He had his $50 Harmony acoustic [H-162] with five pickups. There are old photos of him playing that with just one or two pickups, back in around ’68 to ’70. But then he started adding pickups - ‘jimmy- rigging’, he called it - out of necessity.
https://pic8.co/sh/28X8fI.jpg![]()
At that time, as a broke musician, John couldn’t afford to buy an electric guitar, so the Harmony became a thing he’d fiddle with. Unfortunately, because there were so many holes cut in it and it didn’t have a back, that Harmony became unplayable.
It was falling apart, so he had his friend [LA builder] Danny Ferrington put it back together, strengthen the sides. But the guitar doesn’t look the same - and John stopped playing it. He’d moved on, and it was never the number one guitar again.”
https://www.musicradar.com/news/on-jj-cale-he-would-buy-a-dollar100-guitar-then-if-he-messed-it-up-by-drilling-holes-it-was-okay-that-was-the-cost-of-educating-himself.
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