The Instrument Pages
 

These are the instruments I've collected over the years. Each has a totally different sound, feel, and look. If I've learned one thing with music, it's that brand names mean nothing! Some of my cheapest guitars have turned out to be my favorite to take on stage.
 
 

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This Harmony was a gift from my boss at the Coal Mine, Gary Lucas. When I got it, the fret board was clean as the day it was made. I've smudged it up with coal dirt. In the case was a notebook that said "first lesson, July 1971, learned G, C, and D"...that was the last entry. I love this thing. It has a raspy sound and it great for old timey tunes. It's high notes cut clean and the low end is balanced.

This guitar is special to me. It was a gift from my cousin Steve Wagner from Tennessee. It's an Alvarez 5088. It has a pickup and pre amp. I use it for a lot of open tunings. The B string is always left untrimmed...as that's how it was given to me. This is a rare model as it often appears with a gray cat in the back-ground any time it is photographed.

This is the guitar that got me through my high school years. It's a Palmer. My brother picked it from a store in Richmond Va. It doesn't have the greatest sound, but it's got lots of memories! I've taught lots of friends to play guitar with this one, I lend it out when someone is needing a guitar. I then ask them to sign it with a marker when they're done. Thrax, Chad, Karl, and more .

This is classical, nylon string, guitar is a model EC-25. Made in Japan by Epiphone.

I picked this Sigma 12 string up in Bloomsburg a few years ago, used.

Great instrument! This is a steel resonator guitar. Made by Regal.

I made this acoustic guitar in my high school Vocational Agriculture class. My class mates and teacher, Mr. Heasley, helped me design from start to finish. It was all hand made except for the tuner machines and strings. The wood was made from rough cut lumber. I was reading a book about Woody Guthrie in 1992 and was inspired by a section detailing the account during an Oklahoma dust storm when Woody's Uncle made a guitar out of an old dresser. I figure if he could build one with hand tools out of an old dresses, then I could do it with modern shop tools and prime lumber. It took most of my senior year, but was well worth it. I did all of the inlay with mother-of-pearl drink coasters I "borrowed" from my mom.

It's story is a mystery, but it's a cool box! I slapped the Yuengling label on it on some camp out either on the river or up on Bald Top Mountain. The autograph is that of Ramblin' Jack Elliot. When he signed it , I asked him if he'd be willing to jam, he said "no, sorry man but I'm trying to quit."

This F-style guitar is very special to me.  I got it near the Philly Folk Festival in 1994 at a yard sale for $8.  I remember walking away after purchasing it and hearing the family laugh that I actually paid that much for it.  I put some work in to it and strung it up.  It has a great sound!  The autograph is by blues singer John Hammond, I saw him in Bethlehem PA in 1995 or so.  I rarely use this live, but keep it in Danville on my wall so I can play it each time I pass through town.

Electric Avenue
 
 

I got this one from my friend Reed Sibley. There's no brand name. It's wide, hollow body electric. It has a crazy sound when amped. Warm and low end. In fact I used it to play the bass line for "There was a time" on the album Climbing To The Top.

Here's a beast! I got this for $25 a few years ago. I stripped all the paint off of it, stained it, then my sister Cleo painted a cool Neil Young graphic on it. I put a Hum-bucker in it...although I kind of miss the original pick-up sound. I used the original pickup for the recording of "If I could Save On Soul" on the album "Living In Myself."

This is a cool Gibson Les Paul copy made by Hunter. It's Rough but has served me well.

Pickin' In the Woods

This is my #1 5 String banjo. Made by Washburn.

Picked up this mandolin from School House Music.  All it says inside is "1941" in hand written pencil.  Friends have guessed it's either a Kay, Kay-craft, Regal, or Harmony.   I've been having a good time with it!

Quite possibly my favorite instrument. My Gibson A-1, made in 1912. This was found in the trash in Philly in the 1960's...it then was hung on a wall for 30 years until it was given to me as a "little guitar." It has one of the best tones for an A-1 that I've ever heard. It's the mandolin I use for almost all recordings. It's especially important to me because it was made the same year my grandma, Ethel Hinkle, was born. It reminds me of her when I play it. A true original with class and dignity, and most important, a voice of her own! Check out the top, "The Gibson" also, the ivory tuning knobs.

This is a crazy one. A "Roy Smeck" Model Harmony 4 string tenor banjo. I got it for $17 at a yard sale in Delaware on my way to senior week with my friends in high school. As far as I've been able to tell, Roy Smeck was a semi famous banjo player in the 1920's from Reading PA. When Darren Schlappich and I first started playing together, we laughed to find that each other owned a Roy Smeck model 4 string.

This is a WILD 5 string. I found it in a music store in Reading PA. I put some work into it and cleaned it up. It has a 5th string that goes underneath the neck at the 6th fret, and comes out by the head stock. It has a leather head and wooden tone ring. It's great for that old timey sound. It was made in Germany, my guess is about 1930 or before.

When I was about 18 I started going to Jereytown Tavern for wednesday nights bluegrass jams. We always had enough guitar players, mandolin strummers, fiddle bowers, song singers, banjo pickers...but there always seemed to be a bass shortage. For a while they had a donation jar going around to raise enough money to buy a "house bass" for who ever could play it. Now and then a bass player would come by, Walt Laubaugh jr., Chuck Kindleman, and others so I started pickin' up the basics. A few years later, I found myself hooked and had to go out and get one for myself. I love playing it! Unfortunately it's a bear to lug around so it only goes with me now and then, usually strapped to the roof of my car (praying it doesn't rain.)

This pump organ from the 1800's was rescued from the a building that my mother has refurbished into her business.  I have used it on a Chigliac Feedhorn recording, "Romans 13"  and on "Raining Bad Luck" on the 2002 album North of 80.  It is totally acoustic..you pump it with your feet.   Awesome instrument!

This Zither was given to me by my grandmother, Cleo Mcleod Wagner.  She told me that it belonged to her mother, Emma Williams Mcleod.  I am told that my great grandma Emma was very musically gifted and played several instruments (including piano).  This Zither is made my Columbia, patented 1892.  It's all about heritage.

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