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Post subject: ... a dream interrupted.
Posted: Thu Mar 12, 2015 3:56 pm
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Hobbyist
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Joined: Thu Mar 12, 2015 2:59 pm
Posts: 13
I was twenty years old when I failed at love for the first time. She was beautiful - blonde hair that glinted in sunlight and blue eyes the color of an ocean's horizon. We went to school near the beach and sometime would go for walks, shoeless in the sand, while other times we just made out wherever we could park the car - a private getaway from selfish dorm mates who insisted on existing in their own rooms rather than giving us privacy. When we were good, it felt like nothing could ever topple us. That summer nothing could have, but by the next sun was setting on our private beach and though nothing could stop it from there, ll I failed to realize it in time. When she told me she didn't love me anymore I was completely blindsided. I couldn't breath for 30 seconds or more and when I realized it I, held it longer, hoping I would die right there. That would show her how much she meant to me, then she would know, but a few moments later at her behest I pulled in my first taste of oxygen mingled with despair. My life was forever different.

In the weeks and months that followed I went back and forth between numb and despondent, all the while unloading wheelbarrows of emotion on anyone who had the misfortune to ask about my life. My family couldn't fix it, my friends were mostly hers, and my waistline dropped 2 inches as I regularly 'forgot' to eat. Earlier that year, an album came out called Continuum by John Mayer. I had heard a few of his songs but didn't consider myself a fan, I picked the album up on a whim and what I heard spoke to me deeply.

Say what you will about the man, but the music on that album came to me at a time in my life that could not have been more appropriate. 'Dreaming with a Broken Heart,' 'Heart of Life,' 'Stop this Train,' 'Gravity,' and 'Slow Dancing in a Burning Room' are all tracks that touched my soul in slightly different but incredibly relevant ways. What surprised me the most was that as perfect as the lyrics to these songs were for me, the sound of his guitar spoke in a more meaningful way. Was this what the blues were? Is this how other people felt when they heard this kind of music? I didn't know, but I knew it would make me feel better if I could make those sounds too.

Two years prior my sister played guitar in a worship band, nothing fancy, just strumming an acoustic to simple chord progressions over and over, but I admired her for it and wanted to learn play as well. She bought a new guitar and handed down her old one. I learned a couple of chords but life seemed too full of potential elsewhere and I quickly lost interest.

Now, with nothing but time to myself on my hands, I figured I had a pretty good opportunity to pursue this dream again. I cracked open the case, tuned the old, dead strings, and started trying to learn to play in earnest. I purchased lessons, practiced diligently every day, and made friends online who pushed me to do my best and get better at this new hobby. In four months I had gone from a complete novice to a fairly competent chord strummer. Though I learned to pick out individual notes for a few of my favorite songs, I never bothered to drill myself on scales or learn the foundations of soloing.

In April, for my birthday, my dad helped me buy my first electric. I knew what I wanted, a guitar as similar to the one used on Continuum as I could get, a standard single-coil Stratocaster. The salesman at Guitar Center tried to talk me into an HSS because that was all they had in store, but I refused and drove to the next town over where they had one held for me. I know it is nothing special, but to me it was the most amazing thing I'd ever laid eyes on, and I still get that feeling looking at it.

Once I got it home I had a hard time falling in love with playing it. Chords weren't the most amazing sounding thing coming through the tiny garbage practice amp that Guitar Center had bundled in for free, and no matter what I did, something just didn't feel right about it. It felt clumsy, or too thin, or just plain wrong. As the year wore on, I saw myself pick it up less and less and instead I stayed focused on the acoustic.

A year later, the blues had finally left me. I tried again to love my electric by buying a new amp from craigslist, a Fender Hot Rod Deluxe. My troubles continued when I got it home, however, as it was always too loud, too clean, too tinny, too boring for me. In no time it, too, was collecting dust with the Stratocaster in the corner of my room - together, little more than mementos from a sad but beautiful time in my life.

I couldn't shake the feeling that it wasn't just that I didn't know what I was doing with an electric guitar, but that something was functionally wrong with it. Eventually I did take it to a professional luthier who told me that the string holders in the nut were not cut properly, with the B and E strings being situated much to closely together. Maybe that was part of it. He then told me that in order to lower the action the way I wanted, he had to set the bridge flush with the body and fix it there - no more tremolo. Finally, he said that because the neck was ever so slightly warped, he was still unable to get the strings to the height he recommended. I was a little bummed out, but I took the guitar with me and made the best use of it I could - which again, was almost never.

I considered buying a new guitar but the sentimentality attached to this one is now too great. So I've just never bothered.

Seven years have passed. I recently listed to Continuum again for the first time in ages and I felt something stir in me. I know the desire to learn to play the blues is still there and I know there are many great blues guitarist to draw inspiration from. I hope that by reaching out with questions about my gear and my experiences the people on this forum can help me give a voice to this desire. I'll be leaving posts in the guitar and amp sections soon with questions about the gear and problems I've been having, what I'm doing wrong or what about the equipment may be wrong for me. If you're interested in coming along for a small part of my journey, I hope you'll stop by those posts and see if you can help.

If you made it this far, thanks for reading, and here's to making new friends online and passing on any support I can along the way.


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Post subject: Re: ... a dream interrupted.
Posted: Thu Mar 12, 2015 5:12 pm
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Aspiring Musician
Aspiring Musician
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Joined: Tue May 15, 2012 2:49 am
Posts: 560
Location: Perth, Australia
I wish you luck and hope you find what you are looking for in that guitar. With all the guitars I have ever had, I have always found there to be something I was not happy with as stock, so I would get stuck in and adjust, modify or upgrade until it felt and sounded as I wanted.

To be honest though, I would invest in a better guitar if that one can't be made to your liking.

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GUITAR: Fender USA JazzMaster.
BASS: Fender USA 58'AVRI
AMP: Fender USA SuperSonicTwin - Blonde.
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Post subject: Re: ... a dream interrupted.
Posted: Thu Mar 12, 2015 10:35 pm
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Professional Musician
Professional Musician

Joined: Sat Jul 21, 2007 1:08 pm
Posts: 1307
Welcome. Have you considered buying a new neck? Warmoth has nice, reasonably priced necks. Or get a Mayer strat. Have fun. :D


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