Today (=yesterday) was my day to admire, think about and attend to many beautiful stringed instruments, some that I own and many that I don’t.  I usually take my instruments for granted so it’s about time I put some thought into it.  I have lots of instruments all over the house, all in various stages of disrepair. Most are at least in playable condition but two are not — a nice fiddle that a friend gave me, and my grandmother’s Hawaiian ukelele.  The fiddle seems to be in reasonably good shape, it only needs a new bridge.  The uke is a more beautiful instrument but is in much worse shape… it needs its bridge reattached, and new tuning pegs… also there’s a crack in the body on the front, and the back of the body is starting to separate from the binding, which is not good at all.  I’m not sure if that can be fixed without spending more money than the thing is worth, but we’ll see.  It does have great sentimental value so I’ll do whatever I can to save it.


The fiddle has a case with a broken handle, the uke has no protection at all.  So I bundled up the uke in an old t-shirt and stuck it in a bag, and took a walk with both instruments over to the Different Strummer, a music store inside the Old Town School of Folk Music, to see if I could get them repaired.  They don’t do the repairs there, but they have good people who come in regularly to pick up broken instruments and do the work in their own workshops.  So I left them there, hoping they can get either one or both of these instruments in playable condition.  It’ll take a week or two before I find out; they’re going to give me a call before they do anything to the ukelele.

Anyway, while I was there I decided to look at and maybe try out a couple of their hollowbody guitars to see how they feel.  There’s a nice young man named John who works there, who had introduced himself as a fan of mine the last time I was in there. Sure enough he was working again today so I glommed onto him and talked to him and told him the story of how I’m about to get my Dream Guitar.  He was super nice and offered to let me try out a couple of the ones they had, just to see how they felt.  They didn’t have the 335 I wanted, but they did have a couple of others in very similar shapes to the Gibsons and Gretsch’s I’m looking for, and I really did need to try a few on for size, so I did.  I have a huge complex about asking to play any guitar in a guitar store, so there’s no way I would’ve had the nerve to do it if it weren’t for this friendly face telling me it’s FINE, don’t worry about it, you can try it even if we know you’re not going to buy one!!  :-)

It was a good thing I did, too.  The bigass Gretsch knockoff was WAY too big for me.  It was even bigger than my acoustic at home!!  It was lovely but the shape wasn’t right for me at all.  But the one that was closest to the Gibson 335’s was pretty right on.  It played nice and felt just fine.  So right then I knew I was going in the right direction wanting a 335.  I was so glad that guy took the 15 minutes to counsel me and show me the different guitars.  He sure looks familiar to me… I wonder if he plays in some band I’ve seen?  He said he’d seen one of my shows, the time I played at Vincent’s Ear in Asheville, NC, but I’m not sure if that’s what I’m remembering.  That’s the problem, when I see a friendly face, they all look very familiar to me.  Maybe he was a bandmate in a former life or maybe he’s a future bandmate and it’s some precognition thing.  :-) I think I’ll ask him if he’s a musician when I go back in to pick up my fixed instruments.  Of course he’s a musician, he works in a freakin’ guitar store!!  But anyway, if he’s any good I will certainly try to steal him for my own band even if I only play one show per year.  :-|

So anyway… John (John Whitney I mean!) has been wanting to take me to another music store forever, so he took off work an hour early today to take me there.  The store’s called Makin’ Music, and it’s kinda weird because you can’t just walk in off the street, you have to call ahead and get buzzed in when you arrive.  But you can see why when you get inside… I’ve seen stores with MORE guitars, but this is all very high-end stuff.  I mean, bling-bling!!  I didn’t notice any vintage instruments, this seemed to be all shiny new high-dollar gear for professional musicians.  We got there only a half-hour before closing, but I was only tryin’, I wasn’t buyin’, so that was okay.  Of course they had a bunch of 335’s… not the blue one, but he did look it up for me and quoted me a good price.  Better than any I’d seen online, so I guess that’s the place you go to get a square deal on a brand-new instrument.  Of course I wanted to try out a real honest-to-god Gibson ES335, and they were happy to let me.  It was cool because they put me in a little private room with the guitar and some different amps.  Shut the door and it was vacu-sealed so nobody could hear me out in the store.  Whoo-hoo!!!  That’s the style, no embarrassment due to public exposure of my lack of chops.  I know, isn’t that hilarious?  I can get in front of a thousand people when I’m onstage and have no problem with that, but in a guitar store I’m way too shy!!  Anyway, the salesman who helped me seems to be a metalhead or something… he knew I was a musician but didn’t ask about that and didn’t seem to care, which is totally fine by me since I’d already decided what I wanted and didn’t need any counseling or the ego-bolstering that was necessary earlier in the day when I really was embarrassed and somewhat unsure of what I needed.

Anyway… the 335 is perfect.  The tone is so warm and lovely.  It’s the perfect size, it fits me like a glove.  It has two humbucking pickups, and knobs to control each one so you can get a lot of different tones if you want.  I don’t play with a pick, I just strum with my fingers, so if a guitar has a tendency to sound tinny (like my Washburn acoustic sounds, unfortunately) then the guitar will not work for me.  This sounded awesome.  I turned it down to warm’n'fuzzy and it was just like honey.  That’s the guitar I want.  :-) I have to wait until I actually get the money though before I can order it — they need a 20% deposit which I don’t have at the moment.  And it’ll probably take a month or so before it arrives.  But that’s okay, I can wait awhile considering how long I’ve waited up ’til now!!  I should probably call around to the other music stores before I order it, just to make sure somebody else doesn’t have one right now.  But I think the best bet is to order it fresh, that way I don’t end up with something the whole world has been playing on.  I don’t want this to be touched by any human hands except mine and the luthiers’.

Now that I think of it, I do think Different Strummer carries Gibson stuff, just not the high-end 335’s etc.  I wonder if THEY can order it for me?  Well, I’ll ask out of curiosity but at least I know where to go when they say no.  ;-)

On the way home I had a bout with anxiety — maybe it was just the heavy traffic bugging me, but I had that rush of anxiety you get when you know you’re about to spend a whole shitload of money on something you’re not entirely sure you’re worthy of.  We got home and I talked to John about it and he talked me down.  He sez… Edith, you’re a musician.  You’re going to be a musician until the day you die.  You need a great guitar, and this is a guitar that will really do you justice and last you a lifetime.  Do not feel bad, do not feel like you’re wasting your money because you’re not.  Or words to that effect. And, "you just need some food!!" So we went out to eat at the Thai place… I’ve started taking a shine to eating in the restaurant instead of getting it to go.  Now I’m totally over my anxiety.  It’s worth it, I’m worth it and I really do need it, and really will love it.  It will inspire me to keep playing and keep on doing what I’m doing, so why feel bad?  If I were doing anything else I would want the very best equipment no matter what vocation I was in.  And if I want to be a professional singer/guitarist, which I guess I kind of already am, then I obviously need a guitar that will help me and not get in the way of what I’m trying to do.  Right?  Right.  So I’m not worried anymore, just very excited and very grateful to my grandparents for giving me the chance to finally bite the bullet and do this.  Sure, it’s four months rent for me, but that’s nothing compared to a whole lifetime of great music-making.  Plus, it just looks so fucking cool… don’t think for a minute that I’m not well aware I’m being sucked in by the coolness factor!  :-D

John has a Gibson too, that’s his guitar of choice.  He also spent a whole buttload of money on his axe, and never regretted it, so he’s a good one to talk to.  I asked him, what’s the difference between a thousand-dollar guitar and a two-thousand dollar guitar?  He tried to explain to me, and I think I understand.  Part of it’s the name and the coolness factor.  But mostly it’s all in the craftsmanship, the materials, the attention to detail, the care they take in setting it up and making sure it’s perfect.  You don’t get that when you buy an Epiphone for example, which is their cheaper more affordable line of instruments.  The difference is, one is an assembly-line thing, and the other is really not.  One has great resale value, could be a great heirloom, and the other can’t really compare.  So… I feel great about this.  Can’t wait, but I have to so I will!!