My Guitar

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Rasmussen          3

Alexander Rasmussen

E. Doyle

English 11 AP (5)

21 December 2018

My Guitar

         One day last year in spring I walked in to Taylor's music store wanting to purchase a new electric guitar. I walked into the store and was greeted by the guys at the counter. After I walked passed them I went further into the store and just stood there in awe of the huge rows of guitars on the walls. They had all kinds of guitar equipment such as Fenders, Ibanez's, acoustics, amps, and much more. I had walked down the rows of guitars for an hour looking for a guitar with a Floyd Rose and a Humbucker, Single Coil, Humbucker, or HSH, pickup configuration. Very few guitars in the store fit this description which is why I spent so much time in the store looking for it. It wasn't until I got to the Ibanez section of the store that I found a beautiful looking guitar.

         The model was the RG series of Ibanez guitars and it had the most beautiful sunburst finish. It also had a Floyd Rose and HSH configuration on it which was exactly what I was looking for. I asked one of the employees if I could take it down and try it out. He said yes and got the guitar for me and plugged it into an amp so that I could play it. I sat down with the guitar and tuned it. It was different from my other guitars because you normally tune it from the headstock but since it had the Floyd Rose, the tuners at the head didn't do anything because the nut locked so the tuners were at the bridge. It took a while to get used to tuning that way but with the help of the employees I managed to get it in tune.

         The first thing I played were some simple scales and finger movement exercises so that when I went to play songs, I wouldn't cramp up. When I was playing these exercises I could feel how high of a quality the guitar was just by touching the fretboard and the frets. They were all very smooth, even, and not sharp like my other guitars - which I had cut my finger on multiple times - due to them being super cheap. This guitar didn't feel cheap at all but it actually felt like a guitar real rock stars and musicians would use around the world. The pickups were very responsive and had a beautiful tone - Dimarzio makes some really great pickups - which was much better than my other guitars. The guitar was quite heavy but I didn't seem to mind. I figured it was from all of the cool and unique features that the guitar offered.

         After I was finished warming up and examining the magnificence of the guitar I started to play some songs I knew. I decided start with "Smoke on the Water" by Deep Purple because it was rather simple and could display the power of the guitars sound. I went right into the song ripping through the power chords. I couldn't believe the way that the guitar produced the satisfying crunch that made the chords pop out. Since that sounded really good, I decided to play "Back in Black" by AC/DC because it had power chords just like "Smoke on the Water" but it also had other elements that I wanted hear such as pull offs and chord progressions. It still has the same crunch to the chords as "Smoke on the Water" but it was also able to beautifully play single notes and let other techniques shine through.

         After I played with the guitar for a little longer while and thought to myself, "I really need this guitar." I then decided that I was going to purchase the guitar but the problem was that I costed 500 dollars. I had 400 dollars. So in order to purchase the guitar I would need an additional 100 dollars plus tax. I went to my mom and said, "Hey mom, I really like this guitar but I am 100 dollars short. Can I borrow 100 dollars and pay you back later."

"Al, you already have a guitar. Do you really need another one?"

"Yes mom, this is the most beautiful and most comfortable guitar that I have ever played."

"All right. I can pay for the 100 dollars and tax that you need covered but you need to promise me that you will pay me back later."

"Okay mom, I love you so much you are the best."

"I love you too sweetie."

Thanks to my mom I was able to purchase the guitar and come home that day with a new guitar to practice with.

         Since buying the guitar, I have played on it for countless hours and have performed live with it a few times. The first time I performed live was at one of my summer swim meets where I played the "National Anthem". Everyone was super fascinated by how beautiful my guitar was and everyone was excited to see my play it. My performance was good but I messed a bit so I practiced and practice for two weeks until I played it again at my championship swim meet. That perform was so much better because I had more practice and I had better developed the tone of the guitar so that it sounded a lot more like Jimi Hendrix. I will always cherish these two memories as important days with my guitar because everyone was so interested in my guitar and that my first lives performs were performed with this specific guitar. In the future I will have to keep making fun and memorable moments with guitar because it is a sheer masterpiece of an instrument.