Harmony Electric Archtop - H51/Wards w8884

Here is a Harmony electric archtop.  Its body style and pickup are akin to the h51, but the headstock shape and logo indicates that it might be from the Montgomery Wards catalog and serial numbered as a w8884(w possibly indicating wards?).

This guitar is a funky old blues honker.  The neck was reset, some electronics work, and she is good to go.  The guitar was refinished long before I got it.  Though I generally run from a refinish job, excellent work was done here.  I think the guitar looks great.  Outside of the finish, the guitar is all original, including the Gibson made p13 pickup.  Apparently the p13 is a precursor to the p90.  When Gibson switched to the p90, they sold all the p13's to Harmony who used them until they ran out, then switching to Dearmond.

Baxendale Old Kraftsman Dreadnaught

Here is a Kay/Old Kraftsman dreadnaught that was essentially remanufactured by Baxendale guitars down in Athens, GA.  Scott Baxendale takes the back off and re-braces the instrument, the neck is reset, new bridge, new tuners, new saddle, nut and bridge pins.  What you end up with is a guitar with incredible playability and tone.  These Kay and Harmony guitars are Scott's specialty and make for a wonderful instrument when they are given the care that Scott puts into them.

These Kay/Old Kraftsman guitars can be difficult.  I have had a few of these Kay dreadnaughts and none of them match up to this guitar.  Its amazing how many guitars were coming off the line in Chicago back in the day.  It's equally amazing how they lacked uniformity.  Every one of these Kays that I get a chance to hold all feel a little different.  Some are a bit wonky, but not this one.  It's solid as a rock, has a great neck, and sounds wonderful.  Fortunately, these guitars haven't caught fire and can still be found for real short money.  They might be worth the chance if you can find the right one.

there's the Baxendale logo.  you can see the new bracing which is carved way thinner than the original, hopefully allowing for more top movement

(c)Michael Ochs archives/getty images

RIP Chuck Berry - Wildman, showman, one of the greatest songwriters of all time.  You can't overstate his influence on the culture of music.  Here is an incredible picture that I had never seen before the announcement of his death.  Chuck plays an early 50's Kay Thin Twin.  No doubt that this guitar had yet to earn the "Jimmy Reed" nickname.  Would love to hear him work that Johnny B. Goode riff on this Kay.

Killer Kays!!

Top Row(L to R) - Truetone electric archtop, Orpheum 1/2 size terz guitar, Kay jumbo - Bottom Row(l to R) - Kay jumbo, Kay Value Leader, Kay Dread, Thin Twin

I've always had a thing for Kay guitars.  Many of them come with really good parts, some pretty nice woods and in some cases are solidly built.  I keep going back to them over and over again.  That dreadnought down in front is my number one guitar.  Every person that picks it up is blown away by its tone when they strum that first chord.  I think one of the biggest reasons I love these Kays is that many of them come with big fat necks - which i happen to love.  Most will need work if you are buying through ebay, but they are worth it.  James Ralston has worked on four of the pictured instruments and they are a joy to play.  Just thought i would upload a little family photo for the fun of it.  Here are some closer views.

2016 Gibson Hummingbird

If you follow this blog at all, then you must be wondering if this guitar is lost and can't find it's way home.  Yes, it is a brand new Gibson Hummingbird and plays a major role in one of the most wonderful guitar stories that you will ever hear.

Many moons ago, i purchased my wife an engagement ring, she accepted(much to her chagrin now!!) and returned the favor by buying me a brand new Gibson Hummingbird.  We would go out together and make an occasional stop at a local music store that had the Hummingbird and I wouldn't be able to keep my hands off of it.  At that time of my life(or any time for that matter), a Gibson Hummingbird and its price point was pretty high cotton for me.  Nonetheless, I had no intentions of purchasing it.  Well, some time later after I had presented the ring to my wife she presented me with the guitar after becoming acquainted with it by our visits to the music shop.

What a wonderful gift!!  I was blown away.  Unbeknownst to me, the neck was really wonky.  It had a nice twist in the upper register.  If you played it in first position it was fine.  Throw a capo on it and she had a tough time staying in tune.  This was a time in my life when i wasn't particularly guitar savvy.  I had really only owned one(a Taylor) and was playing out night after night with it with no real technical problems.  So i wasn't really sure what to do with the Gibson.  I had taken it to a repairman or two and no one wanted to touch it.  Nor was I aware of the lifetime warranty - i know - shame on me.

Well fast forward almost 20 years and that lifetime warranty really paid off.  I had mentioned the Hummingbird and the neck issues to my buddy Chris Carey at Parkway Music in Clifton Park, NY.  Parkway is an authorized Gibson dealer so Chris told me to bring it by.  He would look at it and see if it warranted sending it back to Gibson.  Chris looked it over, agreed the neck was a mess and sent the guitar back to Gibson Montana.  My wife still had the original receipt which made the return process a lot easier.

After a fair amount of back and forth between Chris and Gibson, it was agreed that the guitar was highly unplayable and that instead of fixing it, they would replace it with a brand new Gibson Hummingbird Standard.

Here is a link that provides all the specs and some great photos
http://www.gibson.com/Products/Acoustic-Instruments/2016/Hummingbird-Standard.aspx

A few weeks later Chris called me and said that the guitar was in and that he had a surprise for me as well.  I went to pick it up and it played like a dream.  It was set up perfect and sounded amazing.  I can hardly imagine what it will sound like in ten years when everything settles in.  The surprise was that Gibson had sent me back my old Hummingbird as well.  They advised that they knew it was sentimental and felt it needed to stay with me.  Chris said he had never seen or heard of anything like this.  What an effort by Gibson and Chris at Parkway Music to make things right.  I was blown away.  I didn't have to do a thing.  Chris handled all the details at Parkway Music.  All I had to do was pay the return shipping. Incredible!! 

That's some good old fashioned, stand by your product, made in the USA stuff right there.  This blog has always been about the off brand guitar, but even I would have to admit that Harmony, Kay , Regal, etc never offered a lifetime warranty like the one Gibson does. 

Gibson for life

Me and Marie

I just received a royalty check from CD Baby last week.  Not exactly going to pay the mortgage, but a fun piece of mail to receive.

So lets take a moment to remind you that "Me and Marie" can be found at www.cdbaby.com/edcarey

You can listen to clips of each track and purchase the whole record or simply download a single track.  It's an amazing resource for the independent musician. 

Thousands and thousands of people have perused this blog.  If only I could get each person to spend .99¢ on a track.

And for all you funky guitar lovers - You will get a peek of my first electric guitar rig on the CD cover - an old Japanese, teisco/hy-lo setup that has since been retired.

Ry Cooder

Had a chance last night to see Ry Cooder playing with Ricky Scaggs and The Whites.  If there is any player who I think could relate to the instruments on this blog, it would probably be Ry.  Though known and constantly connected to his famed Coodercasters, there are countless photos and recordings of Ry making use of some off the beaten path instruments.

I believe in an earlier part of the tour, Ry was carrying a 1950's Kay Barney Kessel electric archtop with the kelvinator headstock.  Unfortunately, he didn't have that with him last night as it seems he might have traded up for a big 'ol Gretsch Hollowbody.  He was carrying his Guyatone LG-200t with him and showcased some slide on this guitar.  I had previously read his description regarding the tone of this guitar - rich and muscular.  He wasn't lying - It was a super thick tone that you couldn't pin to any guitar.  It certainly wasn't any tele or strat.

Though I have seen Ricky Scaggs before and have been blown away by his versatility and exceptional musicianship, this was the first time I had seen Ry.  Like many of the people there, I was hoping to get to see him cut loose  on that slide.  But this was a different type of show where old time country and gospel music was on display.  Obviously that doesn't leave a whole lot of room for wailing slide work.

What I did get to see though was something more impressive.  What I saw was a musician who remains completely capable of being an evolving artist.  Ry only broke the slide out once on the aforementioned Guyatone.  The rest of the evening was spent playing swelling hollow bodies, funky 8 string instruments and 5 string banjo - not just background banjo, but up front, take a solo, bluegrass banjo.  One of his main jobs throughout the evening was to hold down the bass part in a 4 part gospel harmony.

There was a little chit chat on stage about him gaining confidence in this role as bass singer.  I thought it was a gutsy performance.  He completely took himself out of his comfort zone and held his own in the company of some pretty fine old time singers.  He showed an audience what its like to be a real artist, one who instead of falling back on his applause getter, walked into a new realm with the possibility of falling flat(which he didn't).  You won't see Bruce Springsteen do this, or Adele or Prince or any of the "Stars" in todays horrendous country music market.  In all these cases, image supercedes artistry, disallowing for any real chances to be taken.  Instead of worrying about being the leader of a band, we all got to watch Ry really seem to enjoy simply being part of a band.

Would have loved to interview Ry for this blog and i suspect that I got as close as I ever will when he signed a concert poster for me at the end of the night.  He looked tired as i was the last of at least 150 people in line at the after show signing.  I'm just not the kind of guy who could start bombing him with questions about Chicago made guitars after he had just dealt with every Tom, Dick and Harry who wanted to tell him their story(I'm sure he had to deal with a few cuckoo birds in the course of that signing)

He had given enough that night, instructing all those Tom, Dick, Harry's, Marie's and Debbie's to do it for the art and to keep on evolving.  One can only wonder what will be next for Ry.