# Where to share?



## AMS-Pro (Mar 11, 2022)

Since I'm not on regular social media, and this forum is the closest thing to social media I participate in, I figured I show this here.

My woman gave me my early birthday present last night when she got home, a brand new Yamaha APX600, hard shell case, and some extras.

A little backstory:

I hadn't played guitar for about 7-8 years now since I unfortunately had to sell all of my equipment/collection. At the time I had my recently newborn son, and money was tight.. I recently started going to guitar shops, and looking for a new guitar because my interest has been building up for years now to play again. So, about a month ago, I had taken my woman to work, and had hung around the area for the day conducting business of my own. I had completed that in a couple hours, so I still had about 5 hours time to do something with. Well, there was a guitar shop nearby there, and I decided to go kill some time, and look around. I found myself in the room with acoustic selections, and ended up spending an hour playing different ones, and reminiscing. My woman had laughed about that a little bit when I picked her up for the day, and was interested to see what I had looked at. I had taken my woman about a week later showing her ones that I liked, and introducing her to the sales associate that I had sat, and conversed with the week before. We were really just out spending time with each other, we went there, did some thrift hunting at some other places, went out to eat, normal date day stuff. Well, yesterday, she decided to use her lunch break, and instead of eating, went and got me this guitar. I know how busy she is, so it was definitely interesting to hear how the day went. She was so happy when she was texting me during the day, I knew something was up, she couldn't contain that she had got my present. When she got home, she decided to go ahead and give it to me as she didn't want to leave it in the trunk of her car, and there's not really anywhere here at home that she could hide it. I was thoroughly surprised, definitely grateful, and wanted to show someone., which brings us to this thread. Since I don't normally indulge in social media (social media cleanse), this is really the closest place I could share my excitement.

It has a wonderful sound, and tone. It has that fresh new guitar smell. There's a texture or coating on the back of the neck that allows the hand to just slide, and not stick. Non of my acoustics back in the day had that kind of coating to prevent that. The color is more vibrant, and deep than the pictures really show. It is an acoustic/electric thinbody cutaway, has tuner built in, and is very comfortable to play. Maybe I'll get a program/equipment to connect it to the computer, and record some stuff, I don't know. Although it's been many, many years since I've really played, it was strange to be able just let my fingers go, and do the work. My skill is nothing like what it was for obvious reasons, but the fact that I could almost instantly remember how to play some things is surreal. I suppose it's akin to say riding a bike, once you learn, you never really forget. I certainly look forward to relearning some old basics, and especially learning new things that I had never learned, to improve my skill to better than what it was when I had stopped playing. I'm into rock, classical, and jazz/blues kind of sound, so lots of scales are in my future. That and reading sheet music again, that's going to be strange. With the technology available now, music apps and what not, it should make for a pleasant experience with the access to songs, and sheet music. I'm in no way going pro lol, at least not at the moment, but it'll be nice to be able to play again whenever I feel inspired, want a break, power outage, etc. I do know that I'll for sure be writing at least one new song for my woman, as a thank you for it, I may share that on here when I complete that. After playing it for her of course.

Thank you to all those for taking the time to look at, and read this thread. Also for allowing me to share my excitement, story, and a little bit about me personally. I really appreciate it, and I hope it brings joy to your life as well.


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## Gwar (Mar 11, 2022)

I play Guitar, mostly 60's surf, but some modern stuff too, congrats on the nice rig !


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## AMS-Pro (Mar 11, 2022)

Gwar said:


> I play Guitar, mostly 60's surf, but some modern stuff too, congrats on the nice rig !


That's wonderful. I've been thinking about dabbling more into the 50s-60s rockabilly stuff this time around. Growing up I was, and am still a metalhead, a lot of what I know is 80s/90s metal/rock like Metallica, Nirvana, Ozzy, and some early 2000s stuff like SOAD, Tool, RHCP, Slipknot. Thank you for the congrats, she definitely did a great job picking one out.


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## Gwar (Mar 12, 2022)

I also like to dabble with 'Alice in Chains'..


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## AMS-Pro (Mar 12, 2022)

Gwar said:


> I also like to dabble with 'Alice in Chains'..


Absolutely. Man in the box, and Rooster.


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## MicheleM (Mar 12, 2022)

Beautiful guitar. This thread reminds me good old times when hundreds thousand of people (myself included) went to hard-rock/metal festival in Europe. Gods of Metal (Italy), Wacken (Germany), what a joy... another era, another world. I'm really sorry for the new generations


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## AMS-Pro (Mar 12, 2022)

MicheleM said:


> Beautiful guitar. This thread reminds me good old times when hundreds thousand of people (myself included) went to hard-rock/metal festival in Europe. Gods of Metal (Italy), Wacken (Germany), what a joy... another era, another world. I'm really sorry for the new generations


Thank you. That's the feeling I was going for, definitely "another era, another world.". I started having that "sorry for the new generations" feeling when that Avenged Sevenfold band came on radio, just most of that era of radio "rock, pop rock, whiney rock" music. There just wasn't enough cheese for my ears to deal with it. Honestly, it made me glad to be deaf, is that mean? I did really like the 2000s underground style metal/music styles though, they were fun to learn. Bands like Godsmack, Lacuna Coil, Gwar, Marilyn Manson, Twelve Tribes (The lead guitarist was my neighbor), even Trans Siberian Orchestra was great. Mid 2000s it just seemed like, other than the real underground shows, that metal shows became more mainstream in general, it really destroyed the quality of the experience.


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## kurtak (Mar 12, 2022)

NICE guitar AMS-pro

I used to play guitar (& autoharp) until I had an accident with my left hand & lost dexterity first & middle fingers (as well as half my thumb) about 20 years ago --- sure do miss being able to play

Liked playing country - blues - jug band - 60s folk rock

for those that don't know what an autoharp is here's a pic









Oscar Schmidt 36 String 15 Chord Autoharp | eBay


Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for Oscar Schmidt 36 String 15 Chord Autoharp at the best online prices at eBay! Free shipping for many products!



www.ebay.com





believe it or not you can really "rock out" with those 36 strings

It's not a common seen/heard instrument but when you get your fingers flying across those 36 strings it sure is a LOT of fun

then again - who would have ever thought a flute was a rock & roll instrument until Ian Anderson (Jethro Tull) came along 

Kurt


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## AMS-Pro (Mar 12, 2022)

kurtak said:


> NICE guitar AMS-pro
> 
> I used to play guitar (& autoharp) until I had an accident with my left hand & lost dexterity first & middle fingers (as well as half my thumb) about 20 years ago --- sure do miss being able to play
> 
> ...


Thank you Kurt.
The autoharp, that is a cool instrument. I had looked at getting one before, but never did get a chance to own one. I attempted to play one though, it was a unique experience to try it. Cool sound, can be compact, just a great instrument. You can definitely rock out, I believe June Carter did songs with Johnny Cash using this instrument. As far as flutes go, what better example than Led Zeppelins Stairway to Heaven?

I sympathize on the injury, I have similar experiences with that. My left ring finger has since healed from a circular saw accident in my early twenties, but it certainly affected my playing for years. My right hand thumb however, that's going require another surgery to repair the exposed nerve endings from a different accident. The thumb had to be sewn back on, it has affected my finger picking. It's a shame that your injuries affected you the way they did. You could always get into slide guitar maybe, that would fit what you like to play, and get you back into it again. I'd certainly jam with you, maybe do an Iron Horse kind of thing.


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