September 2011
6 posts
10 tags
Tony Cochran, Guitar Hunter - Guitar Leaves... →
The guitar’s witch wood was worn like a church pew polished by a billion fidgeting butts. The body was ovoid, sort of like a Vox Mk VI. The pickups looked positively prehistoric, like a rectangle within a rectangle. They were riveted immobile. The neck was flat and wide. The head was simple and elegant. The grimy tuners were of a silvery cloudy finish, darkened to black on the edges....
12 tags
Tony Cochran, Guitar Hunter - Guitar Causes Bacon... →
The unwrapped guitar glowed with the burnished gloom of a thousand sad songs. “If you like this guitar, my Aunt Jane says she’s got a banjo that was made by monkeys.” I asked, “Can I pick it up?” I noticed he avoided touching it. I also ignored the banjo remark. “I don’t touch it,” he answered. “My Uncle Paul brought it back from Indonesia....
Tony Cochran, Guitar Hunter - Dusty Duct Taped... →
The stink of a fine guitar hunt is varied. It may be mothballs, a soothing cedar or maybe the brunky musk of ancient dust. We rolled up to a cinder block house being attacked on all sides by a landscape gone wild. The roof was missing shingles, the gutters were losing their battle with mean Mr. Gravity. This hunt’s odor? I could smell mildew from 20’ away with my windows rolled up....
10 tags
Tony Cochran, Guitar Hunter - Guitar Gold Found at... →
He said “I got a guitar that’s made of witch wood and galvanized bucket metal.” “It’s not acoustic is it? I don’t buy acoustic guitars.” A gentle belch punctuated the end of my sentence. He spit on the ground. It might have been tobacco juice or maybe just spit. “Oh, it’s electric all right,” he said. “You can see char marks where...
10 tags
Tony Cochran, Guitar Hunter - Guitars, Grease and... →
Guitar hunting makes me hungry, so I made a pit stop at Jim’s Fatboy in Marietta. I ordered a carotid clotting, double mayo, double onion. I would pay for that later. Some lanky guy, wearing the world’s dirtiest ball cap, walked up to me and said “Thatcher Truck?” I said that it was. “You buy guitars?” he asked. I paused before replying. I was in a hurry and did...
10 tags
Tony Cochran, Guitar Hunter - Rare Electric Guitar... →
I better go gas up the truck. I’m heading over to East Pennsylvania today. Someone phoned me about a guitar he found in the crawl space under his godmother’s house trailer. I asked him if it was preserved from the elements in any way and he said “Yes” but would not elaborate any further no matter how I hinted around. I don’t think the crawl space under a house trailer...
