When it comes to music, I’m not particularly “techy”. I don’t care for fancy guitar pedals, I don’t know how to set up a guitar properly, and as far as music theory goes… no idea. But I do love music and I do love guitars. Specifically acoustic guitars!
Over the last decade I’ve collected a whole bunch of acoustic guitars throughout my travels. I’ve sold one only to buy another the next minute. It makes sense to me since I have done all my song writing on acoustic guitars since 2014. Plus, I just feel like they tell a better story than electric guitars do. They look old and weathered, and they have a certain smell that leads me to believe that they have seen some shit!
Every acoustic guitar I own is special to me, whether its the memory of where I was when I bought it or what song(s) I written on it. The first acoustic guitar I was really proud to own was a concert bodied Martin, definitely a cheaper model. I bought it in high school after saving up from bussing tables at a seafood restaurant. I wanted to play guitar like Jack Johnson at the time and thought this guitar would be perfect for that. Turns out skill is also required, something I would not attain until years later.
Later in The Frights era, I would make enough money to buy my dream acoustic: The Gibson J-45. The gold standard of a songwriters guitar. This is the guitar that Rivers Cuomo wrote Pinkerton on. Surely I could write something of equal value if I had this guitar! The result was “Hypochondriac”. Which is certainly leagues below anything Weezer ever did. But I still love that guitar!
On and on I would go until my collection grew past 10 and I could no longer fit any more guitars in my 10x10 room I was renting at the time. Not to mention my current girlfriend (now wife, Sara) was getting a little cramped as well.
But right before I started writing songs for what would be The Frights next album “Everything Seems Like Yesterday”, I met a new friend. I was given a guitar by Fender. It was a new model they released on their Paramount series. It’s a little parlor guitar with a rosewood finish and checkered lining. It weighs basically nothing and upon picking it up for the first time, it felt cheap. I also was gifted a brand new acoustic amp from Fender that matched my guitar as far as it’s appearance (wood finish, small and sleek.)
The first time I plugged the guitar/amp combo in, I was mind blown by how great it sounded! But again, I don’t know shit about tone, so this could have sounded like garbage as far as I knew! Luckily my excitement was validated when we went to soundcheck and first sound guy to hear it also thought it sounded exceptionally good! Especially considering it was a Fender! (Fender is of course known for their incredible amps and electric guitars however, GREAT acoustic guitars are generally considered to be made by the likes of Gibson or Martin).
And that first sound guy wouldn’t be the last to comment on the quality of the guitars tone. I would say that at every other soundcheck I play that guitar at, someone says something along the lines of “fuck! What is that guitar?”
Since getting this guitar I have tried COUNTLESS times to use a different acoustic for live shows. I really would enjoy switching it up once in a while! But every god damn time, another guitar disappoints me in comparison.
It wasn’t until two weeks ago, when I was at a practice for a new project I’m working on (more on that later) that I finally accepted this guitar as my musical soulmate. I was trying to play the J-45 because I thought it would sound more appropriate for the song we were working on. But low and behold: it was not. In swoops the Fender parlor guitar to save the day!
Now don’t get it twisted! A couple of my friends have bought this same guitar and sadly, they do not play nor sound the same as my little guy! Maybe its the amount of times I’ve dropped it, or simply the amount of hours I have played it for! Maybe its the numerous songs I’ve written on it… but this fucker is special.
Willie Nelson has a guitar that he has played for his entire life. He literally only plays one guitar and it has a name: Trigger. It is beaten to shit and has a literal hole over the top of the strings from Willie’s pick rubbing against it for 70 years. It is probably the most loved guitar there ever has been.
I want this guitar to be by my side when I’m 80 years old, strumming away on a porch. I think it will be.
I should probably name it, I’ve never named a guitar before. How about… Ernest? hahahah yea I like that.
Here’s a cover of one of my favorite Willie songs, played on Ernest:
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