My Beat Up Six-String

This is a guitar I have not ever had on my blog, I don't think. It's been in the back of the closet for about 20 years.

It's a Yamaha FG-150. This guitar was made from 1968 to 1972. My grandfather gave this one to me when I was about 16, around 1979. He brought it with him from California, where he lived, when he and my grandmother drove in to visit.

He'd added a single pickup to it, to amplify the sound. One of the original tuning keys was missing and had been replaced with something that did not match. (It's still on there.)

The thing was beat up all over the back and had a scar across the front.

To further desecrate the instrument, my grandfather wrote my name in tiny little letters near the neck - in ink. The ink has since faded, but the indentation of the pen remains. At the time, I found that incredibly irritating but today I'm glad I have his handwriting on the guitar, however faded it may be.

This is the guitar I played for many years. While most of the scars were already on it - the ones on the back I think came from my grandfather's belt buckle while the one on the front probably came from a watch band - I'm sure I added a few nicks and scratches to it myself.

I bought a Takamine classical guitar around 1990 and put the Yamaha in a case and stowed it in the closet.

I played the Takamine for a long time. By then, my back had become troublesome and holding my heavy electric guitars was problematic, so I'd stopped using those.

After a while, even the Takamine became difficult for me to hold. Since it was a classical guitar, it didn't have a strap on it to help hold it up.

The mini-Taylor is on the left, the
 Takamine is on the right. Note the little
 button on the bottom of the
 mini-Taylor. That's for the strap.

So I started seeking out a different guitar. First I bought a mini-Taylor while we were vacationing in Charleston, SC. It sounded clear and was small. It played well and I could hold it. Then in 2019, I purchased a cheap Epiphone Les Paul Special that was, for an electric guitar, relatively lightweight. 

This is the cheap Epiphone electric.

I played those two guitars for the last several years. In August 2020, I had a bad upper respiratory infection (it was not Covid) that put me to bed for nearly two weeks. I had also stopped seeing my chiropractor because of Covid, unless I was having a real problem, so my back wasn't receiving the attention it needed. (I generally see the chiropractor every two weeks.)

By the time I'd recovered from the upper respiratory infection, I could not pick up my electric guitar and hold it for very long without it causing strain on my back. The mini-Taylor also started bothering me. I began sitting more when I played, but still experienced pain. I tried different positions, but nothing helped.

The straps on these two guitars go from the body area only. There is a peg for a loop for a strap on the bottom and another at the top of the body where the neck connects on both guitars. I strong suspected the weight distribution was a problem, but I didn't know what to do about it except constantly change positions and try to keep things from hurting.

Of course the less I played, the more my fingers hurt when I did play. Playing an instrument is like writing - it's a skill that one must continually nurture. (That's why I write this blog, to nurture that skill.) So I kept picking up the guitar almost daily even if I only played one song. That was frustrating, though, because I couldn't practice or learn anything new. I was just trying to keep the calluses on my fingertips.

About a month ago, I was watching an old tape of Melissa Etheridge and Dolly Parton doing a duet together. I noticed that Dolly Parton was playing a small Martin (they don't make them like that anymore) and her strap did not attach to the body on the left side - it went up to the neck. 

That meant that the weight distribution went more across the top of the shoulders and there was less tension on one set of muscles on the left shoulder.

Dolly Parton's strap was more like a rope while Melissa Etheridge's strap was thick and went down the front.

The only guitar I had that allowed for a strap from the neck to the back of the guitar body was my old Yamaha.

So I dug it out of the closet, dusted it off, and put new strings on it.

However, even after cleaning it, the guitar smelled musty. You know, like your grandma's attic. The odor came from the sound hole in the guitar, and because I am so environmentally sensitive to everything, I couldn't ignore it. In fact, I developed another sinus infection that I suspect was a combination of trying to play this guitar and pollen.

I couldn't even play it long enough to see if the change in strap position would make much difference.

Ridding something old of that musty smell is a challenge. I put a dryer sheet in the hole. I placed cotton balls swabbed with Ozium in the hole (it smells sort of lemony). However, the musty smell remained and I was frustrated.

Then I watched an old Fleetwood Mac concert on TV. Lindsay Buckingham was playing a Rick Turner electric guitar (would love to have one of those, but it's a $15,000 guitar, so no). I noticed that on all of his guitars, though, he had the sound hole covered.

Sound hole covers are generally used to keep guitars from "feeding back" or squealing through the amplifier.

They aren't very expensive. I bought one online and it arrived yesterday. It didn't fit exactly because of my grandfather's modifications to the guitar, but my husband was able to trim it up. I slipped the sound hole cover over the sound hole and guess what! I can't smell the musty smell. It's trapped in the guitar (along with a sheet of Bounce).

Now to see if I can get my fingers back to playing without my back feeling like it might break!

(As a plus, I was surprised to find that the Yamaha is lighter than the mini-Taylor, even though the Taylor is a smaller guitar. It must be made of a heavier wood.)

Wish me luck.

And lots of practice time.