Greetings from another Guitar Geek!

[guitartist]

Howdy all,
I've been a lurker here for a month or so, and really enjoy this forum - lots of nice and knowledgeable folks here. This summer will mark my 40th year of playing guitar (started when I was 6). Although I've played for a long time, I've never been what you'd call a real serious player...but I've stuck with it for so long that I feel like I've finally reached a level of competence which eluded me for the first couple of decades of my playing! I'm no pro, but I play almost every day, and the older I get the more I love it.
Back in my gigging days, I was mainly a sax player, although guitar's really my main instrument (I also play bass and a little drums and keyboard). My days of playing in bands and even loud jamming with others seems to be behind me for the most part though, so I'm mostly a "low volume" guy these days - especially since I moved from a house which I shared with a bunch of crazy musicians (& wannabees) to an apartment in a very quiet complex. The first five years of my living where I am now I didn't even play electric, except through headphones. I eventually realized I could get away with cranking up an amp occasionally without the cops coming (which seemed to be a weekly occurence at the house where I used to live!) Lately I've gotten back into playing electrics mostly, although I try to keep it at a low volume. I've been on a quest for righteous tone at a low volume, and have been checking out a lot of different small amps in my quest (I almost always play through two amps at a time, love the different tonal textures you can get through different amp combinations)
I'm cheap and rarely spend more than a couple of hundred at a time on musical equipment (you can tell that by my list of gear below). I hadn't bought any gear at all for like five years until last summer...when I realized that the quality of "entry-level" instruments has dramatically iimproved in the past few years (for the most part). Just as you can buy decent chinese-made TVs and misc. electronics dirt cheap these days, the same has happened with electric guitars and amps - you couldn't get a decent new guitar or amp for under $300 in the eighties or nineties, but with some research you can now. And with ebay, MF, etc., you can find most anything you are looking for these days...so I've had GAS like crazy since last summer! It's getting worse all the time! There's a couple more amps I plan to buy, then I'm planning on upgrading the pick ups in several of my electrics. Seriously considering buying a VOX Pathfinder 15R this weekend. GAS never ends, does it?
Like Fingers, I'm a huge Stones fan too. I'm really into the British Invasion & classic rock in general...Zep, Beatles, Who, Kinks, Yardbirds, Cream, Sabbath, Hendrix, etc. I'm also really into old blues (Delta & Chicago style), and listen to a fair amount of jazz, surf, rockabilly, "classic" punk, old-school country, ska & reggae (Jamaican only) as well. Aside from Keef and Jimmy Page (my main guys), my influences include early Jeff Beck, Motorhead, Stooges, Ventures, Clarence White, Chet Atkins, Wes Montgomery, Buddy Guy, Lightning Hopkins...I know, I sound like a shizo! My tastes are all over the place, and so is my playing style.
Whew, sorry for the long ramble, I'd better quit goofing off and start working! I'm a "one man art department" for a screen printing company here in Atlanta (been a graphic artist for 25 years)...can't wait to get home and play some guitar!

[Fingers]

Hey.......welcome from one noobie to another.........I just love the ramblin' threads that come along.

Eclectic mix, there...............seems like you love music and makin' it........like most of us here.

[warren0728]

welcome guitartist....this is a great forum....i think you will like it here....

ww

note: this welcome copyrighted 2007...no unauthorized use of this welcome will be tolerated

[Tone2TheBone]

Welcome and make yourself at home.

[sunvalleylaw]

Welcome!! My intro was rambling too. That's good! Let's us get to know you. Like your influences and schizoid tastes. I share that attribute. Have a ton of fun here! I do.

[tot_Ou_tard]

Welcome guitarist. I *love* those kind of intros! Make yourself at home, but watch out for the pancake breakfasts.

I caught the tail end of the Rolling Stones Rock & Roll Circus on PBS last night. I have the CD, but I hadn't seen any of the DVD before. They followed with Jimi at Woodstock. Killer stuff!!

[duhvoodooman***]

Welcome, guitarist! That's a good, straightforward choice of a forum name! With your stated tastes in gear and music, you'll certainly fit right in here at TheFret! And I don't find your list of influences to be schizo at all! I share many of them.....and so do I.

[Robert****]

Welcome, guitartist and have Warren make you some pancakes.

You'll fit right in here, thanks for joining!

[ted s]

Welcome, thanks for the intro.

[helliott***]

Welcome, guitartist. This is a great place. Look forward to some clips with all that great gear. Two red specials! Cool. And a Silvertone!!! That was my second guitar, sounded great driven through a blown out Fender Tremolux. Wish I'd kept it, like I did the big fat Grenada that was the first guitar. You'll like it here, for sure.

[Spudman***]

Hey there tartist.

You sound like one of the guys and you should feel right at home here. So it's your day to vacuum.

Welcome aboard mate.

[guitartist]

Thanks for the welcome guys! Mmmm, pancakes! Makes me think of that old Head East album "Flat as a Pancake"...haven't heard that one in a long time!

Helliot, I hope to post some clips one of these days. Pics too, eventually. I've yet to make the jump to digital recording...I've got 2 four-tracks that are still in great shape and I want to get my moneys worth out of them before I retire them. Anyone know of a service that will transfer 4 track tapes to a digital format?

To tell the truth I am not in a hurry to make the jump to digital recording...I use the computer all day long at work so when I get home its the last thing I want to do! But I know that digital is the way to go so sooner or later I'll cross that bridge.

Yep, I like the Silvertones! Used to have another Silvertone archtop electric which I owned for about 25 years...traded it in after I got the one I have now. (wish I'd kept it though, it was cool!- it was short scale though, but real pretty) The electric Silvertone I have now has a body apparently styled after the Gibson Barney Kessel...the "horns" are very similar. The acoustic Silvertone archtop I have is really cool too...the logo on the headstock is really old, never seen another Silvertone with that version logo...its a nice color too, a pale gold sunburst. Very unusual - and for some reason acoustics with f-holes just really appeal to me.

Spudman, what the heck are you taking about? Vacuum? You mean like a vacuum tube? Oh wait, you must mean one of those contraptions that sucks the dirt out of the floor. Heck, I don't even do that at home!

[M29]

Hello guitartist and welcome!! Do I detect a '51 in that geetar list? Yup it looks like it...I think you will like it here!

M29

[guitartist]

Thanks M29! Yep, I bought what seems to have been one of the last honey blondes available on ebay at X-Mas...man, do I love playing that guitar! It takes to greasy grooves like the proverbial duck to water. When I ordered it, I had planned to change out the pickups, but it sounds so darn good stock that I'm in no hurry to do that. What a great instrument for such a ridiculous low price. Squier's come a long way!

I got a Vox Pathfinder 15R this afternoon...another great value. Its got about the sweetest tone of any solid state amp I've heard, especially considering the price. Great sound for playing Beatles and 60s Stones tunes, and for surf stuff too. Hope to get an AD30VT sometime this year, maybe this summer (finances permitting...)