When I was younger, so much younger than today….
Where was I going with that… Oh yes, I remember… when I was younger – a whole lot younger than I am today, I discovered that I had a love for music – specifically guitar based music.
I would have been about 12 years old when I first got the opportunity to borrow a steel string guitar and some lesson books and sheet music.
Thinking back, the songs would have been something like “Turn, Turn, Turn” Peter Paul & Mary, “Hang Down Your Head Tom Dooley” – who knows?, whatever songs were in the books – if they had chord diagrams, I could try to play them. Only if you’ve ever learnt to play an instrument will you know the joy of playing a note, or a chord and having it ring out pure and clear for the first time. Especially after some time trying to overcome buzzing frets with fingers too short and too wide to ever possibly be useful. On top of that, the steel strings would cut into the virgin fingertips like a knife, day after day until after a while, slowly but surely a protective callous would form on the fingertips and this let you continue on to the next level. There were many tips to toughen up your fingertips including soaking them in salt water, but in reality the only sure fire way to grow a callous was to play the guitar until, as Bryan Adams said “… your fingers bled”.
Interestingly enough this would have been around the summer of ’69.
After driving Mum & Dad mad, I was eventually fortunate to be given my very own guitar – a nylon string acoustic 3/4 size model and a zip up vinyl case. I can still remember the smell of the wood, glue, varnish, and whatever else goes into making a guitar… even today when I smell a new guitar it takes me back to that time in my life. 
I loved that guitar with a passion and it was with me for a couple of years while I learnt every chord I needed to know in every key I could sing in, all the while slowly improving my technique and confidence.
Unfortunately that first guitar came to a sad and untimely end at the hands of a novice luthier – keep reading….
In the early 1970s, At Sunnybank High School in Brisbane, I had become friends with a great group of guys and girls who also sung and/or played guitar and we somehow ended up scoring a gig singing a couple of songs at the school Speech Night – an important night on the school calendar. I had been a little concerned during rehearsals that my guitar was a little too quiet. There was after all no amplification other than the microphone which was primarily for vocals and it was pumped through the school PA system… It was never going to be high fidelity..
I then remembered that the borrowed steel string guitar I first learnt on was quite a bit louder than my nylon acoustic guitar so I did what any aspiring rock star (clueless idiot) would do and replaced the nylon strings on my guitar with steel strings. It actually sounded sensational – loud, bright, clear…. I remember thinking that I should have done this much earlier, the sound was so good.
I practiced and practiced and felt really good about the performance to come. The guitar felt really good and sounded excellent while the callouses on my fingers grew good and strong. Our little band of musicians had sorted out our songs and harmonies and finally the big night arrived.
I recall we were all nervous – putting yourself out there in front of the whole school was a daunting prospect. But hey!, we had learnt our songs and practiced until we felt pretty good about things and so we hit the stage (which I recall was a landing on the stairs between the ground and first floor of one of the school blocks).
We started our set.. nervously at first and then more and more confident as we went on. The music seemed to be going down well with the students in the quadrangle and we were starting to feel like rock stars.
I was staring to think that this was what I wanted to do with the rest of my life! The quad turned into Wembley Stadium and the crowd of 120 students became 50,000 screaming fans. Our limo was being chased by screaming girls clutching and tearing at our clothes…. and then it happened!
It seems patently obvious to me now, but back then I had no understanding of the impact of increased strain placed on the bridge and neck of a guitar when replacing nylon strings with steel.
It doesn’t make itself obvious immediately. No, the steel strings start pulling on the bridge and slowly spread to the glued join between the front face and the back and sides of the guitar.
In practical terms what this means is… in the middle of a rocking number, the face of my guitar separated from the back and sides causing my guitar to lose all tuning. I desperately tried to hold the face of the guitar in while I played it but in the end it was a lost cause. From rock star at Wembley to an embarrassed high school kid in a flash…
That was a long time ago and there have been many guitars since. In fact I recently decided that I’d no longer sell off my old guitars. Every guitar I now own holds a special place in my memory and so I have decided that they will stay with me for life.
As of today, the guitar family consists of….
Takamine acoustic electric guitar 
Squire (Fender Preision Bass) guitar 
Yamaha Silent Guitar 
Vantage VSH-455 guitar 
Gibson Les Paul Classic 1960 Reissue 
Fender Stratocaster American Deluxe 
Epiphone Sheraton II Arch-top Semi-acoustic guitar 
…. and none of them will be leaving anytime soon!
Other guitars I’d like to own one day include the Gibson SG,Fender Telecaster and a Rickenbacker 360/12.
…. and none of these will be arriving anytime soon!!!!
Hello all!
An update – while not strictly a guitar, my new baby is an Epiphone Les Paul Ukulele!
This is a great little thing…. 4 nylon strings, G C E A tuning … new chords to learn but you know it has been great fun and it takes me back to the first guitar I had and that feeling whenever you pull off that perfect chord with no fret buzz or accidentally muted strings.. I’ve even discovered that the 4 string configuration and tuning gives the player access to a whole range of chords that, on a 6 string guitar would be quite a stretch, if not totally impossible.
If you already play the guitar, I’d highly recommend you pick up a Uke… don’t get the cheapest or the most expensive (they come in several sizes from Soprano to Concert to Tenor and finally Baritone so try before you buy to find one you can hold and finger with sufficient fret gaps and reasonable action. Mine is a Concert size and if anything, may be a tad small for my fat short fingers, but I can still manage to get a reasonable sound out of it.
