Of Guitars

Guitars here are a part of the family. My dad and his family have a huge guitar collection: all kinds of guitars, from rare to cheap, from very old to somewhat old (the collection has stopped growing now), electric and acoustic. "The Collection" as my dad calls it, was also a pretty good moneymaker, and apparently rather popular in Hollywood. I don't know how many movies "our" guitars have appeared in, but I know for sure that a few of them are in The Color Purple.

Most of the guitars in The Collection are in my grandpa's garage, but we have a few at our house, and a few others. So let me introduce you to the guitars in our home:

First, here is my own left-handed guitar, an Ibanez:



I love it because it's mine to play, and name, and tune and bang up and carry around with me. It doesn't have a name yet, though. Needless to say, this guitar is NOT in the Collection. ;)

This is my dad's Alvarez, signed inside by the maker, Kazuo Yairi.



This is the Martin. This small kind of guitar is known as a "parlor guitar." It's very old - over 130 years - and in these pictures, it looks every day of its age! It's got cracks in the body, and broken strings, but four years ago it was in better shape, and was the guitar I started learning on. Clasical guitars can be restrung left-handed or right-handed because the bridge is level.



This guitar, "the Taylor" is another one that's not in the collection, but it has a kind of fun story. My dad was told about some drawing that his work, or a business associated with his, was having. The prizes were two Taylor acoustic/electric guitars (if you hook them up to an amp they magically sound like electric guitars). My dad entered, and won. He never told us he had entered, so we were pretty surprised when he came home carrying an unfamiliar, cloth guitar case.





This is "the Musser". It hasn't been played in a while, because it's got a buzz in a few of the strings, but I really really love this guitar. It's got such a beautiful color:



It looks so plain at first, until you see the decoration around the sound-hole (mother-of-pearl, perhaps, or mock-mother-of-pearl):



And then this... this is the Gibson. The Gibson "Southern Jumbo."



Out of all the guitars we have in our home, this is my favorite. I love the dark, rich colors, and the full, beautiful sound it makes, even with its old strings. I love how it looks like it was my dad's favorite, too. It's all beat up around the pickguard from hard playing:



I grew up around these guitars, and I'm only now learning to appreciate each one. So don't worry if you look at these pictures and think, "Mmm... pretty... but what's the big deal?" There is no big deal. I just like guitars. My dad likes them. His brother, when he was alive, liked them (he did most of the collecting and business). I guess it runs in the family.