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New Guitar on the way

Boone said:
Yes. Hard to beat Sweetwater. I did have a hiccup in this purchase but they resolved it quickly. That's a sweet guitar as well!
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This was my first purchase from Sweetwater, and I really like that they do at least a rudimentary setup on the guitar before they send it to you. The intonation was set, action was perfect, and it was even somewhat in tune when I got it (taking into consideration the stretch of new strings). I've bought a few guitars from other places and they just ship them however the manufacturer sent them and let you worry about the details. Their communication was great too - all the EVH guitars were backordered for over a month, and my sales guy did a good job of keeping me updated on the progress of my order via phone calls and e-mail. I'll definitely buy from Sweetwater again.

(Sorry for momentarily derailing your thread, @Tenputt - and glad to hear your new guitar has you excited about playing again!)
 
Yes - they have a very good reputation and seem to have it down to a fine art.
 
Tenputt said:
Juber was lead guitarist for Paul McCartney and Wings near the end of the band’s run. He is now a fingerstyle player. He plays a lot of incredible covers, turned into instrumentals. There are so many great guitarists who are fun to listen to. For some reason, acoustic guitar is extremely soothing and relaxing to me. Give Juber a listen. You’ll like him.
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That I will do. BTW, about 10 years ago I got to see Dave Mason in concert at a very small, intimate venue in my area. My Sis found out about it and told me, even though she lives way farther away from the site than I do! She's an absolute geek for live music. So, we bought "reserved seat" tix for the show. Then I started wondering if we were going to be the only 2 fools that did! I needn't have worried. The place was packed! I think we broke every fire code there is! And there were only about 30 reserve seats and we sat about 10 feet away from the performers.

Mason was accompanied by a son of John McEuen, one of the early members of the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band! It was basically a retrospective of Mason's career, starting with Traffic up to the present day. What a show! What surprised me, however, was that he was playing Alvarez-Yairi acoustics. I have one of those! A new music store was opening in town, and they needed help with the wine for their grand opening party. So, I helped them out, even showing up and working at the party. Big success. The guy tells me he can get me a big discount on anything I want.

My step-brother played some, so I dragged him down there, put him in a chair, and pulled guitars off the wall and put them in his hands. When I hit that A-Y, it just boomed! What a voice that guitar had! It's a model DY45. I can't honestly say that I "play" it, but I really enjoy noodling around on it.
 
Luchnia said:
This is another long story so bear with me. I do plan to get some pictures of the guitar at some point, but have got to dig it out in my office and I have been too busy lately. It is nothing fancy like the guitar this thread is about, but has a great story surrounding it.

W. C. (Bud) Winemiller was said to have worked for the C. F. Martin Co. a long time ago. My wife and I visited the Martin plant some years back to see what we could find out about Mr. Winemiller and they could not find any official record of him ever working there, however this was supposedly before Martin modernized the way they are now. At any rate, later in life bud made handmade quality sounding guitars on his own. If memory serves, I think Bud built around 38 guitars and my dad's was the last before Bud passed away.

Bud would come around the bluegrass festivals and would get out his fiddle and want to play with my dad. Bud was only so-so fiddle player (lot of guys would not play with him) but my dad would play with him and Bud loved it. My dad would say Bud was a grand old kind hearted gentleman.

Around 1976 Bud asked my dad if he would like a guitar built specially for him. My dad said he would but wanted something with exceptional tonal quality and not so much looks only. Once my dad told him that, bud told my dad to go find him some quality wood and he would build it.

My dad had an old Steinway grand piano that a lady had given him if he would remove it out of an old home. The piano was huge and had lion heads carved on the legs and was built around 1857 (I think that is the date-anyway it was really old). This piano was stored in an old cinder block building that had been severely damaged by a storm. The piano was damaged beyond repair, however much of the wood was still intact in the rubble.

My dad tore the piano apart and got the wood together and took it to Bud. I think the soundboard was some type of special wood in pianos back then. Some of you wood experts would probably know this type of thing.

I think the wood out of that piano is what makes the guitar sound so good. It was built on the design of the Martin D45. Many tried to buy the guitar from my dad, but he would not sell it. I have it now and will keep it in the family and pass it on to my children.

On some of the last recordings my dad was involved with, session musicians used the guitar on a number of recordings. One of them stated that it was an amazing sounding guitar - one of the sweetest he had ever heard. That is something when a session musician makes a comment like that about an instrument.

Another part of the story we later found out was that Bud had had heart surgery a couple years before he built my dad's guitar and the doctors had told him he would probably have a couple years left to live. Some months (think it was six) after he build my dad's guitar Bud passed away. It meant everything for Bud to build that guitar for my dad and it was the last one he built.
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Hello, I own a W C Winemiller guitar that has been my favorite for some years now. I purchased it from a fellow who had inherited some musical instruments through his family probably 15 years ago. I have some fairly nice acoustic guitars (Wayne Henderson, Huss and Dalton, Martin, Gibson) but I always go back to the Winemiller. I've tried to find some information about this guitar on the web occasionally and never came up with anything until I saw your post. And yours is still the only post I can find on Winemiller. Just wanted to thank you for the information because the instrument has always been a mystery to me. It is a copy of an HD28. I asked Wayne Henderson to take a look at it and told me he believed it was hand made, not a kit, but he was not familiar with the Winemiller name. Mine is labeled on the neck block and I'll try to upload a photo of it. It is a wonderful instrument. Best, Joey
 

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FORDMAN said:
Hello, I own a W C Winemiller guitar that has been my favorite for some years now. I purchased it from a fellow who had inherited some musical instruments through his family probably 15 years ago. I have some fairly nice acoustic guitars (Wayne Henderson, Huss and Dalton, Martin, Gibson) but I always go back to the Winemiller. I've tried to find some information about this guitar on the web occasionally and never came up with anything until I saw your post. And yours is still the only post I can find on Winemiller. Just wanted to thank you for the information because the instrument has always been a mystery to me. It is a copy of an HD28. I asked Wayne Henderson to take a look at it and told me he believed it was hand made, not a kit, but he was not familiar with the Winemiller name. Mine is labeled on the neck block and I'll try to upload a photo of it. It is a wonderful instrument. Best, Joey
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Thank you so much for this information and the photo. I am pretty sure that was handmade and no doubt is a treasure to own.
 
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