John, I've been lucky, too! By the time I was 12 I was playing a Gibson ES 295...the Scotty Moore guitar (Still have it) at an officers club in on Ladd AFB in Fairbanks, Alaska.

Now, with over 340 stringed instruments, my choice of nightly players is sometimes strange.

For outside gigs (patios), I play a beat up old Yamaha nylon string(sctattched up and not expensive to begin with) or a neat little Ovation nylon string, and a relatively new, inexpensive 100CE Gretsch synchromatic with a floater ($750.00 net). These are "beaters", because I've had better guitars damaged by drunks or kids just running by.

For better jobs, I play an old Guild double cutaway hollow I've had since 1964 (my all-time favorite guitar), a Giannini Craviola Nylon String, one of my old L-5's, a Parker-Fly, with usually a double-neck of some kind on the bandstand. My current one is a Robin double with an octave neck at the top. Controls are Strat style. For straight ahead jazz, I play one of my new Godin's, an L-5 (I have 23 of them) or a Guild 150(relatively new to me. Single, non-floater. That's what I used for the little YouTube piece I posted last year).

There's no logic to my choices, and some of my favorite "axes" are not very valuable. For instance, the old double Guild I play cost less than $700.00 new; they only built 200 of them and it hasn't appreciated all that much. I am giving it in my will to one of my favorite people here, which you all know.

Guitars are WONDERFUL!

Play on, friend,


Russ