El Trasho III
First a little history about the name. In the summer of 1977 I stopped at a yard sale in Bangor, Me, and bought a trashed classical guitar for 75 cents. The side was split from the heel of the neck all the way to the end block. I glued it back together. The next day I strung it up and hung it on the wall. About 10 minutes after I left the room, I heard a loud POP like a firecracker going off. When I returned to the room I saw that the bridge had popped completely off the guitar. So I did what any good 17 year old would do. I drilled through the bridge and top and secured the bridge with stove bolts. I then sanded the top and stained it dark walnut, then painted on binding and a rosette with silver model paint. It looked awful and yet fit in with the Summer of '77.Over the course of that summer it got passed around, left in a friend's car, left at his house, and generally got abused. Everyone that picked it up and played it was obliged to carve their names, initials or various slogans in it. It had no name or maker's label but since it was a cheap classical and it's overall lineage could be traced back to Spain it therefore should have a Spanish name. It got nicknamed "El Trasho". Eventually I gave it to a friend, and he later gave it to his future brother in law. It's fate is unknown, and likely got thrown out during spring cleaning.
In 1984 I bought another junk classical at a flea market for $2.00. I was braver at this point so I removed the fingerboard and routed it for an adjustable truss rod so I could use steel strings... this one was plywood and the bridge had already been bolted down so I didn't worry about the top. I then converted it into a cutaway, and refinished it in a dark wood tone. It had the same persona as the first El Trasho so this one was christened "El Trasho II". After a few months I gave it to my brother and I suspect his kids trashed it eventually.
A few years ago I was given the remains of an 80's Kent dreadnaught. It had been smashed with extreme predjudice. The back and one side were split wide open and much plywood material was missing. Chunks of plywood were missing from parts of the edges. In addition the neck was hanging by the fingerboard (or what was LEFT of the fingerboard) and the back of the neck was also split open from the truss rod being over tightened. I had no delusions of actually FIXING it but I thought it was enough of a challenge that I pieced it back together as best as the shards would allow and then applied fiberglass cloth and resin to it. Once I hit it with the sander I saw that it was the worst repair any human has ever performed on an instrument and it would NEVER look anything like a proper guitar again (not that Kents were ever considered to be proper guitars). I guess I was just curious to see if it were possible to make it structurally stable enough to stay together to play. Once I got the major damage knit back together I picked it up and held it in a playing position just long enough to get a splinter through my shirt. Okay, enough of that! Out came the duct tape.
And the South Park bumper sticker.
Okay, so at this point it's sort-of back in one piece but I'll never actually put it together properly so I hung it up in the garage where it sat for a year or two. I kept meaning to throw it out but never did.
As I mentioned in the blue Squier page, I take a guitar with me when I travel. Well, I decided I should have an acoustic to take with me. I looked through ebay, and there are plenty of new Chinese flat tops on there for $50 and $60, but at the time (early '03) I was going away for a couple days and there wasn't enough time to buy one and get it here. So just for a laugh I went out and retrieved the junker from the garage wall. I put in a new set of cheap tuners, shifted the neck into a good angle, glued it back into place, and quickly and sloppily repaired the damage to the adjacent area of the body. I levelled and polished the frets, strung it with USED strings and quickly fitted a nut for it.
End result? Well, it stays in tune reasonably well, has decent action, seems to be holding together, and it sounds just as horrible as it looks. It sounds like a Corn Flakes box with strings on it. Come to think of it these Korean Kents sound like that ANYWAY.
But for now it's serving the purpose. For convenience I glued a pick holder on the rim. I plan to eventually completely cover the sides and back with stickers, some in good taste, many not, but serendipitously, as I find them, not just on a sticker buying frenzy.
Over the years I've restored many guitars, and take a great deal of pride in my work. However, there have been two previous instances where I have taken complete junk and made them WORK, in spite of the "repairs" being done in an unconventional, hurried, sloppy way that ONLY ensures the utility of the instrument, and does NOT reflect the quality of work that I am capable of doing. It is in the spirit of "digging something out of the trash and making music on it again" that, Ladies and Gentlemen, I present to you........
El Trasho III.
