THE ONES THAT GOT AWAY

 GUILD F-48 • GUEST STORY BY TIM GODWIN

This story was submitted by Tim Godwin, Director of Artist Relations for Taylor Guitars.

Tim has also been known to tour with artists such as Air Supply and Laura Brannigan. He's appeared on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno alongside Grammy Award winning country star Shelby Lynne, and as a house band member on Fox's Sunday Comics. And Tim co-founded the band Farmer with music producer Marshall Altman which led to a publishing deal with EMI and a record deal with Aware Records, current home to John Mayer, Five for Fighting and Train. Okay, on with the story!

I was recently reunited with an old love of mine from High School: my first “real” guitar that I bought in the ‘70s, a Guild F-48 acoustic guitar. As a guitar player, we all have those stories of the ones we wished we still had from our youth, the ones we sold, traded, stolen, given away. We search eBay, pawnshops, Craigslist for the one that reminds us of the one that got away. Never dreaming we would get the exact one we owned.

Some of my early guitar and musical influences were The Beatles, Stones, Hendrix, George Benson, James Taylor, Joe Walsh, America, Glen Campbell, Doobie Brothers and John Denver. I would go to Red Rocks to see shows. Back then we would get there at noon to get a good seat and always got a pre-show by watching the bands sound check. I would always bring my binoculars so I could watch their hands as they played and checked out what gear they used.

I probably saw John Denver at least four times at Red Rocks and loved that big old Guild F-50 that he played. I not only wanted one, I needed one. So saved up enough money to put down on a Guild at a music store in Cinderella City and put it on their layaway plan. I would ride my bike to the store almost every weekend so that I could play it until Ii was able to take it out of the music store prison. It took me about three months to get it out; I ended up selling my dirt bike to make the final payment.

My buddy Herb Walker Williams and I used to have a little duo combo and we would play all of our favorite acoustic songs at school during lunch time. One time we booked a gig/audition at a local restaurant/bar, the kind of place where you can throw peanut shells on the floor. We had a full house and thought “man we got this!” The manager came over and said, “Good job, but we can’t hire you, everyone that came drank soda and water, we need people to drink liquor and eat food.” Lesson #1 was learned.

Ok, now on to the reunion story, Herb had an Ovation Guitar, the kind that Glen Campbell and Jim Croce played, a guitar that you could play fast on. Something that was appealing to me at that moment in my life. So I said, “Herb, wanna trade your Ovation for my Guild?” I think it took two seconds for him to say yes. Deal was done, I now owned a guitar that I would soon regret trading my Guild for that I work so hard to get. But that’s what we do, we sell and trade gear.

After I moved to California I would call my buddy Herb every couple of years to ask how my old Guild was doing and he would tell me HIS Guild is doing fine:) I would then ask if he was interest in selling it or trading it back and the answer was always no. I really couldn’t blame him or be upset with him, but felt I always had to ask!

So, after some 35 years of asking, one day I called to catch up and at the end of our conversation I had to ask the question, “Herb are you interested in selling that Guild?” He told me he had to retire it because it was in such bad shape and unplayable due to all the years on the road with it and it needed extensive repair. He would be happy to let me have it. What?! I couldn’t believe it. My Guild was coming home.

My family knew how much that guitar meant to me and they helped me with getting it out to California. My mom picked it up from Herb and my brother boxed it up and shipped it to me. When I opened the case and saw my Guild for the first time in over 35 years, she was road worn and need a lot of work and love. I played an open G chord on her and I could hear what a fine guitar she turned into. Now it was time to get her fixed up.

Thanks to the great repair work of Dave Staudte and his attention to detail, I was reunited last Friday with an old friend that had been brought back to life.

Now if I can only find that Les Paul Deluxe I had….

Originally posted: Monday, August 29, 2016