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Alex and Alicia
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Saturday night, March
29th 2008, Alicia stayed up way to late playing her '58 Junior,
then it was a restless night's sleep. Sunday
morning we got up at 4:15am to leave the house at 4:45, airport at 5:45, flight
at 7:00. We packed pretty lightly, one
small backpack with 1 change of clothes each, my camera bag, and a borrowed
Gibson protector case. We took all of our stuff as “carry on”, and the
flight to NYC was good; no problem getting the empty guitar case on board.
Alex (the guy selling the '54) was
kind enough to pick us up at LaGuardia, and took us to his place to get the
guitar. He's a good guy, and was a very gracious host while we were with
him. Alicia was frothing to see the '54 and check it out, and she was not
disappointed as I'm sure you can imagine. Alex was nice enough to bring out
his '54 All Gold, '56 Junior & '58 Special for Alicia to try out. Time
passed quickly, and before we really wanted to, we had to take our leave of
Alex and catch the train to Grand Central to continue our weekend odyssey,
now with our backpack, camera bag, Gibson protector case, and the
Gibson custom shop case from Alex. We grabbed a quick pastrami sandwich, a
knish, some gravlax and chicken noodle soup in
Grand Central, trying some of the ethnic stuff we don't get in Chicago.
We jumped onto a shuttle subway
train, then the number 1 train to Penn Station in Manhattan, then onto the New Jersey RR to
get to the Aberdeen-Matawan station where our friend Rich picked us up at
the station. We had a nice homemade dinner thanks to Rich’s wife Donna, and
Alicia plugged in the Les Paul for the first time. It sounded great, even
though Rich is a bit of a high gain guy, and the only amp for us to use was
a modded Marshall. As the day wound to a close, it
was back on the train to get to Penn Station Manhattan.
We got to the station at around 11:30pm, and walked the 10 blocks to Times Square to finally check into our hotel,
and dropped our stuff in our room. We went back out and did a quick walk
around, and grabbed a hot dog from a street cart (we don't have them here,
and have seen to many episodes of "Law & Order" to resist
trying one).
The weather didn't cooperate on
Monday, as it was overcast and drizzling, so our plans to see the Statue of
Liberty and Empire State building were shelved. Instead we
walked around Times Square, had the most expensive breakfast
omelets of our lives (I'd drop weight quick if I had to eat in NYC all the
time, very pricey compared to here).
We checked out Sam Ash and
Manny's; but the best was at Rudy's. We stopped in, and were talking to one
of the counter guys, and I noticed they had a righty '54 in the showcase. I
asked how much was it going for, and related how Alicia and I had just
picked up a '54 lefty. I asked if they had any lefties; to which he replied
"we've got a '59 burst, the only one made". I thought he was
pulling my leg, so I said something to the effect of not having heard that
McEnroe had died. As it turned out, John has it on the block thru Rudy's! I
asked if Alicia could see it, and was told that only Rudy could show it,
and he would be in around 1:00.Alicia and I walked around a bit more, and
went back to the hotel. At 1:15, we walked over to Rudy's with the
'54 in the protector case wrapped in a plastic bag and met Rudy. We spoke
for a while, showed him the '54, and he was very gracious and let Alicia
play the '59 for 5-10 minutes. I asked twice about getting a photo of her
with it, but Rudy said John was very clear about not wanting pictures taken
of the guitar; and I wasn't going to ask a third time.
We killed off the rest of the day,
and wandered over to line up at the Iridium Jazz Club at 8:15, to be 1st in
line for the 10pm Les Paul show. We got our pick of tables and enjoyed the
show, and got to meet Les and get a few autographs.
The flight home was golden, we carried on cases, our backpack and camera bag;
and a limo from O’Hare airport to our place capped off the
travel. What a memorable lefty weekender for Alicia!
The routes are really roughly done,
and these must really have been one offs at the time. Take a look at the
x-ray for the route from the control cavity to the switch! We switched out
the '70's bridge and studs that were on the guitar with a correct vintage
'54 thin ear bridge and studs, along with a set of correct ’54 tuners to
replace the later ones that were installed. Many thanks to Kim at “Vintage
Checkout” for all his help in tracking down parts!.
Poker chip, switch & switch tip, TRC, knobs & pointers, pickguard
& bracket look good, control cavity covers are correct, and appear to
be righty covers flipped (countersunk on both sides). We installed a set of
"Dr Vintage" pots with 50's style wiring, and a set of Luxe "Grey Tiger" reproduction caps installed
with the Duncan pickups that were already in the
guitar.
Finally, we strung it up with
Alicia's favorite “DR Pure Blues” strings, tweaked the truss rod, set the
action height and plugged it in. Alicia is really struck by the feel of the
guitar, and the vibration she feels in the neck and body when she plays it.
She commented on how "alive" the guitar seems, and that sustain
& harmonics are really noticeable.
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Alicia with two lefty ‘54’s
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