BobsterMan
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- Sep 19, 2008
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Here's my 12 string story...
I was 12 years old when I found a guitar, a Stewart 6-string arch top, in the closet under the stairs of the old house... my mother said someone had left it with Dad for safekeeping and didn't ever call for it back. Petty soon I had put a couple of new strings on it, and it was mine. I learned a few songs from Dad's books... Pistol Packin' Mama, Souix City Sue, and such , but soon looked around, and discovered Leadbelly, Pete Seeger, and that bunch on an old recording tape. But I just couldn't get the sound. So here's me, 13 years old, living on a farm North of North Dakota in 1964, and I can't play Leadbelly. Damn!!
Fast forward to age 16, and I was in a garage band playing a Japanese double cut, offset semi acoustic 12 string guitar, because for some reason it was my sound. Not the Byrds... it was the sound that I needed. Soon I was in university and I had a Eko full acoustic 12-er, and playing Bob Dylan. For some reason the 12 had to stay. Didn't really know why. Promptly as soon as I had a little cash (about 400 bucks) i got me my F212XL.
I was finally happy.
Then, in my early 50's, I was reading a bit on Leadbelly, and discovered he played the 12-string. That was a relief. Now I understood why I had to have 12-strings.
I was 12 years old when I found a guitar, a Stewart 6-string arch top, in the closet under the stairs of the old house... my mother said someone had left it with Dad for safekeeping and didn't ever call for it back. Petty soon I had put a couple of new strings on it, and it was mine. I learned a few songs from Dad's books... Pistol Packin' Mama, Souix City Sue, and such , but soon looked around, and discovered Leadbelly, Pete Seeger, and that bunch on an old recording tape. But I just couldn't get the sound. So here's me, 13 years old, living on a farm North of North Dakota in 1964, and I can't play Leadbelly. Damn!!
Fast forward to age 16, and I was in a garage band playing a Japanese double cut, offset semi acoustic 12 string guitar, because for some reason it was my sound. Not the Byrds... it was the sound that I needed. Soon I was in university and I had a Eko full acoustic 12-er, and playing Bob Dylan. For some reason the 12 had to stay. Didn't really know why. Promptly as soon as I had a little cash (about 400 bucks) i got me my F212XL.
I was finally happy.
Then, in my early 50's, I was reading a bit on Leadbelly, and discovered he played the 12-string. That was a relief. Now I understood why I had to have 12-strings.