CODE+BASE

Obsessed with Strings - ugly as an aesthetic.

It is almost 2 years ago now that I decided to try to teach myself how to play guitar. You see I have always wished I
had learned to play a more socially friendly instrument years ago. By that I mean that I have played trumpet since I
was a kid having started in grade school and continued through my bachelors degree, but trumpet isn't something
that's easy to pull out at a social gathering to add some musical lubrication. On top of that I stopped playing trumpet
for nearly 10 years after moving to NYC to continue my studies toward a Masters Degree at Hunter College. It was only
after moving to Pennsylvania ten years later that I was inspired to pick up my horn again. That was 5 years ago now. I
had just started a new job at Crestron Electronics and a coworker invited me to sit in with a local community swing
band he played with. The 16 member Start Dreamers Band rehearses once a week at the Glen Rock High School and
manages a few gigs a year. I sat in and enjoyed it and was asked to join to play 3rd Trumpet which I have ever since.
We play two or three gigs a year, but mostly we just rehearse for fun. At the same time, at Crestron I had become fast
friends with one of the old curmudgeons Dennis Budrick. Dennis is a gifted guitar and bass player who along with his
crazy fun wife Connie throws many parties all of which dissolve into a jam. For the first several years I attended many
of their parties always wishing I could join in when the evening turned to music. Finally, 2 years ago I decided that if
there ever was time to try to learn a new instrument this would be it. I was single and had been spending a lot if time
kayaking which is a daytime sport. So I set my mind to proving to myself that I had the discipline to learn a new
instrument and the tenacity to stick with it. I had some doubts, so I didn't want to spend a lot of money. I also travel a
lot spending a couple of nights each week away from home. So I convinced my self with all the traveling to kayak and
work and all I would start with a Martin Travel Guitar. I used a Christmas gift certificate to BestBuy (Thanks Mike
Yanick and Crestron True Blue Support) to order a Martin OC-1 ¾ size spruce top guitar with laminated body and
neck. I learned to love the sound of the guitar and I played it obsessively. I even brought this travel guitar along on my
Colorado River trip, but I was just not confident enough to get it out and play in front of the group of river runners. I
had only been playing for 6 months by this point and even though I could trample a couple of songs … Well lets just
put it this way, there's just a time period that every beginner has to suffer through where they sound like total shit, you
can't play anything smoothly, your timing sucks, you miss chords and for me every time I would open my mouth to try
to sing a line of the song my fingers would freeze. Perhaps that's a blessing because like guitar I was a total beginner
at singing so I was certainly not the one to lead a group sing along.

I managed to play guitar down in the canyon a few times late at night by myself. I just wanted to try and keep some
muscle memory in my fingers through this 21 trip. When I got back I continued to practice, almost feverishly, several
hours each day. Before long it was clear to me that I would continue to play and practice and that guitar was going to
be a part of my life. There were consequences to this admonition. First, I was playing a ¾ size instrument and
everyone had been telling me that I should be practicing on a full size instrument. The story blossoms from there as
while I was practicing daily on the Martin travel guitar I was also visiting every music store I could find to play their
guitars. I must have played more than 100 acoustic guitars before narrowing the field down to several instruments I
really liked. These instruments were all across the price range for an acoustic guitar, which is unbelievably wide. One
can buy a new guitar starting from anywhere as low as $79 and from there it climbs rapidly into the thousands of
dollars. Six weeks after returning from the Colorado River trip I had a new Martin OMJM, Orchestral size John Mayer
signature edition 6 string guitar. I loved the smaller body size and the bright ringing sustain of the instrument. At this
time I was primarily working on finger style playing and this instrument just seemed to sing. I was in love with it and
couldn't put it down. This sustained me for some time as I could mark weekly and sometimes daily progress as I
developed more skills became more comfortable with the instrument. I am not really sure of the moment, but at some
point I decided I wanted a guitar that sounded like Willie Nelsons guitar "Trigger". This iconic instrument, with a well
worn hole right through the top, sports nylon string that Willie bends and buzzes to amazing affect. I casually
mentioned this to another coworker while discussing music and he says, I have an old Takemine Classical Guitar that
I played for years but don't anymore and he offers to sell it for the price of his speeding ticket. I borrowed it for a week
before agreeing to the deal. Once I added this awesome Takemine to my collection (I can now call a collection as I now
owed 3 instruments) I was on the way to becoming a string player. This Takemine sounds uncannily like Willie's guitar
Trigger. Not long after buying it Dennis and Connie were over and I was playing the Willie Nelson 'Spirit' CD which is
my favorite Willie album, and Dennis went over and picked up the Tak and started to play along. It was unbelievable
that you almost couldn't tell the difference, the guitar sounded exactly the same as Willies on that album. It was a holy
shit moment that we shared. I have played this instrument a lot since then and it has the most balance sound, it is loud
and resonant with huge bass and tons of sustain. It is really an awesome instrument, not to mention its so much
easier on teh fretting fingers especially on bar chords, and the 2" Nut spaces teh strings beautifully for picvking, een if
it makes reaching and grabing the 6th string with the thumb diffiult