Question for Silverface............

[J. Hayes]

Hey Jim, in another thread about David Grier having #42 of Mike Nihen's infamous "Clarence" guitars you mentioned that you had #1 of that series. I was just curious as to how that came about. Mike should have been in Fairfax, Va. around that time and since you're in California, did you know him before or did he advertise somewhere that he was going to be making them and taking orders? I'd sure have liked to have been in on aquireing one of those beauties. He installed the P/W bender on my favorite Tele and I got to pick some on one of his while I was at his house/shop. He had a good thing going.....JH in Va.

[string pull]

Jerry
He stole it from me. I'll never do business with those west coast guys again.......oh yea your from the west coast too...never mind actually I think we met in some North Hollywood , Burbank bar scene, late 1970's doing the "gong" show hillbilly bluegrass. Hunter S Thompson was taking notes. Fear and Loathing in Burbank. Soon to be a major motion picture.

[J. Hayes]

Are you still in the "business" of benders? I'm still enjoying and using the P/W bender you did for me in '05.....

For everyone else, Stringpull's a standup guy and does great work. I had a little tension problem with my guitar and he drove all the way from Fairfax to Va. Beach and fixed it for me, no charge....... Thanks again Mike....JH in Va.

[string pull]

Asleep at the wheel thats me.....Im done
thax Jerry

[Silverface]

We're still working on the screenplay of how I ended up with #0001. If I recall part of the story correctly, Mike had told me in a letter (remember the US mail? Remember when there was NO internet? If not, stop reading now, proceed directly to Harmony Central, do not pass Go, do not collect $200.).

Errr - he told me he had this dream about making benders that matched Clarence's original long-throw.

Fast forward about 15 years. He's made and sold a few Nashville West long throws, Gene's mad because now HE has to make a long throw (15:1 odds it was Gene's ex-wife and business partner who got him riled up...Gene's too nice to be pissed off) says he's gonna mail me the damned thing to "test drive".

He does. It's an amazing piece of work. In my possession. The ol' 9/10 of the law thing.

The rest involves Phil Kaufman, Aynsley Dunbar, Zoot Horn Rollo, Aspen Pittman and several dwarves who played munchkins in the Wizard of OZ.

The rest we'll make up, like we do everything else.

Mike flew out here several years ago for a Clarence White Forum jam. He personally wrote the serial number on it with a Sharpie that will be sold on eBay - watch for it.

And we both play Dobros and D-41's. For the rest of the story you need your handy Avengers decoder ring and the search function on the Les Paul Forum.

Code key: "Quodlibet".

[string pull]

your not gonna sell that Sharpie are you? I'll be heart broken.....

[string pull]

if I remember correctly we had to hold down Firebug Kaufman and wrestle that propane torch from him.

[Silverface]

"...here I come to save the day..."

Tank you veddy much.

[string pull]

Where are the other Nashville Wests. I know that at least a half a dozen are in Japan, a handful in Europe.the rest in the US. I know where 3 are and thats it.
Anybody?

[djalt]

I know of one in Kelowna BC.

P.S.

I'm still scraping together my deposit for #44 :)

[djalt]

I still owe silverface an explanation of how it "almost" happened....

[Don Miller]

One of them is in Alaska. If I recall Mike offered to send #1 to me and I was dumb enough to say no, or hem and haw too long or something so he sent it to that guy in California instead. Or something like that....but then I landed #41...I had to get my own sharpie.

[string pull]

Ole #0001 got around. Bryan Kimsey got a crack at it (to rock and roll) then whats his name from Austin had it for a while, Casper Rollins. He wouldn't ship it back unless I paid for the shipping. People wonder why I dont make guitars anymore.