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How My Guitar Playing Started

On my 12th birthday my uncle gave me a guitar. It was an Archtop made by Framus. Sorry, but I don’t have it any more.

My parents payed for the weekly guitar lessons. My teacher was Mr. Thomsen in Elmshorn, Germany. This lasted until I was 16 years old. At that time I was pretty good in accompanying swing and dance music.

When I started my apprenticeship in electro mechanics, I put away the instrument and stopped playing. I became more interested in Model Flying and Ham Radio.

Between 1970 and 1974 I was a Radio Operator (Sparks) on various reefer ships, like the “Pica” of the “Laeisz” company:

On the long and lonely  trips I missed my guitar. On one of our stops in Bordeaux, France, I took the opportunity to buy a classical instrument. It was nice to play again and it made my life on board easier. When I left the ship in Rotterdam, it was no problem to bring the guitar home.

After my holidays I had to enter the next ship in Los Angeles. Since I did not want to carry so much luggage, I left the guitar at home. Our first trip was to Tokyo, Japan. I only had a half day off to do some shopping. When I walked past a music shop, I saw an infinite number of guitars hanging on the wall. I could not resist and bought one of them, a Yamaha G-150A.

During one of my journeys my parents had to move and wanted to get rid of all “unnecessary” things. So they sold the Archtop and the guitar from Bordeaux.