Saturday, May 03, 2008

Guitars...

So here's the deal. My brother and dad have played guitars for ever, but it is one of those things that I have never really figured out how to do and when I did try it in the past it just seemed out of reach for me. Well I have been thinking about getting a guitar and trying to learn for a couple of years now.  Denise grew up around her brother Gene playing and has a lot of fond memories about guitars so she was really supportive of me doing this.  

So finally last week (Monday) I decided to just go get one and give it a go and after work I drove down to the Palmdale Guitar Center to see what I could find. I had a "kit" in mind and almost ordered one online but with Kris's recommendation I thought I would give the store a try. I felt pretty overwhelmed when I walked in the door and I just about walked out but after a short while a pretty nice dude helped me out and hooked me up with a new guitar and the basics to get started. I ended up getting
  • Fender Standard Stratocaster
  • Marshall MG10CD Amp
  • Picks
  • DVD/Book Training Video
  • Cord
So I gave it a go and started working at it.  On Friday I drove over to Bakersfield for Rosie Newman's funeral service (more on that later) and decided to connect up with my dad while I was in town.  

Well on top of playing guitars for ever my dad also works on, customizes and builds guitars.  So after a couple of minutes he knew a few things my new Strat needed to make it work better so into the shop it went.  He filed down the frets so the sharp edges wouldn't cut the crap out of my hand, added another spring to the tremolo and adjusted the neck to lower the strings.  (When he first started it wouldn't stay in tune, and he fixed that too).  The photograph above is some of the work that took place.

We also spent a significant amount of time with some basic lesses that REALLY helped get me pointed in the right direction.  Since he is retired he basically plays all day long on his guitars so he is pretty smoking fast when playing.  I was actually surprised what I was able to do by the end of the evening.

The other thing I learned since getting this guitar is that Deanna really LOVES it and it doesn't matter where I put it she will find it and play with it.  So today I bought a wall hanging kit and now I have it hanging in the office so she can't get to it - so hopefully that will help with that!

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