Framus Nylon String

Year: 1974
Finish: Natural
Origin: Bavaria
Acquired: 1995
Mods: None
Still owned: No

The Story:
When I told my parents I wanted to play guitar, I meant electric — I wanted to rock. Their reply was “use your sister’s guitar” — a nylon-string folk guitar by Framus. With its wide neck and total lack of pickups, it was the opposite of what I wanted. But, love the one you’re with, right? I didn’t know you weren’t supposed to use a pick; I was teaching myself to play chords from sheet music and fake books. After trying to play 80s pop-rock hits of the day on the Framus for several months, I borrowed a friend’s electric as often as I could.

Some years later when I’d learned a lot more about guitars, I got nostalgic and asked my sister if I could buy it from her. She’d already sold it. The day I came back from my honeymoon, Kat and I were walking in Brooklyn, passed a tiny music shop, and there in the window was a 1974 Framus — just like the one my sister had, only with a curved back. It was probably the difference between a classical guitar and a folk guitar, but it sounded better than the Framus I remembered. I bought it, kept it for several years, and ultimately sold it when I realized it was pretty bad and nostalgia could only take me so far. I do not remember how or where I sold it, but maybe it turned into someone else’s first guitar. That would only be fitting.

Framus