John Denver's Guitar
Stan Milam
While on vacation last week in Colorado, I stopped by Great Divide Music in
Aspen. I was talking with the owner, Sandy Munro, and told him I had heard of
his store last year at a guitar show in Arlington, TX.. At this show I was
talking to a fellow named Danny from Charley's Guitar in Dallas. We were
having one of those Taylor vs. Martin discussions, and he made the statement
that John Denver took his Taylors on the road with him but left his Martins at
home where they were safe. Mr. Munro confirmed that he both knew Danny and
John leaving his Martins at home was true. He said John had bought several
Martin guitars from him (boy does he have some nice Martins too). Mr. Munro
then told me that he had one of John's guitars in the store and ran downstairs
to get it. The guitar is the custom Yamaha L-53 that John played from 1975
until the early eighties. I had seen John play this guitar several times and
have photographs of John playing it. When he opened the case I immediately
recognized it, as it is almost surely one of a kind. He took it out of the
case played it a little bit then handed it to me. I thought I was going to
faint. I played it for about 5 minutes and looked it over carefully. Well,
I had been all over the state of Colorado and had taken my camera with me
everywhere I went, but I did not have it then! Oh well, I will just have to
live with the memory. Anyway, Mr. Munro told me this guitar will be sold soon
auction style, I believe, with much of the money going to Windstar.
If you would like to see picture of this guitar and read about it you can
go to http://www.greatdividemusic.com. Scroll down to the bottom of the home
page and you will see the link.
Regards,
Stan Milam.
Han Speek
mi...@metronet.com (Stan Milam) writes:
>
> then told me that he had one of John's guitars in the store and ran downstairs
> to get it. The guitar is the custom Yamaha L-53 that John played from 1975
> until the early eighties. I had seen John play this guitar several times and
> have photographs of John playing it. When he opened the case I immediately
> recognized it, as it is almost surely one of a kind. He took it out of the
> case played it a little bit then handed it to me. I thought I was going to
> faint. I played it for about 5 minutes and looked it over carefully. Well,
> I had been all over the state of Colorado and had taken my camera with me
> everywhere I went, but I did not have it then! Oh well, I will just have to
> live with the memory. Anyway, Mr. Munro told me this guitar will be sold soon
> auction style, I believe, with much of the money going to Windstar.
>
This is interesting. I've always thought (and heard from various sources) that
this guitar was a Yamaha FG-2000, which is supposed to be their highest
specification, sort of custom-made, model.
I'm specifically pleased by this info because I own & play an L-25A myself,
which is also an exceptional guitar, but of course a bit less fancy.
Han.
--
H. Speek, B.Sc. H.S...@el.utwente.nl
MESA Research Institute http://www.ice.el.utwente.nl/~han/
Univ. of Twente, P.O. Box 217, 7500 AE, Enschede, The Netherlands
Don Erickson
very happy with it. It's big brothers were the L-20 and L-25, and I played
one of the 20's in Holland, Michigan, last month - very pleasant sounding
instrument, although, like mine, I felt that it was a little short in the
sustain for a solid rosewood body. Maybe a bridge or saddle problem, but
more likely the fact that the top on mine was braced like a tank.
My L-10 is now in Germany with my No. 3 daughter, who is painfully
practicing her first Travis picking and trying to hear the rythym of it.
Nice to hear from a fellow L-series owner.
Don Erickson
Han Speek wrote in message <6uqo6n$ds2$2...@dinkel.civ.utwente.nl>...
Han Speek
"Don Erickson" <Deri...@worldnet.att.net> writes:
> I played an L-10A (rosewood back & sides, spruce top) for many years and was
> very happy with it. It's big brothers were the L-20 and L-25, and I played
> one of the 20's in Holland, Michigan, last month - very pleasant sounding
> instrument, although, like mine, I felt that it was a little short in the
> sustain for a solid rosewood body. Maybe a bridge or saddle problem, but
> more likely the fact that the top on mine was braced like a tank.
even though it is indeed pretty heavily braced.
What might also be a cause, if this rumour I heard is true, is that the 10 and
15 did have a solid top & back, but NOT sides. Unfortunately you can't check
that since you don't have it at the moment, but mine has strips of wood glued
onto the sides (inside, of course), running from to to bottom, to reinforce
the sides. This would only be done for solid sides (not always, but it would
be pointless to do it on laminated sides), so presence of these strips is a
sure sign.
>
> My L-10 is now in Germany with my No. 3 daughter, who is painfully
> practicing her first Travis picking and trying to hear the rythym of it.
> Nice to hear from a fellow L-series owner.
I think the L-10A is a bit overqualified to serve as a starter guitar :-)
But it's indeed nice to hear there are a few more Yamaha L models out there,
as they seem to be pretty rare.
Rtler
>
>having one of those Taylor vs. Martin discussions, and he made the statement
>that John Denver took his Taylors on the road with him but left his Martins
>at
>home where they were safe. Mr. Munro confirmed that he both
Is this a good lesson about those celebrity endorsements or what? Martin
doesn't do these but Taylor is very active with them. Yes artists do have to
buy them but at considerably less than what dealers pay. In the case of John
Denver I'll bet his were free. How many of us are influenced by these
endorsements?
Jim "Snake" Rattler
ap20...@brownvm.brown.edu
John leaving his Martins at home was true. He said John had bought
several Martin guitars from him (boy does he have some nice Martins
L-53 that John played from 1975 until the early eighties. I had seen
John play this guitar several times and have photographs of John
playing it. When he opened the case I immediately recognized it, as
it is almost surely one of a kind.
Denver also owned and played Mossman Guitars and a particularly ornate
Mossman was custom made for him in 1977. I don't know where that
guitar is now.
Eric C. Shoaf
Ronald Callahan
>
> I played an L-10A (rosewood back & sides, spruce top) for many years and was
> very happy with it. It's big brothers were the L-20 and L-25, and I played
> one of the 20's in Holland, Michigan, last month - very pleasant sounding
> instrument, although, like mine, I felt that it was a little short in the
> sustain for a solid rosewood body. Maybe a bridge or saddle problem, but
> more likely the fact that the top on mine was braced like a tank.
>
> practicing her first Travis picking and trying to hear the rythym of it.
> Nice to hear from a fellow L-series owner.
>
>
Is the LA-18 in the same series as the other L-series guitars? I have an
LA-18
and I think that is one of the sweetest looking and playing guitars that
I've
ever had my hands on.
It's amazing that a manufacturer the size of Yamaha can make truly fine
instruments like these.
--Ron
> Han Speek wrote in message <6uqo6n$ds2$2...@dinkel.civ.utwente.nl>...
> >In article <6uqmh3$tlg$2...@news.metronet.com>,
> >mi...@metronet.com (Stan Milam) writes:
> >>
> >> then told me that he had one of John's guitars in the store and ran
> downstairs
> >> to get it. The guitar is the custom Yamaha L-53 that John played from
> 1975
> >> until the early eighties. I had seen John play this guitar several times
> and
> >> have photographs of John playing it. When he opened the case I
> immediately
> >> recognized it, as it is almost surely one of a kind. He took it out of
> the
> >> case played it a little bit then handed it to me. I thought I was going
> to
> >> faint. I played it for about 5 minutes and looked it over carefully.
> Well,
> >> I had been all over the state of Colorado and had taken my camera with me
> >> everywhere I went, but I did not have it then! Oh well, I will just have
> to
> >> live with the memory. Anyway, Mr. Munro told me this guitar will be sold
> soon
> >> auction style, I believe, with much of the money going to Windstar.
> >>
> >Hi,
> >
> >This is interesting. I've always thought (and heard from various sources)
> that
> >this guitar was a Yamaha FG-2000, which is supposed to be their highest
> >specification, sort of custom-made, model.
> >
> >I'm specifically pleased by this info because I own & play an L-25A myself,
> >which is also an exceptional guitar, but of course a bit less fancy.
> >
> >Han.
> >
> >--
> >H. Speek, B.Sc. H.S...@el.utwente.nl
> >MESA Research Institute http://www.ice.el.utwente.nl/~han/
> >Univ. of Twente, P.O. Box 217, 7500 AE, Enschede, The Netherlands
> >
--
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Ron Callahan
Software Engineer
National Information Systems
Lexis-Nexis
Miamisburg, Ohio
Hojo2X
Ron wrote:>I have an>LA-18>and I think that is one of the sweetest looking and
playing guitars that I've >ever had my hands on.
>It's amazing that a manufacturer the size of Yamaha can make truly
fine>instruments like these.
Ron, I visited both of Yamaha's guitar plants in 1985. The main one is in
Kao-shiung, a port city in the south of Taiwan, but at that time, anyway, they
were still making a few of their high end instruments at their old plant in
Hamamatsu, Japan. Perhaps 80 miles down the coast from Tokyo, about half way
between it and Nagoya, Hamamatsu is a pleasant city that has a great view of
Mount Fuji and is also home to Honda Corporation as well as Yamaha.
At that time they were just introducing the LA (Luxury Artist) line, and the
ones I played were exquisite.
I got to do this in their "Guitar Room," this large room with glass cases on
the wall just stuffed with all sorts of Martins, Gibsons and prototype Yamahas.
I was there to write a magazine article that never ended up getting published,
but I had a grand old time anyway. It's fun being the guest of Japanese
corporate hospitality. But some of the friendliness from the top ceased when
the head of Yamaha's acoustic guitar division asked me what sort of guitar I
played.
At the time I was using a Mossman dreadnought (this was three years before I
got my Triple O) and so I answered, truthfully: "I play a Mossman guitar."
The old fart was visibly angry. Barely in control of himself, he asked through
clenched teeth: "Why you not pray a YAMAHA?!?"
I answered: "Because you HAVEN'T GIVEN ME ONE YET!"
Hoo, boy, the interview was OVER. He literally turned his back on me, and
began shuffling some papers, and curtly told the young R&D guy who'd been
showing me around that that I wasn't fit for the likes of an important
corporate officer like him, and that the young R&D guy would have to continue
showing me around. The boss man wasn't to be bothered.
The R&D guy was embarrassed, but was quite surprised to see my reaction:
"Great!" I told him. "I'd rather hang out with you, anyway. Tell Toshiro
Mifune here that I said that."
"Oh, no, no, I can't tell him that" the R&D guy said, but he was grinning as he
said it. Then, as his boss turned around, evidently puzzled by my tone of
voice and that I wasn't crushed by this humiliating dismissal, the R&D guy
instantly composed his face into a neutral mask and explained (he told me
later) that I very much regretted that the boss's busy schedule would no longer
permit to spend any time with me.
There was a brief exchange of seated bows, a deep one from the young guy and a
brusque, jerky chin-nod from the old guy, and we were out of there.
So we went out and had an exotic, expensive meal on Yamaha's expense account
(shark fin soup! turtle eggs! baked squab! tuna sashimi!) drank a few Sapporo
beers with dinner, and the R&D guys asked me: "What you want to do now? Visit
karaoke bar? Visit hostess bar?"
I said: "Oh, hell, I can do that ANY NIGHT in any Japanese city and in half
the towns in the US. Let's go to THE GUITAR ROOM!!!"
So we went back to the plant and he opened up the guitar room, and we jammed
for hours on old Gibsons, Martins and prototype Yamahas.
The Yamaha I liked the best was the prototype of the Yamaha LA model. I kept
telling him: "You know, if your boss wants me to play a Yamaha, you could GIVE
ME THIS ONE."
"Oh, no, no, sorry, sorry. (giggle giggle giggle giggle)"
"Okay, I'll pay you for it - here's 50 yen!" (The exchange rate was 165 yen to
the US dollar at that time.)
"Oh, no, no, sorry, sorry. (giggle giggle giggle giggle)"
"Okay, you drive a hard bargain: here's a thousand yen, but that's my final
offer!"
"Oh, no, no, sorry, sorry. (giggle giggle giggle giggle)"
All right, so maybe the Sapporo tallboys were having some small effect on both
of us. It was still a great and memorable evening, and I have to admit that I
have entertained fantasies of going in and liberating some of the guitars in
that room ever since.
Maybe we could talk Chuck Norris into reassembling his A team to go in and
rescue them.
"C'mon, Chuck, them's AMURICAN guitars in that room thar, for the most part,
and they're being held against their will! You need to bring 'em back!!"
Think it would work?
Wade Hampton Miller
da...@lone-wolf.com
Ronald Callahan <uca...@lexis-nexis.com> wrote:
> (snip for brevity)
> It's amazing that a manufacturer the size of Yamaha can make truly fine
> instruments like these.
>
In one sense, yes, Ron, though, it seems to bear witness to my observation
that most of the large manufacturers have had, currently do, or will have
periods of greatness in luthiery, as well as periods of mediocrity. No doubt
there are differing reasons for the periods (economy, personnel makeup of the
luthiers involved, market strategies, ownership changes, whatever.). Anyone
else agree?
In the 70's, Yamaha produced some fine guitars. Other posters' references to
the "L" series noted, in addition to a gem I acquired back then circa 74, an
FG-500 (solid spruce top, jacaranda back/sides, ebony bridge/fingerboard).
For all of $500 at the time (actually quite a lot for 74). It's a remarkable
guitar in all aspects of construction, tone, playability, and volume, as the
FG-500 series was an offline, handmade group of guitars constructed to the
particular tastes of Yamaha's master luthiers (as opposed to the tastes of
the Marketing Dept).
--Dave
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m...@ftn-assoc.com
ap20...@brownvm.brown.edu wrote:
> Stan Milam wrote: Mr. Munro confirmed that he both knew Danny and
> John leaving his Martins at home was true. He said John had bought
> several Martin guitars from him (boy does he have some nice Martins
> store and ran downstairs to get it. The guitar is the custom Yamaha
> L-53 that John played from 1975 until the early eighties. I had seen
> John play this guitar several times and have photographs of John
> playing it. When he opened the case I immediately recognized it, as
> it is almost surely one of a kind.
>
> Denver also owned and played Mossman Guitars and a particularly ornate
> Mossman was custom made for him in 1977. I don't know where that
> guitar is now.
>
> Eric C. Shoaf
>
Lest we forget, there were also the legendary Guild jumbos. Does anybody
know the general model number of the 12-string rosewood Guild jumbos he had?
I know I've seen pictures of him with several different Guild 12s (I could
tell they were different by the inlay, some of which seemed to be custom
stuff). However, the guitar I would really like to know more about was the
6-string Guild rosewood jumbo with dual pickguards and the Artist Award Model
inlay on the headstock. That thing must have been custom built. He was
almost always pictured with this guitar until about 1975 when the
aforementioned Yamaha showed up. I wonder if something happened to it, or
maybe it got too fragile to take on the road anymore. I still say that old
Guild jumbo is one of the coolest acoustic guitars ever (draw your own
conclusions, folks).
Mark H.
Mark Wegner
back piece?
Mark
Han Speek
Ronald Callahan <uca...@lexis-nexis.com> writes:
>
> Is the LA-18 in the same series as the other L-series guitars? I have an
> LA-18
> and I think that is one of the sweetest looking and playing guitars that
> I've
> ever had my hands on.
>
The LA-18 is a lot newer. Somewhere in the mid-80's, Yamaha changed the
model designation of the "L" series to "LL", and at the same time introduced
a few other models in their high-end range, among others the "LC" and "LA"
models. The "LA" models were a fair bit slimmer than the "L" or "LL" models,
lacked some of the power of the older "L" models, but were probably better
balanced. I guess they were aimed more at a recording situation while the
"L" and "LL" are more performers guitars.
mi...@metronet.com
Well, Sandy Munro said John had more than 50 guitars! As for the Guilds,
John played variations of the JF-55 (formally the F50-R) in both 6 and 12
strings. From pictures I have seen he had at least 3 Guild 12 strings. I
think you are correct about the 6 string being custom built as I have never
found another Guild like it anywhere. I never understood why he retired the
Guild 6 string and started playing the Yamaha. That old Guild really sounded
great. However, Mr. Munro told me that he would eventually have access to
all of John's guitars so if we are patient we might see some of those Guilds
come available for sale!
Regards,
Stan Milam.
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Rob Pugliese
when playing "This Old Guitar"
Rob