GuitArt - The Guitar Calendar - "Ivory and Ebony"

Ivory and Ebony:
These two are a set of Hohner acoustic guitars. The name simply reflects the fact that one is blonde all around front sides and back, and the other is black all around.
They are German-made and quite well-made in terms of quality. Both are one-piece figured hard maple. Excellent craftsmanship. But I rarely ever play them. They hurt my hands. I used to play Ivory as my main six string acoustic until I bought the Ovation last Christmas time. Sometimes I can barely get through playing rhythm for a single 3 minute song before the cramps in my fretting hand are so bad it feels like a spike being driven through the back of my hand.
Ebony is a 12-string guitar. 12-string guitars are tough to play as is, but these with thick necks are even tougher than usual. I detuned Ebony to let the tension off the strings and keep the neck from warping, and I have not played this one in literally years. I do occasionally still pick up Ivory. I may just keep it tuned to a specific tuning and use it just for that since I do write acoustic tunes in different tunings and it takes time to re-tune a single guitar. They are just tough guitars. Strong, well-built like most German things, but hard to play, I find. I bought these from my father-in-law back in 1987.