Once upon a time, there was a man with a guitar ...

Saturday, Jan. 17, 2015 -- As first posts go, this one will be chock full of ... "stuff" lets call it, so hang on for the ride, dear reader!

Due to the fact my other interests (work, hobby, etc.) are way outside the realm of the hobby this blog is devoted to -- music and guitars -- I have decided to create this new blog.

Me? I'm no stranger to blogging. My background is in journalism; I've kept journals on paper over my many years on this earth, and 15-plus years ago started my first blog.

My Fender Musicmaster bass was identical to this one.

GUITARS? WHAT ABOUT GUITARS?  My interest in guitars goes back to my earliest memories, say, 4 or 5 years old. My oldest brother graduated high school in 1964, and he and my sister played guitar. It was nothing unusual to hear them play and sing at our house. My brother and his friends had a little singing group that played some gigs locally ... folks music mostly. When I was 7 my sister taught me a few chords on her big dreadnought guitar. I had a hard time handling it and forming chords. She graduated high school and went off to college; her guitar went with her.

Fast forward to 1973. I was a high school freshman who had just discovered The Beach Boys. I immersed myself in their music and studied them feverishly. I learned to sing the falsetto harmonies on their surfing and car hit songs. I admired Brian Wilson and wanted to learn to play bass like he did. I discovered the group's "Pet Sounds" album the following year, and I was never the same. For the first time, I found music that expressed perfectly the inner doubt and introspection that I was experiencing. I decided to pursue guitar -- especially bass guitar, which was what Brian played. I saved my money from high school graduation and purchased a bright red Fender Musicmaster bass. I was given a Yamaha acoustic guitar about this time, and it was a sweetie that I learned basic guitar on. I played the Yamaha like crazy, and played the bass along with my favorite records and learned bass guitar riffs.

My pre-CBS 1961 Fender Jazzmaster was a very sweet guitar.
I hocked it and my Musicmaster bass in 1986 when my wife
and I were unable to pay that month's rent.

I went to work as an electronic technician for a company that manufactured organs for professional and home use. A lot of my fellow techs had music backgrounds. We often jammed after work. At work one day, one of the techs told me he had a vintage Fender Jazzmaster he had owned for years and might sell. I was game, and paid him $200 for a near mint condition 1961 pre-CBS Jazzmaster. What a sweet guitar it was!

My first "amp" was a homebrew concoction -- I took a preamp board and final amp board from one of our organs, added a power supply and two 12 inch speakers, and had an amplifier we called the "AbDan-o-Tron."  The name came from me and my fellow co-conspirator who helped design and build the amp --- my nickname was "Abdul" and his name was Dan. The "AbDan-o-tron" was born -- and boy howdy, did it play!

In the next couple of years, I bought a vintage 1966 Vox Birmingham Super Reverb amplifier, which replaced the AbDan-o-Tron as my main amp. My move to second shift took me away from my fellow musician buddies. I left a couple years later to move to my hometown and get married. I left most of my furniture but took my guitars and amps, of course.

A couple of years into our marriage, we were flat broke and needed to pay rent. We had already been to our parents begging for money and decided it was time to sell some things. My beautiful Jazzmaster and Musicmaster bass (with hard cases) went to a pawn shop. I got a loan for $250, a loan I couldn't repay in time to keep my guitars.

I have mourned their loss ever since. My wife promised me one day she would by me a Gibson Les Paul to make up for the loss of my guitars. That was almost 30 years ago.

In late 2014, my wife handed me a Musician's Friend catalog and told me to pick out a guitar. WTF?? I had released my wife from that promise decades ago. I told her I wouldn't do it, there's more important stuff to spend the money on.

At the time, I still had guitars -- I had a Fender acoustic I bought in 1993, and a Peavey Raptor EXP I bought in 2002. I still played, but did I needed a new Les Paul or other new guitar? No, I told her.

But my wife insisted; she gave me a budget and told me to spend it on a guitar. She wanted to make good on her promise from years ago.

I could have had  my choice of guitars, but I kept going back to one -- my Fender Jazzmaster. It was still available in the tri-color sunburst like the one I had, along with the tortoise shell pickguard. They had several models in other colors that were in stock; the sunburst was back-ordered. I bought it anyway, as well as a hard case for it.

KINDA SORT LES PAUL.  In the weeks I waited, I got the itch for a new guitar, and I was

watching lots of auctions on eBay. You could buy Stratocaster copies for well under $100 all day long (even Fender Squire Strats). I considered a Telecaster, but I was drawn to some of the others, like the Dean twin humbucker guitars, the Epiphone Les Paul models, the Epi ES335 hollowbody guitars and others.

After researching Chinese-made Les Paul knock-offs, I decided that's what I wanted -- though I didn't want a "fake" Gibson Les Paul. I opted for a branded guitar that was indeed a Les Paul clone (or about as close as the Chinese get these days).

Enter my Davison Les Paul clone. It was incredibly cheap, and I knew it was a $100 crap shoot -- I could wind up with a piece of crap guitar. But my research found that "Chibson" guitar makers have improved their quality control in the past four or five years. And that's been my experience with my Davison Les Paul.

The finish is perfect; nice set neck.. The bindings are perfect, and the neck is bound; frets are well-dressed too. But one side of the bridge was cranked WAY higher than the other side ... WTF?? The action overall was high, intonation sucked. I worked with the guitar to lower the action and then get it intonated. It made a huge difference in playability. I'm sure there's work left to do (I have some slight fret buzz on the Low E string .. probably a high fret), but the thing plays very well right now.

I've also fine tuned the adjustments on the Peavey Raptor, and it too has improved playability as a result.

I'm checking eBay for other guitars I might want, and there are several.

SURF GREEN FENDER ANYTHING. I am in love with the surf green guitar color (though I wanted the tri-color sunburts on my new Jazzmaster, my next favorite is surf green).  I'm thinking of replacing my Peavey Raptor (an HSS guitar with two single coil pickups and a humbucker at the bridge) with a surf green Stratocaster clone with the typical three single-coil pickups.

The color is available on Squire Vintage Modified Strats, and that's an option too (a $300 one, lol!). I'm also considering the Strat clones, and also a surf green Telecaster clone. Not sure about guying a Telecaster ... I enjoy the contoured body of the Strat and JM. Very comfortable to play.

Enough for this first entry, I'll close now and write more later.

Rock on, folks!