It was the UGLIEST GUITAR IN THE WORLD.

Through school and youth group/church bands I leaned into it. I became the "Guy with the Ugliest Guitar In The World." That was fun for a while but the ugly guitar wore me down. At some point I cracked and took the faceplate down to a local fibreglass manufacturer. They recreated it in pure white for the princely sum of $35

The original leopard faceplate languished in a bedroom drawer for a couple of years. Then, during my "psychedelic phase” I repainted it with all sorts of shit and reattached it. I’d just made the ugliest guitar even uglier.

I eventually traded that guitar in for an inferior Ibanez. I didn’t help myself by presenting it with the defaced original faceplate and the fibreglass copy.

I wish I’d kept that guitar with its original faceplate. It was my first ever guitar and the one I learned to play on. 

And it was a pretty good approximation  of the guitar that Prince played THAT SOLO at the 2004 Hall of Fame ceremony. If you don’t know that reference, please take 6 minutes to follow the link. It is quite extraordinary.

Prince used a cheap ugly leopard print Telecaster copy to make  a statement and my old guitar suddenly entered the zeitgeist. Nowadays, that model, in that colour, sells for a few times more than what I paid. 

And to the person who bought mine, I’m sorry I spray painted all over the original faceplate. 

“Don't it always seem to go

That you don't know what you got 'til it's gone”

Joni Mitchell