newbies.
In the past year I looked for information on my guitars several times and almost all of my
questions could be answered with your help. To give back some of this spirit I thought it
might be time to introduce myself and tell you my little story - how I started playing
guitar, how I came across G&L instruments and so on. Maybe you enjoy this or your story
is similar - anyway. This is me:
Some 45 years ago as a kid I took part in a celebration of my school. I saw some guys
playing electric guitars and instantly I felt I want to know how to make music like this.
Next christmas my parents bought an acoustic guitar with nylon strings and presented it
to me. For about half a year I took lessons. After that I was fed up playing waltz themes
and learning german folk songs composed hundreds of years ago taught by a teacher who
- in my imagination - must have known the composeres personally - and I quit.
I went for modern music and looked for a modern teacher. I found one, playing rock and
looking like my long haired guitar heroes. First thing he did was upgrading my guitar with
steel strings - I felt I was on my way to become a star. Next thing I felt were the blisters
on my finger tips. The neck of my warehouse acoustic did not accept the change of my
musical orientation and went skydiving faced with the load of the steel strings. Again I
realized the road was rougher, than I thought it would be. And I would quit again.
A couple of years later I bought a reasonably priced (this means CHEAP) 12 string western
guitar made by EKO, an italian company. Just played some strumming on that, listening to
the songs of John Denver, Crosby Stills Nash and so forth. There was no internet where
nowadays you can find the lyrics, no youtube to easily find free lessons showing which
secret chords those superstars engage to sound as they did. That made me spend hours
and hours in front of my tape recorder listening to the same ten seconds of a song. My
sister and my parents must have gone nuts - looking back I can understand them. I could
not at that time, though. I only played my guitar in my room in my parents house; no
teacher, no friends to listen, no fun after some three or four years remaining at the same
low level of skill. I put my 12 string on the top of the wardrobe where it stayed untouched
for 10 years. Not living at my parents place for years I told them to give away the EKO to
someone who might like it.
Two years ago - after 35 years not having pulled a string - I listened to Jimi Hendrix
"Little Wing" on the radio and wondered how many guitarists were necessary to play that
wonderful intro. Well, of course all of you could have told me. And there this feeling was
again: I wanted to be able to play this on guitar. The crucial advantage I meanwhile have: I
can choose by myself how much of my money and time I invest. No mom or dad to depend
on or working after school for little money.
So I went into the small shop of a local luthier and bought my first electric guitar ever at
the age of 50 years. The shop owner being a guitar coach asked my musical preferences
and in the end of the day I bought a G&L Tribute Legacy HB in black. Maple neck,
rosewood fretboard and swamp ash body were the features. Since that day I have been
taking lessons once a week. And - the number of my guitars increased profoundly. The
electrics all being G&L guitars: first my black Tribute Legacy HB, then a blueburst Tribute
S-500, a USA made Comanche with quilted maple top, and within the last year a 2013
black Tribute Comanche, a candy apple red Tribute Legacy and a black Tribute S-500. Only
the 12 String acoustik is an Ibanez.
I will upload some photographs in the coming days. Especially my quilted maple
Comanche is extremely beautiful.
Again thank you all you G&L experts for sharing your knowledge and for investing your time and energy for us.
Matthias
