Guitar story time

[jamesw79]

just wondering some of the stories behind guitars people own always find is interesting

i always wonder who owned the guitar before me in my case a 1970s fender strat guess ill never know

be great to hear some guitar stories 

thanks james  

[alexkirtley]

My 1960 Gibson LG-0 apparently once jammed with Norah Jones in a New York City basement club

[jamesw79]

hi aleex

thats a great story guess we will never know for sure but thats all part of the fun.

[pete1951]

In the late 70s things were going well on the guitar front. I had a Gibson 345 and a Watkins Dominator which for plenty loud enough for the pubs I normally played in. It wasn’t long before my £300 guitar was worth £500 and rising. Soon, I didn’t want a £1000 Gibson propped up in the corner of a pub, so I got a 1964 Burns TR2 for £45 and soon found its long neck and big cutaway suited me better than the 345.



A few years later, a chap walked into one of the shops I worked for with another TR2. It had been in a flood and he was worried about it falling apart. He was also left handed which made it awkward to play. As with most guitars of this age it had been messed about, but this time by the Burns factory. It had been sold to the owners father in 1966 when he wanted a ‘Jazz’ guitar by the Burns rep (Pete Drake?) who said it had been lying around the factory and had been used as a test bed for various pickup/tremolos and control systems. This explained the extra holes and large cover around the trem unit. Normal TR2s have a back plate that covers the truss rod adjustment hole, this one has never had one fitted nor has it ever had a strap button, all of which confirms the factory test bed claim.




After careful drying out the guitar held together just fine and plays very well - I have even played it at some sitting down gigs as I have still not put on a strap button.
Pete

[Stevie]

My 1973 Strat was described to me by the seller (who lived in a house just over the rise of the railway bridge in Whitton high street) as having been owned by Bunny Wailer. I believed him then because I wanted to, but of course we have t'internet now and I don't want to look!

e&oe ...

[Pickers Ditch]

Apparently this picture of Mr. Hendrix was taken in Selmers, Charing Cross Road.



Not much later I bought a Hofner Club 40 looking very much like this one from Selmers and the salesman (Geoff Livingstone?) told me it had been played by a lot of whiz bang guitarists in the shop.

Now I'm old, I wonder if it was the same guitar.

...also the neck came unglued halfway through me playing Purple Haze on it one evening and I still have faint scars on my little finger from injuries sustained.

You never know...

[Deleted]

My OMI body was apparently rescued from a warehouse some years ago as one of a batch of seconds / unfinished bodies or scrap.
Mine has the words 'dented' and 'no good' scrawled in marker pen, and appears to have been destined for scrap.
I'd like to know who wrote this on the body - was it a Dopyera bro? - or was it Ron Lazar?
TT

[davey]

So, around 20 years ago I decided to buy my dream Guitar and decided I wanted a 30's Gibson. I eventually found a 1937 GIbson L00 in the Northampton area, so did a deal and went to collect it.
The Lad told me it was his Grandad's, and he'd bought it in Canada when he was training to be a pilot at the start of World War 2.

I asked if I could see a picture of Grandad, and he said I could have a copy as they had some signed photos. This is what he gave me:

and here's the Guitar:

As I had the original owner's full name of Peter Gordon Arthur Malin, I could now look up his Military History. This is where it gets very sad. Shall I continue ??

[Pickers Ditch]

I suspect that's a sad story Davey as I suspect a similar one is attached to my 1936 Dobro M-32 - It has no stickers or evidence of having been bought new in the UK.

I bought my Dobro from a wonderful elderly gentleman in 2015.

He told me that as a paper boy in 1943/44 Leeds he used to cycle past a second hand shop where this Dobro was hanging in the window.
The gentleman saved all his pocket money and paper round wages and bought the guitar in 1944.
He then had it until he sold it to me in 2015.
We chatted a bit and he had a feeling, no more, that it may have originally been owned by a US airman who was over here during the war.
No providence or evidence though.

[bonzo]

Similar story with my 1937 Duolian and KG14. Duolian came from the Bedford area and the KG14 from Chesham Buckinghamshire.
Both towns had a lot of airbases around them in WW2 with many American air force personnel operating from them.
I've often wondered if these guitars were left behind by one of them and if so what were the circumstances.
Hopefully they were gifted to a friendly local as a souvenir! 😉🎸.

Best wishes to you all, John

[bonzo]

Please continue Davey, I'm sure I'm not the only one interested.

[davey]

Peter Malin married Betty Norman in January 1942. "Bomber" Harris takes over Bomber Command in February 1942.

On the first ever 1000 Bomber raid, Peter is the Pilot of a Wellington Bomber with four other young lads as crew. They complete their mission to Cologne, but on the return journey are shot down over Holland with no survivors.

Peter's wife has a Baby boy, Michael, in October 1942, who inherits a guitar. I bought it off his son, Simon.

( The pilot of the German night fighter ,Oberleutnant Helmut Woltersdorf, is killed himself later that year).

[bonzo]

Quite a story. A guitar to cherish.

[davey]

On a lighter note, I bought a 14 fret Duolian from a family in Lincoln who had found it in Granny's wardrobe when she passed away. They had no idea where it had come from & nobody in the family had ever played Guitar. There had been a big US airforce base in the neighbourhood in the 40's though. Granny had a little secret maybe.

[Ian McWee]

Bit of an interesting tale regarding my '33 Duolian.

Back in 1983 I owned a shiny chrome plated Dobro 33H (the one with the 10.1/2" biscuit cone)....but being a saturday regular at most Brum music shops, all shop staff had my phone number in case a real National ever walked through the door.

One saturday morning at the unearthly time of 8am, the phone rang and a familiar voice said "get yer arse out of bed now - one arrived yesterday"

I legged it down to central Brum with my Dobro - and sure enough....there was a National Duolian, green duco finish ~ and most definitely destined to be MINE!!

Apparently a little known U.S band were touring the U.K playing small club / pub venues etc. and the booking agent reneged on fees leaving the band penniless - their only way out was to sell some gear to fund the tour. One of the pieces sold was this Duolian, so I snapped it up, exchanging the Dobro, plus £150 cash.

One postscript to my above tale ~ when I got home and showed my dream guitar to my (then) girlfriend she was horrified - demanding I took it back and come home with the lovely shiny one...

.....I still have the National & it's going nowhere.....cant say the same about the girlfriend....😁

Slide On!

The Flaschenmeister.