Ellella

I try not to be a regular guitar player musician dude, but I occasionally have my weaknesses. Today I will be indulging one of them. There exists within modern musicians, particularly guitar players a need to share pictures of their various pieces of musical equipment and give biographical information about them... So over the next year or so I'll be indulging that part of me, and passing them on to you.

This is Ellella. My first acoustic guitar. My second guitar ever, and the oldest one currently in my immediate possession (my very first and oldest guitar is in a storage facility in Kansas City). This guitar came to me around my senior year of high school, 1997. I remember my parents hade recently purchased a new flute for my sister to use in the school band. I knew also in the past that they had done the same for my brother for at least one other instrument. This struck my teenage brain as somehow unfair. I took my case to my parents, that just because I didn't play an instrument that they allowed in the school band shouldn't mean that they should not buy me an instrument same as my siblings. The blow was softened due to the object of my desire being an acoustic guitar. My parents being supportive level headed people heard my case and decided amongst themselves that I did have a valid point, and that when it was financially possible they would be willing to help me out.

One Saturday soon after our conversation my parents and I headed to Midwest Music on Main Street in Hays, Kansas. I was nervous. I've always hated playing guitars in guitar stores. I hate the fellow customers and employees. I know they are judging everything you play an do... I know this because I do it to, and never very nicely. The store had a good assortment of instruments to choose from, and many in my price range. I narrowed it down to a natural wood fender and the black laqoured Ibanez you see pictured here. I have often times wished I had gone for the natural wood, which I so much prefer. I was however young and quite possibly very stupid. The black one reminded me also of my ex-uncle Gene.

Over the years I've have come to appreciate the thick black finish because the guitar is now about 15 years old and it's spent a lot of time in the back seat of vehicles and carried around to beaches and parks. It's the only guitar that has lived in every place that I've lived since I started playing guitar. The first time I really Bonded with the guitar was when I moved to California in 2000 and lived with my brother in the West San Fernando Valley. Having packed up our cars for the move there was very little room for equipment. I could only bring one guitar and I chose the acoustic since I couldn't bring an amp anyway. During this time the guitar and I made many trips out to a small park, I think Chatsworth Oak park off Topanga Canyon. We would climb to the top of a large rock and play for an hour or so in the evenings. During this time I slowly began to understand the guitar better.
When I moved from California to Kansas City I didn't have the guitar for a few months. I am not even certain how I finally got it back, but I do know that the second and third S no S records made at this time do not contain this guitar. The Forth S no S Record, Restless features this guitar here and there, though it is mainly an Electric guitar record. The Final S no S record was almost exclusively written on this guitar. With the exception of Ronnie's Martin Copy it's on every track on that album as well. It was during this year and a hlaf that I lived in Kansas City that the guitar became the object that I know and love. It wasn't until this time that the name Ellella came to me, for reasons so forgotten. It was also the guitar that I took with me to work everyday at the Nursing home. I sang to many an old lady with that Ellella in hand. The stamp featured in teh photo above was stolen from the nursing home. It's an F.Scott Fitzgerald 23 cent stamp. It makes sense that I would stick it to the back of my guitar.

When I moved to Los Angeles the guitar cam with me on the flight. It was on Ellella that I participated in writing my first Shitting Glitter Song "High and Tight".

The list of SG songs that it's been recorded on are as follows:

From Post no Bills:
Makes sense, Ariana, Chicken, Mustache Rides

From the Iw6 single:
The incomparable White Six Acoustic Version

From the Ladyslipper Single:
Ladyslipper, Luscious Mag

From FAS:
High and Tight, Grady, The Amnesty Party

Ellella also once made a trip to Colorado where she and I provided the wedding music for a two friends Kevin and Marny. Kevin is no longer with us. I know don't really know what to do with the piece of music I wrote for their wedding.