Published today on the Italian on line guitar mag Accordo

[www.accordo.it]


Vintage Visions from the world - The Venetian 345: "a love story" with Mike Sponza

Mid-90s, Grand Canal, Venetian interior. A Lifton "brown case" emerges from under a bed, containing a special guitar but left unused for many years – "La xe pesante, meio la 330". This is how Guido Toffoletti’s Gibson ES-345 of August 1960 was discovered – Guido was one of the fathers of Italian blues – and which we tell you about today here at Vintage Vault.

VV: Good morning Mike and welcome to Vintage Vault! Today we are going to present a guitar with which you have established a very special bond, it is appropriate to say that it was "love at first sight", right?

Mike Sponza: Absolutely yes!! The memory is so vivid that it seems to me it’s happening right now: just the time to open the infamous "brown case" and I’m already in love with it; the "watermelon red" colour makes it unique combined with all the gilding accentuated by the presence of Bigsby. In short, a guitar with heavy Freddie King vibes going on (in fact it is the same model, from the same year with just a few different serial numbers apart......) – original PAFs, Varitone, Stereo, an important blues machine.
Guido Toffoletti shows it to me, tries it on and after 5 minutes puts it back under the bed with telling me this "When I retire from the scene it will be yours".

VV: Unfortunately, he forcibly retired from the scene in 1999 following an obscure car accident with murky contours that have never been truly clarified. Guido's guitars disappeared into post-hereditary oblivion along with his collections of records, comics, stage jackets, vintage cars, juke boxe...

MS: That's right, in fact after what happened I was sort of accepting the fact that I would have not seen it again. But at some point in 2001, I received an unexpected phone call from the lawyer who was the curator of Guido’s estate: he asked me to confirm a list of guitars they found in Toffoletti’s house.
In what seemed to be an age long wait, a fax with the list of instruments was sent to me: the 345 was there. At this point I had to ask if it could be bought.
So the price and the appointment were set, I returned to Venice in that huge apartment now under renovation, (... the letters of Keith Richards and Alexis Korner thrown on the ground among the rubble...), I find the Lifton, deliver the money and take the Gibson home.

VV: But what is the history of this instrument?

MS: Over the years I discovered that the 345 arrived in Italy in 1960 purchased by EKO to be studied and used for R&D purposes together with an Ampeg amplifier. It never left the Recanati factory except for being purchased in 1968 by Guido Toffoletti through an important Venetian store. It will then appear on the covers of two very important records for the history of Italian Blues (“Little by little”, “Midnight guitar talks”…), and will be used throughout the 70s together with the various Firebird, Jaguar, Rickenbacker that Guido often played.
At that time, the apartment on the Grand Canal became a meeting point for major English artists and Guido himself traveled a lot chasing his dream, from London to Paris, to the Stones' concerts in Italy in Milan, and the inseparable 345 thus passed into the hands of musicians like Keith Richards, Ronnie Wood (Guido’s close friend), Alexis Korner, Kim Simmonds, Mick Taylor.
The instrument remained Guido's "number one" until it was replaced, years later, by the "lighter" ES-330 of '66, relegating the iconic 345 literally "under the bed" under the bed!

VV: Guido became a close friend of Keith Richards, so much so that even today Keith remembers him every time he arrives in Italy in concert.

MS: Yes! The phrase in Italian "Alla faccia di chi ci vuole male" that Keith announces to the crowd during concerts was a typical greeting that Guido addressed to those who, out of jealousy or simple desire to annoy him, wanted to diminish his dedication and skill, but without having any effect, since the genuine passion for blues music was never scratched. Keith was so impressed by the phrase that he had it translated, explained, and it became "The greeting" between Keith and Guido, a really good memory and the fact that after so many years Keith proposes it again at his concerts says a lot about the special relationship he established with Guido.

VV: Now let's go back to the "red", what happened next?

MS: Since I was able to buy it, it has immediately become my main instrument, used in all my albums from 2001 to today. I took it with me to the legendary Abbey Road Studios, but then also on tour throughout Europe with Lucky Peterson, Georgie Fame, Bob Margolin, Dana Gillespie, Herbie Goins, Ronnie Jones.
After 23 years of wonderful musical coexistence, I too discovered that I prefer the ES-330, and not just any ... Just that of Guido Toffoletti!! She too deserves a separate story, let's just say that I found her after many years at a famous Italian collector.

VV: They say that every instrument "contains music", and it is a poetic way to say a great truth, however, every instrument can inspire us to create something special.

MS: It's definitely a philosophical approach that I fully embrace! And in fact I believe that guitars like this should not remain unused, I just can't imagine the 345 confined under a bed again! There is no doubt that the inspiration that these instruments give us goes through "cycles" that, by necessity, run out, but for me this is not necessarily a negative thing, on the contrary, I see it as a natural "passing of the baton". Better that the guitar continues to live and changes hands, thus begins a new round of the carousel.
"Alla faccia di chi ci vuole male!".


C