I first learned guitar when I was around 13, but my history with music goes back to when I was 4. I grew up playing the piano because of my parents. The piano sucked but it got me exposed to music theory and how to make noises with an instrument that sounded melodic. In my teens, frustrated with the piano being joyless and influenced by the music I was listening to (lots of rock and metal) I decided to bravely explore the guitar via a 7th grade “Intro to Guitar” class taught at the high school. They gave us beater classical guitars and told us to learn Christmas songs.
The classical guitars were great for forming callouses but not for anything else. But armed with basic knowledge of guitar chords and techniques (like the flowery named “arpeggio”) I found an excuse to spend my parents’ money on my very first electric guitar, an Epiphone SG. (It wasn’t technically my first guitar ever; that was an Ovation acoustic which buzzed on the fourth string. Hardly worth mentioning.)
I remember seeing it for the first time on the wall in the shop, still smelling strongly of lacquer (technically polyurethane but we won’t get into that now) and looking regal in its cherry red. I especially loved the devil horns. I was like, “They make guitars that look like this?” It cost around $300 and the same store sold me a crappy, buzzy solid state amplifier. But to me back then, it turned my awkward strumming on this vivid red, horned and devilish-looking guitar into the sounds of rock warlords.
I eventually grew apart from guitar playing after making and losing friends who were also musically inclined, after learning songs via ASCII tabs scoured from dial-up internet, and after buying my second electric guitar, a Hamer semi-hollow modeled after a Gibson ES-335. I got a few pedals. But eventually I grew distant from the guitar because, ironically, my school’s jazz band needed a bassist. So I picked up the electric bass guitar, and that was my focus instrument for a couple of years.
I brought my two electric guitars with me to college and I played them a few times. I remember amazing someone with my rendition of Metallica’s “Master of Puppets” by showing him how to play the intro without destroying your hands. I picked up a massively heavy Fender solid state amp for $250 since I didn’t bring my original buzz machine with me to campus. But it wasn’t until over 20 years later when I rediscovered guitars and guitar playing.
The rediscovery took a while. It started with a used Made In Japan Fender Stratocaster electric guitar in mint condition. I bought it off of an ad in an internet forum’s classifieds page. I needed an amp, and picked up my very first tube amp from the nice folks at Sweetwater, a Fender Super Champ X2. I played those together for a bit but my apartment was a shoebox, so I literally had no real room to play. Still, I got a good deal on the guitar, and the amp came in a limited edition blond tolex which looked great.
The inflection point didn’t hit until 2017, when I first started seeing all of these guitar-related videos on YouTube. It was a phenomenon I knew absolutely nothing about, and yet as I went further down that rabbit hole I got exposed to more guitar playing and more guitar gear. The Anderton’s YouTube channel with Rob Chapman and Lee “The Captain” Anderton was my favorite, and as much flak as those two get from the Internet, I found (and continue to find) them hilarious and entertaining to watch. And the gear! And those sounds! If only these channels and resources were available back when I was younger. ASCII guitar tabs can only do so much.
I started to frequent the online guitar- and gear-related forums, and discovered Reverb.com for the first time in my life. I started visiting the local guitar and music stores regularly, seeing and trying out what they had. I continued to learn how to play the damn blues scales, something that eluded me back when I was younger (chords, power chords? No sweat. Blues and soloing? A total enigma.) And now I’m at the point where I can comfortably play something musical at the local Guitar Center with a guitar that’s in tune, plugged into a decent amp, and not sound completely embarrassing. Baby steps!
But the GEAR. Oh my god the gear. None of this was around when I was learning the guitar, but so much is out there written about the histories of these instruments and nitpicking the reissues the big companies churn out that attempt to imitate or replicate those models from their glory days in the 50’s and 60’s. And I always knew about Fender and Gibson, and to a lesser extent Ibanez and Jackson, but PRS? I never saw those in person until I came face to face with a Custom 22 in charcoal burst which basically played itself.
And the amps! I knew Fender and Marshall, but Friedman? Dr. Z? Tone King? Tubes vs. solid state?
And the pedals! What, there are other pedals besides the Metal Zone? Thank goodness That Pedal Show exists to help me figure those out.
I eventually learned how to service my own electric guitars, doing basic setups and even fretwork. Stewmac‘s stuff is expensive but will probably last forever and will only have to be bought once. I learned how to solder pickups and wiring harnesses without burning myself or the guitar. I learned how to repair dings and dents using nitro lacquer drop-fill, sanding, and polishing. I learned how to listen for bad tubes and replace them. (I’m not brave enough to mess with amp circuitry and innards, but that will probably come later. Those Stewmac amp kits look interesting.)
Now I have, uh, a few guitars and amps, and plenty of pedals, to tool around with in my off-hours. I find guitar a way to energize my mind, even after exhausting days at work. It’s almost like exercise, I have more energy after I’ve finished playing than I had before I started. I like listening to the sonic differences between amp types and overdrive pedals and coming up with interesting noises using chords I pick up from a jazz book. I should probably get back into learning songs (I’m sure we’ve matured past ASCII tabs) but just noodling around for an hour or two is enough for me right now. We’ll see.
You’ll probably be seeing a lot more photos of the guitars than videos and soundclips of my actual playing. But who knows! I’ll be sure to share more when I’m competent enough. And maybe I’ll even find some folks to jam with.
This guitar and gear journey taught me a few important lessons that might help someone just beginning their adventure:
- If you want to get into electric guitar, buy a damn electric guitar and a good amp. Don’t be suckered by your parents or other well-meaning grown ups into buying an acoustic. The costs of getting frustrated and giving up greatly outweigh the benefits. And starter amps these days are great, and you can find so much more accessible used gear on Reverb than what was available locally back when I was learning.
- Take care of your instruments. I gradually learned how to do my own setups and maintenance. Don’t get me wrong, use a skilled tech at first. But there are loads of tutorials and videos out there that you can learn from. I recommend doing some of that learning on one of your first, cheaper guitars. Which brings me to my next point:
- Don’t spend a whole lot on your first guitar. These days, you don’t have to. Anything over $1,000 is overkill. You’re going to be learning on it, tripping over it, and probably losing it or getting it stolen. Used gear is a terrific way to get great instruments for 2/3rds of retail. But there’s one area where you might want to spend a bit more.
- Spend a decent chunk on your amp. We’re not quite at the point where dirt cheap amps sound terrific compared to their more expensive counterparts. We’re getting close with the recent Boss Katana amps, but you’re still looking at a couple hundred dollars. And unlike with guitars, buying a used amp is a gamble. You might get one that plays well for the first 10 hours and then it goes up in smoke due to being mistreated by its previous owner, and you don’t have a warranty to fall back on. Amps are a lot harder to work on than guitars are, and amp techs can be hard to find and expensive. You’re also probably going to go through more guitars over time than you will amps. It’s easy to grab a guitar off the wall and fall in love with it. It’s kind of harder to do that with an amp given that they are heavy, have the same general shape (a box), and come in the same color varieties. (The major exception being Orange, which are, well, orange.) But as one person on the Internet put it, you’re really not playing the guitar. You’re playing the amp. So make the investment.
- Play what you like. You need to do this so you don’t get the enjoyment of playing sucked out of you. Whether it’s noodling around or doing math rock, find something that engages you and fulfills your musical desires. Maybe you just want to find the most mind-blowing noises out of a set of pedals. Go for it! I think there’s a group in Japan that pretty much does only that…
I could spend lots of time writing about all the makes and models of electric guitar gear and all the music they’ve generated over the decades, but I’ll leave those for future posts. The one thing that I’ll write about next is the ongoing attempts at resuscitating one of the most legendary guitar companies in the world, the one who brought us the often imitated Les Pauls, SGs, Explorers, Flying Vs, Firebirds, and all the other models that didn’t come From Those Other Guys, Gibson.
