{"id":692,"date":"2021-01-27T20:39:03","date_gmt":"2021-01-28T01:39:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mfna.org\/rfo\/?p=692"},"modified":"2021-01-27T20:39:03","modified_gmt":"2021-01-28T01:39:03","slug":"taking-a-giant-leap","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mfna.org\/rfo\/2021\/01\/27\/taking-a-giant-leap\/","title":{"rendered":"Taking a Giant Leap"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

I have spoken many times about guitars and guitar playing. It’s perhaps the one passion that has sustained me since I was a teenager. I took a few years off after breaking my left elbow, but I didn’t get rid of my guitars, I just put them away for a while.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Over the past few years I have acquired a number of guitars. Some of them based on a perceived “collectibility” and others because they struck my fancy. Some I play, some I will likely never (or almost never) play, and others I have a pure joy every time I pick them up. Yes, I have a few clunkers as well. I wouldn’t have admitted that a few years ago, but it’s true; not only will I not play them, but now I don’t even like them!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Currently, I have three guitars (four, if you count my lovely little KL\u014cS travel guitar<\/a>) that I find myself playing frequently. At least one of the four every day! I love them all, and they each have characteristics that lend themselves to my playing enjoyment. Do I have pictures? Let’s see…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Ibanez AG95QA<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Taylor GS Mini-e Koa<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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1957 Gibson ES-225t<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

And just for grins and giggles, my KL\u014cS and Gretsch “Jim Dandy” – Parlor guitars, if you will.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Gretsch G9500 “Jim Dandy”<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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KL\u014cS carbon fiber travl guitar<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

It’s eye candy to me, even if it does nothing for you! 😁<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, where am I going with this? It’s the giant leap of the title.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Last week, I was reading a guitar forum (one of many I belong to) and one of the posters wrote a glowing letter of recommendation for a guitar maker in Oregon named Stephen Holst. Very quickly, others joined in and were in universal praise for the man and his guitars. They included photos. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Holst makes custom guitars. I asked the forum members about the process and then I reached out to Holst himself. This is a photo that inspired me to consider having him build me a guitar.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Holst custom guitar, “ch1.”<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Steve sent me a spreadsheet that when I looked at it bowled me over: Bracing type? Tailpiece type? Pickups? Wow. I filled out those items I felt I could and asked him to guide me with the rest. And so it begins…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I don’t know what the final price will be, but the round numbers on his web site, plus the fact he takes a down payment means that I can actually get a guitar made exclusively for me, and one that I hope combines the best features of the three guitars (above) that I love to play. More will be revealed…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I have spoken many times about guitars and guitar playing. It’s perhaps the one passion that has sustained me since I was a teenager. I took a few years off after breaking my left elbow, but I didn’t get rid … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-692","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-guitar","category-music"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mfna.org\/rfo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/692","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mfna.org\/rfo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mfna.org\/rfo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mfna.org\/rfo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mfna.org\/rfo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=692"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/mfna.org\/rfo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/692\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":695,"href":"https:\/\/mfna.org\/rfo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/692\/revisions\/695"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mfna.org\/rfo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=692"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mfna.org\/rfo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=692"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mfna.org\/rfo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=692"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}