Grateful again..
I said it before, I - well, my rig actually - sucked so much when I was a teen that even I wouldn't have wanted me in my band.
That discussion about strings on the technique forum reminded me of those days when I couldn't even afford to change strings but exceptionally, most of the time just replacing them individually as they broke. Sometimes going for a week or two w/ only 5 strings before I could replace the missing one.
And when I could afford to change strings, I'd carefully store the old ones, just in case one of the new ones broke, sometimes replacing an E string w/ a B, because it's all I had. You'd always hope the string would break near the tuner, so that you could at least recycle it. lol
My first electric was a cheap Les Paul copy, a Mann, sunburst, pretty much like this, down to the misaligned inlays.
Man, I broke my fingers on that thing and developed lots of bad habits! But I'd play it for hours, every day.
Remember, that's at a time when, as I recently read, Ace Frehley was selling his old Les Pauls for peanuts, because they were supposedly becoming worthless, w/ the post EVH super strat craze. So not only the guitar sucked, but it looked like it sucked! lol
Oh, and I didn't have a case, so if I wanted to practice w/ friends, I'd unbolt the neck, put the guitar in a bag in 2 pieces and carry it like that. No way my dad would have given me a lift.
To make things better, after a year or two, I could finally afford an amp. It was a cheap Radio Shack/Realistic black box w/ two knobs (volume, treble) and a 5 inches speaker, IIRC. Played that for over a year before I finally got a pedal to put in front and finally get to conjure some of those metal tones I was after. Only, whereas all the guys had those cool orange Boss distortion, I ended up w/ a second hand yellow Overdrive. Lame... So much for metal.
I also had an old Schaller wah which I had bought from a friend. That thing ate batteries in a matter of a couple of hours.
I think the first decent piece of equipment I had was my first nylon strings guitar, which I got when I started taking lessons. Was stolen a few years later. Anyway, at that time, the Les Paul was stored in two pieces in the closet, and pretty much dead.
I can't tell you how happy this guy was when he finally got his first strat (a cheap Fender Squier) and used Marshall combo and then his first American strat and tube amp.
I can't help but think how things have changed and how kids now have access to decent cheaper instruments, cheap strings and things like Amplitube Free and Guitar Rig player. Man, if we had that back then...
Well, maybe we wouldn't be so thankful for what we have today. :P
post edited by Rain - 2012/11/17 17:11:15