Four entries behind

I’ve fallen behind in my daily updates for Holidailies, but I have an excuse. It’s this:

Or rather, these — the amplifier is new as well.

During the spring, I was remixing a few Eponymous 4 songs, laying down guitar tracks on my beginner’s Fender Stratocaster, and I came to the conclusion that I really don’t like playing that guitar. My usual go-to guitar is my acoustic, and the Strat I have sounds really bad if I don’t attenuate the pressure of my fingers. Also, the fretboared is a bit narrow for my pianist fingers.

So I went down to Guitar Center and chatted up one of the salespeople, who steered me in the direction of Gibson. I tried a few and decided, yes, I would like to get a Gibson guitar. But not right then and there. I was still paying off the acoustic-electric I bought the previous year.

I told the salesperson it would have to be a Christmas gift to myself.

Fast forward to December. The acoustic-electric was paid off, as well as a new MIDI interface for some ancient keyboards. I felt the itch to get a Gibson, but the credit limit on my Guitar Center card was barely enough to cover it. So I logged into the Guitar Center card site and saw that I could request a balance increase. Nothing ventured, right? I clicked on the button, thinking it would set some sort of flag for a customer service rep to review my account.

Nope.

I was informed immediately that my credit limit had increased by $500. The itch got stronger.

Guitar Center regularly sends me e-mails about coupons and special financing. One such coupon was $150 off purchases of $799 or more on a list of brands, Gibson included. For the holidays, they were offering 18-month no-interest financing.

The itch got unbearable.

There was just one hitch — I don’t have a guitar amp. If I were to purchase a new guitar, I would also need to purchase an amplifier.

So I headed back to Guitar Center, picked up the Gibson I had my eye on, and went from amp to amp (under 30 watts because I would not want to get complaints from the neighbors.) I almost went for an Orange, but I did my due diligence and tried a Peavey (nice), Line 6 (not bad, but not great) and a Marshall.

I played on a 30W amp and asked a salesperson if it came in something less than 30W. It did. I played on it a bit and was sold.

And now I have a toy. I’m not entirely sure I can afford this toy, but I have it.

Here’s most of the family: