So, you'll never guess what happened to me today when I was out garage saling...Yup, The Dood bought another guitar. I really couldn't help myself. It was only $10 and it seemed like it played well and just needed a little TLC. It was the second garage sale I went to this morning and I think I spotted it just in the nick of time. The man was just putting out his stuff and he placed this right out front by the street. Another gentleman was walking towards the sale with a huge smile on his face and I seen it change as soon as I picked up the guitar. "How much?" I shouted.
"Ten bucks" came the reply.
"SOLD" I shouted back. I even got him to toss in a Deepak Chopra book I found in his book bin!
So the guitar was covered in my pretty pony stickers, a little dirty, and missing the high E string. I should have taken a picture of it. A blog post should have been the first thing on my mind, but I didn't think of this post until after the fact. Super excited, as soon as I got home I started working on the guitar. I removed the old strings. I lubed up the fretboard with some Hydrate fretboard cleaner/conditioner. Restrung it and started playing.
The guy said it was his daughter's guitar, which would have been my first guess with the "My Pretty Pony" stickers. She stopped playing and he just wanted it gone before it got wrecked. I don't know if he had it professionally set up for her, but man does it plays nice. I threw on some D'Addario strings I picked up during a black Friday sale last Christmas, I actually bought a year's supply of strings at just $3.00 a pack. Less than half of what the local Guitar Center charges. Really glad I bought those now.
The guitar has its fair share of nicks and scratches but for $10, it's not too bothersome. Considering how well it plays and sounds, I'm OK with that.
The guitar really is covered with a bunch of small nicks and chips. Nothing to bothersome though for $10.
The entire guitar is covered in these little flea bites but personally I feel it just adds to its charm. Nothing like a beat up second hand guitar to play a little blues!
Ouch! That had to hurt. I cringe just looking at it. Doesn't seem to have cracked through though, so that's good.
So I promised myself I wouldn't buy anything for me today. This is becoming a problem when I garage sale for resell items. I always end up finding a bunch of cool stuff for me. Technically, after I resell everything, it's free stuff. Still, I need inventory! I also officially have WAY TO MANY GUITARS NOW. I think I'm going to try and sell the backpacker's guitar for $20, then even though I'll lose money on the backpacker's guitar, I'll double my $10 investment and I'll be able to justify keeping the better guitar to have and play in the garage. I wasn't able to find a single one of these for under $50 online. It's not a super expensive guitar, but it plays much better than the backpacker guitar, and I'm actually impressed with how well this one plays. It has a really great sound too.
The new guitar is the same length as the backpackers guitar, but twice as wide. Still, I think I can strap the new guitar to the tail bag of the motorcycle for camping trips. I'll miss the thiness of the backpacker's guitar, but I think I can make do with the extra girth of the new one. I really enjoyed the backpacker's guitar, but enough is enough. I can't have 3 guitars in every room of the house including the garage 🤣
It's a Spectrum AIL 36N. At 36 inches this is considered a student guitar. I was thinking along the lines of a parlor guitar which is how it will be used. Just something to play when hanging out in the garage working on the bikes or enjoying a beer on the front porch! It really is the perfect guitar for that.
As far as first impressions, if you were looking for a starter guitar, you could do a lot worse. I wouldn't hesitate to scoop up one of these if you come across one at a good price. It plays really nice! This is the starter guitar I wish I had when I first started playing.
So I keep saying it, but I will be posting some 3Speaks soon. I just made a post about pulling out the cameras for the riding season. I'll be doing some guitar playing posts too. I still need to review the resonator guitar I recently purchased and I'll also do a review of this guitar. I'll probably do a progress post too. I've been playing a lot and I'm just starting to get comfortable playing in front of people again. After a 20+ year break, I think I'm just getting to around where I was when I stopped playing. It took almost 3 years, really bummed I took such a long break now.
Final note: I should have some reselling posts coming soon in my regular blog too. So if your following for reseller news, I haven't quit, I've just been waiting for the nicer weather to start sourcing some inventory!
So, I'm going to leave it there! Time to chill out in the yard, strum a few notes and enjoy a beer or two or three. Happy Memorial Day to all my US pals, and wishing you all a wonderful weekend wherever you are my fellow Hivers!
