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Hi all; I am back with a guitar Semie completed in 1990. It was built for President
George H.W. Bush. The photo here shows Semie and I giving the guitar it's first sounds
of life. The doubleneck the only one I know he intended to give to a President of
The United States. However he was never able to get to the right people to give it to
the President. It ended up, I understand, in the hands of a party that he owed investment
money to. In fact very close to Jonas Ridge. I know who has it, but do not have
permission to reveal that. We can work on that, or someone out there that knows the
business owner can get the OK. I am open to questions on this piece. It was great to
be staying with Semie & Loretta at that precise time in History. Also at the same time Semie had THE HANK THOMPSON Gutar. I will post later of Semie & I playing it.



All Photo's I Post are for Study, Reseach and Comment only in this FORUM. C.2009
Luv to all see ya soon.
Elaine

Elaine,
I am really enjoying your stories & pictures. You are really blessed to have had Semie for a friend. And what a nice guitar, were the red white & blue painted or inlays? It looks like a 6 and octave 6 is that right?
Thanks again & happy picking.

Very interesting, Elaine!

I worked as a marketing and computer graphics consultant for that President Bush, and was approached by a famous guitar-maker who wanted to present him with a custom guitar they had made.

This was a large company, not a private person. It was a presentation-grade instrument with a patriotic motif; an eagle, red, white, and blue binding and inlays, and it just looked great.

Anyway, as simple as that idea sounded, it never really got any traction as there were all these gatekeepers who were between me, informally representing the guitar maker, and the president. I had no stake in it and wasn't being paid to represent the guitar company.

Finally, after about five months, I decided "to heck with it" and the guitar maker agreed. I don't know if President Bush even played guitar, and I don't know who ended up with the red, white, and blue guitar they had built.

I promised the guitar maker that I would never mention their company's name in relating this annoying incident and have kept that promise, but it seemed silly to me then and still does that an American company couldn't proudly present an American president with one of their American-made products.

--Jim

Yes it is a 6x6 octave neck. Here it is a little bit closer or you can copy and blow it up
yourself.

Elaine

Hi Jim. I can tell you there was no Eagle I remember. And your right, it was passed
through many hands as far as a request went. The Guitar never left No, Carolina.

The Red-White-Blue is painted not inlaid. The "MISTER PRESIDENT" is Inlaid in the necks as you can see.. It played great. I'll never forget that.

Elaine

Hey, Elaine--

Oh, this wasn't the same guitar you mentioned; the one I was involved with was an acoustic six-string made by a large company.

I can tell you this much, though: Having an eagle inlaid on the back of it didn't do it any good!!! It never got near the president!

I still wonder sometimes if the best thing would have been to just have these folks FedEx it to the president and see what would have happened. I did recommend that to them, but I don't think that they ever did it.

Isn't it odd, though, that the same darned thing happened to you and Semie? Just goes to show what a weird world this is. I had totally forgotten about the whole thing till I read your post.

All your posts are MOST enjoyable and informative, by the way. Do you ever play up in the Washington, DC, area? If you do, I would love to come see and hear you.

--Jim

Sorry to sound cynical, but if a guitar was made for the president today, it would be undoubtedly be made in china

Awesome story though Elaine, anyone want to ponder a guess what that guitar is worth today?!?!?!?

It would be hard to put a value on it as it never got into the President's hands. I heard
from a pretty good source that it satisfied a $10,000 payback. But it was second hand.
However it sounds right. It would probably be well worth that today and maybe then some.
I would say this is a good example of it's worth what somebody would pay for it n any
given day.??????????. It sure is a conversation piece.!!!! The History will never die.

Elaine

Elaine,
My Wife and I were in Jonas Ridge back in '88 when I placed my special ordered Mo' which is darn close to a '63, but Semie had made some changes as well as myself on my S.O. Getting back to the "Mister President" which 'Uncle Semie' was already building in February of '88, this is the guitar that Semie had my Wife hammer one of the frets in the neck. As I had mentioned on a different thread, my Wife and I have no clue what fret/or neck it was due to it being over 21 years ago. I/WE DO HAPPEN to know the 'other' so called major guitar company (as we are sure you know as well) that built the 'other' guitar for President Bush SR. But just in case you don't (God knows, the Guitar Companies were getting Crazy!), please PM us, We will be more than happy to answer any questions that you might have being that we missed each other somewhere between 6 months to a year....