Agustin Sanchez>

My Mom bought my Dad this guitar for their first year anniversary, or so the story goes. It’s the guitar I can remember my dad playing when I was growing up, sitting with him on saturday mornings while he recorded songs into two white ceramic Sony mics straight into a tapedeck.

Somewhere along the line the guitar became mine. I was 13 or so and got a decent amount of cash (well, for a 13 year old) and “bought” the guitar off my dad. This is the guitar I learned countless Nirvana songs on by watching Kurt Cobain’s hands on the MTV unplugged performace. It’s the guitar that roamed the halls of high school, serenading pretty girls and jamming with friends from the Jazz Band.

This guitar is as much a part of me as anything I can think of. It’s been around for as long as I can remember, and helped to define a main part of my skillset and in some ways personality. It’s a gorgeous instrument. It has the best action of any acoustic or electric I’ve played in my life and a chuggy tone that completely compliments my playing style.

Somewhere in college the guitar fell by accident and started developing a crack in the heel of the headstock. I’ve always favoured heavier gauge strings, which in turn means higher tension on the guitar overall. Over the course of 5 years the neck bowed more and more until it started fretting out, making it harder to play. In respect for the instrument, the strings were slackened I stopped playing it. It became an heirloom of my past, no longer functional, but a pretty hunk of wood on the wall.

When Meli and I married we decided to use the guitar as the sign-in book for the reception. The guitar was placed on a table surrounded by river rocks, candles, and a ton of silver sharpies. The guitar had come full circle, once a present from my mom to my dad, it was now a historical document for my new family with my wife. Its face pockmarked with years of use and memories, and just a layer above all the signatures of loved ones and family rest, sealing the guitars journey thus far.

I’ll probably have a luthier look at the guitar and have it fixed at some point. My goal is to play it at some far off wedding anniversary, pass it on to a son or daughter, etc etc.

This entry was posted on Monday, November 9th, 2009 at 6:30 am and is filed under Personal. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.