Seven Guitars of a Rock n’ Roller

Seven Guitars of a Rock n’ Roller

Seven is a magic number. It seems that it does complete a set, at least in music for the major chords. It is also the number of perfection in the Christian faith and completeness. And the number was chosen in the famous Japanese film The Seven Samurai.

As musicians we all love guitars but we seem to narrow our preferences down to manufacturer, or to the category it sometimes gets pigeonholed into in the rock realm such as a blues or jazz guitar. Often it is a famous name or band that influences its use in a genre. Amps, the same thing. but here I am going to explain how I personally went about choosing guitars and why. Each person may have a different list and certainly the manufacturer or particular model may vary but there are some things that can set one guitar apart from another even within the same manufacturer.

I will not get into country of manufacture as like with automobiles both appliances have obtained a high art of refinement and there are fewer and fewer inferior products as far as playability and utility, most electrics can be upgraded with electronics, and as for fit and finish, this kind of refinement can be done by reworking certain elements of the guitar just as one can restore  a car to better than new condition .

I have created a list below that will give an indication of what I was looking for and ended up with. I will list what I have purchased, what I have kept and why. I will also list those I didn’t keep. I will note that one buy’s what they can find and afford at first then often pass it along if they find it doesn’t work for them. I will also like to explain ahead of time that I’m am not going to promote a Yamaha semi-hollow body over a Gibson ES 335 or Epiphone Sheraton, and I certainly am not talking to collectors who would purchase nothing but a Martin D35 over any Japanese latecomer. To me it was what I could afford and if the guitar filled the niche that I was looking for it was kept and treasured if it was of excellent craftsmanship and had an incredible tone. I am referring here to my Nagoya NS35 which was built in Japan when Martin could not find the woods for the D28. It is a finely executed copy of the original Martins form the 30s and 40s . I am not a collector but a guitarists and songwriter. Guitars are exhilarating tools not items of worship. The NS35 was considered a fantastic guitar when it was first released and has gotten a reputation among those who have played one as a very fine dreadnaught. It was marketed in the seveties by Veneman’s music to fill the emand for acoustic Dreadnaught guitars.

I own seven guitars: two acoustics – a four string and a 12 string, five electrics – four four strings, one 12 string, and one bass. Not the only instruments I ever wanted mind you but a workingman’s collection I am proud of. I recently acquired a Takamine six string and have begun to use it on a new album. Besides these two guitars my collection includes a Takamine 12 string acoustic, a Rickenbacker 12 string electric, Stratocaster Plus, 2 Epiphones: a Casino modified with low output pickups and Sheraton II, a Kramer Artist 630G aluminum neck, and a MIM Jazz bass.

Most practicing musicians may have a different viewpoint on what kind of guitar they like but most all will agree that it has to be playable and have a great tone. Unlike a collector who sees the guitar as an investment and rarely plays it, but looks mostly at its worth on the market, this personal assessment of what to look for in a guitar may differ greatly with style and who their personal guitar hero may be, if they have one.

To musicians and songwriters a great guitar is a means to an end and is considered a tool and the intrinsic value is its familiarity and comfort in their hands. It becomes a reliable trusted friend with a voice that sings to them.

This is proven time and again when looking at the guitars of past famous songwriters and performers. Willie Nelson’s Guitar Trigger is a case in point, the Epiphone Casino purchased by all the guitar playing Beatles is another, Clapton’s Strats and on down the line.

It is this reference that often makes a guitar desirable. I will mention those that fit the bill in my choosing the guitars I have now.

The first guitar I ever wanted besides knowing exactly what it was called was the semi hollow body Gibson ES335 like the one belonging to BB King. A fellow musician, I was in an early band with, his name I have forget at the moment, had either one of these or a Casino in green which I fell in love with and many of the blues greats used them. Gretsch made a series of hollow bodies for Chet Atkins and was used extensively by many country western stars. The Tennesean was used by George Harrison. Gretsch made a name with these hollow and semi-hollow bodies and are becoming desirable again. All the Beatles owned and played Epiphone Casinos. They couldn’t find or afford the ES339 Gibson in England and settled for the Epiphone version. I fell in love with it but associated it with the ES335 for some reason. I was just starting out and didn’t have a guitar of my own borrowing my brothers acoustic for a number of years.

I fell in love with the ES335 because it resembled most a dreadnaught acoustic and was comprehensible to me. I was not enamored of the plank guitars by Fender and preferred the looks of the Gibson acoustic electrics and by association the Les Paul. That is a later part of the story. My tastes and knowledge have expanded since.

So by the late 60s in my mind the ES 335 was the guitar I needed as I aspired being a Rock n’ Roll performer and songwriter. It had to be electrified. Trouble was I didn’t know much about electrics and owning one was more expensive than an acoustic because one needed an amp as well.

I had grown up overseas in Venezuela and when I arrived in the U.S. in 198 knew little about guitars. it would take a while to understand the differences between manufacturers, pickups and neck woods. I soon purchased a $100 acoustic from Zavarella’s a local music store then located in Alexandria, VA. It was 1969 and I have no idea who manufactured it. It is not on my list. It was destroyed when I went south to Fort Lauderdale and my friend, all 200 pounds of him, sat on it. He threw it out so that I would not see how totaled it was.

My second guitar was a 12 string Decca. I began working at a wholesale department store called Best Products. The assistant manager knowing I loved to play guitar sold me his Decca 12 string. He was a country western fan. I cut my teeth on this guitar and eventually sold it a few years later. This is the second type of guitar one should purchase and is an excellent way to gain muscle strength in their fingers and if they are a songwriter and singer probably helps in their ability to better understand octaves and harmonies. I then began searching for a better acoustic 12 string. The Decca was hard to play and I don’t know if it even had a truss rod in it. Its difficult action required dedication for many years just to pick it up and play it. If anyone knows the deal on these guitars drop me a note.

So the two guitars I most wanted at the time were the semi-hollow body acoustic Gibson ES 335 and a new 12 string acoustic which I put on the back burner placing a six string dreadnought acoustic ahead of it as the better more practical guitar to by. By the late 60s I was hooked on acoustics. I had spent time in the U.S. between my dads postings to South America and had been there when Hootenanny and Bob Dylan were all the rage. An acoustic guitar in the early to mid sixties was a necessary item for any songwriter or aspiring performer . I also had my first experience with a Japanese made guitar. Americans were later to learn how good they were at building them. They had come out of a very devastating war and with an impoverished country and economy but with the help of Dr. Deming’s on time delivery and quality control and their extensive knowledge of woodworking and metallurgy, were a force soon to be reckoned with in the musical instrument department.

I love Japanese acoustic guitars. My 12 and six strings were made in Japan and I still have them, the mid seventies Super Nagoya NS 35 and a Takamine 12 string I bought in the early 90s. The former with a Baggs sound hole pickup and the other with an internal pickup. I generally use an SM57 to capture the sound from the sound hole instead of the active pickup. I had used a Gibson pickup and fitted it into the Nagoya. It worked well for a time through an early Shure 100 watt vocal master PA though I got some electric shocks when touching the microphone with my lips.

Next a Les Paul or a Travis Bean aluminum neck.

Inserting a Gibson ES arch-top pickup into a Nagoya  sound hole and resultant feedback.