{"id":208,"date":"2016-09-28T11:43:40","date_gmt":"2016-09-28T15:43:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mfna.org\/rfo\/?p=208"},"modified":"2016-09-28T11:46:44","modified_gmt":"2016-09-28T15:46:44","slug":"this-is-fun","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mfna.org\/rfo\/2016\/09\/28\/this-is-fun\/","title":{"rendered":"This Is Fun!"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Maybe it&#8217;s because I&#8217;m getting older, although I suspect anyone of any age who engages in guitar playing would agree.\u00a0 After all, why pursue playing any instrument if it weren&#8217;t fun (notwithstanding the parental requirement of having to play)?<\/p>\n<p>For me, I sometimes feel like kicking myself for not expanding my horizons sooner.\u00a0 By that, I mean when I was deep into playing, I stayed pretty much in the acoustic guitar arena.\u00a0 Oh sure, I had my (very sweet) 1957 Gibson ES-225, which has a pickup, but I never really plugged it in to a serious amplifier.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_209\" style=\"width: 594px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/mfna.org\/rfo\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/2016-09-18-18.19.22.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-209\" class=\"wp-image-209 size-large\" src=\"http:\/\/mfna.org\/rfo\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/2016-09-18-18.19.22-1024x768.jpg\" alt=\"Gibson ES225\" width=\"584\" height=\"438\" srcset=\"https:\/\/mfna.org\/rfo\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/2016-09-18-18.19.22-1024x768.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/mfna.org\/rfo\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/2016-09-18-18.19.22-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/mfna.org\/rfo\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/2016-09-18-18.19.22-768x576.jpg 768w, https:\/\/mfna.org\/rfo\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/2016-09-18-18.19.22-400x300.jpg 400w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 584px) 100vw, 584px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-209\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">1957 Gibson ES-225<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Yes, I had my little Pignose amp, but that lulled me into thinking what I had was an electric guitar, when in truth what I had was an amplified acoustic-electric.<\/p>\n<p>Then along came idle bachelorhood (again) and inspired by the young people playing guitar during church services, I pulled my instruments out of their cases, took them to a luthier for proper setup, replaced the strings, and started to play.\u00a0 I added another acoustic because I thought I might have to wait weeks for the setup to be completed.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">But then I came across an electric guitar&#8211;one might even say the electric guitar of my dreams&#8211;and my life changed for the better.\u00a0 I bought the Eric Clapton artisan model Fender Stratocaster and a Fender Champion 40 amplifier, and I was transported into a new dimension.<\/p>\n<div style=\"width: 348px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large\" src=\"https:\/\/photos.smugmug.com\/Guitar-Love\/i-xkhKgrg\/0\/M\/IMG_0660-M.jpg\" alt=\"Fender Strat EC\" width=\"338\" height=\"450\" \/><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Fender Eric Clapton signature model Stratocaster<\/p><\/div>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">But that was just the beginning.\u00a0 The Stratocaster was such a fine instruments, and I found playing an electric guitar so much more different than playing an acoustic, I added another electric to my collection.\u00a0 This one was the guitar world&#8217;s counterpoint to the Fender beast, a Gibson Les Paul.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">Oh my, how the guitar world has changed since my days as a teenager.\u00a0 Back then, your choice in models was limited to a handful.\u00a0 Now, the choices are country of origin, type and number of pickups, and even the type and quality of the wood used to build the guitar.\u00a0 Gibson offers the Les Paul in Standard, Custom, Studio, Classic, and more.\u00a0 Gibson even owns the Epiphone company, which makes their own line of Les Pauls.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">I found what I hope\/believe is a collector&#8217;s item:\u00a0 A 2015 Gibson Les Paul Classic &#8220;Rock II.&#8221;\u00a0 It&#8217;s a limited-edition LP with a body that looks like marble instead of wood, hence the &#8220;Rock&#8221; monicker.<\/p>\n<div style=\"width: 610px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large\" src=\"https:\/\/photos.smugmug.com\/Guitar-Love\/i-fZJfvrV\/0\/M\/2016-09-14%2006.50.40-M.jpg\" alt=\"Gibson Les Paul \" width=\"600\" height=\"450\" \/><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">2015 Gibson Les Paul Classic &#8220;Rock II&#8221;<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Now I was off and running. The other guitar of my youthful dreams was the Fender Telecaster, and lo and behold, I came across a 60th Anniversary mode that just spoke to me.<\/p>\n<div style=\"width: 610px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large\" src=\"https:\/\/photos.smugmug.com\/Guitar-Love\/i-sKnRgG2\/0\/M\/FenderLove-M.jpg\" alt=\"Fender Telecaster\" width=\"600\" height=\"402\" \/><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Fender 60th Anniversary Telecaster<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Next up was another Stratocaster. Honestly, I wasn&#8217;t looking, but I came across this 40th Anniversary aluminum-bodies Strat, one of only 400 made, and added it to my growing collection.<\/p>\n<div style=\"width: 405px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large\" src=\"https:\/\/photos.smugmug.com\/Guitar-Love\/i-B6QspQS\/0\/M\/Fender40th-3-M.jpg\" alt=\"1994 Fender aluminum Strat\" width=\"395\" height=\"450\" \/><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Fender 40th Anniversary (194) Stratocaster w\/ Aluminum Body<\/p><\/div>\n<p>(I should also add that I bought a Pignose PGG-200 Deluxe travel\/practice guitar to allow me to meet my commitment to myself to practice a minimum of 5 minutes a day).<\/p>\n<p>I think I&#8217;ve cooled off on the collecting.\u00a0 I now have an acoustic 12-string, an acoustic (with built-in pickup) 6-string, an acoustic-electric, and four electric guitars plus one electric practice guitar.\u00a0 Knowing that collecting is a personal thing, I won&#8217;t say I&#8217;m done, but for the present, I have a wonderful choice of guitars to play when the urge strikes.\u00a0 And it strikes often!<\/p>\n<div style=\"width: 348px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large\" src=\"https:\/\/photos.smugmug.com\/Guitar-Love\/i-TG6TjPK\/0\/M\/2016-09-20%2017.20.58-M.jpg\" alt=\"Four Electric Guitars\" width=\"338\" height=\"450\" \/><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">The &#8220;Electric Company&#8221;<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Maybe it&#8217;s because I&#8217;m getting older, although I suspect anyone of any age who engages in guitar playing would agree.\u00a0 After all, why pursue playing any instrument if it weren&#8217;t fun (notwithstanding the parental requirement of having to play)? For &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/mfna.org\/rfo\/2016\/09\/28\/this-is-fun\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-208","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-guitar","category-music"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mfna.org\/rfo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/208","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mfna.org\/rfo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mfna.org\/rfo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mfna.org\/rfo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mfna.org\/rfo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=208"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/mfna.org\/rfo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/208\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":212,"href":"https:\/\/mfna.org\/rfo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/208\/revisions\/212"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mfna.org\/rfo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=208"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mfna.org\/rfo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=208"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mfna.org\/rfo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=208"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}