The Tale of 2 guitars

my 2 Valley Arts Custom Pro guitars

I want to tell the story of my two Valley Arts guitars. Actually the story of my first one. I came to LA in the mid 80 and at that time Valley Arts was the premier music store in town. All the LA session musicians would hang out there, Steve Lukather, Abe Laboriel, Larry Carlton, Paul Jackson J.r and so forth. all of them had guitars made by this guy Mike McQuire who was considered to be one of the best Luthiers around. He had worked at the Gibson Custom shop building Custom guitars for many of the greats. His own brand Valley Arts was a made to order special custom guitar built to the highest standards.  Before the company sold to Smack and later was bought by Gibson he made only a few thousand of these. I was planning to buy a Gibson 335, but when I saw the guitars he was building I had to get one. I was a Musician’s Institute student at that time and I remember eating at a free happy hour buffet for dinner 4 times a week on Sunset Blvd, saving my food money to make payments on the guitar.

When I got it, I was blown away. It was gorgeous I hardly dared to touch it. Serial number 133.  I had it for several months, when I visited my friend in Hollywood and forgot that I had the guitar in the car. Long story short: somebody broke into my car and stole the guitar.  It killed me , but I was fortunate in that I had it insured. The insurance company paid and I had a second Valley Arts guitar built Ser. # 159. Same color, but this time, even nicer, with gold hardware instead of black, and I opted for EMG pickups in stead of the Seymour Duncans. That guitar was, and still is absolute perfection. It’s what I played every day since and what you hear on every recording and see me on every show. This was 1986 or 87, if i remember right

Some years passed and in the early 90s I get a call from a guitar shop owner in Hollywood . He told me that he just purchased my Valley Arts from some shady character for $200 and found out through the Serial number that this was my guitar. He got my phone number from the Valley Arts guitar shop. He said he knows how it feels when an instrument gets stolen and offered to give it back to me for the $200 he invested. I gladly agreed. I should have given him more, but I was still a struggling young musician living hand to mouth and could not really afford more. But I was so grateful for his kindness and honesty. So the guitar came back to me.

So I had this guitar for several years, but I did not play it much, since I was so used to my Ser#159 VA and the EMG pickups. And when I recorded my very first CD Blue Planet in the mid 90 ( released 1998) I urgently needed money to finish the project. I ended up selling the guitar to a guitar player I met at a recording studio in order to pay for the recording and mixing. It was with a heavy heart, but the guy, his name is Ted, was a friend of a friend of mine and ensured me that he would sell it back to me one day , if I ever wanted to get it back.

Well that was 20 years ago. I always kept that in the back of my mind, but I was spending my money on building a recording studio, so I can produce and record albums at my house. Lately I noticed that my trusted Valley Arts #159 really need a break and go to the guitar spa.  I played it literally almost every day for over 30 years now. The color on the neck is faded, there are dings and scratches everywhere, the side looks like a beaver chewed into it . It gives the guitar character, a road warriors axe. But the active electronics seem to need an overhaul , maybe new pots and a new capacitor. So I decided I need to have a backup, so I could have the guitar worked on, which might take several weeks. I made it a priority and last year I started to make some calls to see if I could find Ted, who I sold the guitar to 20 years ago. I found out he had since moved to Arizona and did finally reach him. And being the good guy he is, he agreed to sell the guitar back to me. He had hardly ever played it and kept it in perfect condition.

So last weekend I finally had the guitar back in my hand. Ted’s friend brought it with him from Arizona. I met up with him at Spaghettini’s in Seal Beach. I was so exited and sat in the with the band to play the guitar again for the first time in 20 years. Unfortunately the strings also were the original strings from 20 year ago and it didn’t take long before I broke one. Since then I cleaned the guitar and put fresh strings on it. It feels amazing in my hands . This guitar left me twice and came back. I won’t let it go away again..

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