Jamn it.

Subject: Jamn it.
From: John Hardly
Date: 30 Mar 05 - 07:41 PM

I did my annual attendance at the local weekly "bluegrass jam from hell" where (as Dave Barry would say), and I'm not making this up, one of the featured "bluegrass" instruments is a VERY LOUD tenor banjo. Yes. Bluegrass jam. Tenor banjo. Those are the jobbies with FOUR strings and played with a @#$%^&* plectrum.

A plectrum banjo is so loud that, and again I am not making this up, this tenor banjoist practices with sound-blocking headphones on. He has already suffered ear damage.

Now, because this banjo is so loud (and playing "bluegrass" standards like "Row Your Boat, Margie" or some such from the tin-pan alley songbook) in order to be heard along with said plectrum banjo (did you know that plectrum banjos are made almost entirely of Banjonium? Banjonium has just got to be the loudest metal in the entire periodic table of elements) ALL the other instruments need to be amplified.

My HD28 is pretty dang loud. When in that "jam" I am playing less that "air guitar". I am playing "virtual air guitar". I can't even hear myself wishing that I could be hearing myself.

Anyway, there, amid the thunderous sound of a jet in take-off (if a plectrum banjo were a shirt it would be Hawaiian), I see what has to be a vision. That guy sitting across from me is playing a D18. But wait. It's not just a D18 because it's got a tortoise shell pickguard.......and wait (again) that's a through saddle. "That's got to be a D18GE or V!", I shouted to myself, though I didn't hear me.

An island of taste in a sea of distasteful "bluegrass" <<------ see? I cleverly use """ marks to emphasize that this just might not, in fact, be bluegrass. A D18GE right there in that "Jam from hell"!

I love D18GE's. I have loved them ever since Elderly's got a matched pair of sunburst D18GE's in a few years ago and the staff at Elderly's had to pry my fingers off of one of them and send me home.

After the jam I put my HD28 in its case and then I put my Flatiron in its case and set the mando case on the guitar case. I talked with a few friends. Well ..... after the loud "music" we mostly just mouthed and nodded rather than talked, but it would have been impolite to not at least pretend to talk.

At home the next day I had a friend come over to jam. I opened up the case for my HD28 and therein lay the D18GE.

Huh?

I have no idea when the switch was made. I am mystified.

Anyway, I had a D18GE for the whole weekend while my HD28 went on a little road trip to Ohio where it was apparently the hit at a true bluegrass festival .

My wife kind of knew I was upset about the switch. She didn't know that I was kinda upset because the D18GE is worth about $400 more that my HD28 and I didn't like the burden of resposibility.

She tried to comfort me by saying, "I'm sure he'll take good care of your guitar.......won't he?" See, she assumed my upset was worry for my own guitar.

Well, now I was worried about my own guitar. Thanks, Hon.

I began to notice (upon closer inspection) that the D18GE, almost exactly as old as my HD28, was very scratched and dinged.

"Yeah, he'll take good care of my guitar" I said. I didn't believe me.

We made the switch back and all's well. Actually, all's better than "well" as, once again, I play another GREAT guitar and come away satisfied with my own...

...until the next great one.

Subject: RE: Jamn it.
From: GUEST,Wesley S
Date: 30 Mar 05 - 07:59 PM

Great story John. Thanks. A local musician "lost" his National guitar when UPS left it on his doorstep in an urban part of town. It had been out of town for some repairs. Some guy at a bar bought for $50.00 from a street person. It took about 10 years for it to get back to it's rightful owner but he was eventually tracked down.

I'm glad yours made it back quicker and none the worse for wear.

Subject: RE: Jamn it.
From: Ebbie
Date: 30 Mar 05 - 07:59 PM

Ah, sweet Mystery! Any answers yet? Great way to recognize your devotion to your own instrument though.

Thanks for athe quick lift to my spiris.

Subject: RE: Jamn it.
From: GUEST
Date: 30 Mar 05 - 08:17 PM

Great story! (And a really cool title, too.)

Why do you keep going back to that weekly jam every year? LOL!

Several details piqued my curiosity. While I am fortunate enough to own a very nice old Martin guitar, I don't know a whole lot about other vintage instruments ~ I've never aspired to be a collector ~ but I'm always interested and willing to learn, and you touched upon a couple of subjects about which I have a thing or two to learn.

I've got a regular D-18, 1969 vintage. I recently replaced the pickguard, and toyed with the idea of putting on a tortoiseshell replacement piece rather than the black, just for the hell of it, to look good and just a bit different. (The original was, of coure, black.)

I put on a new black pickguard ~ but if I had gone with the tortoise instead, would people be fooled into believing my Martin is even more valuable than it is? Enlighten me please, I don't know squat about this stuff.

Actually, I still have the option to switch pickguards. In order to make the $25 minimum for a mail order from CF Martin, I bought two replacements, one of each color, plus a copy of "Rise Up Singing."

While I'm at at, let me also ask about the sunburst-top Martin dreads. I've only seen one, ever, and at first I just assumed that it was a nice old Gibson or something, not a Martin, until I got a good look at the headstock. These instruments are obviously pretty rare, but I'm curious about just how rare, when they were produced, etc.

Well, glad you got your own baby back and that all is well.

(You'd probably be a little unhappy with mine, too, if we were ever to make an unintended swap. While my guitar sounds just great, it's a bit less than perfect cosmetically. All playing-induced wear and tear ~ nothing that wouldn't have been prevented by a Richie Havens-style oversized double pickguard ~ but the scratches and itty-bitty gouges are there for now and ever.)

Subject: RE: Jamn it.
From: PoppaGator
Date: 30 Mar 05 - 08:20 PM

That was me just now, at 8:17. Don't know why I was anonymous ~ I got in via the FRONT door (!!???!?)

Subject: RE: Jamn it.
From: cool hand Tom
Date: 30 Mar 05 - 08:45 PM

I really enjoyed reading that.With the way it was written theres a good book inside you john.Looking foreward to some more posts.

   Regards Tom.

Subject: RE: Jamn it.
From: Ebbie
Date: 30 Mar 05 - 09:21 PM

Do a search on John Hardly's posts, cool hand Tom, and you'll find all kinds of goodies.

Subject: RE: Jamn it.
From: Once Famous
Date: 30 Mar 05 - 09:42 PM

This was a good story. But a tenor banjo in a bluegrass jam is just about as out of place as can be. Yechh.

PoppaGator, if you want to put on the tortoise guard for your own enjoyment, fine, but it will devalue your guitar.

Vintage guitars are best kept in their original state or have items replaced with genuine exact replacements or they devalue greatly. Modifications are frowned upon by the vintage collector world.

I believe though that the D-18s up until the mid '60s actually did have tortoise shell colored pckguards, but serial numbers don't lie.

I'm going to a huge bluegrass festival this week with my own D-18 (C1971). I really hope there or no tenor banjos or plectrum banjos there.

Subject: RE: Jamn it.
From: John Hardly
Date: 31 Mar 05 - 07:49 AM

Thanks for the kind words. Glad you enjoyed it.

"I've got a regular D-18, 1969 vintage. I recently replaced the pickguard, and toyed with the idea of putting on a tortoiseshell replacement piece rather than the black, just for the hell of it, to look good and just a bit different. (The original was, of coure, black.)"

My take on it is this -- if you've already replaced the old pickguard then the probability that either the new black or the new tortoise would alter the value is doubtful. It's no longer original either way. But I don't think that matters very much to the overall value anyway. I'd just put on the pickguard you like the looks of best. Pickguards are easy to replace.

I'd do it. I like the tortoise better than the black. That's just me.

"I put on a new black pickguard ~ but if I had gone with the tortoise instead, would people be fooled into believing my Martin is even more valuable than it is? Enlighten me please, I don't know squat about this stuff."

Now, to tell you way more than you want to know --

The short answer is, no, it probably won't fool anyone into assuming that your guitar is worth more.

The reason is this...

... sure, the "V" (vintage)and "GE" (Golden Era) series of guitars that have been made for the past decade or more have the tortoise pickguards -- so it would look more like them. BUT the 16 series as well as a short run Shenandoah series also sported the toroise pickguard and both of those are actually more "economy" models.

While I'm at at, let me also ask about the sunburst-top Martin dreads. I've only seen one, ever, and at first I just assumed that it was a nice old Gibson or something, not a Martin, until I got a good look at the headstock. These instruments are obviously pretty rare, but I'm curious about just how rare, when they were produced, etc.

The sunburst has been around for a VERY long time on both Gibson and Martin. Here's my understanding of the story. I'm sure there'll be someone who paid more attention in class and will corect me if I'm wrong...

The sunburst was first used on guitars as a measure to allow the maker to use top wood that had a visual (but not structural) flaw in the wood. My understanding was that Gibson did this first.

But the visual caught on. Folks liked either the implied patina or the dressed-up look (depending on who you talk to). As people actually wanted a sunburst, more were produced and Martin followed...

...but Martin did what is called a "shaded" top instead. If you look closely at a '30's Martin "sunburst" as compared to a Gibson, you will quickly note that you can se grain from edge to edge on the top. Martin's "Sunburst" was not opaque like Gibson's.

One other thing that this caused, in terms of difference between a Gibson and a Martin sunburst -- Gibson's 'burst is a lighter center around the bridge that is very generally the modified triange or egg shape of the outline of the lower bout.

Martin's sunburst, on the other hand, has continued the practice begun with "shaded" tops -- it follows the outline of the whole top. This means that a sunburst Martin dreadnought has a sort of weird-looking lighter modified figure eight in the cienter of its 'burst.

You'll notice that most of the boutique guitars produced today will do either a sunburst (Santa Cruz's VJ comes to mind) or "shaded" (Collings is, to my mind, the ultimate in shaded tops -- they've refined them to an incredible degree, as one might expect from their perfect finishes)

"(You'd probably be a little unhappy with mine, too, if we were ever to make an unintended swap. While my guitar sounds just great, it's a bit less than perfect cosmetically. All playing-induced wear and tear ~ nothing that wouldn't have been prevented by a Richie Havens-style oversized double pickguard ~ but the scratches and itty-bitty gouges are there for now and ever.)"

LOL! Actually, I LOVE a well-worn guitar. My Gibson LG2 has been in my family for 42 years during which time it's been treated as a campfire guitar, taken trips in the back of our '61 Ford Falcon station wagon (piled in with us six kids), and finally suffered a top crack that only the adjustable bridge held together. I had a guitar builder repair that and, to this day, that's still my favorite guitar in the whole world to play.

Subject: RE: Jamn it.
From: PoppaGator
Date: 01 Apr 05 - 12:51 AM

Thanks a lot John ~ that's just the kind of response I had hoped for! More information than I could possibly have imagined, actually, about the sunburst/shading business.

I'm not too worried about "devaluing" my guitar ~ I ain't selling anytime soon. But even if I were, I find it hard to believe that it would be any more valuable with its original pickguard, which had long since begun curling up around the edges. The new black pickguard is inconguously bright and shiny, of course, but that won't last more than a year or two.

The more I think about it, I just might take a hairdryer to it, peel it off, and let that tortoise guard be the one to start getting a patina...