A banjo players perspective on guitars-acoustic and electric

by Janice
(Rogersville, TN, USA)

My ex is a fantastic guitar player. We were together 12 plus years and if I ever wanted guitar backing, all I had to do was ask. See I play banjo and have for 35 plus years at this point. I also play mandolin, autoharp, and mountain dulcimer - now there is a strange instrument!

But I missed the sound of guitar in the house. So someone at work gave me a Gibson Maestro black guitar. dread sized body, mahogany back and sides, spruce top. According to Gibson's site-$100 out the door and for that money it includes a soft case, picks, extra strings and instructional DVD. Okay, so now I know I am getting the bottom of the barrel instrument. But free is free, and I know it needs some work, so maybe I will "fix it up" some. First impressions-overall not bad-the tuners are decent enough and hold well, the bridge pins keep breaking, so they all have to be replaced. The nut and saddle are both plastic and they too will be replaced. The guitar-as it came to me had little to no sustain. Okay, cut a new nut out of bone and replaced the saddle and bridge pins with TUSQ. MAN what a difference. The guitar now rings! It has a wonderful bottom end, nice mid and top range. A loads of sustain!

But I wanted more-there are things I can't seem to do with an acoustic that I want to. Like play some rock, or folk rock, or blues.

So I bought my first electric guitar - a basket case Strat. Yeah it needed work, but I loved the blue color. And all the pickups and electronics were there. So bolt up a neck, level out some frets, put a decent nut on the guitar - do you notice a theme here with me? Put a tremolo system on it - originally I went with a standard strat trem, but then decided to make it "non floating" and drilled and anchored it in place. Tinkered with everything and anything to get the action where it should be and get the neck straight. Voila a decent guitar. I love the look, the feel of the electric but I hate the sound of the electric-I love the rich deep bottom end on an acoustic and well lets face it unless you dump about $8000 into a custom PRS or Gibson LP Custom and then a few grand more into pedals and soundboards you just ain't gonna have the sound from an electric that touring pros get from theirs!

But playing guitar is fun, and even though I have played other instruments for years, I have never studied much music theory, but guitar makes that easy for some reason.

Sorry no photos of my first acoustic and first electrics.