A day in the neighborhood.

My neighbor came home to his house on fire yesterday. He was a little stunned to come driving up the street to find 5 fire trucks in front of his home. One of his two dogs was thrown into my house during the bedlam,,,it was sleeting heavily outside. His wife (who was home and brought the dogs out) and himself were standing in my Living Room, while the Firemen were still working on putting the fire out in his Master Bedroom. My husband said I hope you had no irreplaceable momentoes that were kept in the master. He looked at his wife and said “What about my guitar”, Looked back at us and said “I had a custom guitar, worth about 10K in my bedroom” and he looked devastated.

I looked at the wife and said “run next door and ask the firemen to throw the guitar out, if they have can, if its wet but did not burn we dry it now and attempt to minimize the damage.” (the blaze was already out …the Fireman were still in the process of wetting down). She came back a second later with the custom snake/eel? skin case, it was black covered with ashes and dripping water. The skin on the case curled back by fire and blackened. We threw towels on the floor and opened it.

The guitar was dry! the water had not had time to seep past the peeled skin and base constuction and the liner yet, it was just starting too.(the cutouts in the soundboard radiate a smell of woodsmoke from its interior but that is all we could find amiss). The guitar itself was unharmed. I was so proud of myself for thinking of ‘trying’ to save it’ as the homeowners in question were understandably a little distracted. And the fireman were still adding more water to the smoldering piles in the room, through the windows and from inside, were carrying piles of bedroom belongings out to the yard and dousing them more with the firehose.

“Music is enough for a lifetime, but a lifetime is not enough for music”.
Sergei Rachmaninoff

I love music and all that creates it…am so happy this instrument is not lost.

We had a blast using Dallas/Ft Worth’s version of ‘winterwonderland’, a 2 “ sheet of ice from heavy sleet, and I went sledding down ‘Flag Pole Hill’ till 1:30am in the morning last night. In Central Texas, - you take it (sledding weather) when you can very rarely get it. Iced in today. What a night!.

I doubt UPS is going to show up with my new amp and interconnects from Outlaw today!

Way to go SLL! Excellent save.

I was actually just talking to a friend of mine in Dallas who is home from work today. Me, I drove in despite the snow we got this morning since I've got a meeting this afternoon (no ice, thankfully) -- we almost never see white stuff in Memphis. I noticed several kids out near the middle school (some good hills) with sleds around 7:00 this morning as I drove in to work at 20 MPH.

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gonk -- Saloon Links | Pre/Pro Comparison Chart | 950 Review

forget the meeting Gonk. Go find you a trash can lid or a piece of cardboard ...got a little hill by that there office? You only live once! We own two sleds for the occasion, once every five years, we get to use them.

I think we are going back tonight, to see if we can get some more hill time in! (a thin flim here if the afternoon dosent get it, will refreeze the second night allowing you to do it again) If we are lucky it won't melt and the second front from the west coast might arrive and dump some more on top.

Your neighborhood isn't built on the site of an old indian burial ground is it?

First your husband's saw accident and now this fire...

It's starting to sound like Ancient Curse action to me.



PS -- You have my undying respect for saving that instrument. Well done, Lena.

Just out of curiousity, what kind of guitar is it? Martin? Taylor? Local Luthier?

Not up on guitar manuf. but he told me (maybe a boutique custom type thing) a guy named (something Deal) who only produces 3 a year, the back has a bowed out section but it is carved using one piece of (?) curly maple, 25 coats of (varnish/lacquer?), animal glue, floating pickup.etc. I know it was a custom commission, has an inlay of the owner’s name in the neck and was built as a Blues acoustical. And he paid 10K (it looks that and more) to have it built a long time ago.

Whether the maker is a ‘name’ or not, you known how you can spot old world type craftsmanship when you see it, Highest quality available hand work, this is a beautiful guitar. A piece of art in its own right. I looked at it for a second this morning just to admire. It has the craftsmanship I’ve seen on very old master built violins. It’s lovely.

When I had time to think…. after all the excitement yesterday, and after contemplating the horror of the exterior of the case itself (which is burned) and seeing the house, where the estimator said the temp was minimum 1200 degrees or the nails would not have started popping out of the sheet rock around the house.. I’m still worried about it. It ‘looks’ perfect. But he came this morning to retrieve it to show the estimator the case and guitar, - and we discussed the fact that although it looks unharmed, it had to have sustained a lot of heat. You can smell the smoke ‘in it’ through the cutouts.

So being as this guy has all his priorities straight.  He left his wife to talk to the insurance agent, and ran it up to a shop, to have them start checking it immediately!

Your neighborhood isn't built on the site of an old Indian burial ground is it. As a matter of fact
I don’t know how far they roamed (and built and buried) in my area but ½ mile to the west is a Historical plaque. You guessed it,…….old Indian burial grounds. (School and houses on top now). I used to play in the large expensive neighbor (I’m in the cheap one) to the west, and where the historical plaque is now, - was an overgrown lot, we used to go down to from my grandmothers house to scare ourselves silly. It had 4 to 6 old graves with headstones caved into depressions in the ground. The site of an old tiny church (post Indian era) burial ground, one headstone was legible and was the church organist. The property became too valuable and an architect came in and built two houses on the lot. And the local rag for Lakewood,..(pretty reputable) stated ……YEP they only moved the headstones!!!!!. (don’t know if that was truly possible or legal.)

Since I’m 16th Choctaw, I’ve never worried, they (hopefully) would not mind me in the neighborhood. Most people around here are not even aware there is a Native American history to these neighborhoods.

Gonk I hope you slid down a hill today!. I’m exhausted we’ve been in and out all day. Although now it’s getting truly dangerous. I just walked down to the burnt out neighbors to take them a dinner for tomorrow. They are staying for a couple of nights at his brothers house a block away, till the insurance company finds them a place. I had to slide home on my rearend (across the driveways with big hills) half the way back and ski with my feet the rest. It’s turning into a topping of complete ‘black ice’ syndrome, after dark here.
Gotta e-mail Outlaw my amp arrived this afternoon (neither rain nor sleet)although my husband had to go out and 'get it' the delievery guy could not make it across the ice in the street and yard with its weight...then asked my husband if he should hold on to (my husbands arm) to help him get back into the house! But no interconnects yet which should have arrived before the amp.

Cool story, good to hear it wasnt harmed. Im a fan of many instruments and seeing one get ruined is not a pretty sight

I'm also waiting for my amps to show up. I pray we dont get any more snowstorms across the country that might delay their arrival.

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Play it LoUd!!

There been a HUGH UPS truck stuck on 1-30E North on a overpass shown on the news all day. Hope yours is not in transit on it!

Now you've got me worried

Im going to try and relax but we all know that wont work. Nothing is more exciting then taking a new toy out of it's box. The waiting is what truly sucks!

Heck, I'm even excited to get the pair of PCA's Doesn't take much to excite me. No more UPS talk, I don't want to sink into a depression, heh.

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Play it LoUd!!

having commissioned a bass that took 15 months to build, i read your post with heart in throat.

lesson to all who own a custom axe...get a custom case to go with it. mine is rated and hermetically sealed. those firemen deserve an award ceremony.

i loved the comments about music. i've played polkas at a polish wedding for free just to be involved with music and it's irreplaceable role in the happiest of times in the lives of complete strangers who became like my family after one set.

it's great to sweep the technical aspects aside and just close your eyes and...listen.

Great save! I'm happy to hear that he had it checked out. Things to look for on an acoustic guitar that has been subjected to excessive heat are loose bindings, joints and a pulled bridge; all because the glue goes soft.

These things are built almost to the point of their own destruction considering the stress they need to withstand. If this guitar was staring into hell and survived, then it's got a good soul. (Yes, Bill loves guitars)

having commissioned a bass that took 15 months to build. Yes, I think he said he waited over a year for this one.

i've played polkas at a polish wedding What music can evoke! Even when your not expecting it. Watching “My Big Fat Greek Wedding” last week, funny funny movie, made me want to find one (a Greek orthodox wedding) to be able to join in the ‘circle’ dance. Listening to the (mandolins?) left you in a foot tapping party sort of mood. I think I’ll look up the CD soundtrack for that movie…. and not something I would have thought on my own to pick up prior to watching (and hearing) it.

If this guitar was staring into hell and survived I wonder if it felt the angels plucking at its strings.
It does appear as if it’s ‘marked’ in some way now. Even if only for the reason that it is the SOLE survivor from the Master Bedr. I was down at the house the day after, they lost everything else contained in that room, not one other single item is salvageable. I’m looking forward to hearing from the HO on the shops opinion of its condition. And have already elicited a promise to hear him play it, when things are back to normal next summer.

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Smart Little Lena:
[i]And have already elicited a promise to hear him play it, when things are back to normal next summer.[/QUOTE
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i think that's what it's all about. something was telling him that it's to PLAY that he got it. very cool that you were the one to point that out. let me know how it sounds.

“I co-founded D'Leco Acoustic Instruments, a small guitar company in Oklahoma City where James Dale, a good friend and fantastic luthier (who by the way continues to build) and myself produced handcrafted arch top guitars. For me, it was the highlight of my career as a guitarist. During our six and one half years as business partners we managed to achieve an impressive list of accomplishments. Our small company came to represent the estate of Charlie Christian, one of the greatest pioneers of the electric guitar. My involvement placed me in a position to negotiate deals with two world renowned guitar manufacturers, Samick Musical Instruments in Korea and American manufacturer, Gibson Guitars to produce a line of expensive, high end collector's edition guitars as a tribute to the legendary Charlie Christian. I still play one of these models today.” From: http://www.giglogic.com/main.html

For Dollarbill (who asked) I had the ‘Deal’ remembered incorrectly. We took the couple to dinner tonight. It was James Dale.
I remember seeing the D’Leco in script on the neck, and he mentioned Dale built this one himself, evidently all the D’Leco’s were not made by Dale. I saw something on a D’Leco collaboration being one of the several pieces in the Smithsonian “Blue Guitar ” commission, - which collection no longer resides at the Smithsonian but is now owned by a private collector. The D’Leco blue in that collection was listed as perhaps needing more volume in the pickup. I tried to pull up the D’Leco Co., and could not find much on it. (I feel 'attached' in a wierd way to this guitar now. ). It may already be a defunct enterprise. Regardless it’s a beautiful piece…will try to get pics someday, if I ever figure out how to post them.