This story begins in the summer of 1959. I was 6 years old and living on a horse ranch in the Chino Hills of Southern California. As I recall, our closest neighbors were about a ¼ mile away. They were also ranchers and they seemed older than dirt to my young brain.
Although I do not remember their names, I do recall the day my dad came into the house and announced that the old neighbor man suddenly died. Soon, my parents were spending a lot of time with the widow just trying to help her out. Shortly afterwards the widow decided to move on. To where, I have no clue. She was going to sell everything.
My dad gave her $5 for an old black guitar. As my father later recounted to me, the instrument had set for over 40 years in her attic. He only gave her the $5 to help her out….not to buy a guitar. He gave the guitar to me as a toy.
Soon my black guitar was given a new home in my tree house. That is where it lived for over two years. It was however, in an old case. Rain, wind, walnut fights with neighbor kids, dirt clod fights, heat, cold, and the hands of a 6-year-old. Bad news!
The terrible day came that my dad told me we had to tear down the tree house because it was very old and unsafe. I recall tossing the old black guitar down to my dad. He threw it aside not giving it any thought. I recall that while he was tearing down the tree house, he was loading the old rotted wood into the bed of his 55 Ford pickup. He threw the old guitar on top of the heap. It was on its way to the dump. For some reason, my mother grabbed it off the heap to look at it. She took it out of the case and saw that the black paint was chipping away.
She couldn't believe here eyes. There was treasure under the paint. Soon after, I no longer "owned" a guitar. In 1961 they took it to a luthier post haste. He couldn't believe it either. It was an 1895 Almcrantz. He immediately went to work on its restoration. During the process he even found a picture hidden inside the guitar of the maker and it's date. Revealed was some real amazing inlay work.
In time the guitar was returned to my family. About that time, I was developing an interest in playing. So, again, it became my guitar and for years afterwards, I used it for lessons and playing. As I grew up I would wax and wane with regards to my interest in playing. But it was always there in the background. That guitar was my dear old friend.
In the early 70's Uncle Sam got me for three years. Again the guitar went to an attic for storage. My parents kept it for me for years. During my twenties there was the military and years of college. I didn't play for a long time.
Somewhere in the late 70's I re acquired the Almcrantz from the attic. It was time to get back into it again. I had become a homeowner in the Donner Summit area of Northern California. My home was at an elevation of over 7000 feet. And yes, there was a lot of snow.
On May 17th, 1981 a friend cam to the house to do some jamming with me. He was a local fireman. We had a few too many beers that night. I would always put the guitar away in its case and then to the closet. That night it stayed in the living room, in its case. The next morning I took off for business for a few days.
During my absence, and electrical short started a fire in the bedroom that it was normally stored in. The fire rapidly spread through the house. The house was fully involved by the time the fire department arrived. Hampered by 8 feet of snow, they were not able to save the house. But…….
My friend did enter the house (as firemen do). He was the first in. He actually tripped over the burning guitar case. He saw the case and literally threw it out a living room window into a snow bank. The house was a 100% loss.
I returned home to find the place in a pile of ashes. There was a note to contact the fire department. In total shock, I went to the fire department to do the paper work, when my friend immerged from the back room with a charred guitar case in hand. I could see that the case had been burnt all the way through. Years before, my mother had sewn together a sort of (vinyl?) soft case. It prevented the guitar from bouncing around in the oversized hard case. The guitar was only a bit blackened from the heat. And it was completely repairable!!!!!!!!!!
I have realized that this old Almcrantz will probably outlive me. I still have it today and it is kept in the safest of places in the best of conditions. I do still play it. The sound is perfect.
I feel blessed to be the custodian of this fine old instrument. It will be eventually be passed down within my family. Hopefully, it will stay there.
So you tell me, was it all dumb luck that this guitar survived or was it something else? I have my suspicions.
Want to read another great guitar story? International recording artist Janis Ian tells the tail of her Martin guitar. Check it out at http://www.janisian.com/articles.html and then scroll down to "OF GUITARS AND RIGHTEOUS MEN". It's worth the time!