| Subject: | [RESOGUIT-L] Me and My Guitars Part 2 | | Date: | Thursday, February 14, 2008 21:20:10 (-0500) | | From: | Howard Parker <hlpdobro @.....com>
|
Remember that Cyclops?
It needed some work and I heard of a guy in Hagerstown that made a
replacement neck for an old Regal. I called him and headed on up to
"the basement" where he worked a lot of magic on that guitar and showed
me this thing he built, wood coverplate and that guitar sounded sweeeet.
Man the next thing that hit me was "Eight String Swing" (1982) and I was
a frequent concert goer at the Birchmere where that Auldridge guy held
forth every Thursday. Every reso wannabe within 200 miles was fighting
for prime seating, stage left under Mikes right hand. Mike wasplaying
left wing bluegrass and I had to have one of those guitars....Back to Paul.
Paul agreed to build what eventually became Beard Guitars s/n 002. It
is a solid mahogany, large body guitar that's patterned after Mike's 1st
8. I love this guitar for many reasons, not the least that my wife
gifted it to me on our 1st anniversary. That guitar is 21 years old.
Tastes sometimes change over time. Mine did in the late 80's and I
decided I needed a guitar that was more harmonically complex. I still
loved the Cyclops, but, I wanted to dedicate that guitar to D tuning
while playing something else in my main bluegrass gig. After consulting
Paul I eventually chose mahogany as the wood and a year later I took
possession of a guitar that was very close to the present day Beard "R"
model. This guitar came with gold hardware. In my case a big mistake.
I was down to bare brass in no time at all...I learned a lot about
body chemistry and gold hardware ;-). This was my primary guitar for
years, until.......
About mid 90's. It was the Gettysburg (PA) Bluegrass Festival and the
Beard booth had something new to show. They were pretty darn unusual in
a couple of respects.
a. There were two guitars finished with automotive coatings. Gloss black
and gloss blue.
b. They were aggressive while retaining the bottom end of my mahogany.
c. They were birch laminate.
These were the guitars that eventually nicknamed "Blackbeard" and
"Bluebeard", the predecessors of the "Vintage R".
I was thunderstruck. The guitar was so "articulate' with my right hand.
Everything was so "crisp". I must have talked incessantly about this
guitar at home because "Blackbeard" showed up at my next wedding
anniversary. I bought my wife a saddle.
I know NJ player Steve Toth got "Bluebeard" and it's still his main guitar.
The Cyclops was sold to a Resoguit-lister (still happy Hal?). The
mahogany became my D tuned guitar and "Blackbeard" has been my main tool
for well over a decade. Many recordings, gigs and festival stages. It's
not been babied. I've had it set up at least twice since new.
It's the guitar I always hear in my head.
My guitars:
Beard mahogany eight string
Beard mahogany 6 string
Beard birch laminate 6 string in "Porsche Black"
End Part 2
--
Howard Parker
hlpdobro@gmail.com
|
Me and My Guitars 
Reply to this message