I no longer own what is still my favorite electric (actually electrified) guitar. It was an old National flattop I picked up in a pawn shop for $20. Someone had painted the top with ugly gold paint, made a new pick guard from kitchen Formica®' (mother of toilet seat pattern), and filed the frets for faster action but across the sound hole was a vintage DeArmond pickup very like the one in pictures of Brownie McGhee. Brownie was and is one of my heros and the guitar was love at first site. I used play it through my father's tape recorder amplifier. I think I was 18 at the time.

My current electric guitar is a Telecaster copy put together by a local musician from high-quality commercial parts. It has a humbucker at the neck position and I keep it configured for more of a jazz sound than country or Texas blues. I once owned a Martin hollow-body double-cutaway electric guitar with two humbuckers and and Bixby® tremelo tailpiece. I played it through a Fender Twin Reverb amp and fooled around with Merle Travis tunes. I finally sold the outfit and did without any electric guitar for a time. But I still think about that old National from time to time. It may have been funky but it was very cool. And I've often wished I could have met the person who modified it to suit his music. I'll bet he could play.

      - Mark