I have always asked too much from a guitar.
When I was young I asked it to make me special, different. I asked it to make people like me, to make me interesting, sexy, powerful. I asked a guitar to give me an identifiable sound, to make me sound better than I was. Rather than be like, Rory Gallagher, say, and get a good instrument and spend a lifetime coaxing all manner of good sounds out of it, I went from guitar to guitar, looking for the elusive tone, only later learning that it comes out of your fingers.
I asked a guitar to give me a way of making a living that didn’t involve a job I didn’t care about. I asked a guitar to gain me entrance into a club that included my heroes. I have asked a guitar to take what was in my head and turn it into sound.
I have always asked too much from a guitar.
And now, at 56 years old, I am ordering a guitar kit from Australia, and I am asking it to help me overcome bad habits and learn new skills. I am asking it to help me to become patient and focused, to learn and appreciate craft, to not rush or lose interest or be distracted.
I am asking this of a Pit Bull TL-1TB that, according to the tracking, is now in Perth, and miraculously will end up on my door step on the coast of Maine.
Wish me luck…
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