Monday, April 9, 2012

I Love This Guitar





This was my first real guitar. I bought it at Fretted Instruments in the Village (or "Greenwich Village Close" as the real estate people say), it cost me sixty-five dollars. I bought it in 1965, when I was seventeen.

It's a 1949 Gretsch Syncromatic, not a "cat's eye" sound hole model, but pretty cool nonetheless. It's a great sounding guitar to this day, very fat sound, very loud and musical, all solid maple with a three piece maple/rosewood neck and an "ebony-dyed" rosewood fingerboard. Historical note: in the movie "Cry Baby," the Johnny Depp character played the same guitar.

Yes, I'm the one who painted it. Bear in mind, we were all crazy back then, and besides, I still like it.

It was a beater when I got it, but it still functions perfectly and plays great.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

You very likely destroyed any value it had with your "artwork"

fred c said...

This ain't "Pawn Stars," buddy, this ain't "Pickers." Look at that popped binding; all those gouges in the top; like I said, this thing was a beater when I got it. It had only two of the original tuners, and four different kinds of tuners all together. I replaced them with Grovers, another no-no for "value."

Besides, anything you don't intend to sell has "no value."