Suitcase Sighting In Tacoma
I had some spare parts in the garage. Pieces from an electric whose neck had broke off the body years ago in one of Sweetie’s cleaning frenzies. Even at the time I knew it wasn’t that big a deal. In fact looking back on it, Sweetie breaking that guitars neck was the start of this very productive period in my life. It lead me to buying the Dobro, which in turn, led me to start the Prairie Dogs, to recording and producing my first CD, to getting out and playing more gigs, which in turn led me to buying the two new guitars I bought this past year.
I thought about throwing the broken parts away when we moved in April. It just didn’t seem like there would be any situation I could think of where I would want to rebuild a guitar using those parts, and so it seemed like kind of a waste to box them up and move them, but there is a lesson that I keep reminding myself of, one that I’ve learned many times over the years, and that is to never get rid of any guitar ever. Every time I have parted with a guitar I have regretted it, so with that in the back of my mind, I boxed it up and put it in the corner of our new garage.
When I heard about the Suitcase Sighting Project those old broken pieces popped up in my head immediately. I have a vague memory of building some sort of cigar-box guitar a million years ago, and isn’t a suitcase just a larger version of the same thing? In fact it seemed like such a logical progression that I had convinced myself that mine would just be one of many “Guitar Cases” in the group, but mine is the only one.
It came together in an afternoon. The suitcase I found to use was the first one I looked at for less money than I was prepared to spend, causing me to spend the next half hour pretending that it wasn’t because I refused to let myself believe that this was going to be that easy. But every step of the way it was.
In the end I’m pretty happy with how it turned out. I wish it was a bit more playable, as the action of the neck is pretty high, but all in all I can’t complain too much. Maybe the next one will be a little more guitar like and I can worry about things like playability and action and all of that.
The suitcases were displayed throughout Tacoma for the entire month of September, with different businesses hosting different cases. My friends at Beautiful Angle made a fantastic piece using a tall Aluminum spiral whose sheets they ran through Lance’s letter press printing a poem of Tom’s. I convinced the Mill to host one called “Emotional Baggage” which I liked no doubt because it was a little darker than the other ones I saw.
This Sunday October 9th the Tacoma News Tribune will be hosting a party and auction for the cases in their front lobby. I’ve volunteered to wear a bright orange jumpsuit and be one of the “baggage handlers” that help to transport the cases down the escalator to the main reception area during the party. Since the party is open to everyone and lasts from 2 until 6 I’m hoping I can get a few of my friends to come out to see all of the artists work.
There are well over 125 different cases made by people all over the area. I hope you’ll take a minute to look over some of the suitcases at the suitcase sighting’s website. The woman who organized this whole thing has really done a bang up job so far and I have no reason to believe that this Sunday’s shindig will be anything but spectacular. Me in a bright orange jump suit might just be worth the price of admission (free) alone, though there will be live music, a songwriting contest (for which I’ve written a song), a multi media presentation by Justin Gorman, both a live and a silent auction, various public awards and door prizes to boot.
Come out and I’ll see you there, or call me and we’ll go together. It’s Sunday for god’s sake, what else could you possibly be doing that would be more fun than this?
I thought about throwing the broken parts away when we moved in April. It just didn’t seem like there would be any situation I could think of where I would want to rebuild a guitar using those parts, and so it seemed like kind of a waste to box them up and move them, but there is a lesson that I keep reminding myself of, one that I’ve learned many times over the years, and that is to never get rid of any guitar ever. Every time I have parted with a guitar I have regretted it, so with that in the back of my mind, I boxed it up and put it in the corner of our new garage.
When I heard about the Suitcase Sighting Project those old broken pieces popped up in my head immediately. I have a vague memory of building some sort of cigar-box guitar a million years ago, and isn’t a suitcase just a larger version of the same thing? In fact it seemed like such a logical progression that I had convinced myself that mine would just be one of many “Guitar Cases” in the group, but mine is the only one.
It came together in an afternoon. The suitcase I found to use was the first one I looked at for less money than I was prepared to spend, causing me to spend the next half hour pretending that it wasn’t because I refused to let myself believe that this was going to be that easy. But every step of the way it was.
In the end I’m pretty happy with how it turned out. I wish it was a bit more playable, as the action of the neck is pretty high, but all in all I can’t complain too much. Maybe the next one will be a little more guitar like and I can worry about things like playability and action and all of that.
The suitcases were displayed throughout Tacoma for the entire month of September, with different businesses hosting different cases. My friends at Beautiful Angle made a fantastic piece using a tall Aluminum spiral whose sheets they ran through Lance’s letter press printing a poem of Tom’s. I convinced the Mill to host one called “Emotional Baggage” which I liked no doubt because it was a little darker than the other ones I saw.
This Sunday October 9th the Tacoma News Tribune will be hosting a party and auction for the cases in their front lobby. I’ve volunteered to wear a bright orange jumpsuit and be one of the “baggage handlers” that help to transport the cases down the escalator to the main reception area during the party. Since the party is open to everyone and lasts from 2 until 6 I’m hoping I can get a few of my friends to come out to see all of the artists work.
There are well over 125 different cases made by people all over the area. I hope you’ll take a minute to look over some of the suitcases at the suitcase sighting’s website. The woman who organized this whole thing has really done a bang up job so far and I have no reason to believe that this Sunday’s shindig will be anything but spectacular. Me in a bright orange jump suit might just be worth the price of admission (free) alone, though there will be live music, a songwriting contest (for which I’ve written a song), a multi media presentation by Justin Gorman, both a live and a silent auction, various public awards and door prizes to boot.
Come out and I’ll see you there, or call me and we’ll go together. It’s Sunday for god’s sake, what else could you possibly be doing that would be more fun than this?
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