BrightER Future?

Last weekend was a pretty big one for me. May 22nd was my fiancee Sarah's birthday and my band had a headlining show at the Elbo Room in Chicago. It was a very exciting and eventful day and I couldn't be happier with how things were going. I brought out my two most faithful guitars, the "Big Red" Gibson ES-355 ('97 Historic series with Bigsby) and my '96 Honeyburst Les Paul Standard. The 355 sees the bulk of the playing time as my number one so it's always important that it is well maintained. As I was playing a lead on one of our songs, the high E string popped out of the saddle so I basically was down to five strings for the rest of the song. No big deal, popped it back after the song and re-tuned. Then it happened again in the next song. Fast forward a week, mix in the day job duties and that brings us to Friday night (May 29th).

Tonight, Friday, May 29th is the night before my band's gig at the House of Blues in Chicago (shameless plug/brag) and I haven't been able to tend to fixing up the saddle on "Big Red." I called my good friend, Eric, during the day and asked if I could come over to his house (he lives across the street, longtime family friend, full blown wood shop in his basement, fellow guitar enthusiast/blog reader,recreational guitar luthier, etc...) and use his tool/workshop to work on this saddle. In all my tool glory, I don't have any files small enough for the job. We looked the guitar over, assessed that there was an awkward double notch in the saddle, headed down to the shop, five minutes later it was fixed and good as new. But I ended up spending around two hours at Eric's house (sorry Tina and newborn Owen).


(Big Red right after I received it.)

If I'm outright honest, Eric and I are two dorks, nerds, whatever you want to call it. We both have a lot of goofy hobbies, some relating skills, and not enough free time. Although we share this similarity, we are both at very different stages in our lives. Eric is well established in his career and married with a wife and two kids, although, he's still pretty young relatively speaking so don't get the idea that he's old and slowing down by any means. I'm a just out of college, getting married in September and looking to get my first place with my fiancee as well as just getting established in my "day job" career. Believe it or not, Bill's Guitar Blog and the band don't pay the bills yet! Regardless of these "differences," Eric and I both share a HUGE passion for guitars and a lot of similar views.

Eric and I are currently in the process of building replica Gibson Non-Reverse Firebirds in the workshop and we were reflecting on our progress in the project. First, let me tell you that these guitars are coming out REALLY nicely and we're both really excited about them. Once we reach a good write up point, you'll have one. Now during our reflecting period, we were remembering what the guitar industry used to be like in terms of brands, stores, quality, culture, etc... Even considering prior to the hard economic times, the guitar world was diminishing and it was a shame then just as it is now. As I said in a previous entry, the internet is drastically altering the guitar world. There are a lot of great parts to the culture that have died or are in the process of dying and we both miss that. We were thinking about how much we love anything and everything involving guitars and how we wish there was so much more for us to do with it on a daily basis. Ultimately, we both have dreams and hope to some day be able to realize some of them. Who knows if we will, but it's fun to dream.

There's a lot more to that story, but that's not the interesting part I took from the whole visit. As I said, Eric and I are different but really, we aren't worlds apart. More or less, just different stages of life. But the guitar world is full of all walks of life. Whether or not everyone agrees on everything is a different issue, but they all can cross paths. A big focus on our conversation was the audience that all the guitar forums reach and one has to think that these audiences cover every demographic imaginable. Guitars are really a universal obsession and it's a beautiful thing. In "the old days," there were more reasons for all of these people to cross paths harmoniously, but that has disappeared over the recent past. See my post about the Chicago Guitar Show. These shows used attract every demographic but are now flooded with about one type of person. There are exceptions to every rule mind you, but I will let you decide what you think the general audience of these shows might be. You don't see 17 year old death metal players crossing paths with 70 year old players like you used to. I'm not saying those interactions were always pleasant, but they were possible.

I worked at a small guitar shop in high school and the most fun part was the different people you would come across. True, there were quite a few negative interactions, but there were a lot of amazing ones and I met a lot of amazing players and people. One memory that I still vividly recollect was when this jazz player from the city came in with his goofy custom jazz guitar one Saturday. He was in his mid to late 60's, African-American, weathered, and amazing. This guy had been playing the clubs downtown Chicago since his 20's and had stories for days. It was amazing to just sit and listen to his tales. He also taught me lot of concepts and techniques I had never seen before and was very inspiring. Anyway, then he plugged into a Vox AC-15, totally nonchalantly, and just started jamming. There was just something in the way he played every note and how they all came through the amplifier that told all his stories just as well. You could just tell that this guy lived life and every experience he ever had somehow came out in his playing. It was amazing! My boss took out his 1942 Gibson acoustic and started playing along with him. It was, and still is, the best piece of playing I have ever witnessed in my life. I never saw or heard from that guy again but the lessons he taught me that day and the experience he gave me will always be with me.

This guy was so nice to me and so interesting. Since that encounter, I can't remember a single time I have come across anyone like that. The face-to-face culture isn't as intimate and friendly as it used to be and it's becoming more and more difficult to immerse yourself in the guitar and music culture. I will say that it's absolutely brilliant having anything you need to find at your fingertips vi the web, but it will never be the same. There just isn't the same sense of romance. I understand that this blog can be considered exactly what I'm talking about, however, I consider this blog a mere reflection of my thoughts or my personal day-to-day experiences. I want it to motivate people to immerse or re-immerse themselves into the guitar culture.

Ultimately, Eric and I decided that we are making an effort to revive the old days of a fun, well-rounded guitar culture. Maybe it will just be a small circle of us, but it will be better than nothing. Hopefully you readers will come along for the ride, or at least enjoy following it.

Now, I'm going to go play "Big Red" for a little bit and then head to bed. Big day tomorrow! I get to play at the WORLD FAMOUS House of Blues!

Thanks for reading!