warning: only other gearheads will be even remotely interested in this post

I experienced a bit of relief the other day when Matt told me that after 13 years together he’d accepted the fact that I’m a gearhead – (with the exception of his amp, all of his guitars (2) have been stolen from his big brother, and he’s never wanted anything else). In my time I have owned:

a westone bass (my first purchase ever, traded in for my second purchase, which came shortly after),
a fender mustang bass (still playing it),
a 1960s hagstrom II bass (stolen from the back of the band van at the east broadway safeway),
a 70s hagstrom HIIBN bass (my favorite ever – had a nice badass bridge and was stolen from our jam space – if you ever see one like it let me know!),
a 1965 Hagstrom III electric (a gift, if you can believe it!),
Fender Mustang electric reissue,
Danelectro DC2 (stolen from our jam space),
Gretsch Synchromatic (what I play now)
Gretsch Americana Acoustic (way out west!!)
a fender champ
an ampeg jet
peavey classic

and I have own half of a Stella parlour guitar which Matt has taken over since buying my Americana, and a 12 string Danelectro that I bought for Matt that also was stolen. Various bass amps, although I have not owned a working bass amp in about 10 years, and have managed to borrow one even when touring.

So, in spite of all my many guitars (over consumption?) I’ve been thinking about some new gear again. I’ve been a bit less than enthusiastic about the peavey that I use to play live, its a great amp but lately I want some of that nice breakup that happens when you crank it, and the peavey is just too clean. The champ is great for practicing and recording but not live, the ampeg is great live but I get shocks from it and the tremolo no longer works (after spending $265 to get it repaired from those thieving bastards at Backline who essentially charged me that amount to fix the handle and the light that comes on when you turn it on, and it took them about 4 months to do it after berating us for buying vintage in the first place). I might use the ampeg without the tremolo (if I can find an honest company to fix the ground), but I sure would like one of these:

and I really want a nice archtop/semi-acoustic. I contemplated this guitar for about 10 seconds:

but seriously, the idea of a guitar made specifically for girls kind of turns me off. I don’t know why, but I guess it’s because there are lots of guitars out there that have necks that my girl hands can wrap around. And can you imagine telling some other guitar player that you really admire that you play a daisy rock (although no offense to the guitar itself, it is kind of pretty) ? Much better to say, I’ve got an Epiphone Casino, or a Harmony Rocket or Meteor, or best of all, a walnut Gretsch with a bigsby: