new squeeze

This is it, the new squeeze. Those not interested in guitars look away now.

A rather lovely Gretsch 2005 G 6120 from Japan. Fender era (just), build quality is great, sounds amazing unplugged and plugged in.

My first memory of wanting a guitar was triggered by watching TOTP as a child; those candy apple red strats were just the dog's cojones and it was a bit of a shock that I had to start on an acoustic. Moving forwards through Ibanez, Kramer, Ibanez (you can probably guess the kind of music I was mainly listening to at that point: mid 80s, super strats) I never considered anything other than the super strats; I couldn't afford a real strat and certainly couldn't afford a Gibson.

When I stopped gigging in '93 I hung onto my gear but eventually sold it all for a paltry amount just before +1/3 was born. I wasn't using it, why keep it hanging around?

A bonus at work a few years later gave me the means to buy a replacement; it turns out I missed having an electric around so after some mooching around in music stores I got a cheap Gibson LP double cut. Two P90s, ideal for punk/classic rock. Great guitar.

After that came the e-bay special tele. Incredibly cheap and needed some TLC but what a great guitar. A stacked tappable single coil in the bridge, a P90 in the neck and it's now my gig workhorse.

At no point did I think I would buy a semi. I mean, a Gretsch?! Seriously? And that would have been the case had it not been for a trip to a 30th Street Guitars. Something about this guitar just clicked; I'd spent a part of the morning trying out the usual suspects: a US Masterbuilt Cabronita Tele (pretty damned expensive and very underwhelming), a Roadworn Mexican Strat (nice sounds but fret ends that would take your fingers off), a Blacktop Jaguar (humbucker in the bridge, P90 in the neck) that played well but felt cheap. It seems like I just don't get on with Fenders; I love the ook, the scale length, the sound but when it comes to actually buying a semi-decent Fender it just doesn't happen.

This, on the other hand, was a no-brainer.

When I was 16 I wanted to train to be a luthier; I got talked out of it in favour of science. If I ever win the lottery that's what I'll be doing.