I've been through a fair number of instruments since I first took up the guitar in 1952. My first guitar was a $9.95 Regal, which, fortunately, was tunable, had a fairly soft action, and the intonation was on, even if it did have the kind of tone you'd expect from a guitar made out of old apple crates.

In 1954, I bought myself a Martin 00-18 steel-string guitar (I felt like a junior executive with his first BMW!). But about a year later, I started taking classical guitar lessons, and my new teacher told me that the 00-18, with its steel strings and narrow fingerboard, wouldn't be suitable. So I traded it in (got a very good deal!) on a Martin 00-28-G, Martin's top-of-the-line classic.

I spent some time in Denver, Colorado, in a physical therapy sanitarium there (trying to alleviate some of the ravages of polio when I was two years old), and since my room was open all the time and anybody could walk in and make off with the guitar, I got a Harmony 173. The same dimensions as the Martin and it sounded okay, but it was a fraction of the cost of the Martin. Just in case.

In the late Fifties, I took a whack at the 5-string banjo. I got a cheapy ($35.00) and a copy of Pete Seeger's instruction book and record, and set about learning to play the thing. Eventually, I got a long-necked Vega "Seeger Model." About $300 at the time. Great machine! I got pretty good with the thing, but when it came to performing various places, lugging my guitar (primary instrument) AND the banjo (bloody thing in its case weighed a ton!) was a real chore, so I just didn't use it that much and eventually sold it. But given a couple of days with a banjo, I think I could pick it up again pretty fast.

In 1958, the Seattle Classic Guitar Society was organized, bringing together a few dozen classical guitar enthusiasts, including a number of really fine guitarists. AND guitars! I was introduced to several European made instruments, and although my Martin classic was a respectable instrument, serious classical guitarists regarded it in the same way car buffs who owned Bentleys and Ferraris would regard a Chrysler sedan. Nice. It'll get you there. But—

I soon got myself a Vincente Tatay, made in Barcelona. Not all that expensive, but a very rich sound. That's what Richard Dyer-Bennet played early on, before he got his Manuel Velazquez.

A couple of years later, a friend and member of the guitar society came back from Spain with an absolutely outrageous flamenco guitar—which he had made for him by luthier Arcangel Fernandez. And it cost him a mere $100 American! Bill helped me order one like it, which I got a year and a half later, total cost about $175, which included import duty and air freight from Madrid. Not saying this was a great guitar, but shortly thereafter, I learned that Montoya, Sabicas, and Mario Escudero were all playing Fernandez flamenco guitars. This demanded that I learn some flamenco, which I did from one of the guitarists who was playing at the Spanish Village exhibit at the 1962 Seattle World's Fair (Flamenco dancing show several times a day, and Antonio was one of the three guitarists accompanying them and playing guitar solos).

Well, to cut a long story short(er), I went through a number of other guitars in the following years, often because I didn't want to take guitars like the "Arcangel" to some bash where someone would stumble and pour beer into the soundhole or walk off with it when I went to the john, so I did have a couple of fairly good "beaters."

My current stable of instruments: I still have the Arcangel Fernandez flamenco, which, I discovered, is worth over 100 times what I paid for it if I were to sell it through a broker such as The Guitar Salon, that deals only in fine classical and flamenco guitars!! They sold a 1961 "Arcangel" recently for $18,000! Oy!!

I also have a classical guitar that San Diego luthier José Oribé had made in Japan to sell under his label as a "student guitar." I got it as a sort of "beater," but was surprised at how good it sounded. It was a dead ringer for the José Ramirez concert guitar that Segovia played and Christopher Parkening currently plays, but it was one-tenth of the price. I gained a real respect for the instrument when I was asked to do a program of folk songs for the Seattle Classic Guitar Society membership a few years back. Now some pretty high-priced lumber appears at these meetings, and everybody there assumed that the guitar I was playing was a José Ramirez because it looked and sounded like one—even a couple of people who owned Ramirez guitars! Not too shabby!!

A decade or so ago, my shoulders gave out from a lifetime of walking with aluminum forearm crutches, so I had to take to a wheelchair. I can't play a full-size guitar when I'm sitting in the wheelchair (lower bout of the guitar and the right wheel want to occupy the same space), so I went on-line shopping for a small-bodied travel guitar. After reading lots of web sites and reviews of travel guitars, I settled on a Go-guitar made by Sam Radding of San Diego. He makes them for both steel and nylon strings. And actually, I have one of each. They have a pretty good sound for such a small-bodied instrument, and I've actually used the nylon-string Go for a couple of concerts and several other performances. It looks like a canoe paddle with strings, but the tone and volume, if not impressive, is adequate. A few people have asked me after performances if it were a "period instrument" of some kind.

So—I currently have the Arcangel Fernandez flamenco, the Oribé classic, another classic made by Juan Alvarez when he was an apprentice of Arcangel Fernandez which I lugged around the halls of the Cornish College of the Arts music department when I was going there during the Sixties, and the two Go-guitars.

Speaking of "period instruments," I recently discovered the Baroque guitar. Five "courses"—double strings like a lute except for the highest in pitch which is single, and tuned like the top five strings of a modern guitar—small body, very ornately adorned.

A Baroque guitar being played by a young local woman, who, in addition to teaching guitar and lute at a nearby college and concert touring, last I heard she was also treasurer of the Seattle Classic Guitar Society:   Elizabeth Brown

You're not about to find a Baroque guitar hanging on the wall at your local music store. They're made by the same kind of luthiers who make lutes and such. Quite pricy.

So—not this week. . . .

Don Firth

P. S. My wife Barbara plays keyboards. She has an Estey pump organ and a small reed organ that can be collapsed into a box about the size of a foot locker. She also took a shot at learning the guitar, then the Celtic harp, the "hog-nosed" psaltery (famous in Medieval tapestries), but she feels much more at home with keyboards. It would be nice to have a baby grand piano for her to play (she plays really well; Chopin, Beethoven, Debussy, all those guys), but not enough room in our apartment, even if we got rid of the Estey. I'd like to get her a good touch-sensitive (responds like a regular piano) electronic keyboard, but only with her trying it out first and approving it.   So I can't really surprise her as I'd like to.

She used to play alto clarinet in her high school marching band. She also has a lovely soprano voice. We've done a number of performances together. She sings in the church choir.

Scattered around the apartment we have baskets loaded with penny whistles and recorders of various sizes, and over the years people have given me such things as Jew's harps, kazoos, an African thumb piano, a couple of things I can't put a name to, and one shaky egg.

I think that about covers it.