I took an inventory of all my electric guitars earlier. Of course, it was only an inventory of four so that took all of five minutes. But it got me thinking about the stories behind each of them, and that took a
wee bit longer.
I'm excluding acoustic guitars because I went through probably seven of them very quickly in a few years since I couldn't take care of them very well. That's what happens when you always want your amps to go up to eleven. Besides, only one of them is still with me or in working condition, and there's no stories behind it. So far.
So where to start? From the beginning, of course.
Where did you get it? I got my first electric guitar in 1993 (1994?)- a fake
Gibson SG - from a classmate whose specialty was playing
Gin Blossoms covers. He sold it for the princely sum of P1,200, so he could buy what I assume were car speakers. I remember making the transaction in the Ople household - I have no idea why.
He first played (what else) "
Hey Jealousy" to show me that it was working and in tune. But the deal was closed when he played the shred part of the solo for "
Sweet Child". (The tab and friends call it
Fill 1, it's the part of the solo that scales up the neck really fast and is actually played by a second lead guitar on the album. Wooo.) Oh how could I resist.
The SG wasn't as popular then as it is today but I was thrilled regardless. The most popular SG player was and still is
Angus Young from
AC/DC, and it was also the main guitar for indie goddess
Juliana Hatfield and
Soundgarden's
Kim Thayil, so that was enough cred for me.
There are a couple of things that bugged me about it though. For one, the
Bigsby tremolo was a bit out of place on a guitar known more for metal. Second, it hardly ever stayed in tune - mainly due to the trem - and the low E string was hell to keep in pitch.
It's also the only guitar I have that came with its own hard case. Which me and my friend dutifully vandalized one drunken night. I can't understand some of those hieroglyphics now either.
Where has it been? In college I was part of a band that played songs that had acoustic rhythm parts, so our rhythm player used an acoustic guitar while I used his electric. So instead of using the SG I used our rhythm player's
Yamaha super-strat, which was a bit more mainstream and was more likely to stay in tune throughout "
These Are Days".
My dad's friend used to come over and play
Ventures songs on it for hours on end, which made me wonder how he made it sound so good. He died a few years ago and I never got to hear it played that way again. May God rest his soul.
The SG did make it on stage to one gig:
Kampo in 1995, opening for
Passage. Yes,
Ira Cruz probably saw me die of embarrassment. And after that failure of a show I was convinced to get a new guitar if I am in any way going to play in front of people again.
Who was the girl you named it after? I actually don't call the guitars by name, but they do
have names. Of course they do; I'm just that type.
I didn't know any girls in high school, so the SG had to wait a couple of years before it got its name. And no, I'm not telling because I've already died of embarrassment involving this guitar once and I won't again.
But the guitar (and the girl, for that matter) did change my life so it's fitting that they share their name.
Why aren't you selling it? Because it's my first. And you never forget your first.
It's cold and there's nothing to do.