Me and My New Seagull Guitar
After a many months of hand-wringing, I went out shopping with Liz on my birthday and pulled the trigger on a new guitar. Despite having wanted a guitar for some significant period of time now, the actual process of shopping for and buying the thing was actually kind of difficult. It was less about comparing guitars, and more about me having some weird reaction to actually buying the thing.
We ended up going to Old Town to test out guitars, and I found myself torn between two different brands: Seagull and Blueridge.
While I liked the sound of the Seagull more, the feel of the Blueridge seemed to fit my hand better. The sound of the Blueridge was much brighter and crisper, but I ultimately got swayed by the richer, warmer sound of the Seagull.
Which is good, because that was the main brand that I had heard good things about from multiple people (including the folks working on Old Town).
Me, playing around with my Seagull S6.
For the most part, it feels quite comfortable to play. I’m finding myself having some difficulties getting a good F barre chord, but I’m chalking that to me being out of practice.
I’m remembering a lot of basic chords: E, G, C, A, D, Am, Em, which I take to be a good sign. I can comfortably move from one to the other, though I’m definitely rusty. For now, I’m content to just strum around and get my hands (and fingertips) back to being accustomed to the feel of the strings.
Want to know something funny? I keep remembering fragments of songs that I used to know how to play. What this means is that it’s primarily a handful of 1980’s heavy metal songs, suddenly coming to life again after a long while being dormant in my brain.
For the most part, I can still kind of play the intro to White Lion’s When the Children Cry. I mostly know American Pie and Wish You Were Here, but those are kind of given songs most guitarists know. I can still kind of play the basics of Ozzy Osbourne’s Crazy Train, The Black Crowes’ She Talks to Angels, and Tesla’s Love Song.
Earlier tonight, I suddenly remembered I once knew Bon Jovi’s Wanted Dead or Alive, and surprised myself by playing most of the intro from memory. It was a pretty funny moment of muscle memory.
I picked up guitar while I was in high school (as evidenced by the songs that seem to have stuck with me). But it’s been many, many years since I’ve picked a guitar up… and it feels nice to have one in my hands again. I owned an electric when I was younger, but I’m happy with owning an acoustic now.
Looking forward to practicing more, and learning some slightly newer songs. At least, I hope to do this once my fingertips stop aching all the time. Yeouch.
Looks like a beauty. Happy Birthday, Felix!
Chris (March 11, 2013 at 10:14 am)