Gibson Dove “The Dove”

Made on September 24th, 1993

In May of 1999, we had a couple of days off between tours and were killing time in Edmonton.
It was nice to be home.
I had run into Mothers Music and buy supplies for our next trip.
Strings, picks, harmonicas…
You know, the usual junk.
I can never just walk in, buy what I need and leave.
I always have to browse around the store.
Which is what I was doing when I found myself at the back of the store.
There sitting on a stand was a pristine Gibson Dove.
It was amazing.
And it was for sale.
I asked about the guitar.
I found out it was a 1993 Dove that had been residing in a climate controlled recording studio for the last 6 years.
It was used for sessions and that was it.
It had never left the studio.

I had a squeaky clean credit rating at Mothers Music, so I said “To hell with it, give me that guitar.”

I had them put a Fishman pickup in at and two days later it made it’s debut at the Westward Ho in Grand Forks, North Dakota.

The first song I wrote on it was “Promise Me You’ll Never Tell” in a couple of days later in Winnipeg.

I wrote “Dimaggio” and almost every song in the last 10 years on that guitar.

There is an easy 1500 shows on that guitar.

The finish is all worn off the back of the neck.

One winter, in a very dry, poorly humidified apartment, a crack appeared on the top of the guitar.

Not just a surface crack but clear on through the wood.

I took the guitar to Joe Glazier’s repair shop in Nashville and he repaired it beautifully.

The next winter we were in Toronto and my guitar cracked again in two places.

Same thing.

Clear on through the wood.

This time I fixed it.

Poorly.

Big mistake.

But it didn’t hurt the sound at all.

In fact, I think it sounded better.

Then in May of ’05, I carved Jenny and Ruby’s names into the guitar.

I was very happy with those results.

I had it re-fretted in 2007.In the spring of 2008, our dalmation, Lucy, knocked it over and snapped the headstock off of it.This time I knew that such an injury could be fixed so I took it into Glazer’s and the next day it was as good as new.

Then, in July of 2010, on a flight from Edmonton to Nashville the headstock was snapped off again and again I went to Glazer’s for the repair.

Joe told me that the guitar needed to have the neck reset.
He figured that I should just retire the guitar.
Hang it on the wall.

But I didn’t like the idea of putting it out to pasture.

So I went home to think about my next move.

A week later, I walked back in to Glazer’s and said “Go for it. I’m in no hurry. Do what you gotta do.”

Ten months later, Charlie from Glazer’s Guitars called and said, “Yer Dove’s ready.”

I’d forgotten just how great of a guitar it was.

And even now, as I type this, the Dove is right there beside me, not three feet away.
I could reach out and strum a chord.

Maybe I will.
Maybe I will.

Epilogue: In February of 2018, I had Wayne Gretzky (along with a bunch notable ’84 Oilers) sign my guitar.

I hit the road and over the space of a week or two, the Sharpie’d signatures had started to smudge away.
It looked like hell.
So, I had no choice but to remove them.
I managed to save Wayne’s autograph by carving his signature into the guitar the same way I did with Jenny and Ruby carvings.
Someday, I’ll meet the other Oilers, and I’ll get them to sign it again and then immediately carve in their signatures too.

So there.