I know it's not a pipe, but I know some of you are guitar players and guitar lovers much like myself... and I'm pretty excited about this one.... and I just want to brag a little. I ordered this guitar from Sweetwater, and I'm pretty impressed with their customer service. Not only does your sales engineer stay in contact via text, phone, or email, they also send candy! Because you know what? Candy is awesome! They also do a 55 point inspection of your instrument and email you high res photos of your guitar. That's another thing I really like. You're not buying a guitar based on a stock image of that model, you're actually buying the guitar you're looking at.... sort of like Smokingpipes.com.
Anyway, I'm babbling right now.
So I have and have had a few solid body guitars, and a few acoustic guitars, but I've long wanted a hollow or semi-hollow. Just before all this Covid -19 mess, I'd seriously been considering purchasing one, because well I've been working a lot of hours shorthanded since Halloween, and dang it I deserve it! And then this virus hit and everything got really crazy! And work got even crazier! I talked myself out of buying a guitar because, well, let's face it.... probably not the responsible thing to do right now when it's difficult just to get butt paper. But then I decided I'm going to continue to enjoy life. It's stressful at work, it's stressful outside of work, We can't go online or turn on the television without hearing more bad news. There are two things I really enjoy in life that help me get away from it all and have some peace. Pipes and guitars.
I'm a big fan of Ibanez guitars, having purchased my first one, an RG series, over 20 years ago. I still have and play that guitar. Over the years I've played quite a few different instruments, and I've always gone back to my trusty Ibanez RG. She's my baby. So when I do look at new guitars, of course I often look at Ibanez, not just because of the couple that I own that I play, but those I've played that belonged to someone else, or those I picked up at a guitar store to check out. I've never played this model though. But I liked what I had heard about it, and I really liked the look of the one I ultimately purchased. The neck measurements were thicker than what I prefer because I've always struggled with F shape chords on a thicker neck. Heck I don't like F shape chords on any guitar! I can play, I can rock out, I can throw down a mean guitar solo, but I hate those freaking F chords. I figured I always will... If I must, I decided I can adapt. I threw caution to the wind and purchased it.
It took a while before it shipped for obvious reasons. I actually thought it would be delayed for longer than it was though. So I was quite pleased when it shipped about 5 days later and on the 7th day I had it in my hands. Well the box was in my hands. It was another day before I opened the box and finally plugged in and played it.
The photos, which are awesome, really still don't do this guitar justice. In person it's a bit warmer in color, the gold hardware (bridge, tuning machines, pickups, basically everything that's not wood) aren't washed out by the lighting. It's truly a beauty. The quilted maple is just stunning... yeah I'm a grain junky on guitars too. I was impressed with it's playability, despite it's thicker neck. In fact, oddly enough, the playability was outstanding! I played a few chords, threw down a few licks, a short little solo here and there, playing around with pickup switch location, played it clean, played it with distortion, played some bluesy stuff, rocked out a bit... very versatile in playability and tone. Went into an F chord............. HOLEEEEE COW! Expecting a muted string or two, I got the complete opposite. I effortlessly played that stupid, most hated, dreadful chord on the first time on that neck. Probably the best F chord I've ever played since I first picked up a guitar in my entire life! I've never had a "moment" for lack of a better explanation while playing guitar before, but I immediately stopped playing and just let that note ring (Oh! Fantastic sustain, by the way!) until it faded away. I'm sure my jaw dropped and I had that blank stare as I turned my head and looked down at the fretboard and my fingers, totally dumbfounded. After a moment, I literally said out loud, "Wow...." Then I thought, maybe it was fluke. So I started just playing around with different chord progressions, and purposely throwing an F chord in there somewhere and had the same results. All up and down the fretboard I'm effortlessly playing that dreaded F shape chord that I have struggled with and always had to strain since I first really started playing guitar at 18 years of age. I'm 46 now. So if you're reading this and play guitar, you can imagine what that must have felt like. I was up until 3 am this morning, purposely playing something I've always hated hahaha! And it was glorious!
Anyway, I know this is getting ridiculously long now, so I'm going to stop rambling and post these photos.
And this girl deserves a name! Anyone have any ideas?
View attachment 25210View attachment 25211View attachment 25212View attachment 25213View attachment 25214View attachment 25215View attachment 25216
