Quote of the day: "Ask yourself whether the dream of heaven and greatness should be waiting for us in our graves--or whether it should be ours here and now and on this earth." --Ayn Rand
I've been playing guitar on and off for 20+ years now. I have to confess that there have been long periods when it has been "off" but I always come back to it eventually. Lately I've been playing every day, hopefully I can keep it up.
When I first started playing I convinced my parents to buy me an inexpensive Les Paul copy and an amp. After a couple of years I decided I wanted a good guitar--a fine instrument that I would keep all my life (I was playing a lot then--1979). Luckily I had a well-paying summer job at the time, so I had the cash to indulge myself. My first thought was to get a hollowbody electric, like a Gibson ES-175. I went to the Manor Music Mansion (near Lancaster, PA) which had a great selection of guitars. I played a few deep hollowbodies but I wasn't sure what I wanted. Then the owner, a former musician, asked me if I wanted something really nice. I said I did and he produced a Gretsch Model 7681 Super Axe. This was a beautiful large-bodied guitar with an unusual on-board effects package: phase shifter + compressor. I thought it looked pretty cool and it sounded great! The 7681 is a hybrid solidbody and hollowbody. There is a main section under the bridge which is solid but on each side of the center section it actually is hollow although there are no F-holes. I guess semi-hollowbody is the correct designation, although some people claim it's a solidbody. Any way you look at it, the guitar has great sustain and a very sweet sound. It cost me $900 in 1979 and it was well worth it because it still sounds great (although my mother nearly fainted when I told her how much I spent). Here is a photo of my Super Axe:
For more Super Axe info, go here.
My next step is to build a DAW (digital audio workstation). I've always wanted to do home recording and now is a great time to get started. There are a lot of great products out there, I only wish I had the $$$. I've got my eye on a Yamaha SW1000XG audio card which has a nice synthesizer and can support 12-track hard drive recording.
[4-21-2002]
This page was getting too big so I had to reorganize it. I'm now
going to create new pages for each update...
Also a separate page for links...