My life took a major diversion a few months back—some of you may remember I was having an issue with bad leg and also BPH.
After browbeating the doctor into getting me x-rays of my leg, it turned out I had stage 4 prostate cancer
which had metastasized into pelvis and leg …The medical team sprung into action, and now almost three months later I am on ADT hormone therapy, after ten treatments of palliative radiation.
I'm doing pretty well, considering, but being confined to a wheelchair is a real drag, although I am now able to transfer to a regular chair to practice guitar.
All my guitars were either too bulky or too heavy to play in the wheelchair because of the arm rests—I wasn't about to stop playing as that was probably the one thing keeping me sane through all the CT scans, MRI and radiation visits.
I started looking at guitaleles, but they are too small and "plinky" for any serious playing. Most travel guitars are still too big, but finally I landed on the Córdoba Mini II cutaway acoustic electric nylon string guitar. They scaled down the body to a 1/4 size, but made the neck proportionally longer and wider.
Beautifully made, with solid spruce top and striped ebony laminated back and sides, truss rod and under saddle pickup with tuner. Because the neck is longer, they were able to design the guitar to have regular E to E tuning, rather than A to A as on most mini guitars.
It sounds great through an amp, so will be something I can use when I start gigging again, once Covid has receded, and when I can walk again …
My best friend, who is a very accomplished classical player (as well as jazz and Latin music) encouraged me to start learning classical guitar, which has been a real and welcome challenge and is already changing my jazz technique.
On top of that he gave me an old flamenco guitar, which turned out to be an early Aria made by Matsuoka. It needs a little TLC, so far have done fret end work, light crowning, fret polish and rolling the eges of the fingerboard and thorough fingerboard cleaning and oiling. Next up is installing three missing position markers on the side of the neck and using a rosewood filler to build up a couple of bad dings on the low side of the neck.
Also did the same work minus the repairs on the Córdoba …
Well that’s about it for now, maybe some pics later but have to conserve energy …
