craigb
There seems to be one, small part of that story missing Kenny... How did you wind up without the guitar for 25 years? Did you have to give it back when the endorsement was over?
Also, did you try out any of the guitars with the aluminum necks? It seemed so weird to try a guitar where the neck was heavier than the body!
I left my OP a little ambiguous to keep the verbiage down ....
I very rarely talk about this but if you really want to know ....
The circumstances in my personal life at that time were becoming rather tumultuous
I had been sober for a few years and when I had gotten the guitar my unborn son was in the womb of my live in GF ....
Once Kenny Jr was born his mom hit in her own life a severe case of postpartum depression ...
She was not from the US , she was from another country and she was from a social culture where seeking outside help such as therapy / counseling was considered a sign of weakness ...
As a result of that mind set we started to grow incompatible ...
She had some vacation time from her work so she asked me if it was OK for her to go back to her country for a one month visit to be with her family ...
I was OK w that and I gave her my consent to bring our child for the visit . I thought it would do us all good ..
Absences make the heart grow fonder ? right ?
When the month was up I was looking forward to being with my family . In reality I came home to an empty home ...
She came back and left my son in her country ....I did not consent to that ....nor was I happy about that unexpected turn of events ...
Her country does not recognize US law nor is bound to the US from a constitutional stand point of view ...
So that chapter of my life was spent dealing with navigating 2 separate country's legal issues ....
The long and the short of it is I couldn't force here to bring my son back unless I wanted to hire mercenary's to kidnap my son from her country and people ....in the US I had no legal options until my son was on US soil ...
To cut to the chase , after dealing w this / all the issues that were involved for a number of years I waked away ...
I have not seen my son a lot more years than I haven't had my guitar
As far as my guitar went , my friend Pat held on to both my endorsement guitars ( Kramer & Guild ) he also lent me a little bit of money to keep me floating w the understanding that the guitars where still mine
Regarding the / my endorsements
2 presidents of 2 US guitar company's gave me top of the line guitars to play ...
As far as the types of endorsements I had , they are what I like to call good will endorsements ...
Both Guild and Kramer had high profile Artists that endorsed and played their guitars . Both company's also spent money on press for these artists ....
In my case the guitars themselves I received were the gift these 2 president's wanted to give me
no press involved ......just a lot of good will and good Karma ....
One thing that most people don't know about Kenny is that I used to play out a lot and I'm very tight lipped about
some of the people I have played with ....I'm totally a relic from the pre internet days
Maybe folks would like to hear about what it was like for me to go over to the players house that played the solo to Reeling in the Years ...and playing on the exact guitar he used for that record ...
I'm just not that guy who likes to talk about it .or brag..so I'm gonna take it to the grave
....
I'm just happy I got my guitar back
as far as metal neck guitars go , yeah I've played them and liked them ....just not on cold days ..
all the best,
Kenny