The next book I picked up off of Mike’s bookshelf was a lot more interesting and dear to my heart than The Catcher in the Rye. Mike had recommend this book as he knew I shared as much passion for music and guitars as he did.
Clapton’s Guitar is a book by Allen St-John which follows the creation of a guitar by Wayne Henderson, who is an American luthier and his guitars are highly sought after.
It follows Allen’s journey into Wayne’s workshop out in Rugby, Virginia (population 7) where Wayne constructs his objects of beauty. Wayne will build you a guitar, but you’ll have to remind him to do so and you may be holding your breath for a long time while waiting to play it. Some guitars have taken ten years to build because he has no discernible order to his schedule. He just builds what he feels like. If he feels like building your guitar today, he’ll do it. If not, you may have to keep reminding him or it can take you a decade to finally get one.
This book was an amazing insight into the luthier buisiness of building guitars, as well as a history lesson on guitars in general, but specifically focussing on the Martin guitar line and how they are highly sought after. I never really knew anything about Martin guitars before reading this book, but I now know that Martin guitars (especially pre-war models) are highly sought after and can fetch numbers like $30,000. For a guitar!!! I never knew! I guess it is now my dream to play a Martin guitar to see what’s the big deal.
The story goes that Eric Clapton played a Wayne Henderson guitar and wanted one. He puts in an order but like everyone else, has to wait awhile. Allen St-John finds out about this and wants to meet Wayne Henderson (being an avid guitar collector/player himself) and so forms a friendship with Wayne and he is writing a book about Clapton’s guitar and eventually Wayne gets around to building the guitar for Mr. Clapton.
The story follows the actual process of building the guitar, intermixed with the happenings of their lives such as travelling to music festivals, history lessons of guitar factories, luthiers, repairmen and the quest for old pre-war Martin guitars. It also talks about folk guitar playing in general and follows some up and comers from the music festivals.
Being a guitar player myself, I really enjoyed this novel. I thought it was superb. I had never thought about a guitar in the way that these people do. I had respect for my instrument but had never really known what had gone into it. I now know what sort of wood makes a better sounding guitar. I now know that Brazillian rosewood is a lot harder to come by than any other rosewood, hence the reason why the Wayne Henderson guitars are highly sought after; because they sound amazing and are not made in a factory…they are made one at a time with care.
For a guitar player, this book is a must. For a non-guitar player, I think you would still enjoy this book as it follows a journey of creation but it was also filled with fun stories of Wayne Henderson and his friends.
Heck, I even want to convince Dad to try and build a guitar when he retires. It would be a neat hobby. Even I want to try it now.
2 replies on “Review: Clapton’s Guitar”
Speaking of which, I just finished “Wonderful Tonight: George Harrison, Eric Clapton, and Me” by Pattie Boyd. A guy at work lent it to me. The English was atrocious in some places (hello, where was the editor?!) but the story itself was quite interesting, especially after reading Clapton’s autobiography. You get to see both sides of the story. Pattie’s version definitely provides more details and emotion, as opposed to Clapton’s book, which kind of glazed over the emotion part and focused more on the music. Anyway, both were good in their own way. They get my stamp of approval. :o)
I guess you weren’t paying attention while we were in Guitar world in Boston. The sales guy dropped a Martin guitar in my lap!