i bought a guitar

“For my pack, I just used some (4 or 5)of those micro bungie cords.”

“That's a big azz dry bag!”

“Its not a full-size guitar.

http://www.martinbackpacker.com/item--EM.11GBPC
last edited: 3/17/11 6:08:01 PM”

“i bought brian a bass guitar on monday night. and an amp, a tuner, a cable, a case... i'm done, right? he'll be 18 this summer so i told him this is my last musical purchase. maybe i should add that he gets no more bike purchases either. . .

and i'm unhappy that he just GAVE away his drum set to a friend. #&%!$, i paid almost $1000 for that 4 years ago. he said, "but mom, he's poor and can't afford it". kid knows how to twist my heart.

he still plays drums, but the apartment manager will not let him play here, not even in the garage. so he will drum in band at school, and play the bass guitar here at home and jam with his buddies at their homes too.”

“Cool DB! The world definitely needs more bass players!”

“my pleasure entirely! i didn't get to play in the band, so i made sure all my kids did; they all play multiple instruments now. brian can play trumpet, anything in percussion, keyboard, and now bass guitar. erin made the mistake of telling someone at camp she can play trumpet and baritone, now they want her to try bugle calls, LOL! she plays a little guitar and keyboard. steve jr can play anything you give him, he's amazing! and chris plays trumpet and has dabbled in bass guitar too.”

“Bass is easy to stumble through if you know enough guitar, but you're right Strat, we need more bassists. And drummers for that matter.”

“There's plenty of drummers.....just not drummers with drums, lol”

“out here, it seems all you can find are stoners with bongos, and metal drummers who don't know what "don't use the double-bass" means... :(”

“lol, best drummer I ever jammed with played a 5 piece and stood up the whole time”

“I used to carry a $50 3/4-scale pawn shop guitar on all solo trips - that's where toe-jam came from. I wasn't too careful with them (went through at least 3). I just roped them to the back of my pack in a stuff sack or cheap vinyl gig bag.

I'm not good enough to take a guitar on trips with other people. After "Wish You Were Here" I'm out of songs other people appreciate.”

“I can appreciate ANYone who knows more than 2 chords and can make a guitar (or for that matter any other instrument too) sound like a song instead of the same thing that comes out of my hand on the frets of D and G each time I pick the darn thing up.”

“David plays guitar too.
:)”

“I'm not good enough to take a guitar on trips with other people. After "Wish You Were Here" I'm out of songs other people appreciate.”
toejam
10:53:56 PM

hahahaha, yeah, once I run out of Floyd to play, the pickin's get awful slim. I think I can limp through Knockin' on Heaven's Door too - that's just three chords, right?”

“why don't the two of you learn more stuff?”

“I learn a lot of songs, but then when I'm sitting with other people, I seem to forget them all”

“I hate it when that happens!

Sometimes people are like, "Hey man, play your guitar" but it's just not the right moment, I'm just not feel'n it ....It's hard to explain but for me, I have to be in the groove and whenever I try to force it, it doesn't really work right. It took me quite a while to realize that when I first started gigging all the time. I can't make it happen, I have to let it happen....”

“yep, and then you've got all these people staring at you and all the songs you know go out the window... except friggin "Wish you were here", lol

That's why it's good to know other people who play... then, you can both sit down with a guitar and you can make the other dude pick the songs”

“when i was a scout leader and music had to be sung, it didn't matter if i was in the mood or not, i had to lead. doesn't take more than three songs by a campfire before you are in the mood anyway. i had a really fat binder of music i brought on every campout because i couldn't remember every song.”

“Ok, I bought a 1974 Gibson J-50 deluxe. Pretty good shape. I've had it about 6 months, love it! Best sounding guitar I've ever played. So nice, makes me wish I could play much better, but keeps me tryin'..”

“That's what I'm talkn bout! Man I blew out my ring finger on my fretting hand and it's in a splint so I havent even picked up my guitar in a couple months. I did it..... Wait for it.... Playing kickball. DOH!”

“Sweet camp, whadat set you back?..... if you don't mind my axin.”

“I bought it on eBay, something everyone told me not to do. I paid about $700 plus shipping. I had to get it set up, another $65. That made all the difference! I think it plays and sounds as good as any of the new ones they have on the rack.

About two months ago Guitar center had a 1973 J-45 sunburst, in much better shape than mine for $999. I thought it was a pretty good deal.

I'm happy with mine tho. It's not in such great condition that I'd worry about taking it camping and its still in good enough shape to be a great player.”

“Sorry to hear that strat..finger injuries suck. Here's a pic

It came with a nice hard case. The original cases sucked around this time. One of the last years the acoustics were produced in Kalamaazoo, MI. Gibson's weak corporate years..”

“That's pretty sweet, One. I still can't wrap my head around a 700$ guitar being not too nice for the campfire but hey, that's just me. I'm accident prone so I guess that's a factor, lol. Ive taken my Fender 12 string camping so whats the difference. I bet yours sounds killer. I don't recall ever playing one, does it sound big? You know, like bassey? I'd be scared to death to buy a guitar I never played!”

“John Hiatt says Gibsons have a thump that no other guitars has. It's pretty loud. The round shoulder guitars supposedly project better.

Well, $700 is big chunk of loot for sure. Just have to be careful. It's about value to me. I could buy a new Gibson and it probably would never again be worth what I paid for it in my lifetime, or sound as good as this one. I'm pretty sure I could get my $700 out of it if I wanted or hand it down to my boy and it might be worth much more one day.

You have to play 'em, does no good to let them sit. If you play it all the time you'll probably scratch it once in a while..”

“it's like a new car - the only scratch that really hurts you is the first one. After that, it just shows that the guitar has been loved”

“Exactly. Besides, if you scratch it around a campfire it'll just trigger good memories. If you scratch it at home in your living room, well..notsomuch.”

“That's wicked awesome camp, thanx for sharing the personal info. I axt because my little darling is wanting to move up to an adult guitar. She wants one with a pick-up in it. There's 2 at a large pawn shop, one's a...... dangit, it's what John Denver recorded with.... and the other is a Takamone. I'll get the stats for yuns and yawl can tell me if it might be a go or a no-go. I'd like to take her and let her play it, but that bends over Santa, so I'd really like it to be a surprise. At 13, the xmas surprise factor is starting to ebb off, knowwhutImean.

Anyway, as far as ebay goes camp, that's what I'd gotten her .... twice. I watched them Baby Taylors for about 8 months, read what everyone selling them said. While I was watching those, I picked her up a fairly nice 40's Kingston parlor guitar to learn on, wattin much, only about 70 bux with shipping. But then I finally cawt a mahogany Baby Taylor under the radar in fantastic condition (and no cig smell) for 220 including shipping. It didn't have a hard case, but it shipped pkg'ed well and in it's Taylor gig bag. Emelyn is thrilled with that one, she can go to town on it! Oh yeah, last year ..... no, year before maybe, when Hyway thru'd, Emelyn won 3rd place at the Trail Dayz talent show contest pickin' and singin' Horse With No Name.

Oh yeah.... Guild! A Guild and a Takamone, I'm looking at those 2. One's like 370 and the other's 700. One tho, I'm pretty sure it's the Jap Tak, has a pretty fat neck, would be something awkward for her small hand I'd think.”

“That's too cool! I can't get my boy to play. He's been taking lessons for a couple years but he just doesn't want to sing and play..he's 11. I bought
him a 3/4 size when he was 6. Then I bought a 7/8 laguna and let him use that once I got the Gibson. It's good for small hands, has a vee neck, very light.

Since your kid shows talent, you should get her a proper instrument, imo. She'll grow into it all too fast. Something she would keep her whole life. Be patient, wait for a deal on something really nice. Then, take it to a luthier to be set up. Doesn't have to happen by Christmas..that is maybe a bad time.

She won't be disappointed if you just give it to her for no occasion at all. She'll know you're thinking about her and want her to have the best!”

“Guilds are bad to the bone. That's great though Ape. The band America is what made me want to really get into playing. Learned all their songs and moved on to Neil Young... Then I forgot them all, haha”

“I just got a banjo as a gift from my mother-in-law. Be damned if I know how to play it though...”

“That's awesome! 5 string? Listen to Flatt n Scruggs and just play like that. Haha!”

“no, it's a 4 string tenor banjo. I know how to tune it, and I can stumble through a few basic chords, but that's about it. I've got lots of learning ahead of me”

“That's pretty funny Pepsi, just today I nabbed a 60-minute vhs video on the 5 string banjo for beginners for fitty cent at the thrift store. It's for my boy, he's wanting to have a try at the banjer. He's in mandolin class now, doing good, but he ain't too much into it. Boy on the piano tho, he cain't stay off it.

My wife plays a mean banjer, a true banju pickin' Suthun Belle, sept without the fused toes, buck teeth, and crossed eye.”

“Anyone here know what's the deal with Guild guitars, like the different GAD #s? There's a GAD 25, GAD 30, GAD 50, perhaps some more too.

The Guild at the pawn shop is a D4 NTHR, whatever that means. There's one that looks good on Ebay for about 480 including shipping and hard case. The pawn shop one has a mahogany top and much better m.o.p. along the frets, the ebay one has a light wood color top.

Exactly what you said 1camp, for sure she shows great talent. My fath-in-law wants us to look for a great one for her. He said we need to come up with a wish list, and sooner or later we'll luck into something that we'd be stupid to turn down. That's his hope anyway. He had me look up on ebay on my droid Conn, Gibson J200, Gibson hummingbird, Gibson white dove. We looked at some Guilds too, but he don't know the numbering system, like I'd asked yawl above, tho he said a nice Guild would certainly be on the list.”

“I bought the Gibson j 50 / j 45 because I don't know that much about guitars. All the different models and materials had me confused. That model of Gibson only comes in standard and deluxe. Many famous musicians use them, including two of my favorites. John Hiatt and Bob Dylan. So I decided that's what I wanted and waited for a deal on one.

I do know Guild, Martin, Takemine, Seagull, Taylor, etc.. all make very nice guitars. I just don't know specifically what to look for.”

“Tell me about that one camp. Det's like year, wood, much pearl or not, ac or ac/el with a pick-up, what it cost ya, where you picked it up. I'll look around for my Emelyn if you really, really like it.

"""" I just don't know specifically what to look for."""" Pfffft, I'm about as musical as bowl of tater salad.”

“The j 50 is blonde and the j45 is sunburst. They made them from the 40's to the late 70's in that configuration. The deluxe has chrome tuning keys, the standard had white ones. That's about the only difference. The neck is a C profile. When set up properly, has action like an electric. Also, they made a freekin' million of 'em. They aren't super expensive guitars by comparison. They just sound big and nice and the action is great!

The Hummingbird has a slightly, very slightly larger body. That model offers fancy inlays and all kinds of options..
J 150 is the big country western body. Pretty expensive.

In the late 80's or so the company was bought back buy former employees and started making acoustics in Bozeman. They make a bunch of models and all kinda more pricey. They make Hummingbirds and others with built-in pickups and controls hidden inside the soundhole. The cord socket is in the strap pin. Very cool. Probably get a nice one for $1200 or so.

That's about all I know. Personally, I'd recommend against the pick up. You sure don't want to add one.. You'll find the best price on an early seventies square shoulder.
There was a time in the late 60's they used an adj. bridge..I wouldn't want one of them but they sell for a lot. There are acoutic guitar forums where you can get the low down on any guitar. That's where I would look first.”

“My guitars always picked me... Like the green lanterns ring. Destiny will drop the right one in your lap....”

“..that's how you end up with a room full of guitars.. let fuzzy fate pick 'em.

Like any gear, decide what you want, decide what it is worth to you, then buy it or wait for it. Guitars aren't exceptions.”

“Here ya go Nekkid,


I was reading about the Beatles and ran across this pic. Looks like a J-50 or a Hummingbird.”

“Hey, sweet! Do you know the difference between a J50 and a J200?”

“Bout one-fitty?”

“J 200 is the super jumbo, the largest flatop they make. I think it was what Roy Clark would always play.

”

“Oh man, I saw him in concert one time. Geesh that guy tore up every stringed instrument you can think of. Banjo, fiddle, mandolin, dobro, 6 string, 12 string, electric, acoustic, melted every one of em! I thought he was a Gretch guy but I could be wrong. He did play a big bodied one for sure. What a talent!”

“No doubt, still playin'..”