“I Think I Saved This Guitars Life”
"1969 Fender Stratocaster"
This is a prelude to our upcoming book – “A Story Of Six Strings,” which chronicles the history of Stephen Arnold Music through Stephen’s guitars, all of which were photographed on location throughout the western United States.
Stephen: “I had always wanted a Fender Strat but never could afford one. The ‘69 strat was especially iconic, because that was the year Fender changed to a larger headstock and a U-shaped maple neck. In late July 2005, about a month before Hurricane Katrina, I was in New Orleans for some sessions for WWL-TV and found this Strat at a vintage music store. Two things are special to me about this Fender:
1) I probably saved that guitar’s life, because the music store was destroyed a month later during Katrina (I’ve named the guitar Katrina… My favorite guitars all have names.)
2) I used the guitar playing all of the sonic logo harmonics on the Weather Channel’s Storm Alert.”