When I first got interested in folk music around 1952, I went looking for a guitar to learn on. A friend had just bought himself a Gibson f-hole orchestra guitar (he was into jazz) and offered me his old guitar for $5.00. He said it might need a few repairs.

Well—it was a real cheapie to begin with. And he, in a wall-eyed fit of some kind, had taken a woodburning set and burned a cartoon onto the soundboard. A stereotypical Mexican peon, complete with a big sombrero and serape, taking a siesta while leaning against a cactus. Burro patiently waiting in the background. Garish! Gawdawful. But I got it for a mere $5.00.

If the cartoon wasn't bad enough (I figured maybe I could throw a tarp over it), it only had five strings. One of the tuning keys had broken off. It turned out it would cost me more than I had paid for the damned thing to have new tuners put on.

I took it down to Myers' Music on Seattle's First Avenue (where all the pawn shops are) to see if I could trade it in on something serviceable. The salesman took one look and said, "Get that thing OUT of here!!"

But he sold me a little Regal plywood guitar for $9.95, plus $5.00 for a fiberboard case, and threw in a free copy of Nick Manoloff's How to Play the Guitar complete with a handy-dandy patented Nick Manaloff "Chord Wheel," a sort of cardboard slide rule with which you could dial a key and it would tell you what chords to use. Handy! I learned all about the Circle of Fifths from that gizmo.

But he still wanted me to get the guitar with the busted tuning key and the cartoon out of the shop quickly and unobtrusively.

I later sold it for—$5.00—to a friend who said he thought he could fix the tuning key, and since he planned on keeping it in his bedroom while he taught himself to play, he didn't mind the silly cartoon.

The Regal turned out to be not bad to start on. It was actually tunable, the intonation was right on, as were the frets, amd because it had a medium-low action, it was easy enough to play. Sounded like it was made from old apple crates, but wotthehell, it was good enough to start to learn on.

I sold it about a year and a half later—for $5.00—and bought myself a Martin 00-18. $110.00 complete with a fifteen dollar fiberboard case.

Don Firth

P. S. Belt sander! That would have taken care of that silly cartoon. Why didn't I think of that?