If instruments could talk...oh, the stories and tunes!

So State the Law(s) of the Universe:

Musical Instruments, They's good company.
Playing an instrument is a relationship.
Playing an instrument is additive.
Playing an instrument makes you want to play more instruments.
Playing more instruments make you want more instruments.
Finding an instrument is easy; finding a good one, right for you, is a lifelong quest.    
When you find an instrument at 20, you will not have it when you're 30.
When you find and instrument 30 year older than you are...now you're on to something!
Try to keep them in your "musical family" so you can visit them.
Wonder what trees, how old they were, and where they grew, that gave you your instrument.
Make provisions for them in you will. Pass them on to bring joy.
No matter how old, beat up, or how it came to you. Play it like you mean it.

I've not been terribly addicted to having lots of instruments. I really couldn't afford good ones. I never had the financial stability to buy and sell. I tried it a couple times. I became financially embarrassed a had to pass it on.... A 1970;s reissue D-28 Herringbone comes to mind. It was last heard of in Brevard NC. Like to have that back.

I always wanted a Martin in the early 70's. I didn't really deserve one. My first one came as a stage prop auction at the  Arena Stage in Washington D.C. I had 300.00. A friend back me for the 50.00 I didn't have. Groceries were might plain that month on a teacher's salary. I was on cloud nine. That '68 D-28 sorta' kickstarted my 6 string guitar career. Financial instability again. Wish I still had that. Pattern here?

Oh, did I mention the early 60's Gibson 12 string. I don't know why, but Mama decided I needed a better guitar. She took me to Durden's music store and I settled for a red sunburst 12 string. I wanted to play like Leadbelly. Good luck with that, but I did learn to play "Walk Right In, Sit Right Down" .I played that guitar for years, and that song thousands of times. Freddie Goodhart's Second Hand Shop in Lexington, Va. got that one.

I joined a bluegrass group. The twelve string didn't do bluegrass well, and it was never in tune." Get a real guitar, or your out". I traded it for a Sigma. What was I thinking!

Oh, I found a 1942 Gibson LG-2 guitar in my Uncle John's closet about 15 years ago. Hmm. With his permission, I had it repaired...and he wanted it back. 8 years later he sold it to me. He bought it in a pawn shop for 35.00 in 1948 and rode it hard and put it away wet. It's another killer instrument, well worth the effort. Unc does like to buy, sell, and trade.

On to mandolins.

I started on an old Kay Freddie Goodhart gave me. He taught me "Soldiers Joy". I traded up to a Kay Kraft. I decided I needed a Gibson A. I like round hole mandolins, and the wider neck. I don't remember where I got it but I got one...cheap. I sold it for seed money for a beautiful A-3 Whiteface Gibson. I still have it. See, little older little smarter. Can't have too many, you know.

My next Gibson A was a Jim Bumgartner basket case. It was in pieces, but had a beautiful top. I installed a vinyl tile floor in Jim's shop, and it was mine. It took a year for Paul Yeaton, Paul Reisler, and Sam Rizetta to find time to put it together. It was worth the wait! I played it for 30 years.

It is now in the very capable and caring hands of Mary Freeman...so I still get to play it when I want! Mary also helped me acquire a beautiful 1917 Gibson A 4 that replaces one that some hateful puke stole from me. I found out it showed up at a flea market in Cresaptown, Md. I wish the best for it.
Good instruments find a way of "floating to the top". Hope it ended up in good hands, and not in the wood stove.

Mary Freeman's  mandolin was sent to be repaired. It was "misplaced" when the luthier moved his shop to a new location. It resurfaced three years later residing in the dark recesses of the old shop with other orphaned instruments..

While the Mary mandolin was missing, I needed a good mandolin. I called a buddy Nowell Creadick in NC. He sent me a VERY nice 1923 Gibson Snakehead, right price, and asked "if that would do".  

Yeah, that'll do!

So, as you can see, this music?instrument thing takes effort, time, luck. It also provides a chance for fortune, fame, late nights, poor sound systems, dirt roads, chicken wire venues, and the company of many talented musicians that make great stories. Fishermen and hunters have stories; why not musicians? I remember the one that "got away"....

Amen.

Now, what tunes did all these neat old instrument know. Who were their people?  Who bought, loved, traded, and kept them playing.  What was their first tune,and who taught it to them. Did they ever have to go to music school? Did they live with someone famous? I DO wish they could talk. I wonder if their people left DNA on them? If blisters have DNA, I've popped a couple on fingerboards in my day.