I got out of work, and despite a huge apparent risk of teachers with approximately my seniority losing their jobs, I have not yet lost my job. I tried kijiji.com for the first time, eager to save the shipping costs that ebay and amazon tend to rack up. I haven't bought a guitar since the early 90s. Here is what I got (used, cheap):
It's a B.C. Rich Warlock (just Bronze, but still..) I know some might think it looks silly, but I've always wanted one. It sounds like my other electric (a B.C. Rich Platinum shaped like a Strat, with my bad paint job over top of the original horrendous paint job), but I like how this one looks better, and it's newer. I thought "the guy will live in a hovel, sell drugs and worship Satan." Turned out he was a family man with a golf shirt which said Ottawa Worship Team on it.
"Ever use it for worship?" I asked him as I plugged in the guitar to try it out.
"What?" he asked, confused. Perhaps he thought I meant to worship the devil? Probably not, but still, a funny thought.
"Ever use the guitar with the worship team."
"Um, no." he replied.
"Wrong shape entirely," I answered. "Maybe something shaped like a giant cross?"
He wasn't sure if I was making fun of him, or what to answer, but his little boxer dog Max kept jumping on me, which allowed us to talk about that. I paid him and left with the guitar in a gig bag which was made for a much larger guitar.
While trying out a Takamine Dreadnought acoustic, a chatty singer-songwriter girl mistook me for staff and seemed very friendly. She seemed eager to start a conversation. I took one listen to two sentences and said "You're a singer-songwriter working on a low, husky voice?" and she paused for a moment and then said "Yeah!" I didn't ask her out. (Because she was young and attractive, and was being friendly to me, so clearly there was something very wrong with her.) Instead, I picked the brains of the various staff in the various departments about anything music or instrument or gear-related that I ever wondered about. They weren't doing much, were music nerds, and so were more than eager to share their knowledge, experiences and views.
One guy told me all about what acoustic guitar to upgrade to, what kind of tones Takamines give, price range and what bands use them and the pickups and built in tuners and things. He confirmed that, if a dark, brassy, low-end tone is what I want, Takamines are good for that.
The original plan called for going to see Get Him to the Greek, as I'm a huge Russell Brand fan, and for many North Americans, this is their first experience of him, and people seem to love him. Oddly though, I felt like "I've spent this money on a guitar, and want to go home and play it, and I'm incredibly content and don't actually need more entertainment. Why don't I save the movie for a day or two when I need a laugh more." So I stopped at Future Shop to get gift certificates for two of the five kids in my Writer's Craft class who will be class-nominated for awards for their final writing portfolios. I got these, and a second copy of Coraline, which DVD was stolen from my classroom, along with Monty Python and the Quest for the Holy Grail (which I also need to replace) season two of The West Wing (because it was cheap), and an external hard drive for my music. I have two external hard drives, which I love (both for their huge storage capacity, but also because they are so portable and aren't inside one computer and "married" to it so to speak) and have been pondering putting my serious music and video editing on a third. When the Long and McQuade's guy suggested using an external drive to record with (he thinks using the drive in the computer to do the thinking, and a USB drive for the writing of data to), it cemented it in my plans. To make matters better, I ended up paying $109 instead of $140 for it, because it was mislabelled.
One guy told me all about what acoustic guitar to upgrade to, what kind of tones Takamines give, price range and what bands use them and the pickups and built in tuners and things. He confirmed that, if a dark, brassy, low-end tone is what I want, Takamines are good for that.
A different guy answered many questions and gave a lot of advice about computer setup for media recording and editing, the use of effects, mixing, mic types and placement and a host of other techie things. While paying for my strap (which, characteristically, has a bit of a skull on it) I asked the counter guy about why I hated my Dunlop Crybaby Wah pedal, but love Troy's Vox Wah.
The original plan called for going to see Get Him to the Greek, as I'm a huge Russell Brand fan, and for many North Americans, this is their first experience of him, and people seem to love him. Oddly though, I felt like "I've spent this money on a guitar, and want to go home and play it, and I'm incredibly content and don't actually need more entertainment. Why don't I save the movie for a day or two when I need a laugh more." So I stopped at Future Shop to get gift certificates for two of the five kids in my Writer's Craft class who will be class-nominated for awards for their final writing portfolios. I got these, and a second copy of Coraline, which DVD was stolen from my classroom, along with Monty Python and the Quest for the Holy Grail (which I also need to replace) season two of The West Wing (because it was cheap), and an external hard drive for my music. I have two external hard drives, which I love (both for their huge storage capacity, but also because they are so portable and aren't inside one computer and "married" to it so to speak) and have been pondering putting my serious music and video editing on a third. When the Long and McQuade's guy suggested using an external drive to record with (he thinks using the drive in the computer to do the thinking, and a USB drive for the writing of data to), it cemented it in my plans. To make matters better, I ended up paying $109 instead of $140 for it, because it was mislabelled.
I went home, listening the whole way to my newly topped-up-full-with-unexpected-and-cool-songs 30Gig iPod on shuffle (Wolfmother, Frank Zappa, The Rheostatics' soundtrack to Whale Music, The Cramps, Elliot Smith, Nick Cave, Nick Drake, Jeff Daniels and Colin Farrell singing on the soundtrack to Crazy Heart etc.) and looked on eBay at the wares of a guy who makes these out of pewter:
Pretty, pretty... Maybe just a couple.
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