Friday, April 13, 2012

Guitar Caddy

So last weekend I bought a used Gator guitar case for short money and inherited the cheap guitar in it that had been abused by its previous owner.  The seller told me he actually got mad and split the neck at the heel.  I guess he wasn't meant to be a great guitarist...

After stripping the guitar of its tuners, bridge pins, and pre-amp, and putting the neck out its misery by completely breaking it off the body of the guitar, I wondered how to recycle the remaining parts.  Today I finally took a circular saw to the body, cutting just above the bridge. After sanding down the edges and notching the back brace to accept the truss rod sticking out of the back of the neck under the fingerboard, I reattached the neck to the back of the guitar with wood glue.  Now I've got a uniquely appropriate guitar caddy for my guitar strings and other small guitar accessories and parts that have been cluttering the coffee table in the living room lately!

It's also appropriate to take a moment to mention the painting in the picture above the piano by Swiss artist and singer-songwriter-guitarist Jean-Pierre Huser.  Thirty years ago almost to the day, Jean-Pierre was embarking on his first American tour and invited my brother and me to perform with him in several local concerts including at Harvard University.  He was the first professional musician to encourage us to perform publicly and pursue professional gigs while we were still in high school.  We learned a lot from just a couple of weeks of playing together with him, dissecting his well-constructed songs, and watching him work the audience.  His playing could be so ferocious that his Martin had pick wear clear through the top.  The following year we traveled to Montreux from Paris to record half a dozen original tracks at his Swiss studio during an intense week of creative activity.  The painting was a gift after a more recent showing of his art and concert at the Swiss consulate in Cambridge a couple of years ago.  Give his music a listen courtesy of Amazon.  Good stuff.

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