Wood & Steel

So what ever happened with my guitar shopping excursion? I went to Long & McQuade on the South Granville Rise Tuesday after work and stood staring wide-eyed at all the beautiful wood creations. Eventually a salesperson came up and asked me if I was doing alright. I told him no, that I needed aid, and if he had the time and patience, that I knew nothing about guitars but wanted to buy one. So he introduced himself (Jeremy) and proceeded to give me a condensed lesson in the history of guitars, how they're made, what they're made with, how sound is produced with them, which brands were from where, how they'd change over time, which ones retain their resale value, and which ones had the features I was looking for. Of course, the only stipulations I had were that it had to be acoustic and pluggable. I had done a little of my own research as well, and I ended up spending about 3 hours in the store molesting dozens of guitars. I don't really know how to play a guitar yet, I can still play most of American Pie because the chords are easy to play and remember, but that's about it. Jeremy told me to just 'try on' a bunch of guitars to get a feel for what I might want, and that when I had my choices narrowed down he'd play some of them for me to hear. Hours later, with the help of Jeremy, I picked out The One. We put it on layaway because he thought I should take a couple of days to think about it before spending the cash. Being true to form, I had not picked out an affordable guitar, especially considering I walked in there with the notion of only spending up to about $400. Jeremy wasn't working the next day, so I had to wait until Thursday to hand in my verdict. I knew I couldn't afford it, and my employment contract is up at the end of March, but I figured, if I end up unemployed at that point, I'd have nothing but time to play my new guitar. I started to get very excited about buying it. By Thursday my stomach was fluttering with anticipation and I could barely eat a thing all day. I borrowed a car so that I could pick up my purchase after work. When I showed up at the store I said to Jeremy; "I'm here to pick up my guitar." and he went to pack it up. I asked him to play it a little for me, so he plugged it in and played a few bars of a variety of different styles of music. It was aurally orgasmic, and when he was done I said, "Man, that was fucking hot." And I meant it, this guitar sounds amazing. Plus, it's a gorgeous piece of art whose value should actually increase if I take care of it. I don't have any audio, but I do have a couple of pictures that don't do it justice. So what did I end up with? A Taylor 2005 Fall Limited Edition Hawaiian Koa Dreadnought Cutaway Acoustic/Electric with Koa Top and Expression System (that's its whole name, the Expression System is a unique to Taylor two pickup system, and here's the Fall Limited site). It set me back a cool $2400.00 for the honour of having one. In fact, when Jeremy handed me the case when I was ready to leave, he shook my hand and said, "Congratulations."