I’ve started replying and even posted a video of myself playing, but never did an intro post yet!
I’m 48 and started learning guitar during the pandemic. I was musical as a kid, playing clarinet and sax, but stopped all of it when I finished high (secondary) school. Consequently I still basically know how to read music, rhythm, have basic scale understanding, etc. But I never got into guitar, probably because in my younger era guitar was so dominated by the virtuoso players of the 80s, who I loved but who also made guitar look like Olympic-level athletics.
Skipping over the grunge era, I’d say it was the garage rock/blues revival of the early 00’s, what some people now call “Indie Sleaze,” that got me feeling like I’d want to learn guitar. Players like Dan Auerbach, Jack White, and others who proved that getting back to basics could be fun again. I know even that era is now 20 years gone but essentially that’s the vibe I still enjoy, and I’m glad these bands are still going and newer ones like The Record Company are popping up all the time.
I’m lucky enough and cursed enough to have worked as a software engineer & consultant for most of the past 30 years, so when I got my first guitar (a Squier Affinity Telecaster) it didn’t take long before I dismantled it and got into the electronics end of things, endlessly swapping out pickups and trying new guitars and amps. Fast forward to today, and somehow in 5 years I’ve gone through about 9 guitars, 1 of which I built from scratch and most of which I’ve customized in one way or another. I’m actually working on building an offset Telecaster as we speak.
My current set of instruments:
- Custom-built jazzcaster (jazzmaster body with Strat pickup configuration and tremolo)
- Epiphone Firebird
- Squier Affinity Starcaster, which became a great guitar after I swapped the nut, string tree, and put a set of P90 pickups in it. I played this one in my first video.
- Squier Classic Vibe Bass VI, which I’m probably going to sell because I bought it on a whim and don’t really know what to play with it
I play everything through a Fender Mustang GTX100 amp, which more than meets my needs, and which I prefer to the Katana modeling amps.
