Oh. My. GAS. (pt 2/2)
(This is part 2 of 2, continuing from previous post)
I've always been a
Les Paul player and the only reasons I got the strat-style guitars was so that friends could come over and jam, and have something to beat on without busting up my 'nice' guitars. I made sure that they were all easily playable with good action and working perfectly otherwise.
I learned (from books at first, and later from the internet) how to set the intonation, replace the nut/saddle, and do all the wiring for the electronics, and have always done my own setups.
I never 'dressed' the frets on any of the instruments as at first I did not know about it, and then later realized that they did not really need it.
When I was in college and for a few years after, I played in bands that had gigs like 2-3 nights every other weekend, but mostly playing either bass or keyboards (my [K]AS is a WHOLE other story- ha ha) so these
guitars did not see a lot of time outside the house.
As far as ukes go, see my forum signature below.
Don't get me started on DJ equipment, or this thread will never end (I was a co-founder and partner of a mobile DJ company for 20 yrs. until I cashed out due to back problems, and that was a time of incessant GEAR-buying).
All the guitars I've listed here have hard-shell cases, but since I became uke-crazy, they just do not get played as often as I would like.
Also I have seen that if you have only $400 to spend you can get an much nicer ukulele than you can with certain kinds of guitars. That gets even more true as you increase the budget it seems.
In the past 9 months I was able to AFFORD and buy SIX
NEW ukuleles. The economy of scale for the same amount of cash would have been impossible for ALL NEW guitars.
When I moved about 14 yrs ago, the Fender 12-string did not like it's new home, and it took me almost a year before I unpacked it finally. After doing so, I was completely heartbroken to realize that the bridge had completely lifted and the soundboard was bowed up right where the saddle sits, almost like an archtop by about 1" higher than normal. I did some research at the time, and it seemed that if I could even find a competent luthier in my area that I could trust, that the cost of the repairs would exceed the value of the guitar itself. This is not a repair I was not confident enough to handle myself
at that time. However,
now, were I to spend about $300 in tools from StewMac and/or LMI, I could probably fix it without ruining the guitar completely, after watching about two dozen videos on the procedure on various websites (primarily youtube).
I have become quite handy with tools over the years, and while I'd never claim to be a luthier or attempt to repair any one else's precious instrument, I am reasonably confident that I can at least make it better than it's currently state, even though it may never be 'perfect' again. (I've also self-installed a Mi-Si Trio in both my KALA KA-T and Yamaha GL-1 perfectly, and they both sound great! - as well as making custom bone saddles for all my ukes save for the concert Flea)
Also, to note, the Yamaha CG-120 classical guitar's sound has gotten simply incredible with age. The wood has opened up and the richness and depth of the tone will melt your brain. The sound belies the fact that this was an entry-level instrument when I bought it. I am leaning towards believing that those ToneRite or ToneBug devices may actual do something that works, albeit in an accelerated time frame.
So my friends and family usually respond with some flavor/combination of disbelief, anger and ridicule as to why I have SO MANY instruments, and it's been a constant river of jealousy and snide remarks.
I am only too happy to oblige them when it comes around to 'Can you ACTUALLY play any/all of them?', to which I respond with an impromptu performance/demo, and typically afterwards, they are either simply quiet in that I have proven the
naysayers wrong, or respond
meekly with comments along the lines of 'Good job' or 'nice playing'.
It does not really matter to me what they say, because I play music, and WRITE music for MYSELF, it makes me happy, it makes ME feel better, and that is ALL that matters, and all I truly care about in this regard.
I tell them that I am not into sports, gambling, fishing, stamp collecting, etc, at all, but I am very involved in, and learning how to improve both my general musical ability/creativity and to increase my songwritng proficiency, and the instruments and related gear are the TOOLS required to do so.
They are NOT "
TOYS". I may be preaching to the choir here, so I hope you all understand what I mean.
There is a thread elsewhere here on UU started by Hochapeafarm that gets into the dynamics of 'how feedback effects you' which may be worth reading if you are interested in what other members here on UU have to say on this topic. Link to that discussion is
here.
Any way. This post is longer than I had originally intended, but necessary to just barely touch the surface of my UGAS (see top of post). Some have accused me of 'hoarding' and to that comment I just let out a giant maniacal belly-laugh, and grin to myself, thinking 'that if they only KNEW.
-Booli