Monday, September 17, 2007

Broken Headstock

Regular readers may remember a couple of posts back in October 2006, about my Guild Jetstar bass, and it's broken headstock... Well, Pittsburgh Guitars (where I bought the bass, back in 1979), is looking for stories about broken headstocks. I don't even know how/when mine got broken, but I thought the story might be interesting, since I bought it from Pittsburgh Guitars 28 years ago, when Pittsburgh Guitars was brand new.

So here's the scoop:
Back in the summer of 1979, I spent some time hanging out at the brand new Pittsburgh Guitars store in Bloomfield, with my brother, and the rest of “The Reallys”.

Sometime during that summer of '79, Carl G. sold me a real rarity: a late 60’s Guild Jetstar bass (as played by Peter Tork of the Monkees).

The bass is Serial number 339… if I read their website correctly, this is among the last of only 243 made (starting with sn-101)! Sadly, it had been incompletely refinished when I bought it, and has never been properly finished since. But I do love it. The guitar has been used pretty sparingly over the past 28 years, as “real life” intruded. But it has been with me from Pittsburgh to North Carolina to Washington DC, to St. Louis area… Last October, however, I noticed a crack in the headstock!! No idea when it occurred, or how. I’ve been afraid to use it since, but haven’t gotten it looked at, either… Attached is a photo of the damage. Note the replacement tuning pegs (I do still have the originals)…

How’s that for a history, if not a story??


4 comments:

Ol' Froth said...

Pittsburgh Guitars is now on the more trendy Southside. And how about a photo of you PLAYING that sucker?

Oh, and I STILL have that Reallys poster!!

Sherry Pasquarello said...

oh geez. i love the poster!

LSqrd said...

Ya gotta click on my links, Frothy:
http://lsqrd.blogspot.com/2006/10/jetstar-part-2.html

L^2

John Roberts said...

Interesting. Peter Tork was my favorite Monkey, but now I don't remember why. I literally wore out their first album (which may have been partly due to my "lo-fi" stereo of the time with a tone arm tracking at about 50 grams).