Hi Ben,
Greetings from Poland! (You’ll find folks from many different countries here).
Welcome to the community, I wish you a great time here, and please accept my warmest congrats on the offspring you’re expecting.
Good luck with your guitar learning endeavour.
Regards
Tomasz
Guten Morgen, Ben, und wilkommen!
Herzlichen Glückwunsch on your marriage and impending doom baby
A quick bit of mental arithmetic suggests you have about 10 years guitar playing in your past, which should stand you in great stead! Good idea to start again from scratch, but as your muscle memory kicks in, and you get back up to speed, remember to wave to all of those you zoom past in the ‘slow lane’
Your Ibanez looks like a lovely guitar, may you spend many happy times together.
In that case, you might want to rethink your moniker, as munching those blowfish can be a bit risky too
Welcome Ben and congratulations on your first child
A very warm welcome to you Ben I am pleased to meet you Cheers Hec
Welcome to the forum Ben
Welcome, Ben! Your decision to give up motorbikes for guitars made me smile. It’s certainly a family-oriented and a safety-oriented decision. I was going to offer that it might be a money-saving decision as well, but as we all know, that’s just not true! Do let us know when the baby arrives.
Hi, Benny.
Nice to see you here. I wish you quick progress developing your hobby, and have a lot of fun as a member of our community.
Hello Ben & Welcome!
Having a family sure does change the way one looks/perceives the world, eh? As an avid motorcycle lover as a young man, I set that aside when starting a family (at 20 years old)… purchased a guitar in my 30s & floundered around with learning off & on for decades. Now, my children are all grown & married, have their own homes & lives… so my wife & I each have Harley Davidsons that we cruise around on whenever the weather allows! They are both single seaters - we have a blast taking turns leading the way down new roads to find yummy places to eat or new sights to see! So, don’t give up motorcycles… just set them aside while you have little kids!
As far as the guitar, good idea to plan for music to be an integral part of your family life! I applaud your foresight! Good luck with Justin’s wonderful instruction!
Tod from New Mexico USA
Welcome, Be, sounds like you have a good plan!
Welcome to the community Ben.
Herzlich Willkommen im Forum, Ben!
Sounds like a solid foundation you can build upon regards re-entering the guitar-journey! You’re in good company here, lots of us also re-started and mostly from scratch (I am one of them). It’s good to go back to basics first. But everything will come back quite fast, you will see.
Congrats on your marriage and the arrival of your daughter (?)! Another funny parallel: Got married myself this year and had my baby boy six weeks ago - not so much guitar time at the moment for me. Fingers crossed it will work better for you.
Anyways, have loads of fun with your guitar and great family time as well!
Cheers from another German fellow
Hi Ben,
I love your idea! have fun playing the guitar!
Kate.
Welcome to the community. Great to meet you. Which class of motorbike racing did you compete in? I’m still a fan of MotoGP after following it for many years
Hey everyone,
Thank you all so much for your kind words—I really appreciate it!
I don’t plan on selling my motorbikes. Instead, I’ll keep them in my private workshop, which also doubles as my “man cave.” It’s got a couch, a TV, a pool table, and all sorts of fun stuff lying around. I’m really grateful for my job, as it lets me splurge on things that aren’t essential but definitely make life more fun!
I actually own three bikes. First up is my Harley Davidson Forty-Eight, which I use for commuting during the summer. I absolutely love the laid-back vibe of that bike. Then there’s my Ducati Monster 1200S, which I take on long trips with friends and family. It’s a great bike with loads of low-end torque and the power to go fast when I need it.
And for the track, I’ve got a Ducati Panigale V4 SP2—a proper superbike that cost me a small fortune. It’s stripped down to the bare essentials, so it’s no longer street-legal, but it’s a real pocket rocket, with mods that bring it up to around 220 hp at around 190 kg.
I guess it would make sense to sell them all, since I won’t be using them for at least the next 16 years. But honestly, I’m not ready to part with them. They’re a huge passion of mine, and I plan to hold onto them as long as I can—though of course, if money gets tight, these toys would be the first to go.
But back to the big news: yes, we’re expecting a daughter! She’s due at the end of February, and my wife and I are already counting down the days. Honestly, I’ve never felt this happy in my life—I can’t even explain it. It’s like being 16 again, falling in love for the first time, but times ten. It’s definitely going to be the biggest challenge of my life, so I’m a little nervous, I’ll admit. But I think that’s totally normal.
I’ll post a picture of my guitar(s) as soon as I can, though work has me pretty tied up until the end of the year, and I usually get home pretty late. It’s not that I can’t take pictures of my instruments in the evening, I just tend to forget. My apologies for that!
And as for my name: I’ve never eaten Fugu, and I don’t plan to! I just saw the name somewhere (it must’ve been on another forum, but don’t ask me which one) and thought it sounded funny. Or, as my wife likes to joke about me: “Simple humor, for a simple mind!”
Thank you and I wish you all have a wonderful day!
Ben
Hallo Ben, herzlich willkommen!
Another German saying “hello”!
I wish you lots of fun with your restart. I seems, you are already quite experienced, I’m sure everything will come back very soon!
Happy to hear about your young family, I can so much relate to those happy feelings while waiting for the baby to arrive!
Keep it in your heart and enjoy all those upcoming precious moments with your little family.
Wish you all the best!
Welcome Ben
You will quickly find out that playing the guitar and motorbikes have one similarity. Just like you always see different bikes you want to try/own, you may get guitar acquisition syndrome (GAS) where there’s always a new/different guitar you would like to try.
Welcome to this great and friendly forum.
Ian (with 4 bikes but only 3 guitars!!!)
Hi Ben, welcome to the community forum and welcome back to guitar.
Willkommen, Ben - nice to have you!
I think it was a great decision to swap motorbike racing for guitar playing! You’ll notice when you get older!
When your kid will be there, I recommend having a Ukulele lying around, it’s easy to learn for guitarists and your kid could grab (a not so expensive one) it without you fearing about your favourite guitar.But well, if you do so, be warned that lots of cheap Ukes don’t have a good intonation - I had to fix quite a few for me and friends…
WIshing you lots of fun in guitarland,
Dominique in Berlin
Hello Ben. What a lovely introduction.
Welcome to JustinGuitar and this fantastic community. Please take your time to look around and get to know the wider space.
https://community.justinguitar.com/categories
We are a supportive and encouraging group of students and guitarists from across the world. Essentially, we are all here for music and to improve as players. We truly are a ‘community’. Members help and support one another and a friendly, positive attitude underpins this. We hope that all - young or old, experienced or new players - adopt and foster the pay-it-forward ethos that Justin personifies and embedded all those years ago when he started the website and forum.
Also, please make sure to read the community etiquette announcement for some important information and guidance.
Richard
Willkommen Ben,
Greetings from Cologne