20071026 Not One, Not Two, But Three

20071026 Not One, Not Two, But Three

As a seasonal ranger I move every few months. Everything tangible I own must fit either in my Toyota pickup or my 5’x10’ enclosed cargo trailer. As mindful as I am about my truck and trailer already being full, I still keep acquiring stuff. A couple of years ago the wildlife refuge where I am staying at the moment was tossing a cafeteria table in need of only minor repairs. This would be perfect for my home office. Who could pass it up?

Last winter Everglades ranger Leon Howell was reducing his 13-guitar collection and had a wonderful Gibson Songbird he let me have for next to nothing, at least compared to what it was worth.

I already owned a guitar, an Alvarez.

My Alvarez is a completely adequate guitar and quite pretty really, but the Songbird is a really nice sounding and playing instrument. How could I let that go?

Two guitars. With the addition of the Gibson I owned two guitars. I don’t even really play guitar. I play around on the guitar but I don’t really play guitar. After a bad day at work, a day where one of my programs flops or I come down with a case of foot-in-mouth disease, dinking on the guitar puts me at ease. But me with space limitations, what was I doing with two guitars? Isn’t one enough?

Well, believe it or not I now own

not one, not two, but three guitars.

After my friend Ranger Steve’s recent passing, his thoughtful wife Amelia gave me the Yamaha guitar he played when he first arrived in the Everglades in what, 1979?

She also passed along the hard case, adorned with a number of well-worn Everglades-related decals she designed herself.

Some years back Steve had relegated this beater to second or third string, playing it when weather and other conditions forced him to leave his newer guitars at home. The guitar needed a bit of TLC. The tuning machines turned but were not happy to do so. Each string sat at a different level above the fretboard.

How Steve played it in tune and without buzzing I’ll never know, but I heard it played sweetly more than once on the schooner Windfall.

Lucky for me the Bay Area is home to a very fine guitar repair shop, Gryphon Stringed Instruments in Palo Alto. For a modest price they put right this historic guitar, a guitar with about 30 years of Steve Robinson in its pick-scraped finish and

salt-corroded hardware. The guitar is still weathered but plays well.

Just because it doesn’t look good doesn’t mean it doesn’t sound good. Have you ever seen the guitar Willie Nelson regularly plays? Though my playing does not do justice to Steve’s guitar (and it will always be Steve’s guitar), I am honored to be its current custodian. But three guitars?

Really now, one of them has gotta go. I’ll let you guess which one won’t.