Big
Daddy Waxes All Rhapsodic About All of my life, I have heard jokes about women and their shoes. Seems like every woman has to have a special pair of shoes for every occasion known to man which sometimes can amount to a U-Haul full of assorted colors, sizes, and mismatches. However, I can sort of relate to this, because I could easily have a truck load of guitars--one for every situation, and a story attached. I still only need a couple of pairs of shoes, one pair always dry.
Goldie is a special guitar for me. She has been many places and has a special sound that no other Les Paul I have played has. A '68 Les Paul Goldtop Deluxe, she was one of the first Les Pauls produced when Gibson brought them back after a several year absence in the 1960's. My favorite tones on a guitar are the woman tones (imagine that). This guitar does the woman tone better than any guitar I have ever been around. Goldie was produced with two P90 soap-bar pickups. They are special. Other guitars with P90's I have owned never would get the really nasty tones Goldie can deliver. Over the years, Goldie has developed a lot of weather cracks and she's got some age showing on that hot body of hers. I guess it has a lot to do with hanging out in a lot of bars and such, that neon burn thing. Make no mistake, she will be in tune and obscene sounding when you plug in.
A few stories on Goldie that are entrenched in my
mind . . . I remember in the early '80s playing at Fitzgeralds in Houston, Texas. It was when Billy
Bob and I first started performing around in Texas after moving down from Arkansas. We did a show that featured a soon-to-be-mega-famous guitar slinger named Stevie Ray Vaughn. Stevie Ray was already popular on the roadhouse circuit in Texas, but didn't have a label deal as yet. After our act opened for his band that night, he commented what a great tone I got with Goldie. Years later, I realized how special that comment was since Stevie Ray became synonymous with Fender Strats and his special tone. Stevie Ray left us way too soon, but he was a great guy and, I suppose, as fine a guitar player as there ever was.
Goldie was well worn last year and was going to need new frets and a major overhaul. This is a no-no on collectable guitars because changes or modifications take the value out considerably. I had to make a decision. Billy Bob and I were about to kick off our recording project starting at the world- famous Sun Studio in Memphis. I was afraid to have anybody do something as serious as fret job on my pride Goldtop. My friend Dusty Hill told me that Strings and Things in Memphis had a really great tech that I could trust. I took Goldie down to Mr. Tom Keckler in Memphis. Now I was thinking that since Tom works on guitars owned by Clapton, Page, Gibbons and other huge stars, he might just give me the peon brush off. Not so. He loved Goldie and took all the time in the world to make sure his artistic repairs on her were world class. She has never sounded better.
I guess I will keep Goldie around forever because of all the places we have been, good and bad. However, you will find that all of the guitars that I am close to have that same effect on me. Other guitars come and go with me, but I will attempt to tell the story behind my other forever guitars and why they become such.
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