My very first guitar was a Gibson classical. I was told it would be easier on the fingers to play. Well, I joined a group of friends and we started learning Kingston Trio and Peter, Paul, and Mary songs. Whatever we heard on the radio. Soon we were hired for our first paying gig, the St. Johns Carnival. Wanting better balance in our sound, I decided to "up-grade" my guitar by putting steel strings on it. Well, as you might guess, two days prior to our show, I opened my case to find all of the strings quite slack. It did not take long to find the reason. The bridge was standing at a 45 degree angle to the face of the guitar, barely attached along one edge.

Of course, the music store could not make the repair in time. They agreed to loan me a guitar, a monstrous jazz guitar with an arched top and two f-holes. My folk image was ruined (wrong guitar, no one played an arch top) and it was quite a struggle to play.

Roger in Baltimore