I bought the ESP LTD EC-10 to replace the very old and heavily modded 1979 Fender American Standard Stratocaster I traded for a brand new acoustic guitar. That old fender came with a beat up hard case, a couple of old zoom pedals (one of which was fried), an angled cable, a Fernandes tuner, and a ghost of a better life it had before landing in my hands. It looks as much as it did when I first got it. The body has a few dings and the back plate missing. The tremolo seems to have been replaced; the arm was missing. The frets had pits and the back of the neck had the finish on it falling apart. The nut used to have a locking mechanism but that's gone. And I didn't love every bit of it. I usually eat that sort of stuff up. But this time it was different. I didn't fall in love with whatever nostalgia it could have possibly given me as a geek. The guitar's soul seems to have gone passed that way before it was traded to me.
The guitar I traded it for was brand new from Yupangco (I forget the brand). A friend helped me pick one out. I just have to add; it is a very weird experience picking up a Gibson Les Paul Standard, really holding one in my hands, and learning that it cost around a hundred thousand pesos. I brought it to the office and the other guy seemed reluctant to make the trade. It may have had something to do with his offer being made out loud to anybody who could hear while we were out drinking. I guess I wasn't drunk enough at the time to realize a good deal. That was a lot of stuff for the acoustic, even though the electric looked like it was ready for the trash.
I had always wanted to learn to play an instrument and the type of music I listen to I guess would point the way of the electric guitar. I have had a couple of cheap acoustics before and have tried learning chords/tabs from the little magazines anyone could get anywhere. But I wanted something more. Something that sounded closer to what I was listening to. The Fender had enough appeal to get me through the door of practicing more than 15 minutes at a time. Well, that was until I grew tired of it. Or maybe something else took up my time. I can't remember which.
Fast forward to the release date of Rocsmith 2013, which I picked up for the PS3. I figured the old slab of wood might have another chance at seeing daylight. Gamifying guitar lessons seemed like a pretty good fit considering my current interests of reaching back to music I listened to in high school and picking up video games again. What I learned was that it was not an easy instrument to learn with. At least not this particular example. What electronics were in there had aged ungracefully. The tremolo and missing string lock made sure that it kept going out of tune when I would strum too enthusiastically. The back of the neck kept popping off bits which did not give me any assurance that I wasn't hurting the guitar.
But I liked the game. I was getting into it. I needed a new controller. I settled on the EC-10 that is a cheap Les Paul copy that was at least built to be easier to learn with. It has nothing fancy and does not give me the illusion of becoming a rock god after what the video game touts as its 'learn guitar in 60 days' or whatever it promises. What it says to me is: it won't fall apart. It wont go wildly out of tune whenever I sneeze in a different room in a house two miles away. It won't buzz and hum like I'm looking at it the wrong way (although I have to admit that single coil pickups are very 'hummy' by nature). It gives me confidence that even though I don't have talent, it will have just as much patience as I have. Maybe even more. It'll wait for me to come around and give me another chance when I want to practice again.
The game itself speaks to how I learn things. If I make a mistake; do the whole phrase again. If I get better; another layer of difficulty is added. The only song I've been able to 100% has been Blitzkrieg Bop in lead mode. The rhythm mode is still too difficult for me. Right now I'm getting into learning Say It Ain't So. The game has made it so that everytime I practice, it lasts for about an hour. Being a gadget whore, I've started looking at what I could add to my 'rig'. I only have the guitar and a Washburn Bad Dog 25R for an amp. I have been lusting at the pictures of the little Blackstar amp, Zoom multi effects pedals, or the good old Boss pedals... But no, it has to stop there. I'll live in my little fantasy land in my head while I'm practicing and leave the gadgets in the magazines.
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