I often get asked about the instruments I play—the usual questions, who made them? how old are they?—and so I thought I'd do up a 'guitar porn' page for the curious.
I acquired this one in the early 1990's while living in Brooklyn, NY. Got a call one day from a fellow Brooklyn musician named Hank Bones saying he had a D28 for sale that was pretty beat up but sounded good.
He was right on both counts: the thing was trashed, but also had the sound. I decided it was worth getting at the price he was asking, but was initially thinking of it more as an invest-ment than as my primary guitar. But a year or so later I was playing it some and did an earnest comparison with the '67 D28 that I'd been playing for years—and had to admit that it had a certain something over my other guitar.
Around that same time I also realized that I preferred the sound of light gauge strings. I'd been leery of using lights since, playing as hard as I do, I figured thatI'd get buzzing. But with the action on this guitar they seemed to work well and so I've been using lights ever since. (John Pearce or D'Addario phosphor bronze.)
In keeping with our theme of cosmetic degradation, I present to you Old Mel.
(Just came up with that; if BB King can have Lucille, then shoudln't I have at least one guitar with a name?).
I acquired this one from a guy in New Hampshire when I was living in Boston. The price was right because the top was a mess but it sounded great. (Ironically the back is pristine.) This was my main guitar for a number of years, and the one that I played when I won the National Flatpicking Champion-ship in 1976.
I can't recall why I stopped using it as my main guitar, but for the past two decades it has mostly been in an open dul-cimer tuning (with a second G-string in place of the B-string) that I like to play in sometimes. Recently I had it completely redone (neck reset, new bridgeplace, bridge and saddle, fretjob) because it needed the work and because I wanted to use it on a few things that I'm recording for my new CD. (It's currently in open D tuning, with a normal string set.)
One setup note: if you look closely at the photos you can see that a shim has been added to the saddle on the low E string on both guitars—in order to move the saddle back to correct the sharp intonation I'd been getting on each of them. A not uncommon problem in my experience.
(I've also started playing my Rose #29 again around the house after a recent repair and it's sounding very good too.)
1980 Vern Bryant F5 #18 (Gibson reproduction) .
Vern (whose real name is Verlyn) is an 80yo bluegrass musician and luthier from Springfield, VA. I met him a couple years ago when Jimmy Gaudreau suggested I see him for some instrument repair work I needed .
Vern's a cool guy and really fast and reasonable repairman. Whenver I'd go over we'd pick a few tunes and he'd usually have one of the mandolins he'd made on the wall for playing. I tried a few and was impressed—but not knocked out—until #18 appeared one day. (He'd been holding it for a guy who could not finally come up witht he money and decided it was time to realease it into free agency.) Glad he did; this mandolin has given me much pleasure.
(People often ask "how can he put Gibson's name on it—isn't that copyright infrignement?" Truth is for years there was a cottage industry of doing Gibson reproduction necks for tenor banjos toconvert them to 5-strings. And Gibson didn't mind as long as the maker didn't try and pass their stuff off as original. The label inside this mandolin, for instance, is Vern's own (cf below) and clearly not Gibson's. More recent- ly Gibson has gotten agressive about use of their name and almost all luthiers have stopped making reproductions like this one. (Vern's mandolins now say "The Bryant" on their headstocks.)
I almost never carry a banjo when I perform solo or duo
(ie most of my shows) so many people don't even known that I play the thing.
But I do. And whenever I'm fronting a band, there's always some banjer.
This instrument was made in Providence, Rhode Island, by Mike Allison (aka "Providence Guitar & Banjo"). It was owned orginally and played for twenty years by Bruce Stockwell, a Vermonter whose playing I greatly admired when coming up in the New England bluegrass scene. He sold to Ben Freed (another excellent banjoist who I know from my decade in New York) in the mid-nineties and I bought it from Ben.
It's got the JD flathead pop to it; end of story.
CAPO
I'm a recent convert to the Planet Waves NS capo.
The big thing for me: because it only goes halfway around the back of the neck, my left hand knuckle bumps into it much less than it does with the many capos which go completley around the neck. (Taking this concept one step further, I cut off about half an inch of the capo's top so that it doesn't extend off the fretboard—thus allowing my left hand even more freedom of motion.) And it will also perch com-fortably above the nut on the headstock when not in use.
FLATPICK
I've gone through a number of picks over the years, Have been using Dunlop Gator Grip 0.93s for several years now. Found that I need a little flexibility in my pick, and these lighter heavy's seem to do the trick. (I play guitar with the point of the pick and mandolin with the either of the rounder edges.)
12/07 Update: have swtiched to Wegen white triangular 1.0 picks on the mandolin.
FINGERPICKS
National white plastic thumbpick, and Dunlop bronze .25 fingerpicks. The bronze is more malleable and has a bit of a mellower sound than the silver metal picks. Use them both for bluegrass banjo and for fingerstlye guitar.