My Musical Journey - Part 2
I moved to Luxembourg in 2001 with my trusty first guitar in tow. I began thinking about upgrading my guitar, so I started doing some research on the Internet over my shiny ISDN line and soon discovered the Acoustic Guitar magazine's forum. I joined up -- my first guitar forum! -- and so began the research. That forum has gone now and I regret that I didn't save some of the conversations I had. That won't happen with blockchain-based social media!
I found a great little music shop in Luxembourg City called Guit-Art, run by a very knowledgeable and friendly guy, Jean-Claude. I tried many different guitars over a few Saturdays; the choice was soon narrowed down to a Taylor 314ce and a Lakewood M-14CP. They were very similar in body style and appointments, and price too. To be honest, I think I could have taken either and been just as happy. The main difference was that that German-built Lakewood had a cedar top, whereas the Taylor had a spruce top. At the time I didn't really know the difference, but the Lakewood it was to be and I brought it home in December 2002.
That was where my hobby became a burning obsession. The Internet was blowing up with guitar forums, so I was either playing guitar at home or talking about guitars online. This was before we had kids and, looking back now, it seems like I had all the time in the world to indulge this obsession, and that's just what I did.
A work colleague lent me Tony McManus's first album on CD. I'd never heard anything like it. I started working on that kind of material and progressed pretty quickly.
Another find in a similar vein was El McMeen, erstwhile law partner who gave it up to play guitar. More on these two wonderful musicians to follow.
I would visit Jean-Claude's shop often, just to see what he'd got in in the way of new acoustic steel strings. In April 2003 he had a Gibson SJ-200 Reissue hanging on the wall. I'd never seen anything quite like it - a big, blonde, gaudy looking thing, with a moustache bridge and flowery graphics on the pickguard. I didn't like how it looked at all, but I thought I'd try it anyway. And oh Lord, it was like a choir or angels singing. Okay, granted, I was only a few months into my obsession and hadn't tried all that many guitars, but this one really spoke to me. I kept going back every Saturday, just to see if it was as good as I'd initially thought, and it WAS! But boy, it was super expensive, more than double what the Lakewood cost. Guitar Acquisition Syndrome is a cruel mistress though, and I had no experience of dealing with her. Bear in mind that I'd had my first guitar for some 20+ years and upgraded just 5 months ago, I'd be crazy to consider another guitar, right? Yep, and crazy I was, because I bought that guitar and brought it home …
… and then noticed a crack in the bridge, right across the bridge pins. Oh no! I took it straight back to Jean-Claude and asked for a refund. He said not to panic and that he'd get it sorted as good as new and figure something out for my trouble. He took it to a luthier and had it repaired in a few days and brought it round to my flat to let me see it, but I didn't want to take the risk and had him take it back and refund me.
Knowing what I know now, I would almost certainly have kept the guitar and enjoyed the discount he was offering. It still feels like the one that got away, and that emotion played a large part in my choice of build for my Kim Walker guitar, but that's getting waaay ahead of the story. The Gibson had gone, and I was left feeling disappointed and deflated.
We had tickets to see Paul McCartney on 22 April 2003 at Earl's Court in London. We had some time to kill and popped into House of Guitars near Liverpool Street. They had a Gibson J-150, basically a cheaper version of the SJ-200 and I bought it there and then. I thought it would fill the Gibson-sized hole and it did for a while. It was a nice guitar, just not a special one. I kept it for a while, but soon realised that it wasn't what I needed and so I put it up on eBay and it sold pretty quickly. Or so I thought. It turned out to have some flaws on the neck - come on, Gibson quality control. So, rather than sell it, it went back to House of Guitars and I got a credit note towards another guitar.
Stay tuned!
I know almost nothing about technicalities of guitars and playing - I'm not particularly musical though I would love to be. Interesting read this following on from the first part. Musicians always fascinate me somehow - being able to flow and be transported elswhere with what and how one's playing, wonderful! I await this developing story :) - would rather like to see a pic of your family of guitars at the end - maybe?
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Cheers for the comment @barge. There's so much content here for mining and it's quite a discovery going through all this with all the time that has passed since then. I had no idea that I got so deep so quickly, but I guess that's the nature of obsession.
I'd like to get into the people and fulfilment I've got from my playing, but up till where I am in the timeline, there hasn't been much of that yet. That's all about to change though...
Family of guitars - ha, I like that!