There was recently a birthday in our home, that is actually a little music related. Therefore, it will be posted to this blog, and not my "miscellaneous" blog. The worst thing about it, is that I remembered the birthday coming up, before the fact, but then totally forgot about it on the actual day. It wasn't until the day after, that I remembered the significant day. Well, nearly significant. If I follow the advice of comedian Patton Oswalt, I would not even consider celebrating the birthday, as he feels we should only h celebrate ten birthdays, and once you hit 21, it is only the "decade" birthdays that you celebrate. The object of who's birth I celebrate, is my lovely (in my opinion) Takamine F340-SD. This is one of the classic Takamine "lawsuit" guitars, which were built back in the 70's and early 80's. Now, we all know that Martin guitars are the cream of the crop, when it comes to acoustic guitars, but these Takamine guitars are so close in design, and in their eyes, craftsmanship, that Martin sued and won a lawsuit, requiring them to stop making such similar guitars. Now, I'm pretty sure the guitar isn't quite the work of art that a Martin would be, but it's still a lovely guitar (in my opinion).
I began playing guitar back in 2004, and am still not the greatest player in the world, but it still fulfills a lifelong dream of being able to play. I started playing on a Seagull cedar top guitar, which I purchased from Tracey, my brother-in-law. He was kind enough to sell the guitar to me, for a great purchase price. He ended up buying a mahogany Martin, and then actually ended up going through a series of guitars, before selling all his acoustics. He and I volunteer at the Snowbird Folk and Bluegrass Festival, and we both have wanted to get involved in one of the jam circles. A couple years ago, Tracey was only owning a nylon string guitar, which would be the laughing stock of any Bluegrass circle, so he began desiring another steel string acoustic. I started looking at pawn shops, and had come across this sweet Takamine. The funny thing, is that the guitar had cobwebs inside it, including a dandelion. How these items found their way inside (okay, I get the fact that a SPIDER probably put the web inside), I don't know, but I am glad they were there. I think it made the guitar look a little less attractive. I was originally going to put it aside for him, but after no contact from him, I began falling in love with it, myself. I ended up going back a few months later, and purchased it myself, allowing me to sell Tracey's Seagull guitar, back to it's original owner.
Tracey was happy, I was happy. Anyhow, due to the wonderful interweb, and the clever serial numbering system of Takamine, I was able to find out that my guitar was made on May 17th, 1977. Last year was it's big 30th birthday, but this past week was number 31. It came and went without any thoroughfare, but the fact of the matter, is that I am happy that I was able to pick it up and play a few chords, to celebrate number 31.
Happy Birthday, guitar...
Have I named it? I thought I did, but I can't remember any names... perhaps "Lucille"?
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Now playing: ABBA - Fernando
via FoxyTunes
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