Ends & Odds

The classical master Andres Segovia once said, "The guitar is as difficult as a hysterical woman. But I am faithful to her. I am not polygamous." I wonder if he was thinking of this guitar on the right. It's called the Nakyd Laydie and is the work of Howard Klepper ...

And speaking of things spoken about guitars, there are a couple of new quotes in the GuitarTalk sidebar on the right -- one from James Taylor, one from Dick Dale and one from Freddie Mercury. I strongly identify with the Mercury statement ...

The Martin people are sensitive to the economic times. They're putting out a solid-wood 1 Series model that is expected to sell for less than $1,000, which is pretty inexpensive for a U.S.-made Martin. The company has had a 20 percent drop in sales since the fall, according to The Wall Street Journal, so to keep the price down, Martin eliminated the inlays on the 1 Series, the same strategy the company used during the Great Depression. "We needed something so we wouldn't have to start laying people off," said CEO Chris Martin.

The Journal quoted a music store owner in Michigan as saying the 1 Series guitars sound very good, although maybe not as good as the $2,000-$3,000 models ...

Things aren't so good at the Paul Reed Smith factory in Stevensville, Md., where 30 people are being laid off and production is being cut back to four days a week. This comes as the company is getting set to introduce a new line to celebrate its 25th anniversary and going into the acoustic and amp business ...

John Lennon's old 1958 Hofner Senator, on the left, wasn't such a bargain. It was auctioned last week for $337,226, which was almost double what the Christie's people had expected to get for it. It came with a 1982 fax of a letter written by George Harrison to verify that the Hofner was one of Lennon's first guitars ...

As a follow-up to the recent post on power chords, I have discovered that there are power chords for ukuleles. Somehow that seems like an oxymoron.