Hello from Germany

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Hello and warm greetings to this amazing community!

I’m Ben, 34 years old, and I have a long history with the guitar. I started playing at the age of 6, focusing on classical acoustic guitar, before transitioning to electric guitar around 10. Unfortunately, over the years, I developed other hobbies, particularly motorbike racing, which led me to put the guitar down for about 18 years.

This year, I got married, and my wife and I are expecting our first child. With this new chapter, I made the decision to fully retire from motorbike racing, as I want to minimize risks for the sake of my family.

I’m incredibly grateful to my parents, who raised me and my siblings in a way that encouraged us to learn instruments. I hope to do the same for my child—not by forcing her to learn an instrument, but by giving her the opportunity to experience the joy of playing music, just as I did with my parents.

To reignite my passion, I purchased a beautiful Ibanez AEG70-TCH electro-acoustic guitar. While it may not be the highest-end model, I believe the right guitar finds the right musician, and this one just feels perfect for me. I also subscribed to the “Justin Guitar” app to guide my journey, and I plan to start from scratch to refresh my skills and rediscover the joy of playing.

That’s all for now, but I’m confident that I’ll find plenty of support within this community if any questions come up along the way!

Thank you all, and I wish you a wonderful time!

Greetings from Germany,
Ben

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welcome :slight_smile:

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Hi Ben,
Welcome here and I wish you a lot of fun :sunglasses:
and

:smile: good decision in my opinion, also because you can buy nice guitars after/if selling your motorcycle :smile:…
And I wish you a wonderful time while waiting for your baby…

Rest assured that it is also safe to share photos of your new guitar :sunglasses:

Greetings,Rogier

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Hi Ben,
Greetings from Poland! :slight_smile: (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

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Guten Morgen, Ben, und wilkommen! :smiley:
Herzlichen Glückwunsch on your marriage and impending doom baby :innocent:
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’ :rofl:
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 :wink:

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Welcome Ben and congratulations on your first child

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A very warm welcome to you Ben I am pleased to meet you Cheers Hec

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Welcome to the forum Ben

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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! :rofl: Do let us know when the baby arrives. :baby:

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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.

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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

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Welcome, Be, sounds like you have a good plan!

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Welcome to the community Ben.

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Herzlich Willkommen im Forum, Ben! :smiley:

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. :slight_smile:

Congrats on your marriage and the arrival of your daughter (?)! :smiley: :four_leaf_clover: :hearts: 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. :rofl: Fingers crossed it will work better for you. :smiley:

Anyways, have loads of fun with your guitar and great family time as well! :smiley:

Cheers from another German fellow

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Hi Ben,
I love your idea! have fun playing the guitar!
Kate.

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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

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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

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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!

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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!!!)

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Hi Ben, welcome to the community forum and welcome back to guitar.