The concept of a desert island guitar is: if you were stuck on a small island somewhere in the middle of the vast Erehwon Ocean and had only one guitar with you, which one would that be? A tough choice for anyone with a large collection of six-string instruments, and even harder if you were given a chance to pick any guitar at all out of the thousands of models available in the modern world. Even for someone like me, with only one acoustic guitar plus three electrics - a Gibson, a Fender-ish Partscaster, and an old Danelectro - which would I pick to case up and board a slow boat to Nowhere with?
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| A Non- Collection |
Most of these instruments have been written about at length on this blog; so far the Les Paul Special, the Dano, and the FrankenCaster that evolves and morphs constantly with various parts added and subtracted, starting out as an early '90s Fender Stratocaster and currently with a knotty pine Tele body.
The cute Yamaha parlor acoustic would be a logical choice, with a sweet voice perfect for whiling away long hours on the beach and in a little grass shack just above the high tide line. Either of the solid body electrics would only be ideal with an amp of some kind, and hopefully my desert island would have electricity or a good supply of batteries. The Danelectro would be a compromise choice, but it probably fits this imaginary need well: being semi hollow, it has a surprisingly nice and harmonious (although small) acoustic voice, and its electronics yield great tone - hopefully good enough for a desert island jam band or open mic nights under the palm trees and starry sky.
Lately I've been playing this '59 Dano almost exclusively, all the while imagining a journey to somewhere I've never been before. And where might that journey's end be? Recently I've been told that I have an incurable disease, and my remaining life span will be measured in months and possibly years, rather than decades. It took awhile to process that info, but I've finally come to peace with it... after all, it's been a great life so far, full of many adventurous trips and good deeds done, with reliable friends and a wonderful loving family.
In the photo at the top of this post there are, besides the black and white Danelectro (a gift from my brother Jon-san), an exactly 40 year old Shubb capo and equally ancient leather strap, a rather beautiful quilt made by my sister Susan, and a pin featuring the character Jiji from 1989 Studio Ghibli film "Kiki's Delivery Service", a gift from my sister Helen:
