A Gift For My Favorite Guitarist

I love music. Music is my drug of choice, the place I go when I need an escape, the poignancy in a sometimes pointless life. There's music for every moment, be it in the pit of despair or in the highest of euphoria, and all places in between. Music compliments and gives definition, it takes the mundane and makes it beautiful. I love music.

I exclude rap from my praise, as I have a tough time calling it music. That's just me.

I find that my favorite instrument to emote the grandeur of music is the guitar. Though not possessing the octave range of a piano, the guitar is the most versatile instrument for musical expression that I can think of. Every style of music can be more than adequately represented through it's strings and no other instrument can sing the soul of the musician like a guitar. It's also one of the most accessible instruments, in that it's easy to learn and inexpensive. I've heard some amazing music come from self taught musicians on cheap equipment.

My son, losing at Scrabble.

There is quite an impressive pantheon of great guitar players in the world with an equally impressive amount of work to keep an enthusiast like myself engrossed. And I have my favorites; Julian Bream, Phil Keaggy, Stevie Ray Vaughn, John Petrucci, just to name a few. I'm sure other guitar enthusiast are familiar with those names. Still, my favorite player is one you haven't heard about, maybe never will, but someone I have the distinct pleasure to listen to on a regular basis; my son.

I bet you didn't see that one coming, did you?

He's become an exceptional player. I think he got interested in the guitar from watching me play, though he might not admit that. I'm not very good, so after a year of lessons and practicing until his fingers were sore, he surpassed my meager abilities. My wife and I thought to get him some quality equipment one year for Christmas, an acoustic Washburn in our price range, and with that guitar he continued to excel. It was joyful to behold.

"Ghettocaster and "Good Acoustic" on an animal comforter.

Maybe three years ago now, I won an electric guitar at a raffle during The Winter Garden Music Festival here in my home town. It was a low end Fender Stratocaster, black with a white faceplate and poor electronics, but he took to it like he was in love. He dubbed it “The Ghettocaster” and it's known as such by all his friends to this day. Soon he was tearing through Stevie Ray Vaughn's work like I wish I could. David Gilmour was another favorite of his to learn, and I used to marvel to hear him play the lead to Comfortably Numb, arguably considered the greatest guitar lead of all time.

This year, Christmas spending has been limited, because my income is extremely limited. Still, I was able to find a gift I believe my son will enjoy and appreciate. It's a Lace Sensor Red Red Dually pickup for The Ghettocaster. He loves to modify The Ghettocaster and has turned it into something of a quality piece of equipment. Even though he practices to play like John Petrucci and Michael Romeo, he really wants to sound like Johnny Greenwood, and the Red Red Dually gets him closer to it.

I got the idea to buy him equipment after we visited a used music store that just opened by the Irish pub in town. We walked in and played guitars, some very nice one's, too, looked at amplifiers and drum kits. The owner escorted us about and told us to play anything we wanted. As we stood by a drum kit my son asked me, “So, do you still suck?” He was referring to the fact that I haven't played drums in a while. He picked up a Fender Telecaster and I drum sticks, and we jammed. The owner was also a drummer and joined in. We made a beautiful noise! My son picked this little number that alternated time signatures between 4/4 and 3/4, throwing off the owner, and me most of the time. After that he wanted to do “this thing I think is in 7/4”, giving use a chance to show off our drum licks and him his riffing ability. It was a blast! After the jam and leaving the store, he told me, “I really liked your fills. They were good.” I took that as quite a compliment coming from a musician of his talent.

I was able to find the Red Red Dually at a half off discount and knew it was the right gift. It was right for him, and it was right for my wallet. So, The Ghettocaster will get some further modifications and I'll get to hear more wonderful music. I'm pretty fortunate; I was able to find a great gift for my favorite guitar player, and I reap the benefit. Yeah, I'm fortunate, indeed.