guitarpage3

Mike's Guitars

If you would like to drop me a line and express your opinion here,
please Email me at:
mykeychainrecords@yahoo.com

Boy did I ever want a Gibson ES 5!

Well, unfortunately, I can't afford the real
thing or it's reissue.

Enter the wonderful Epiphone company!
This is a fabulous instrument with a very
nice flame all over the body (click on the
pictures to bring up a closer shot of the
guitar).

Plays and sounds great. Two drawbacks
for mere mortals: This guitar really wants
to howl if you crank it up with overdrive
and with no toggle switch, you have to
be pretty quick on the draw to change
volume. The lay out is: master tone up by
the cut out and three individual volumes.

These guitars look like the same guitar.

Well, that's because they are the same
model!

Two 1950's Harmony Broadways!

The left one is a darker brown sunburst
and honestly possibly the better player of
the two.

The Broadway on the right is a cherry
sunburst and it came to me from the
great state of Hawaii!

Beautiful checkerboard binding on these
monkeys!

My original burnt in a Nasty's cabin fire.
The Nastys, of course, lied to the
insurance company and told them it was
some 1920's Martin.

They got the money, but did not replace
the guitar.

Ahh, back home!

My first electric guitar! I was feverishly practicing on the late
'40's early '50's Harmony Broadway arch top I had found in the
closet when the Nasty's bought this 1960's Framus guitar for
me for Christmas. More switches than you could imagine.
Armed with the homemade distortion box my cousin made & a
solid state TS 100B Traynor amp, I was serious trouble!
Check out the birds eye maple on the back. Ouch! Hey
kids! Matching case!

You can't have enough pictures of some stupid guitar!

Framus Mandolin.

I had another
bowl-back mandolin,
but someone absconded
with it. Had this one for
years too.Some
knucklehead drilled a
hole in the headstock.
Nice back on this one.
For effect, the strings
must be twenty years
old.

1950's Kay

The circa 1950's
Kay has been used
a few times live but
mostly on demo
tapes. It has a full
rich tone & as a
bonus I still have
the original case!

1970's Ovation
The Ovation on the right
was purchased for me for
my high school
graduation. It was a used
guitar back in '81. I was
never really interested in
Ovations. This must have
been one of their earliest
acoustic/electrics.
It was rarely used as
such. I have toyed with
selling it but I have no
other acoustics anymore.
The dink stole my
Framus flattop. Oh well,
this one still works & it's
throws some volume
acoustically.

1960's Teisco Del Rey

The guitar on the right is a '60's
Teisco Del Rey. It's a copy of a
Vox Phantom. This guitar was
bought from a garage sale by my
Uncle Bob in the mid 70's. He
bought it as a joke because he
wanted to pretend he was Elvis.

My Aunt & Uncle wouldn't sell it
to me.They in turn sold it to my
friend Tim Ivory. Tim was dating
Paul Haider's wife's sister so
Paul ended up with this guitar.
Somehow in the '80's the guitar
came (nearly) full circle & ended
up in my possession. It has a
very comfortable home in my
basement rafters.

The guitar on the right is a '50's Harmony
Master. This arch top takes the place of my
Harmony Broadway. The Broadway was a
fabulous arch-top guitar that my
Great-Grandmother gave to my biological
father. It had mother of pearl dots in the
neck & multiple binding on the body. It
didn't survive a fire at the cabin. The Nasty's
duped the insurance company & never
replaced the guitar for me. I still have fond
memories of getting my first finger blisters
learning on that guitar.I would love to find
another.

This uke is a Harmony. It's a large ukulele I think
I've read it's a baritone uke. Don't hold me to this.
I've had it since the late 70's. Given to me by my
grandfather I have only ever learned "Tiptoe Through
the Tulips" on it Kinda a snazzy little instrument
though.

The one on the right I purchased in a Goodwill
around 1977.That was when you could still get good
deals there. Like a tie for a dime. This instrument had
a $5.00 tag on it which I switched to a $1.00 tag.
It's great for those east Indian ragas we all love so
well. Of special note is the one broken Gibson tuning
key from a Les Paul and the Kay pickups that I
mounted to it in case I wanted to use it live. Never
have, so it occupies a place of honor on my shelf.