doc
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My main instrument is: A Francis Milsom J-45
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Post by doc on Jun 30, 2019 4:18:46 GMT
My first guitar was procured for me by my dad using Embassy cigarette coupons. This would be around 1967 or so. It was a horrible looking, horrible sounding hunk of laminated rubbish and it went everywhere with me. He then bought, bought mind you, with cash money not cigarette coupons, the Clancy Brothers Song Book. My pal’s dad got him the same guitar with the fag coupons and we started playing together. So not content with playing A Jug of Punch on a monstrosity of an instrument we played on two of them. They had pieces of string for straps and we felt really cool. I really can’t remember what happened to it but one thing is for sure, I didn’t sell it because no bugger would have bought it. I know that we only replaced strings when they broke and sometimes not even then. All this story needs is a last line like, “ But tell that to kids nowadays and do they believe you?”
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Post by Cams on Jul 8, 2019 14:08:09 GMT
Awesome thread. It's quiet at the post office today so I just got through the whole thread. I'll try and pop back in with the tale of my first guitar, such as it is. I'm sure I have a few pics too.
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Post by veerag on Sept 5, 2019 7:46:27 GMT
Think of your guitar like a car. There’s no better feeling than driving a squeaky-clean vehicle that runs smoothly and has a sparkling exterior so bright it blinds you. On the other hand, imagine driving a car that reeks, breaks down, and is covered with dirt. Not too enticing. It is such an amazing instrument that you can have such a deep bond with. I remember the first time I saw my guitar, I believe it was on some FB group or some other place, not sure. Thanks to my guitar I did come to learn a few things. Musicians generally spend more time exercising their ears than the rest of their bodies, but neglecting the latter can seriously affect your playing. Then again not everyone is the same, we all find the instruments that fit us well with time.
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Post by veerag on Sept 10, 2019 6:55:54 GMT
Think of your guitar like a car. There’s no better feeling than driving a squeaky-clean vehicle that runs smoothly and has a sparkling exterior so bright it blinds you. On the other hand, imagine driving a car that reeks, breaks down, and is covered with dirt. Not too enticing. It is such an amazing instrument that you can have such a deep bond. I remember the first time I saw my guitar; I think that it was on bestelectricguitars.reviews/best-jazz-guitars/ or some other place, not sure. Thanks to my guitar I came to learn a few things. Musicians generally spend more time exercising their ears than the rest of their bodies but neglecting the latter can seriously affect your playing. Then again not everyone is the same, we all find the instruments that fit us well with time.
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walkingdecay
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My main instrument is: brownish and rather small.
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Post by walkingdecay on Apr 21, 2020 15:26:08 GMT
(Special inclusion of another of our bookshelves, as I know Andrew is a bookshelf voyeur like me.) Sorry to necro this thread, especially with reference to a banjo and dulcimer, but these old warhorses are about to disappear into the depths of a wardrobe with other instruments that don't get played enough to warrant their taking up of floorspace, so I thought I'd say something about them. Neither are guitars, but they are acoustic and they have stories behind them. The Kay banjo was my first, bought on the cusp of the sixties, shortly after I'd first heard Earl Scruggs' music on the soundtrack of Bonnie and Clyde and just had to make sounds like that myself. The poor thing, with its aluminium shell and rather oddly configured neck, wasn't really up to the battering I gave it over months of practice, let alone ringing like Earls' pre-war Masterstone, but eventually I could manage a tune or too in something like his style and started flaunting myself as the lad who played bluegrass around the Stafford area. When I went to festivals it went with me then, and four years on that Kay and I found ourselves sharing a ride to Sidmouth with a girl - no let's be honestly questionable in tone and say "hippie chick" - called Norma Tomson, who I happened to have fallen in love with at first sight. Let's say the click was more of a thunderclap, and much of the personal story from there on is told in this absolutely non-obligatory song: linkNorma was a fine singer and a very good instrumentalist. She happened to get on with a D45 we bought from a visiting country singer better than I did (too bright for me), knew her way around an autoharp and developed some intriguing accompaniments on the dulcimer. The cedar dulcimer in the picture above became her favourite and most played, despite repeated warnings from another player against getting an instrument with friction pegs. Certainly I couldn't tune it well - still can't - but she seemed to have no trouble, twisting up to the sweet spot in seconds. Meanwhile, the Kay covered many more miles than the "better" banjos I bought to replace it, mainly because it was comparatively light and portable. When we followed the Grateful Dead around Europe it went busking with us, often winding up tucked in beside us under a plastic sheet when we had to sleep in the open. It also went on a subsequent trip to see the Dead at the pyramids which grew out of a meeting with Phil Lesh, where according to my friends at least, it was picked up and played briefly by Jerry Garcia. I was so weak and out of it with a case of dysentery that I had little idea of what was going on for two days. After Norma died (don't ask) I went a bit barmy and sold or put on indefinite loan most of my stringed instruments, and yet I couldn't bear to part with the Kay and Norma's dulcimer. Now they're going into the dark for a while, but I'll know they're there.
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ocarolan
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Post by ocarolan on Apr 21, 2020 23:06:18 GMT
walkingdecay - Great post, Pete, and although you say the song is non-obligatory anyone who doesn't give it a listen is missing a real treat - wonderful storytelling and very nifty guitarring! Lovely to hear it again. Thanks for posting. Hope you and yours are all staying safe and well, Keith
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doc
C.O.G.
Posts: 2,025
My main instrument is: A Francis Milsom J-45
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Post by doc on Apr 22, 2020 0:53:38 GMT
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