in Jan 1989, a 12 string Yamaha. It was my best friend for 10 years and I still have it.

I played a family Framus guitar before that and I still have that one too although it's basically unplayable.