Sticking WIth Guitars For The Moment

I'm planning on doing something ranty and rather long about guitarists and such, but I felt the need to comment on something regarding modern country music and country guitar players.

For most of my life, I have been an avowed country music hater, but over the last decade or so I have begun to appreciate the number of seriously talented musicians and singers who play shit kicker music and the list is long and prestigious.

Two of them have recently landed smack dab in the middle of my radar screen.

Brad Paisley and Keith Urban.

Both have had many hits and Keithy Boy is currently married to plastic-surgery-disaster-waiting-to-happen Nicole Kidman.

They each have reputations as stellar guitar players and there is a raging debate among some country fans as to who is better.

I figured I owed it to myself to check out their stuff and see if I could somehow find something that would help me decide for myself.

A extensive search of YouTube and iTunes has made one thing abundantly clear.

There is NO CONTEST....Brad Paisley is about 123,334 times better than Keith Urban.

Keith is known for playing a medley of classic rock tunes during his shows and my research has shown that if it were me standing on that stage with a guitar the audience would hear the exact same thing. In fact, my decidedly less attractive countenance might possibly lead to some boos.

On the other hand Brad Paisley is known for more traditional country style playing and his YouTube vignettes feature some of the fastest chicken pickin' and string bender action I have ever seen.

This guy is amazing and deserves to become a legend ala Hendrix or Clapton. I cannot praise him enough.


It seems that Pretty Boy Urban has a lot of teeny bopper fans who somehow think being handsome and playing some Aerosmith riffs makes you a guitar god.



So there.....I've settled it.

Not that you needed it settled.

Yamaha SBG is in my hands

Well, I got it.

It's awesome.

It is as well made an instrument as I have ever seen and I am proud, elated, and like totally stoked to own one, dude.

The workmanship and attention to detail that goes into a guitar like this is something I truly admire and I found it touching that the man who built mine actually signed the inspection card in his own hand.

You did a fine job, Mr. Kobayashi.

I only wish you had a more interesting Japanese name.....Kobayashi is like Smith or Jones over there.




Anyway, I am already playing and sounding way better than I have any right to.


One problem though.

I now have an incredibly bad case of GAS.

Better known to musician types as "Guitar Acquisition Syndrome"

This affliction results from the realization that nothing goes better with a nice new guitar than another nice new guitar.

Or a nice used one.

You know...you can't really play Rolling Stones songs without a Telecaster........


....hmmmm.......


Maybe I'll just practice more.

Yeah....that's it.

My New Yamaha

So.....I'm turning 40.

I haven't quite decided whether I am going to embrace the birthday as a milestone or adopt some sort of "It's just a number" type philosophy and continue on as if nothing had happened.

I am leaning towards the latter since I feel it will be the final act in a long process of getting over my mid-life crisis and being happy with what I have and where I am in life.


Not that aforesaid crisis drove me to any embarrassing attempts at recapturing my youth or any of the other assorted cliches.

No Corvettes or baseball mitts here.

There has been one little thing nagging at me though.

One last gasp of crass materialism.

Some part of me feels that a man of my age should own a Rolex watch.

I am an avid watch collector and own over 40 time pieces both new and old, but a Rolex has never graced my collection and probably never will.

I could rant on and on about their deceptive advertising, lack of value, and assorted other evils, but some part of me still wants one.....badly.


Too expensive though.......$5000 for a watch that's truly worth about $800 simply isn't justifiable....at least not to me and certainly not to my wife.


Instead, I've decided to listen to another part of me that feels a man of my age should own a Gibson Les Paul.

Heck, I have wanted one since I was in the second grade and saw Ace Frehley playing his 1959 Cherry Sunburst Les Paul in Dynamite Magazine (remember Dynamite?) In fact, I once read an article written by a large music store owner who claimed that Ace inspired more kids to play the guitar than Eddie Van Halen, Jimmy Page, and any other big name guitarist combined.


I have owned several guitars over the years and even though I am nothing more than a hobbyist at the moment I decided the time has come for me to own the same guitar Ace does.



Pump yo brakes, kid.



A 1959 Paul costs around $220,000!!

A Custom Shop Re-issue goes for over $8000!!



Ok......what do I do?

Knowing that the current standard model Les Paul is a shadow of its former self (They are actually hollowing out chambers inside the guitar because the wood they get now is so dense and toneless) I needed a backup plan.

Enter the Yamaha SBG-2000.







Made semi-famous by Carlos Santana and Bob Marley in the mid-70's the Yamaha is everything the current Les Paul is not.

Yamaha is truly beating the shit out of Gibson at their own game and offers a custom shop level instrument at a standard price point.

Not exactly my dream guitar, but better.

Perhaps I will post a review when I actually acquire one.





Now I can say 40 is just a number.

Happy New Year

No long recaps of the year gone by, but just a wish for all three of my readers.....here's to 2009...may it surpass 2008 in every possible way.

Given 2008's incredible suckitude this should be an easy task.


Peace, mah homies.