Papa's Got a Brand New Axe
My husband is a musician. I'm talking about a person who at some point in their lives made a living by playing an instrument or singing. (as opposed to someone who dabbles in it.)
There are advantages and disadvantages to marrying a musician. Unless you are a big star, it is not the best paying of jobs and the hours are lousy. The good part is the music. (assuming you like the kind your spouse plays.) I was courted with an Alvarez 12 string guitar which I think is one of the sweetest sounding instruments I've ever heard. My husband also writes so sometimes I am the first to hear a new song he has written, and I've helped with lyrics a time or two.
Some times a musician will have to take a mundane job for awhile. Even if they aren't playing you know they would still rather play or sing than whatever they are doing now. They also need three basic things, food, water, and good instruments not necessarily in that order. That brings me to what happened this weekend.
A coworker of my husband told him that he was selling his Gibson electric guitar and wanted to know if C would be interested in it. C was very interested. He has the above mentioned 12 string and two acoustic six strings. We look for electrics every once in a while, but never found anything he likes in a price range we could afford. (Another common problem with musicians) He knew that the coworker was another guitarist who had retired from music (full time). I'm sure he gave C first crack at it because he knew it would be well played and well cared for.
Since no serious guitar player buys an instrument without checking it out first, C arranged for the guy to bring it to our house. Saturday afternoon he came over. The guitar is sort of a reddish brown colour, natural wood and lightly lacquered. There was dust on it, but the wood looked to be in good shape. C tuned it up and checked the fingerboard to make sure it was sound. He tried out a few unamplified licks on it. It sounded pretty good. I never expect a solid body guitar to sound good unamplified, after all it is a block of wood in a certain shape with strings on it. Nothing more. It checked out and C liked the sound. The guy took it back and played a few blues chords and riffs. I don't know how long he's been out of the business, but he could still play.
The price was very good and included a hard case, the cord, all the paperwork and a strap. We had decided that if he wanted it, this would be an early Christmas gift from me to him. I got out the checkbook and paid for it. Everyone was happy.
After the guy left, C set up his amp and plugged it in. It sounded really good. With new strings it will sound even better. Once we get the dust off the fingerboard it will look better too. At this time of year were most people are starting to have visions of sugarplums in their heads, C is having visions of effect pedals. I'm looking forward to seeing (or should it be hearing) what this might be.
There are advantages and disadvantages to marrying a musician. Unless you are a big star, it is not the best paying of jobs and the hours are lousy. The good part is the music. (assuming you like the kind your spouse plays.) I was courted with an Alvarez 12 string guitar which I think is one of the sweetest sounding instruments I've ever heard. My husband also writes so sometimes I am the first to hear a new song he has written, and I've helped with lyrics a time or two.
Some times a musician will have to take a mundane job for awhile. Even if they aren't playing you know they would still rather play or sing than whatever they are doing now. They also need three basic things, food, water, and good instruments not necessarily in that order. That brings me to what happened this weekend.
A coworker of my husband told him that he was selling his Gibson electric guitar and wanted to know if C would be interested in it. C was very interested. He has the above mentioned 12 string and two acoustic six strings. We look for electrics every once in a while, but never found anything he likes in a price range we could afford. (Another common problem with musicians) He knew that the coworker was another guitarist who had retired from music (full time). I'm sure he gave C first crack at it because he knew it would be well played and well cared for.
Since no serious guitar player buys an instrument without checking it out first, C arranged for the guy to bring it to our house. Saturday afternoon he came over. The guitar is sort of a reddish brown colour, natural wood and lightly lacquered. There was dust on it, but the wood looked to be in good shape. C tuned it up and checked the fingerboard to make sure it was sound. He tried out a few unamplified licks on it. It sounded pretty good. I never expect a solid body guitar to sound good unamplified, after all it is a block of wood in a certain shape with strings on it. Nothing more. It checked out and C liked the sound. The guy took it back and played a few blues chords and riffs. I don't know how long he's been out of the business, but he could still play.
The price was very good and included a hard case, the cord, all the paperwork and a strap. We had decided that if he wanted it, this would be an early Christmas gift from me to him. I got out the checkbook and paid for it. Everyone was happy.
After the guy left, C set up his amp and plugged it in. It sounded really good. With new strings it will sound even better. Once we get the dust off the fingerboard it will look better too. At this time of year were most people are starting to have visions of sugarplums in their heads, C is having visions of effect pedals. I'm looking forward to seeing (or should it be hearing) what this might be.
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