How I spent my summer vacation (old guitar pics)...

[mmcquain]

While visiting my good friend (and former guitar teacher) last week I got to spent a little bit of time
looking through some of his guitar collection (now over 100 various instruments). There is no way
I could have taken pics of everything - but I did want to share a few pics I snapped along the way.
There were some other really nice guitars to GAS over (30th and 35th Anniversary Les Pauls, a
nicely flamed 59 Reissue from the late 90's, a 1950's Martin acoustic, a pre-CBS 1964 Strat, etc.)
but I just couldn't get to them all. Anyway, here's a what I did manage to snap.

The first one is the actual guitar I learned to play on back around 1979-81. It had been given to
him and he would loan it out to his students who were saving up to buy their own "real" guitar. It
is still the smoothest playing Les Paul Custom I've ever laid hands on. These 20th Anniversary
models were trun "fretless wonders"! I tried (once again) to talk him into selling it to me... no luck,
but he did let me play it for a night at the local jam session with some of the other pickers from
around town. They are all good ol' boys playing Merle Haggard songs, etc. (so the Les Paul was a
little out of place but he knew it was a special guitar to me).
Anyway, enjoy the pics...












A Flying V "project guitar" he is working on.

[mmcquain]

[mmcquain]

[mmcquain]

[mmcquain]

I had never seen this limited edition version of the Peavey Classic 30 before...






It was cool but I'd love to have some of his other amps (1960's Fender Twin,
original Mesa Boogie Mark II, old Super Reverb, etc.).

And now for his some of his lap steel guitar collection (he's not only a
monster lead player, he is an incredible pedal steel player as well).











This next one is one that nobody has ever been able to identify. He
picked it up cheap and has been trying to find out what it is. Anybody
got a clue?








Anyway, that's how I spent part of my time in WV last week. I hope to get more
pictures the next time I go up. He has a few Les Pauls I've never seen before :)

[68Bassman]

Very impressive collection, I like the Chet Atkins. Looks like you had a great time.


BW

[melody]

Bling Bling . Thanks for sharing!

[Kap'n]

Nice stuff, but for the life of me, I could never figure out why an individual would want "over 100 instruments."

Let's say you're 40 and have 100 instruments. You could be expected to live until you're 80

If you picked a different instrument to play every day. You'd play each one less than four times a year, and each one less than 150 times in the rest of your life. That is if you made a conscious and coordinated attempt to rotate them.


Just the string changes would suck. You'd never have fresh strings on any of them, and they'd never sound their best.

And then there's the storage issue.

How many times would you say "I forgot I had that one."

[ziess]

I love the Super 400 and the Gent!

[mmcquain]

Nice stuff, but for the life of me, I could never figure out why an individual would want "over 100 instruments." ..."

In this case I can tell ya' that some of his are for investment (i.e., he bought/traded low and/or a few were given to him) and he's either sold off, or plans to sell as he gets older, some of them when time is right.

He also owned a music store for 25 years and just recently sold the store and the building it was in. A few are left over from that (things he decided to hang on to for now instead of sell with the store).

Others he uses regularly as a player (live and/or studio). A few he has loaned out and some others have personal history and sentimental value.

Add all of that together and you can easily get a pretty big collection (e.g., as a studio/session player he has played lead/rhythm and pedal steel in a variety of musical styles - right there I can see having a Les Paul, Strat, Tele, semi-hollow, acoustic, pedal steel, and maybe a few others for alternate tunings, etc. - easily get up in the 15-30 guitars range for just the ones that he actually plays on a semi-regular basis).

[Doc W]

I could never understand the impulse to have 100 guitars. I do understand how a working professional can collect quite a few for very good reason. When I was playing pro, I certainly had more than I do now and some of the studios would have interesting "house" guitars lying around.

BUT

thanks for sharing all of those drool-invoking pics. I love the Country Gentleman and the National. Very nice eye candy while sipping my morning java.

[FrankJohnson]

I need a towel and a cigarette.....