There
was a young man who grew up in the South and at an early age was given a guitar.
Not knowing how to play he would lock himself in his room and practice hours on
end to old blues recordings until he thought he was ready to show the world his
talent. Those were the days when 4 guys from England had taken over the world
of music, but this young man stood strong. He would play the blues to anyone who
would listen. One day he met the late, great, Bluesman Authur "Big Boy"
Crudup. Who (to his amazement) lived right down the road from him. That meeting
would change his life forever! There was a Blues revival happening at the time,
so the young man put together a blues band with "Big Boy," who had not
played publicly for years. Once while on the road, they happened to walk into
a pawn shop and something caught the eye of the young man. It was shiny and looked
like no guitar he had ever seen before. He asked the man behind the counter to
allow him to play it. This was the second thing that changed his life forever.
He had to have it, so after much haggling he purchased the guitar for $150. This
was 1969 and the young man was 21 years old. His name was Bill Blue and this was
his first resonator guitar. This "O" model was in really bad shape.
The Neck was loose on the body, some frets were missing, and the tuning machines
did not work at all. So he went to work fixing this neglected relic of the past.
This old guitar would ignite in him a passion that burns to this very day .....Resonator
guitars.
The year 1974 was a sad year for
Bill, his mentor "Big Boy" passed on and his old National was stolen
in Richmond, Va. The Blues revival was in full swing and vintage Nationals were
demanding big bucks, so he decided to build one himself. He tried all metal
first, but did not like the tone, too high end. He started to experiment with
combinations of wood and metal. He used his creation at gigs and people started
asking him where they could get one. Bill was glad to accommodate and before
long he had a waiting list of musicians ordering his guitars. It became a full
time endeavor so in 1987 he started the Liberty Guitar Company. He has built
and sold hundreds of great guitars to people around the World. Bill says, "
The goal of Liberty is to offer a unique quality resonator guitar at a realistic
price, our guitars are a great value in today's market. We like to deal one
on one with our customers, thanks to the Internet we are able to do that and
keep the price down."
( See About
page for more company info)
