A blog about cancer, spirituality, death, and guitars
Sometimes I think I take the sympathy thing too far.
I must remember that having a family member with a terminal disease is not easy. In fact, often-times it is easier on the person with the disease than those who love them.
I can lie in bed and try to sleep; trying to deal with the pain and restlessness from whatever treatment I am on. Sometimes quietly making moaning sounds, often not realizing how disturbing I am being.
He lives in the USA and I live in Australia, so I do not get to see him nearly as much as I like.
I have a range of interests and vintage guitars is only a small part of my life, but I’ve always worked with my hands and I have a workbench that reflects this:
My grandson has only a few tools so I decided to give him some small hand tools as a birthday gift and a ‘tool caddy’ to keep them in. I made it ‘flat pack’ so he could put the caddy together himself, and it made it easier to send.
This guitar is the holder of a couple of ‘firsts’. From the beginning of 1930 to the early 1940’s, Western themed decorated guitars, along with Hawaiian themed guitars, were hugely popular, dominating much of the budget guitar market. This is recognized as the first ‘Cowboy Guitar’. This guitar is also recognized as one of, if not the first, ‘endorsement’ guitars.
Continue reading “c.1929 HARMONY ‘Supertone’ Bradley Kincaid Houn’ Dog Guitar”
I bought this small guitar quite a few years ago now, and it had been sitting ever since in an old guitar case. I bought it because it cost very little and I do like small guitars. It is made by the Kay Musical Instrument Company in Chicago. It had 2 horizontal braces on the top between the bridge and the base of the guitar (end pin end). A tell-tale trait of Kay’s, as is the style of bridge.
Continue reading “c.1940 KAY SMALL GUITAR with floral decoration”
There are two Style 650 guitars that appear in Weymann catalogues. The one in the c.1924 catalogue has rosewood back and sides and a curly figured maple 2-piece neck. It is the ‘junior model of the Style 854 guitar.
This guitar appears in bother the c.1928 and c.1930 catalogues and has mahogany back and sides with a mahogany 2-piece neck.
Continue reading “c.1928 WEYMANN Style 650 ‘Junior’ Size Guitar”
I’ve been sitting on photos of this guitar for about 4 years, it’s time to share them with permission from Deluca Music store in Hatboro, Pennsylvania and the photographer David Humphreys.
So far this guitar has the lowest serial number (#1310) of all the 450+ Weymann instruments I have registered, although I have eleven instruments with no serial numbers which will be older than this guitar. There is no Style number either, as Weymann did not introduce those until about 1913. It is not so easy to accurately calculate the manufacture date during this period as there has not been a ‘Rosetta Stone’ instrument turn up yet with a serial number that can be dated definitively to a particular date around that time.
So I date this beautiful guitar to c.1900, plus or minus 2 or possibly 3 years:
Continue reading “c.1900 WEYMANN ‘Highest Quality’ Beautiful Guitar- Source: Deluca Music”
By the 1920’s many manufacturers made Koa models, including Martin.
This guitar Style 749 was Weymann’s homage to this beautiful Hawaiian tonewood. As far as I know this model was H.A. Weymann & Son’s only Koa model. I have photos of 2 examples:
A beautiful example of this model. Serial number dates it to ca.1931. Surprisingly this example has the Style number omitted from the top of the headstock, but there is little doubt it is a Style 749.
(Story at the end of this post)
Attractive ‘bear claw’ configuration on the soundboard.
Continue reading “c.1927 WEYMANN Style 854 Large Concert size Guitar”
“People with cancer are easy targets for naturopathic scams because they can be desperate for hope and extensively research their treatment options.
‘Natural’ treatments with few side effects appear irresistible when compared to surgery, chemotherapy, and radiation. But it is almost impossible for most people to know beforehand that these natural remedies won’t do anything for their cancer. If the cancer returns, they are more likely to blame the cancer rather than the ineffective natural remedies they received.” Source: By Suneel D. Kamath August 29, 2017
People who have read some of my blog will know that I have been dealing with advanced prostate cancer now for very close to 20 years. Initially I started off self-treating with the help of a naturopath with diet and alternative medicines and lots of exercise.
However, early on I had some good advice: “Cancer is an aggressive beast, and requires aggressive treatment, this can only be achieved by Western medicine”. Natural therapies can play a useful, supportive role even if only to enable management of one’s overall health pro-actively going forward.
This is the route I’ve taken during my 20 years of treatment and it has stood me in good stead.
Most cancer cells are nasty!
(Related Posts: Johnny Depp’s Weymann Guitar – Style 748) and 1917 Weymann Style 24 ‘f’ Sound-hole Guitar)
H.A. Weymann & Son made at least five styles of ‘f’ sound-hole guitars. Once their manufacturing ceased in about 1933 they also commissioned ‘f’ hole guitars along with other instruments from manufacturers such as Harmony. Here I am only talking about the guitars Weymann manufactured themselves.
Continue reading “WEYMANN ‘f’ Sound-hole Guitars – Styles 24, 30, 648, 748 and 848”