I'm sure many of you probably wish that was the beginning and the end of this story but it isn't! Those of a non guitar or non caring nature should probably just stop reading now!! If you choose to carry on reading then you only have yourself to blame!!
That was it for guitars for quite a long while. In 2005 me and a friend decided to go to Ibiza. we bought the tickets in January for our journey in the last week of July. I was ashamed of how I looked so started working out and being careful with what I ate. we went on holiday. I got my drink spiked and we came home again. It was a great holiday.
Me working out carried on and however by now, after all this time of working at the Sony center I desperately wanted to leave. I went for job interviews every other Monday and was offered a few positions. I turned them down as the felt far to close to what I was already doing. New year came and went. Just before the new year I had joined a gym. It was a bog thing for me and it was all part of a massive change that I had made in my life. One of the other things that changed was I bought a new guitar at the start of January 2006. It was an Aria AW20 acoustic and I bought it from Charley Chandlers guitar experience in Hampton Wick for £110. I spent god knows how long strumming the open strings on this guitar not even knowing if it was in tune. All I knew was I loved it and felt like I was being creative by holding and strumming it. It was a new feeling. It was the first time I had ever really felt like I had the ability to create anything. I mean here was me, a 26 year old idiot sat in my room with this really basic acoustic guitar and regardless of getting anything in tune out of it I was making a musical noise!! This continued for a week or so until I got fed up with not being able to instantly write a number one song. The start of the evolution was striking and bending the lower e string (I still do this to this day and still enjoy it). It was this, as basic as it was that made me realize I did have it within me to create real sounds with this strange shaped box of food. I googled basic chords and avoided all the two fret chords as they back then really feel like proper chords. I found he G chord and learnt it. Granted it isn't hard to learn a chords that only has three finger positions but it was from then on my chord and to this day is easily my favorite chord. I became a fucking genius when it came to the G chord!!!
I found a girlfriend and carried on with the practicing. One day I plucked up the courage and showed her what I was doing and the very basic notes I had put together. Her reply was "is that it? You aren't very good at it are you". It was a massive knock to my confidence. I put the guitar down and never really picked it up again. One day she knocked the guitar over and from then on it had a rattle noise to it. She had managed to damage the guitar all be it no on purpose. The truss rod was loose and despite it being tightened turned never stopped rattling. it still does to this day.
In 2012 I moved out and started living on my own.
In 2013 a game was released across a few formats. The game was called Rocksmith. One weekend I went out and bought the game. In the same trip to the shops I went back to Charley Chandlers and bought myself an Aria STG-03. It is a strat style electric guitar. I took the guitar and the game back home and plugged my new guitar into my Playstation and and loaded up Rocksmith. It started. First of all I had to confirm the headstock configuration and then tune it up for the first time ever. These tasks were completed fairly quickly although because if the tuners that were fitted to this £120 guitar it took longer than I would be happier with now.
Tasks complete. The game begins...........
The first musical task in the game is simple. Play the strings it tells you to on the screen.No time limit. No expectations. 30 seconds later the notes had been played. It seems I had just played a basic part of my very first riff. Satisfaction by the rolling stones!!! From now on I am a fucking rock and roll star!!!!!
That guitar lasted about 3 months.
On the 3rd of January 2014 I phoned in sick to work and went to guitar guitar in Epsom. I was dead set on owning a Les Paul guitar. I spoke to a lady in the shop and settled on an Epiphone special 2. Why this guitar? Why a Les Paul? It only comes down to one thing. Noel Gallagher used to play a Les Paul. Noel Gallagher was and still is my music idol. It had to be a Les Paul. Nothing else would be acceptable. It is possibly my most important guitar move. It still holds a very very firm grip on my heart strings as it was after all the very first guitar I ever loved. It cost me £115 and caught my heart.
2 months Later on the first of March I got on an plane. It took off from Gatwick and airport and landed in Tampa Florida. During my visit I went to guitar center in Tampa and saw this guitar that as soon as I saw it was in real awe. It was another Epiphone. This one looked so pretty I just had to own one. I thought long and hard about if i should buy it whilst I was there and import it back to the UK in a hard case. I decided not to as I feared being hit with import tax. When I was back where I was staying in the states I had a look at some websites and found one for sale in the UK. It was in Brighton in Guitar, Amp and Keyboard otherwise known as GAK. I paid a deposit and when I got back to the UK despite being a bit jet lagged jumped in my car and drove 60 miles to go and pay for and collect this vision of a guitar I had seen in the states. It was an Epiphone custom pro in silver burst. I bought her along with a hard case to protect her with........
to be continued...........
Coming up......... The prophecy EX, the studio, the Marshall and the masterbilt!
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