Alan Horvath | 1967 Garcia Classical Guitar

Alan's Instruments | 1967 Garcia Classical Guitar
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Alan playing his 1967 Garcia Classical Guitar

Doug Weston's Troubadour

This is my classical Garcia 6-string guitar ... built by the hands of a true master, in Madrid, Spain, in 1967 -- Garcia guitars are no longer hand-made and finding one is like looking for a needle in a haystack. It has no serial number that I can find.

Alan's 1967 Garcia Classical Guitar

I won 2nd Prize (which was this guitar in its hard-shell case) in a Battle of the Bands contest when I was only 17 years old, singing all original songs and accompanying myself on a 6-string Tempo (garbage) steel string guitar; 1st Prize went to a 3 piece band.

This guitar means so much to me ... not only because I wrote so many of my earliest songs on it ... and not only because it was the guitar I played at my very first gig at the Troubadour in Los Angeles (which became a regular gigging spot for me in the years that ensued) ... but also because I just got it back into my life after some 30+ years! I had traded this guitar many moons ago, when I was 20 or 21 years old, for a Gibson SG electric guitar that was owned by my good friend, Bruce Scofield.

Note: If you ever see the National Geographic Special on the Mayan Calendar, you'll see Bruce featured as one of the experts on this subject.

Anyway, as time went by, I regretted the trade because I discovered that I didn't like playing electric guitars and I wound up missing the Garcia more than I had anticipated. Then ... a couple of years ago, Bruce was on my web site and saw a note I made, referencing my regret over the trade; he emailed me and said he still had the Garcia if I ever wanted it back.

Alan's 1967 Garcia Classical Guitar

So ... this year (2008), I moved into a sweet ranch house surrounded by woods ... and money has been good, so I emailed Bruce and arranged to have the Garcia shipped to me. The neck, which is not adjustable, remains as straight as the day I got this guitar and the intonation has remained perfectly true! Now that's what you call real craftsmanship, Brother!

And now it sits with the rest of my family:

Alan's 1967 Garcia Classical Guitar