Polara AZ

My gorgeous 60's Guild Polara in repose on her in-built chrome kickstand in Saguaro National Park just outside of Tucson AZ. Thanksgiving 2003.

I had a month in the U.S. just looking around, taking photos with my little $5 Ricoh 500GX rangefinder in my pocket. I purchased this guitar from Dan's Chelsea guitars ( yep, next to the Chelsea Hotel in NYC ) and it was still rattling around in the boot of my crappy rental car by the time I got to Arizona, so this was a photo-op that i couldn't resist.

The Polara ( with rarer Jetstar shape headstock and maple headstock overlay ) has been a good friend to me through many recordings and gigs. The neck pickup sound on this guitar is where I call 'home' and the Hagström made bridge and vibrato are so slinky, staying in tune through many mid-song Reg Mombassa wangles.

The pickups ( one of a few kinds referred to by Guild factory staff as 'Mickey Mouse' due to their el-cheapo nature when compared to Guild's more revered mini-humbuckers and larger P90 style efforts ) are microphonic to the extent that I can sing through them and loop my voice behind the chorus of a song as I play my solo San Antone ( audio coming soon* ) gigs.