Five years ago I came up with an idea that had all the makings of being a fun little book—a celebration of guitars in a chunky format, kind of like a coffee table book that fits in your back pocket. What happened, in fact, was like walking down the rabbit hole. So many guitars! So much passion! Such an infinite and infinitely interesting amount of things to learn!
Teaming up with expert photo researcher Leora Kahn, the journey began at Matt Umanov’s guitar store on Bleecker Street in New York, and continued in shops, collector’s offices, museums, festivals, factories and artisan’s workshops around the country. We set up photo shoots, where I had the rare good fortune of handling one pre-war Martin after another, or could pause to strum the D’Angelicos and Strombergs. We pored over great photo collections, such as Backbeat’s, which handles the images of the Chinery collection. Got in touch with museums in the UK and Europe, begging for an image, for example, of a Stradivarius guitar, or the Grobert given to Hector Berlioz by Niccolo Paginini, and signed by both. Now that’s mojo!
Along the way I read everything I could get my hands on, talked with dozens of guitar-makers, spent long hours with a jazz guitarist and teacher, and logged in a ridiculous amount of time on web sites and message boards.
Well, the book made it. The day it arrived from the printer, and for many days afterward, I looked at it with a curious third-person wonderment, and thought, how did this happen? And when? Those thoughts have finally calmed down. Now I’m just taking pleasure in signing copies for friends, and listening to their kind words.
But the little idea lives, and is morphing into this blog. Probably a very different type of rabbit hole — well, let’s see.
