I just donated two playable and beautiful guitars to a musical instrument drive hosted by my credit union. I feel great.
I’ve had these axes for many years and didn’t play them enough to allow them space in my pad anymore. I have other guitars I do play but no one was playing these guys.
There is nothing wrong with these things. In fact when I decided to move them I pulled them off the wall, adjusted their necks for playability, cleaned them and immediately had pangs of guitar greed (“Maybe I should give these two just a little more time…”). But no. They needed new homes. More to the point they needed best friends who’d play with them.
Firefly Guitars is a small company in SoCal (Santa Cruz maybe) that designs inexpensive versions of major manufacturers gear and has them manufactured in China. They are wildly popular with a segment of guitar freaks who LOVE cheap versions of expensive stuff. There are fan groups, users forums, modding swap web pages and LOTS of FaceBook Groups focused on these nifty things. The main thing the Factory in China gets right is the appearance of the instruments – the two I have are super models. Its uncanny. They are ART. These two were lest then $300 for both. If you bought them for decor for a bar or a restaurant and just shot a bolt through them to put on your wall behind the bar they’d be great purchases.
The blue one above which cost about $160 is a copy of a hollow body Gibson that costs thousands of dollars. The one below which ran me $130 is an imitation of a Fender Thinline Telecaster – that new could cost 10 times that or more. Its not only super model fine, it is damn cool. Look at that thing.
At first I thought I’d get these guys and soup them up: replace tuners and pick-ups and learn a bunch of luthery in the process. That never happened. I did take fret files to them and learned about fret work to the point where I can confidently do a few small things to my nicer guitars: round of pointy fret-ends, recrown play worn frets, and grind down frets that are too high making a string buzz that is fingered lower on the neck – so the mission wasn’t completely fruitless.
The point is – playable, beautiful instruments were hanging on my wall that hadn’t been plugged in in well over a year. Thats a damn shame. Somewhere there’s a cat who needs to play the blues…
As often happens when one is trying to do a good thing – the relocating of the instruments didn’t go as smoothly as I’d hoped. I was jazzed to here the credit union was gathering instruments for schools – I assumed (since its UM Credit Union) the eventual recipients would be Ann Arbor schools (the copy on the sign said “moved on to schools” – I think) which is all well and dandy – but – I live in Ypsilanti where so many are lucky to have the “Basics.” I thought I’d look around home – you know where charity is best begun. I talked with the folks at the library and we didn’t see a great opportunity to leave the axes there.
We have wonderful music educator’s here abouts. Involved, Dedicated – I’ve had a lot of good teachers and met some when my kid was in school but almost everywhere you look the music folks stand out as exceptional. I messaged a cat I know who works with younger musicians but he was gigging for several days.
I failed to think about that.
So when I had an errand this morning that would take me near the CU I put the guitars in the back seat and took them for a ride to the “Train Station,” (IYKYK.) The Large pile of instruments in the lobby was gone but a very nice woman at the CU said she went with the folks who moved the instruments and she would take it upon herself to make sure my two givelings would find their way to join their new herd. Another do-gooder. You want to meet a do-gooder? Life Hint – Go do something good! – you ‘ll meet someone on the same tack right away.
Good Deal – neglected instruments were on their way to people who wanted to have fun and make music. My pad is a little less cluttered – I am aglow with giving music to someone whom I suppose wouldn’t have it – and a lovely person at the bank complimented my generosity. Win Win Win.
If only life was that smooth… When I got home there was a message from the Professor – “sure I probably have a couple of students who would make good use of the guitars…” I messaged him back apologizing that my impatience had induced me to just give them to the CU as I was out that way anyway – and they were gone. (I was really looking forward to scoring points with this guy too.) The Maestro was gracious saying it was no problem.
I hope whoever gets those guitars plays blues and jazz with them (and not country.)