Sentimental Guitars thread...

[Andrew Lamprecht]

Post pics and give a story... a lot of people have that special guitar or two that they would never sell! Show em off!

[ItsaBass]

Re: Sentimental Guitars thread...



1968 SG Standard. Signed by Mick Taylor (twice). I hope to also get it signed by Robbie Krieger and Angus Young before they kick off.

My dad has had this since the mid-1970's. It was his main electric guitar for most of his life, and the only one he had for nearly a decade at one point (after he sold his '56 Strat in the early-1980's).

At one point, it was stolen (along with his bright red Hagstrom II). My dad made a police report with no hope of ever seeing it again, but he also placed an ad in the local Recycler classifieds, saying WTB, Gibson SG. He got a call from a used guitar dealer about an SG that sounded very similar. So my dad got two of my big-ass cousins to go with him down to the shop. The guy had it in the back, not out in the shop, as he either suspected or knew it was hot. Lo and behold, it was my dad's guitar. And he got his Hagstrom back too.

It is still 100 percent original. Nothing has ever been changed on it. It is a bit beat, but not terrible. Frets are going, going, almost gone, and since it is completely unaltered, it won't stay in tune for ****. But I play it anyhow. It's made to play, and I'll be damned if it sits. I love the sound of the post-PAF humbuckers. Real ripping sound.

[BloodRose]

Re: Sentimental Guitars thread...

wow! Nice SG! Mick Taylor 2 times??

[formula73]

Re: Sentimental Guitars thread...

I am pretty sure everybody knows about my Hamer already!

[SlyFoxx]

Re: Sentimental Guitars thread...

My first electric. I could never sell it. Not like I could get much for it anyway.

[TheLivingDead]

Re: Sentimental Guitars thread...

My first electric.



Believe me, it means more to me than this pic lets on.

It shall rise again, one day.

[BloodRose]

Re: Sentimental Guitars thread...

My most sentimental is my 1996 Squier Strat.. I was without a guitar for MANY years after I got married and hocked my gear to support a family.. I finally scraped together $130 and went to a local shop and played all the squier strats they had.. Picked the most resonant one.. Not only was it my first guitar after years without, it was the guitar I learned to do mods on, as I tried to improve it as I could afford upgrades. And, I did most of my learning on it, as I could only play about 3 chords with the gear I had before. So, she is sentimental and not worth anything to sell anyhow..

The white one: Her name is Lacey..

[Andrew Lamprecht]

Re: Sentimental Guitars thread...

I am pretty sure everybody knows about my Hamer already!

I don't... feel free to share....

[ErikH]

Re: Sentimental Guitars thread...

Mine have been posted before. I have a couple actually.

First is my Frankenstrat made from a Chandler body and Warmoth neck. It was assembled in 1993 and has been my number 1 ever since. No matter what, that guitar comes through.


Next is my Martin D-28 acoustic (no pic). I purchased it with the funds that I inherited from my Uncle's estate after he suddenly passed away in 2003, two weeks after my daughter was born. I was determined with my portion that I would get a Martin. He helped me early on by buying my first amp after I had been playing an acoustic for a year. I named it after him, "Al", though we called him Uncle Albert, a retired Col US Army, and Chaplin.

One that I never thought would get sentimental but did is my 1988 Kramer Baretta. There were times where I could have sold it but events of 9/11/2001 changed my mind. Proudly displayed under the strings in the NYC graphic are the Twin Towers. It serves as a reminder to never forget. I'd like to get a display case for it to hang on the wall.


The final one is another parts guitar that was recently completed, my Precision Guitar Kits SG Jr. This one took a while to complete and took a lot more work than my Frankenstrat. There's blood, sweat and thankfully no tears in this one. It's what I was going for when planning what to do and it came out just how I had hoped and then some.

[phil_104]

Re: Sentimental Guitars thread...

Funny that this thread pops up. I bought a guitar today, a really, really nice guitar. Some might think it's the nicest guitar I've owned so far, and I've owned a lot. A bunch of things have happened lately in my life, and I learned that if I can and want to do something, I need to start taking action, and doing stuff for me. I live, but I gotta enjoy it if I can, caus you never know.

NGD thread to come...

Anyways, here's the story from my J45, my most special guitar, as copy pasted in my original thread about the guitar.

"Story worth reading, even though it might seem stupid:

I started playing guitar in grade 7, when I graduated from little school and went on to middle school. I was something like 13 years old, and I wanted to play some Pink Floyd. Being 13, you're pretty much dependent on your parents for all that is acquiring instruments. My dad was more than awesome with me, buying me this really nice solid top Aria Sandpiper. Anyways, I played the **** out of that guitar for the last 10 years, as it has been my only acoustic 6 string. It's seen shows, and things no guitar should see. The frets on this baby are worn down, and she has seen better day. Much better days. I decided it was time to retire her, and get a new acoustic.

So lately I've had my sights set on such an acoustic, and I had been searching for a little over 2 months now, making my search public about a month ago on this board. I've annoyed you guys plenty, and last week had made a shortlist of two guitars, either a Martin D-18 or a Gibson J-45. So yeah, my favorite store in the world, Lauzon Music, who carefully selects which guitars they keep in stock, and have their tech tune up every guitar and make sure it's worthy had one of each in stock. I went in, and was blown away, and I mean blown away by the Martin. Then I played the gibson, and the world stopped turning, lol. This guitar was special! More warmth and bass definition than a D-35, and more projection than the J-200 next to it. I had to have it.

So I get home, and tell my mom that I found my guitar, and that I might go see the guy at Lauzon to see if they can hold it for a month while I save up some more. Anyways, I go to jam last night after telling her that I basically had found the one.

I come back home, my parents are sitting in the living room watching tv. The case for my Aria is on the corner table, as I had changed strings on it. I walk in, set my Les Paul case down, and my dad asks me why I want to replace the Aria. I tell him the frets are done. He asks me what I mean. I tell him they are flat as all hell. He asks me to show him. So I go in the corner, and open up my Aria case. On the inside of that case, I find a card that says "Congrats on your B.A., and getting into the faculty of education, love, mom+dad"..... and this......"



It's the most special guitar I own. But, this new one I got today comes close.

[BloodRose]

Re: Sentimental Guitars thread...

Funny that this thread pops up. I bought a guitar today, a really, really nice guitar. Some might think it's the nicest guitar I've owned so far, and I've owned a lot. A bunch of things have happened lately in my life, and I learned that if I can and want to do something, I need to start taking action, and doing stuff for me. I live, but I gotta enjoy it if I can, caus you never know.

NGD thread to come...

Anyways, here's the story from my J45, my most special guitar, as copy pasted in my original thread about the guitar.

"Story worth reading, even though it might seem stupid:

I started playing guitar in grade 7, when I graduated from little school and went on to middle school. I was something like 13 years old, and I wanted to play some Pink Floyd. Being 13, you're pretty much dependent on your parents for all that is acquiring instruments. My dad was more than awesome with me, buying me this really nice solid top Aria Sandpiper. Anyways, I played the **** out of that guitar for the last 10 years, as it has been my only acoustic 6 string. It's seen shows, and things no guitar should see. The frets on this baby are worn down, and she has seen better day. Much better days. I decided it was time to retire her, and get a new acoustic.

So lately I've had my sights set on such an acoustic, and I had been searching for a little over 2 months now, making my search public about a month ago on this board. I've annoyed you guys plenty, and last week had made a shortlist of two guitars, either a Martin D-18 or a Gibson J-45. So yeah, my favorite store in the world, Lauzon Music, who carefully selects which guitars they keep in stock, and have their tech tune up every guitar and make sure it's worthy had one of each in stock. I went in, and was blown away, and I mean blown away by the Martin. Then I played the gibson, and the world stopped turning, lol. This guitar was special! More warmth and bass definition than a D-35, and more projection than the J-200 next to it. I had to have it.

So I get home, and tell my mom that I found my guitar, and that I might go see the guy at Lauzon to see if they can hold it for a month while I save up some more. Anyways, I go to jam last night after telling her that I basically had found the one.

I come back home, my parents are sitting in the living room watching tv. The case for my Aria is on the corner table, as I had changed strings on it. I walk in, set my Les Paul case down, and my dad asks me why I want to replace the Aria. I tell him the frets are done. He asks me what I mean. I tell him they are flat as all hell. He asks me to show him. So I go in the corner, and open up my Aria case. On the inside of that case, I find a card that says "Congrats on your B.A., and getting into the faculty of education, love, mom+dad"..... and this......"



It's the most special guitar I own. But, this new one I got today comes close.

AMAZING Folks Bro!!! Wow!! Congrats on the guitar and degree

[crusty philtrum]

Re: Sentimental Guitars thread...

On the left is the remains of my '74 Telecaster Custom, on the right is the remains of my '69 Strat.

A friend of mine bought the Tele second hand somewhere in the 70s for $150. It had been modified and it had a Tune-O-Matic bridge and a stop tailpiece, completing the Gibson layout (Tele Customs had the pickup selector switch up on the top bout where it is located on a Les Paul, and they had 2 volume/ 2 tone controls, wide-range humbucker in the neck and regular single coil in the bridge).

Around 1982/3 he offered to sell it to me for the same as he paid for it. I was broke, but somehow i was at his gig the following night with $150 in my hand. I installed an aftermarket Tele bridge, but i noticed the body didn't have any string holes through the body, so i drilled some. I found out many years later that the reason for no string holes was because it was a rare factory-fitted Bigsby model, although that was never in evidence even when my mate had bought it.

Over the years, it's had a new neck, the bridge pickup died from sweat, and i made my own pickguard in the configuration you see in the pic. I stripped off the thick poly sunburst finish, which greatly improved the sound. This guitar has had a hard life but still plays and sounds great. It's travelled thousands of miles with me over the almost-30 years that I've owned it. I'm planning on getting a new pickguard and restoring it to it's original control layout.

I bought the Strat somewhere in the mid-late '70s, it had been modified to hold a pair of P90-like pickups and had a toggle switch installed up in the top bout. It was a sunburst. I immediately installed a new pickguard with a set of Duncan SSL1s. I remember my first real girlfriend coming to visit me for the first time...she found me on the verandah of the band house where i was staying, asleep on a couch with this Strat laying on top of me. She was a singer, and I and this guitar went on to do gigs and recordings with her.

I sold the Strat to a friend in the 80s, and it seems it went through many changes back then. I got the opportunity to buy it back about three years ago. It was like an old friend coming home, although there's very little of the original guitar left. I treated it to a Callaham bridge and a set of BKP Irish Tour pickups, and stripped off what remained of the sunburst finish.

So they're both like little diaries of my life with connections to a bunch of old friends. They're beat-up and probably not worth much to anyone, but to me they are great guitars and priceless. Now i have 'reverse-relic'ed' them and treat them with love and respect, and they have forgiven me for the abuse i used to inflict upon them and they reward me with great playability and sound. No matter how many Teles and Strats i might own, these two are the last i would ever part with.

[crusty philtrum]

Re: Sentimental Guitars thread...

This is my first-ever guitar, a Stella. I got it second-hand in England in 1966/7 from some people who had bought it in Canada (it's made in the USA). I had it strung up with nylon strings and took classical lessons, later changing to steel strings. I used to get lessons at school, and carried this on the bus in a sky-blue vinyl guitar bag which it still lives in to this day.

The fret spacing must be terrible, because the best you can do with tuning is get a couple of frets to sound okay and the rest of it will sound waaay off. The neck has a steel reinforcing bar rather than an adjustable truss rod. There are some holes drilled in it from my teenage experiments at mounting some kind of pickup, volume pot and output socket.

It does have this great vintage blues sound, and i plan to plane the fretboard off and install a new board and frets and try to get it into better playing shape. It's been with me for almost 45 years, my earliest attempts at playing were done on it, later i open tuned it and taught myself to play slide, it looks nice and it has the old blues sound. It's definitely the oldest posession i have.

[GoldenVulture]

Re: Sentimental Guitars thread...

I can't see me selling any of my guitars but these two are the sentimental
ones.

The electric is aFramus body. The body is what survives of my first electric guitar. it's from a Framus hollywood. i bought it around 1966 when I was fourteen. It was complete then . A couple of years later I sold it to a guy who was an aquaintence. A couple of years later when visiting him one night I spied the Framus body sitting around. He had removed the neck and tried other things with it. it ended up in bits. He offered to give it to me but I insisted on giving him some money for it. $20 which was worth a lot more back then.

Not long after I took it to the Guitar wizard in town and had the neck from my other guitar [ A homemade strat body and neck with a guenuine Fender strat scratch plate and pups.], one of the fender pups and a Gibson single coil [ see - my secret pup ] all put together. That was my only electric for almost the next thirty years. it got upgraded to some Dimarzio super Distortions in the early 80's and around 2002 it got a new neck and scratch plate. it's got a modded Dimarzio SD in it -Neck [ Neodimium magnets ] and the Gibson single coil is back in it- bridge. i don't like the neck I got for it in 2002 and am contemplating another change. No idea to what yet.

Framus have just re-issued the Hollywood.
- -


Mine originally had the colour scheme of the double cutaway below.
- http://iheartguitarblog.com/2011/05/...ouble-cut.html -


The Acoustic I bought in 1979 and is the only other guitar i had until 2002. It got a new nut almost as soon as I got it [ an Ivory one as ivory blanks were available then.] It was restained in 2002. it's a beautifull sounding acoustic and Hummung Bird copies are hard to come by these days.