Every summer, there is spike in gasoline prices in the SF Bay Area/Silicon Valley.
But I’m not talking about gasoline today.
Getting G.A.S. is something of a guitar-enthusiast inside joke.
It means “Guitar Acquisition Syndrome”.
If budget allows, a GAS-sufferer will go on a guitar acquisition spree. If budget does not allow, the GAS-sufferer day dreams about the next great guitar purchase or he will hang out at Guitar Center everyday to try out the guitars and drool.
I switched over to an electric guitar in January. And now, I have 3 electrics.
My first electric is a Traveler Speedster. This is an ultra-light guitar made for easy traveling but features a full 25.5” scale, 22 frets and a Les Paul-like neck setup.
My second guitar is an Ibanez RG321MH. Very nice and inexpensive. Twin humbuckers with a string-thru mahogony body. I play the rhythm guitar parts of several GreenDay songs with it and it rocks! I love the flat fret board and thin neck. This makes the guitar much easier to play than the Speedster.
My latest acquisition is a Squier ’51 in 2-tone sunburst color. Squier discontinued the model this year, but the guitar is still available for less than $150 from several places including Ebay. I got mine from Guitar Center for $99.
The guitar is nowhere near the Ibanez or the Speedster in terms of quality (construction or sound). In fact, the quality sucks.
The advantage of the ’51 is that it is highly hotroddable: you can get all kinds of upgrades for it (thanks to parts interchangeability with Telecasters/Stratocasters): pickguards, bridges, necks, electronics etc.
Yep. I gave up fixing up cheap cars to fix up cheap guitars. No more Silicon Valley Gearhead. Welcome Silicon Valley Gas-Head!
The first thing I did was to change the strings to D’Addario EXL110. The original strings were a little discolored: probably kept in storage for too long.
The next thing I am going to do is to upgrade the bridge and the pickups. Possibly to pickups from GFS. The ’51 does not have the sustain nor the rich tone of the Ibanez. Power chords tend to sound a little flat.
Ah yes, GAS.
Life is interesting. I can see lots of tweaking ahead.