Choosing Guitar Again

I started playing electric guitar when I was 12.
But, I haven’t played in about 20 years. 

I grew to have an adversarial relationship with the instrument. I wasn’t getting better, I kept writing the same song in different ways, and didn’t see a way out except to try another instrument.

So, I took cello lessons for a year and learned I have a terrible ear for absolute pitch.

Then 10 years later 3 things happened in sequence: 

1. I took piano lessons for 1 year from a player, Tracy, who really understands how to coax melancholy from the instrument.
2. I really enjoyed piano, but realized to get as good as I want to I would need to put in significant effort…
3. And I discovered that the human being Victor Villadangos exists, and that he wrote guitar arrangements of my favorite composer: Astor Piazzolla. 

That rekindled my interest in the guitar. 

If I was going to put significant time into an instrument to get better, I’d rather it be guitar if I could play a Villadangos arrangement of Piazzolla. Plus, the guitar has the inherent quality of being portable. 

I looked for a nylon string acoustic guitar would seem fun to me, and I found an artist signature model made for a guitarist who died too young in 2022: Ben Woods. It’s a thin-body instrument with a lovely built in pickup and tuner.
I couldn’t find this one with the sweet snake design, but I quite like the one I ended up with.

As I started practicing more, I wanted to also have an electric guitar to play. Although I’ve been around guitars for decades, I have avoided the trap of collecting guitars.

I recently sold my only electric guitar, a homemade Gibson SG clone, because I hadn’t played it in years, and looked for an electric guitar that’s inspiring to play.
(I definitely realize looking for an electric is a real convenient way to not actually practice.)

My first love was an old Silvertone, and its sound is what I’m looking for in my next guitar. However, I once played a show outside with that Silvertone and it went terribly out of tune. So, while I’m not specifically looking for another Silvertone, I want something with a similar sound and simplicity, but better made.

I think the most important aspect for me, tone-wise, is the neck lipstick pickup. 

Joe Gore shows a guitar he put together with lipstick pickups that has the sound I was looking for.

I went to the stores around me, and tried the guitars that jumped out at me.

PRS SE 24
This feels great, is simply laid out, has 24 frets…but is kinda boring to play. It’s kind of too perfect. Also I don’t like the look. It looks better than a strat to me, but not by much.

• Number of Frets 24
• Scale Length 25″
• Neck Wood Maple
• Neck Construction Multi-Ply
• Truss Rod PRS Double-Acting
• Neck Shape Wide Thin
• Neck Depth At The 1/2 Fret 13/16″
• Neck Width At The Nut 1 11/16″
• Neck Width At The Body 2 1/4″
• Fretboard Wood Rosewood
• Fretboard Radius 10″
• Fretboard Inlay Birds
• Headstock Logo Signature “SE”

Squier 40th Anniversary Jazzmaster Gold Edition
I never wanted a fender. I don’t have a strong reason why I’m not into fender, but this guitar is quite nice to play. I’d never played a jazzmaster, and this has a wonderful vibrato system.

• Neck wood: Maple
• Joint: Bolt-on
• Scale length: 25.5″
• Truss rod: Standard
• Neck finish: Gloss
• Number of frets: 21
• Nut width/material: 1.687 in. (42.8 mm) bone

Ibanez Standard RGA42FM
This feels pretty great to hold. It’s lightweight, and the neck is thin and feels almost flat. I have small hands, and this feels easy for me to use. 

• Neck Material Maple
• Neck Shape Wizard III
• Neck Joint Bolt-on
• Radius 15.7″
• Fingerboard Material Jatoba
• Fingerboard Inlay Offset White Dots
• Number of Frets 24, Jumbo
• Scale Length 25.5″
• Nut Width 1.692″
• Nut Material Plastic

I want something ‘weird.’
At this point, I realized I wanted something ‘weird.’
What is weird? I want a guitar that makes me play differently. When I pickup most guitars, I put my hands into similar shapes, and end up playing how I always play.
To break that trend, I’m looking for something that feels unusual to me. 

The tools we use shape what we create, and I want to create music I haven’t before.

…then I found it ❤️
I found my weird guitar.
It looks strange.
It feels strange.
It sounds great.
It has a single coil pickup in the neck position, which means I could put it in a lipstick pickup.
The tremolo bar is wonderful and easy to play lovely, slow undulating pitch changes.
It is a .strandberg.
It cost $1,400 🥲
This was way more expensive than I expected to spend…and this was a b-stock one on reverb.com. That means for a .strandberg, it was not expensive. 

I also did not love the color – it is grey. 😐
But! My kid helpfully named it Gandalf the Grey which changed my perspective on the color.
Now I like it.