I’ve been through a few guitars in my life: heirlooms, sweethearts, cheap throw aways, road beaters, quirky gifts, and rum squall regrets. Most of my guitars just kinda showed up. Most good guitars have a story - maybe thats what makes them good. I’m not sentimental and I don’t hang onto things I don’t use, but I find it difficult to judge an instrument on its own merits, at least beyond obvious flaws, so a good story goes a long way in deciding what I’m going to pick up and play.
I primarily play acoustic guitar, but I learned to play on a Telecaster. My dad was a working musician and there were always instruments around the house, mostly guitars. He pretty much stole his brother’s Telecaster. Im not sure how the deal was done; could have been a straight up older brother I’m-taking-this, but more likely he put a little blue bottle full of cocaine on the table and said “I’m taking this”. I was very reluctant to play any music as a child. There are a couple of hazy memories. I know I played harmonica on stage with my dad’s band when I was really young. I remember learning a D and an A chord on my dad’s acoustic (more on that later) when I was around 8, because I wrote a song for my baby brother who was born then. I have no recollection of the tune but I wrote a few songs with those two chords around then - handy chords, being both one and five as well as one and four*. Pretty soon after that, my dad lost his mind (for another time) and I avoided everything that might attract his attention.
The telecaster was always on its stand in the living room / practice room and I found it irresistible, plus with the amp off it was quiet and I could put it back quicker than tucking a swimsuit catalog under my mattress. Once in a while my dad would catch me, and if he was sober he would help me out with chords which I resented but also appreciated. In my early teens I was obsessed with Andy Summers, which was a bad place to start learning guitar. I never learned to play any of those Police songs properly but I stood with the tele sounding out the notes of chords I still can’t name, and I still knew D and A. When I was 15, the only good musician I knew my age was a drummer name Dave. He was one of those guys who was so good he didn’t really need a band, but he started one and asked me to join because I had a microphone and an electric guitar and wasn’t afraid to sing. I had pretty much ever even turned the amp on at that point so I had no technique at all. It makes me shudder to think how awful I must have sounded but I guess I must have played well enough to keep up. I remember plugging that Tele into a 1978 Princeton reverb amp with the high boost volume knob pulled out in the basement of a preppy bar with loads of old people dancing to Doors, Stones type songs we played.
Ry’s dad holding his brother’s Telecaster
I haven’t seen that guitar in 25 years, since after my dad died my uncle took it back to Seattle. What I remember is that the body was roughly stripped of paint, the first two frets were barely above the fingerboard, and the pickup switch was missing its knob and made a scratchy sound so I just left it on the bridge pickup all the time. If it was here now, I would weep for the memories though. Its hard to say what might come back to me, probably a barre Am7**. -Ry Cavanaugh
*In the so called Nashville chart system, the chords are written with numbers so the musician can play in any key. 1 is dominant obviously. So with A and D, you can play in both keys but in the key of A you only have a 4 chord and in D you only have a 5 chord. Bye Bye Rosyanne is a two chord 1 and 5. BAD by U2 is a 1 and 4.
**Andy Summers is a renowned minor 7 chord specialist.