A response to Guitarflame’s Dreaming of a Perfect Guitar post :

 Friday.

Our music building’s heat is stuck on and my office is about 80 degrees.  Outside it’s 56 degrees.   When the humidity is high and the temperature gets hot, I start thinking about playing the blues.   My favorite blues guitar setup is a Gibson Classical w/ a pyrex bottle slide.  Why?   Because it’s not loud, it’s warm sounding and not too whiney.

http://plaza.ufl.edu/johnmh/gibson.html   http://rbnc.net/aboutrbnc.html

The dobro is the classic instrument for slide blues playing.  I have a O.M.I. steel dobro from the 1989 era (one of the last ones made before Gibson acquired the company from Mary Lipzak after George died (Sp?)).  I remember her attending the NAMM show in the late 1980s;  –she looked like the typical  sweet grandmother and she had her OMI Dobro guitars  displayed in a booth and she sat in a chair working on sewing or knitting something (I can’t remember which).  I couldn’t resist talking with her and felt a strong need to help her out.  That day, my company became a Dobro dealer and I walked away knowing I’d have to tell the boss that I’d buy the expensive engraved one if it didn’t sell. 

I ordered one like this:  (pic from Brothers in Arms album from Dire Straits). 

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Long story, but Mary kept calling me and telling me she had trouble delivering because the welding guy wasn’t showing up for work,  then she didn’t have an engraver anymore.  Desperate to try to get one of what might have been the last of these ever made, I asked if they had any finished that they could substitute for my engraved one.  She said she had a “baby blue” one.  So that’s what I have.  No engraving, just a baby blue blues guitar.  That weighs a ton and makes my leg fall asleep when I play it for very long.  In fact, you might say it gives me the blues every time I play it!

;-)