While I was abed with fever recently, I got a morale boosting shot of Classic Stickmen news. In a surpise move that removes a major roadblock preventing a return to the concert stage by at least one of the "Classic Stickmen," Matt Munson has purchased a stage-ready acoustic guitar.
Yeah, maybe it's kind of jarring that a dyed-in-the-wool rocker like Munson doesn't just always have such a key article close at hand - if not slung right over his back, as he rides his motorcycle, Vanilla Ice-style, right down main street. So why would he need to buy one?
Bear with, we'll hash this out.
Anyway, now that the beans are in full spill, here's the only photo I have seen of Matt Munson's new "club." (or "axe" if you prefer the archetypal description of a guitar used for rock-and-roll music, but that seems to imply an electric instrument.)
Okay, so far so good. Looks like a basic, dreadnought-style guitar, making itself at home in Matt's Central Ohio Pad (COP), with the song notebook gig bag close at hand, another auspicious sign.
But what say we just read a first-hand account from Matt Munson?
The new guitar is pretty nice. Well, let me be specific. It's a used Yamaha. FX-310, to be exact.
So I got here to Columbus, and without my computer or TV, I don't have a lot to do :) So I got it in my head to go buy a guitar. There's really only ONE street I know in Ohio, so I got on it, and headed east. I figured I'd hit a music store eventually. (man, this story is starting to sound like the stuff of legends!!)
Anyhow, sure as pooh, I only drove about two miles before I saw a music store in a strip mall. Pulled in, hopped out. Pretty much your cookie-cutter small town music store. there was a punker kid (maybe 12 years old) with a shaven head and a loud t-shirt sitting in the corner "wailing" away on a Fender Strat. The dudes behind the counter looked on with apathy, as if wailing was so old hat.
My goal was to pick up a beater. just something that I could play until the Epiphone shows up. Oh, I left the Ovation in storage. So my plan was to get a "classic" acoustic guitar, though not a "classical" acoustic. Know what I mean?? I asked if they carried Seagulls, and they had one behind the counter that they wanted 800 bucks for. Not what I had in mind. Closer inspection revealed that they primarily deal in used gear, which sounded cool to me.
I headed over to the acoustic section. They had about 20 guitars. A few were immediate rejects. Either the wrong strings, wrong look, or undersized. Whittled it down to about five. I played all of them, and the prices were all between 90 and 200 bucks. I decided I would not leave without buying one.
The last one I played was the Yamaha. Action was pretty nice, had a solid, deep tone to it AND it had a pickup, with gain tone sliders. Extra nice, if I decide to do an acoustic gig lately. I tested the pickup, and it worked fine. Grabbed a gig bag, and I was out the door.
Looking at the price tag, you can tell that the guitar has been in inventory for a long time. I peeled off the layers of stickers, to see that it's original price was $499. I got it for $119. But the real beauty is that it sounds good, has a solid neck, and it stays in tune nicely. So maybe not the best guitar in the world, but quite nice.
Right on, go Matt. The new Yamaha should at long last provide decent stage accompaniment that does not disappoint with unpleasant tone or major tuning problems. Not that there haven't been worthy guitars up until now, but .... Okay, maybe I should back up and provide some historical context, to highlight the significance of the latest instrument. Or maybe I shouldn't, but too late now.
So, here goes: A brief history of Munson guitars, from my perspective:
- Classical guitar "Natalie," acquired c. 1991 - Nice guitar for a recital, but not much use for rock and roll applications.
- Blue Fender Squier solid-body electric, acquired early 1992 - This was the exact same guitar I had when we first started the band (only mine was black). Might have been the right choice if we had been a Malmsteen cover band. But with our style of music, and tendency to play outdoor concerts in inclement weather, we needed guitars that could stay in tune; we could have survived without the 22 frets, whammy bars, Floyd Rose locking bridges, and five-way pickup selector switches. Wanker nonsense.
- White Ovation shallow-bowl piezo-acoustic "YD," acquired late 1992 - This guitar was a major step forward, and made us a viable four-piece stage act, but those Ovations reek of the late eighties: they have have a very brittle, kind of harsh sound, which the shallow bowl and piezo pickup tended to accentuate. I thought it worked OK live, especially when paired with an electric, but I could tell Munson got more reluctant to use it as the road years ticked on by, and in the studio he usually used my 1963 Gibson acoustic.
- Fender Stratocaster with hard tail (i.e. no whammy bar), acquired mid-1993 - Just plain bad luck here. This should have been a great guitar, but every once in a while you just draw a "stinker," and this Strat just had presistent intonation problems that no one could ever solve. Matt used it on and off, but more often than not it seemed to sound "sour."
- Vox teardrop solid body electric 12-string, acquired mid-1994 - Matt sold this one right away, having picked it up at a garage sale dirt cheap. Too bad. It could have been pretty interesting, in a Brian Jones/Johnny Marr sort of way.
- Dark sunburst Epiphone semi-solid electric "Coca-Cola," acquired c. 1998 - Finally a good electric, this guitar became Matt's primary stage guitar. Being very similar to the Gibson ES-335, it had humbucking pickups, same as my Epiphone Les Paul, so I tried to avoid putting the guitars head-to-head because they tended to jumble together - a very minor issue (I had the Rickenbacker anyway). Only real problem was Matt never had a proper amplifier to go with it, just a PA system that doubled as a guitar amp. During this period, the Ovation went into eclipse. I did miss the acoustic + electric lineup, which was probably why I started bringing my Martin acoustic into our regular stage show.
- Yamaha FX-310 acoustic with pickup, acquired 2009 - Honest, conventional acoustic guitar, with pickup, including tone control. Should be a live workhorse. Too late to help The Stickmen/My New Invention, but no doubt perfect for Black and Blue and/or solo stuff !!
Bottom line: great news, sweet deal, excellent matchup. Mind you, I have yet to actually hear this thing, but come on. I strongly suspect that this could pan out into an actual Munson "Slave to the Grounds" style date. OK, the recent "My Laurels" post was also kind of a tip-off, but either way ...
About freakin' time!
