Guitar gang

Last night I met with two Davaoeño guitar players to plan the formation of a group for guitarists in Davao City. Dante Arevalo is the guitarist of Punch 9, the band that represented Davao City in last year’s Global Battle of the Bands (Philippine finals) while George Tujan is the guitarist of 9Volt Lemonade. The two of them have known each other for some time and recently talked of forming such a group, and they invited me to sit with them to plan it out. George and I know each other only virtually, having exchanged emails through our common interest in Palm handhelds and, we later discovered, guitars. We met face-to-face only last night, although he had seen me play with my band 220.

(The three of us have something in common: while we love guitars, we have day jobs that keep body and soul together. Dante works with Anflocor, George with NCCC, and me with the Mindanao Daily Mirror. I guess that just goes to show that, at least in Davao City, one can’t make a living being a full-time musician.)

We met at BluGré Coffee, and over a few cups o’ joe we made some tentative steps for the creation of the group. If I remember correctly, our personal goals are for guitarists in Davao City to:

• get to know each other
• learn from each other
• appreciate other genres of music
• exchange information and knowledge on gear
• have a venue to buy and sell gear
• popularize the use of guitar
• popularize guitar music to the Davao City crowd

One of the concerns is setting the criteria for membership. It was suggested that there be a minimum level of skill, but that is difficult to qualify and quantify. I suggested that members should at least know how to read chords, but I struck it down myself when I remembered that journalist and media critic Vergel Santos, the father “Mr. Acoustic” Paolo Santos, told me last year that he doesn’t know how to read chords but plays a mean guitar just the same, all by ear.

So we’re still trying to figure this one out; meanwhile, we’ve set the first meeting on May 15 at the Elevation Bar along Jacinto Extension Street here in Davao City (in front of the Central Bank Convention Hall). George, Dante, and I visited it after our meeting and found that that second floor would accommodate the 10 initial members we’re planning to have (including ourselves). There are amps and a drum set for the jamming session, so we should be good to go.

This should be exciting and challenging. I’m not an accomplished guitar player by any stretch of the imagination, so meeting with other guitarists will make me want to play better. For all of us, it should be a productive group.

Closer...

Here's a closer view of the Hofner Verithin that I am restoring. Notice that it has no hardware whatsoever, and that the marker in the fifth fret is missing one strip. The letter "N" is missing in the mother-of-pearl HOFNER at the headstock, and the binding in part of it, as well as in the entire fretboard, are missing. The guitar also needs a refret, and when everything is done it needs a proper finish. It may take anywhere from two weeks to a month to complete, but it'll be worth the wait. Did I mention that it's a 46-year-old guitar, having been built in 1960? That means in four years it'll be 50 years old!

My Hofner

As I said in a previous entry, I found a Hofner Verithin and am in the process of restoring it. A friend of mine, Sean, brought in a set of tuning keys and an archtop bridge from the US, so I'm a few weeks away from completing this project. A previous photo I posted wasn't really that nice, so this morning when I brought the tuning keys and bridge to the shop I made sure I brought along a proper digital camera and had my son snap this photo. Nice, eh?

A steal I couldn't steal

I was in Manila for a few days and visited Tiendesitas, a sprawling area filled with small stores, kind of like a high-end tiangge. I walked into the antiques section and there, sitting in a corner inside one of the stores, was this gorgeous Yamaha hollowbody electric guitar. I don't know what model it was, but as you can see in the picture it was cherry red in color, had two f-holes, and had a tremolo bridge. It was also kinda heavy but felt nice in my hands. It was obviously old and so when I asked the vendor how much it was I was bracing myself for a high figure. To my surprise, she said it was only 17,000 pesos, and as I tried to hide my surprise I asked if she would go down to 15,000. She took out a pen and paper and began computing, and again to my surprise she said she would.

It was a steal at that price, but, third world guitar player that I am, I didn't have money to buy it with. So if you're ever at Tiendesitas, go to the antiques section and look for the store "Bangerahan." Tell Rose you saw the guitar in the internet and buy it for P15,000. It is in good condition but needs a little work to polish it up. The tremolo bar is also missing, and part of the plastic covering inside the lower f-hole (which I gather was placed there to reduce feedback) is torn. So you may end up spending a little more to spruce it up, but it will still be a steal.