Not a Guild, but thought you may want to take a look....

[Cypress Knee]

Mary Muehleisen, sister of Maury Muehleisen, Jim Croce's lead guitar player, brought this to a gathering sometime ago and I found this picture just going through old computer files.



The guitar was Jim Croce's recording guitar, and can be heard played by Croce on every studio album they recorded. I think that it is the possession of Tommy West or Terry Cashman. Evidently Croce bought it to record with (Cashman and West were helping them get started), it was determined that the tone was not worthy and they sent it to a luthier who made several modifications that brought the sound out the Jim Croce fans are familiar with.

On old youtube videos they are playing Ovations and Martins, but this was the studio guitar.

Regards,

CK

PS - Everyone is waiting in line to play it!

 

[Default]

Thanks for sharing, CK! I always loved Jim Croce and it just goes to show us that what was on the video was not always what we heard.

 

[PTC Bernie]

I knew that he played one, but I've never been able to find a picture of him with it in his hands. Does any one have one?

 

[Cypress Knee]

Hey Bernie, this is even better:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a_2bSvTbvck

CK

 

[PTC Bernie]

VERY cool!! Thanks for posting that!

 

[twocorgis]

Very cool CK! There's a lot of guitars there, even more cases than at LMG! Was this a Martin gathering by any chance?

 

[Cypress Knee]

Hi Sandy,

That is at the annual UMGF gathering (NazFest), usually the first weekend in August in Nazareth PA. I think there are generally a couple of hundred people there.

Mary sometimes comes to the weekend. Martin made a Maury model as well as a Croce model, though I don't know what actual Martin model they were based on.

CK

 

[twocorgis]

I thought so CK. NazFest is definitely on my radar these days, now that I'll be up to three of the M brand guitars come the fall, and have become quite the fan. It doesn't hurt that it's a pretty easy drive for me as well. Next year perhaps?

 

[Wee Davy]

Interesting that the bridge and pick guard don't match. One from a Dove and the other from a Hummingbird.
Wee Davy

 

[Cypress Knee]

Great catch Davy, I don't know enough about Gibson's to realize there was a difference. Thanks to Google, I found the story:
-------------------------------------------------------
Jim Croce

Although he owned many guitars over the course of his short career--including a Martin 000-28 that he had when he lived in Pennsylvania--all three of Jim Croce's solo albums were recorded with a Gibson Dove. Croce originally bought the guitar for coproducer Tommy West in 1968, but according to West, the guitar sounded so awful ("It had adjustable bridges and about nine coats of sunburst finish") that he took it to guitar maker Phillip Petillo to have it overhauled. Petillo gave it an ebony bridge, new gears, and a new fingerboard, and he took the finish off. Later, when Croce was going through a difficult economic time and had to sell a lot of his guitars, West gave the guitar back to him. For a while, Croce used the Dove live and in the studio. He began using a variety of Ovations for live work during the last year and a half of his life, in part because of their durability. Croce played with a plastic thumbpick and three metal fingerpicks. "He wasn't a good strummer," recalls West, "but he could really fingerpick steadily."

Croce's lead acoustic guitarist Maury Muehleisen's primary guitars were two Martins: a D-28 and a D-35. The D-28 was made sometime in the '60s, and the D-35 was made sometime between 1965 (when the D-35 was introduced) and 1969. The D-28 was strung with Ernie Ball Slinkys and the D-35 with strings made by Petillo. Like Croce, Muehleisen took to using Ovations on the road and frequently played with fingerpicks.
--Jason Zasky
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Moral of the story - if Jim Croce had bought a Guild drednaught in the first place instead of a Gibson, he would have saved a lot of trouble getting the guitar ready to play!

CK

 

[dreadnut]

Mary Muehleisen, sister of Maury Muehleisen, Jim Croce's lead guitar player, brought this to a gathering sometime ago and I found this picture just going through old computer files.



PS - Everyone is waiting in line to play it!

WOW Thanks for posting that! I was going to reply yesterday but I got lost in youtube videos of Jim & Maury, brought back lots of memories. That certainly is one iconic guitar!

Jim & Maury are my favorite duo, when they got together magic happened. I remember I was headed south to Seattle on I-5 when I heard the sad news that their plane went down. Like other artists who have died, you can only wonder what they could have become with that much talent.

It's interesting that Martin made the Jim Croce special dreadnaught (with a 1973 dime inlaid at the 12th or 14th fret)

 

[zombywoof]

If the Dove did not sound good the most likely culprit was not as much the ADJ bridge as the bracing. That is the year Gibson started using a bulkier bracing in their instruments which tended to dampen top vibration. It did get worse though. Throw in the narrow 1 9/16" nut Gibson started using in 1965 and you have a guitar that would drive a lot of fingerpickers up a wall.

 

[idealassets]

I thought so CK. NazFest is definitely on my radar these days, now that I'll be up to three of the M brand guitars come the fall, and have become quite the fan. It doesn't hurt that it's a pretty easy drive for me as well. Next year perhaps?

Wow this is the first that I have heard of such an event. It would be nice to attend. I do own one Martin HD28 guitar, bought at a nice discount at Guitar Center "Labor Day Blowout specials". It was my first "nice" guitar before I knew very much about other brands of quality guitars. Wouldn't it be cool to bring just a few Guild's there? Like maybe a Starfire bass, just to get the ball rolling? Could that be an LMM?

Craig

 

[idealassets]

Hey Bernie, this is even better:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a_2bSvTbvck

CK

I'm liking that "lead guitar all the way through" on the song. That would have been cool to play, provided of course that a guitarist is that proficient.

Craig

 

[twocorgis]

Wow this is the first that I have heard of such an event. It would be nice to attend. I do own one Martin HD28 guitar, bought at a nice discount at Guitar Center "Labor Day Blowout specials". It was my first "nice" guitar before I knew very much about other brands of quality guitars. Wouldn't it be cool to bring just a few Guild's there? Like maybe a Starfire bass, just to get the ball rolling? Could that be an LMM?

Craig

Never heard of NazFest Craig? The folks over at UMGF have been doing it for years (linky here). I don't think it quite as intimate as LMG, as Martin has a much larger scale, both as a company and a customer base. It's still something I'd like to do though, and our latest Corgi's breeder is right nearby in Easton. Next year perhaps.

 

[idealassets]

Never heard of NazFest Craig? The folks over at UMGF have been doing it for years (linky here). I don't think it quite as intimate as LMG, as Martin has a much larger scale, both as a company and a customer base. It's still something I'd like to do though, and our latest Corgi's breeder is right nearby in Easton. Next year perhaps.

There's always room for one more Corgi. Just ask the Queen, eh?

Craig

 

[idealassets]

Thanks for the Nazfest link Sandy. I have been playing guitar for 3 years now, but live in an area full of local guitar players, and its a local scene. Most of them don't know much about what really happens "out there". Unfortunately, it was Michigan that brought us the MC5, Iggy & the Stooges, and Ted Nugent. There is the exception of Bob Seeger though, coming from Ann Arbor.

LTG is a great place to get the low-down, as usual.

Craig