We’ve all been there: the endless quest for the perfect instrument. You know, the one that will make you a better player, that feels so comfortable in your hands that you never want to put it down.  Like everyone else, I’ve been seduced by glossy magazine covers of the latest “must have” instruments. Over many years, I’ve owned a wide variety of guitars, about 20 in all, ranging from archtops to solid bodies to semi-hollows to steel string & nylon string acoustics. Looking back, it’s amazing that I stayed with the guitar at all, because my very first guitar came from a mail order catalog back in 1964, and while this no-name f-hole steel string was aesthetically beautiful, the strings were so high off the fretboard, I had some serious callouses after a week. What did I know? Back then there weren’t the abundance of magazines detailing how to maintain your guitar, or websites devoted to doing a proper set-up. In short, I didn’t have a clue! I still recall my first guitar teacher telling me to have the action lowered, without bothering to tell me exactly what the “action” was.

Gibson J-45 Dreadnought Acoustic Guitar

My First Electric Guitar

Well, before too long a few friends of mine put together a band, so I naturally needed an electric. Luckily, a friend of my dad’s was looking to sell a late 50′s Gretsch anniversary model plus amp, for about $150. Ah, the good old days. Playing the Gretsch with its flatwound strings was like entering another world. Here was an instrument that wasn’t fighting me, and I loved it. Well, you guessed it, the love didn’t last too long, because my friends were soon off to college, the band dispersed, and I began looking for an acoustic. Enter a 1967 Gibson J-45 dreadnought, probably one of the instruments I owned for the longest time….about 20 years. …until it had an unplanned fall and suffered a cracked bridge. I was referred to John Monteleone’s shop for the repair, and John gave me an estimate of $250 to make a completely new rosewood bridge. Since I had only paid $165 for the guitar new, this seemed a bit much, although, looking back, it was probably pretty reasonable. And, at least I got to meet  Mr. Monteleone, maker of some truly unique instruments. I finally did have the original bridge repaired, but the job wasn’t anything to write home about. For quite a few years, I barely picked up the guitar, mostly to sing for my young son.

I don’t know when the urge to pick up the guitar again hit me, probably sometime in the mid-eighties, but I do recall making many trips to the local Sam Ash music store to check out all the shiny new instruments hanging on the wall. Each one beckoned to me to become “the one” that would not only make my playing better (or at least “sound better,”)  but would fulfill that sense of “something’s missing” from the previous guitar I owned. Well, you can imagine where this line of thinking led me. Guitars shuttled in and out of my closets like locals arriving at a train station. Among them, guitars by Gibson, Fender, Rickenbacker, Guild, Yamaha, Takamine, and Taylor.  At one point there were guitars in 3 closets, and none of them was “the one.”

Time to Step It Up

Well, fast forward to 2004, when I thought I had truly found the instrument of my dreams: a D’Angelico New Yorker reissue. I first saw it at a local guitar show, and finally found a New York city dealer that had one in a natural blond finish. Heaven, and all for only $3,000.  I should stop a minute to add that I did sell several other guitars to purchase this one, and if ever there’s a lesson to be learned it’s this: Give up on the idea that a guitar is a good investment & you will actually make some money on a resale. It never happened. In fact, I’ve lost money on every instrument I’ve ever sold. Maybe if you’re lucky enough to own an original D’Angelico you’ll make a profit, but not on a mass manufacturer’s instrument.

So, here I was with my latest “must have” guitar, happily playing it for a year when I began to realize that it was way too big for me and not all that comfortable. Hmmm …what to do? Risk my marriage by telling my husband this expensive guitar he had just bought for me was not filling the bill either? So, I did nothing…..I’m a good wife. Finally, I did tell him, and being a great husband, he agreed to stop by Mandolin Brothers to see what they might have, with the understanding that I’d trade in the D’Angelico. Much to my delight, I found a smaller bodied D’Aquisto reissue that had all the attributes I was looking for. So, the deal was made for another $3,000 guitar, and I soon sold the D’Angelico on eBay…more or less. That long saga of criminality is enough to fill an article of its own.

The Sadowsky Jimmy Bruno Signature Guitar

Finding the Guitar of My Dreams

So, I thought I was done with buying guitars…so did my husband…….until 2005. We attended the Classic American Guitar Show on Long Island, NY, as we always did, and through our friend, the brilliant guitarist Jimmy Bruno, we were introduced to master luthier Roger Sadowsky. As luck would have it, this was the year that Roger unveiled his new Jimmy Bruno model, a small-bodied (14″ at the lower bout) laminate guitar. As we visited with Roger at his booth, he handed me the guitar to check out. Now, I knew how dangerous this was, even if my husband didn’t. First, it was aesthetically stunning, with workmanship second to none, and it bore the name of my favorite player of all time. So, I graciously took the guitar in hand and sat down to check it out. Even unamplified, this was the guitar of my dreams, the one I had been searching for from the beginning. But, what could I do? Just the year before, my husband had bought me the D’Aquisto. I had to just grit my teeth and walk away. But, the guitar never left my thoughts, especially since I was involved with Jimmy’s new interactive website, JBGI, and saw Jimmy play it every day.

Finally, the 2006 guitar show rolled around and there we were back at Roger’s booth. I’ll never forget Roger’s first words when he saw us: “Are you back to kick the tires?”  We still joke about it. No, I wasn’t back to kick the tires, I knew this was the guitar I had been looking for for over 40 years. I had never played an instrument with a neck that rivaled this one; so smooth, so comfortable, such fast action, with the most incredible fretwork I’d ever seen. I’ve often described the difference between other guitars and Sadowskys as being the difference between driving a truck and driving a sports car. It may sound like an exaggeration, but to me, it’s dead-on accurate.

I’ve owned my Jimmy Bruno model Sadowsky for almost 4 years now, and a few months ago, added another Sadowsky to the family: a stunning natural finish semi-hollow body, based on the body size of the JB. I love them both, and for the first time in years, I can finally say that I play all of my guitars now, which is what it’s all about, isn’t it?