Michael Minnis
Active member
- Joined
- Feb 12, 2004
- Messages
- 1,597
A29845 and A29846, born in Kalamazoo in 1959 parted ways 55 years ago never expecting to be reunited. A29845 eventually found its way across the Atlantic making music in the U.K. A29846 traveled to the southern states, journeyed back to Michigan for a few years, then on to New York, Connecticut and New Hampshire before making it’s current home in Austin, Texas.
The older brother:
I purchased A29846 from Mark’s Guitar Loft in July 2009, but not without a great story. Seeing pictures of the guitar on Mark’s site, I contacted my good friend and ES aficionado/expert Tom Hollyer “TomGuitar” to get his opinion. Tom lives in Ann Arbor, Michigan, but as luck would have it, he happened to be in New Hampshire and visited Mark’s shop the day before with Billy Loosigian “lpnv”. They both played A29846 at Mark’s shop. Tom was seriously debating buying the guitar when he got my call asking about A29846. It was one of those “You’ve got to be kidding me” moments as Tom explained where he was, how he’d spent the prior day with the guitar and how he was thinking of pulling the trigger. After some discussion, Tom graciously offered to back away and let me buy it. It’s been my main guitar ever since. The one that speaks to me the most and brings out the best in me as a player. Here is a recent picture:
It wasn’t until a few years later that I read about “first rack” 345s here on the Les Paul Forum. A29846 is a “first rack” example. It has the short leg PAF, the wax potted varitone choke and a big, wonderful neck. I had the varitone pulled out and the magnet flipped for mono shortly after purchasing the guitar. It’s light, comfortable and acoustically more alive than any ES I’ve ever owned. In the last few years I’ve been keeping my eye out for a backup 345 in case some unforeseen accident or act of theft befell my beloved A29846. Armed with information about “first rack” 345s, I was on the lookout for another one like mine. Fast forward to this past May. Charlie Gelber “OKGuitar” had a “first rack” 345 for sale whose serial number was pretty close to A29846. I can’t remember the number off the top of my head. Anyway, I contacted Charlie, but I snoozed and the guitar got sold quickly. Fast forward further to September when I was perusing Gbase and saw an early 1959 345 at Phil’s Guitars in the U.K. Intrigued, I pinged my good friend and Brit John Marlow “Banker” to give him a heads-up. He’d already seen the guitar online, made contact with Phil and discovered the guitar was serial number A29845… one number before mine! John briefly looked into purchasing the guitar, but as we’ve seen with his recent remarkable burst purchase, his thoughts have been elsewhere. The price on A29845 was high, especially converting USD to pounds. I let go of my desire to follow up on the guitar until a couple weeks ago when I sent an inquiry to Phil verifying the serial number and asking for the FON. Phil responded a couple days later confirming that indeed the serial number is one before mine. Turns out the FON is only two digits away as well! A29845 is S8537-14. A29846 is S8537-12! This was significant for me. The FONs indicate construction of the guitars probably started at basically the same time, and the consecutive serial numbers indicate they were probably completed at basically the same time. Brothers! My blood started pumping faster! I’d finally found the one – or the other one! Phil and I exchanged a number of emails before we spoke on the phone and painlessly completed a deal. A few days later the guitar arrived via overnight shipping, and 55 years later, A29845 and A29846 are at last reunited… “and it feels so good!”
A few details about the guitars. The necks are quite similar. A29846 fills out the back of the hand a bit more, but both have great profiles. The guitars are all straight and original, except A29845 had different tuners at some point. A29845 is waiting to have its varitone removed and wired mono. A29845 also has some beautiful grain to the wood. They both make wonderful music!
The older brother:
I purchased A29846 from Mark’s Guitar Loft in July 2009, but not without a great story. Seeing pictures of the guitar on Mark’s site, I contacted my good friend and ES aficionado/expert Tom Hollyer “TomGuitar” to get his opinion. Tom lives in Ann Arbor, Michigan, but as luck would have it, he happened to be in New Hampshire and visited Mark’s shop the day before with Billy Loosigian “lpnv”. They both played A29846 at Mark’s shop. Tom was seriously debating buying the guitar when he got my call asking about A29846. It was one of those “You’ve got to be kidding me” moments as Tom explained where he was, how he’d spent the prior day with the guitar and how he was thinking of pulling the trigger. After some discussion, Tom graciously offered to back away and let me buy it. It’s been my main guitar ever since. The one that speaks to me the most and brings out the best in me as a player. Here is a recent picture:
It wasn’t until a few years later that I read about “first rack” 345s here on the Les Paul Forum. A29846 is a “first rack” example. It has the short leg PAF, the wax potted varitone choke and a big, wonderful neck. I had the varitone pulled out and the magnet flipped for mono shortly after purchasing the guitar. It’s light, comfortable and acoustically more alive than any ES I’ve ever owned. In the last few years I’ve been keeping my eye out for a backup 345 in case some unforeseen accident or act of theft befell my beloved A29846. Armed with information about “first rack” 345s, I was on the lookout for another one like mine. Fast forward to this past May. Charlie Gelber “OKGuitar” had a “first rack” 345 for sale whose serial number was pretty close to A29846. I can’t remember the number off the top of my head. Anyway, I contacted Charlie, but I snoozed and the guitar got sold quickly. Fast forward further to September when I was perusing Gbase and saw an early 1959 345 at Phil’s Guitars in the U.K. Intrigued, I pinged my good friend and Brit John Marlow “Banker” to give him a heads-up. He’d already seen the guitar online, made contact with Phil and discovered the guitar was serial number A29845… one number before mine! John briefly looked into purchasing the guitar, but as we’ve seen with his recent remarkable burst purchase, his thoughts have been elsewhere. The price on A29845 was high, especially converting USD to pounds. I let go of my desire to follow up on the guitar until a couple weeks ago when I sent an inquiry to Phil verifying the serial number and asking for the FON. Phil responded a couple days later confirming that indeed the serial number is one before mine. Turns out the FON is only two digits away as well! A29845 is S8537-14. A29846 is S8537-12! This was significant for me. The FONs indicate construction of the guitars probably started at basically the same time, and the consecutive serial numbers indicate they were probably completed at basically the same time. Brothers! My blood started pumping faster! I’d finally found the one – or the other one! Phil and I exchanged a number of emails before we spoke on the phone and painlessly completed a deal. A few days later the guitar arrived via overnight shipping, and 55 years later, A29845 and A29846 are at last reunited… “and it feels so good!”
A few details about the guitars. The necks are quite similar. A29846 fills out the back of the hand a bit more, but both have great profiles. The guitars are all straight and original, except A29845 had different tuners at some point. A29845 is waiting to have its varitone removed and wired mono. A29845 also has some beautiful grain to the wood. They both make wonderful music!