Guitars!

Guitars!

Make a joyful noise unto the LORD, all the earth: make a loud noise, and rejoice, and sing praise. (Psa 98:4 KJV)

I will sing a new song to you, O God; on the guitar and bass I will make music to you, (Psa 144:9 KEV*)

*My own translation – Ok the KJV says “an instrument of ten strings”, but I figure since the guitar has 6 strings and the bass 4, when played together we get the psalmist's 10 strings!

Jesus wants me to have a new guitar?

This is a brief trip down memory lane for me and the guitars I have owned. In particular this is a testimony of how I acquired my first real professional instrument.

I love guitars. I have from the first moment I heard the Troggs bash out three chords on Wild Thing back in 1966. I was ten years old. I bought my first electric in 1969. It came from a department store and I think I gave $20 for it. I next bought a used tube amp for $10 at a local guitar store. It was maybe a 10 watt amp, but I used it for the next 30 years.

I learned to play G, C, and D. My parents made fun of my efforts. They weren’t musical and they informed me I wasn’t either. So I didn’t ask for lessons and I was too embarrassed to seek out friends to learn to play with. Instead I hid in my room and strummed. I may not recall what happened to this guitar but I still struggle with those careless words from people who love me.

In the early 70’s I noticed the bands I listened to most were all playing Gibson SG’s. Well I couldn’t afford one on $1.75/hr but I saw a no name SG copy in a mail order catalog and thought I had to have it. It was $69. The frets were way too high; so high that fretting caused it to sound out of tune. I didn’t know any better. Took it to college where I learned to play E and A form barre chords. I learned to play a few riffs but still didn’t sit around and jam because I was into heavy metal and everyone I knew with a guitar was in their Eagles phase. If I had been willing to learn, those country rock licks would have worked really well with the praise music today. Don’t remember what happened to this guitar either.

In 1981 my new wife bought me a Hondo II Les Paul copy. It weighed a ton. The bridge was mislocated so it could never be intonated correctly. I learned stairway to heaven on it. Then we had kids. The guitar went in the closet. I would later trade this in on a Randall stereo chorus amp. Did I mention it weighed a ton?

Next came the Bentley electric/acoustic. Don’t remember why I thought I had to have this one. It did play nice and sounded ok for a plywood box. The next year, 1991, I surrendered my heart to Jesus. I think the Lord was preparing the way in advance with this guitar. This was the first guitar I used in church and the first time I played in public. I sold this guitar to an elderly lady in the church in 2002.

As the praise band began to take off in the late 90’s I decided I wanted an electric again. First bought a no name strat copy that was junk. The neck was so thin fretting sent it way out of tune, only now I knew better. Quickly got rid of it and in '99 bought a Washburn Maverick BT4 for $200 then added Carvin pickups for about $100. I loved this guitar even if it was still an entry level guitar. It was a very compact short scale instrument that you couldn’t knock out of tune. I used this until 2005. It developed a bad case of back bow in the neck that made it sound like a sitar. I still have it but haven't played it in a while.

In 2002 I made the mistake of going with our bass player when he was shopping for a new instrument. Spending hours upon hours in nearly every guitar store within a hundred miles is not a good idea. No matter how hard you try to resist something always catches your eyes, your ears, and your fingers. While he was auditioning his new Cort bass, I picked up a used Peavey Ecoustic E/A. I had just sold the Bentley and was already missing it I guess. Peavey no longer makes the Ecoustic guitar but has a line of acoustic amps with the same name. The Ecoustic is mahogany back and sides with a solid maple top. It is also very compact and thin so the sound is acoustically pretty small but full of tone. It was $350 with a hard shell case.

Despite my wife’s insistence I walked away. How cool is that? My wife wanted me to have another guitar! So I laid awake all night thinking about it. The next day I sent my wife to get it for me while I went to work. I have used this beauty in a lot of worship services. Its piezo pickup is its only weakness as it is pretty quacky but with a little eq and some mild reverb it sounds really sweet in our P.A. system. While not a professional guitar this is definitely the nicest I had owned up until this time. Still have this one too.

Now we get to the meat of the story…

Since I first picked one up in the mid 90’s I have wanted a Parker Fly guitar. They weigh between 3 and 4 pounds and the carbon-fiber neck feels like butter in your hands but at a street price over $2,000 that is way too expensive for me to justify with my income and ability. Parker also has a more affordable line of guitars called the NiteFly but the pick guard on them was (is) very unattractive in my opinion. When Parker introduced the NiteFly M without a pick guard, I started trying to figure out how I was going to get one. The street price of this instrument is currently around $1250. That is slightly more than the street price of a Fender American Stratocaster. The NiteFly weighs half again as much as the Fly but still less than a Strat. It has a bolt on neck coated in carbon-fiber giving it that same super fast feel as the Fly.

Though I needed to replace the ailing Washburn, I still couldn’t justify spending that much money on an instrument. At the same time I was really tired of intro level guitars. I started watching Ebay to see what used guitars went for, but I was not sold on the idea of owning someone else’s used problems.

Around this time I ran into an old friend and his wife at a local restaurant – our former guitar player who taught us how to play praise music. He told me about his new instrument - a Taylor. He told me how expensive it was and how his wife was upset with him when he bought it. She shook her head in agreement and laughed. He told me he had worked hard and sacrificed all his life to take care of his family and he thought he deserved it. Then he told me of all the mission work he has done since getting the guitar. His wife agreed and added what a wonderful blessing it had been for him to get the Taylor.

I told him of my plight with the Washburn and said I wished I could justify a new guitar. His wife looked at me and said with all sincerity, “Jesus wants you to have a new guitar”. Instantly you could have heard a pin drop. I blinked once, and then the three of us simultaneously laughed nervously together. It was one of those moments when something is said that you meant but aren’t sure how it was received. I'll tell you, it penetrated straight to my heart and it stayed on my mind through the following days.

I checked Ebay again and saw an auction for a brand new NiteFly offered by a guitar store within 75 miles of my home. It was offered three times and no one bid on it. I contacted the dealer after the auction and told them I was coming up with the intention of buying it if it was as described. This guitar lists for $2498 (The NiteFly M lists for $1700). It is an American made solid mahogany instrument with a AAA flamed maple top and transparent blue burst finish. It has a piezo bridge for simulated acoustic tones and two humbuckers with coil tap. The magnetics and the piezo can be mixed together for an interesting full sound.

The store was very easy to find even though I didn't even know it existed before spotting them on the Internet. I walked in picked up the guitar and strummed it. Houston we have a problem. The high E string buzzed, bad. They took the instrument and put it on the bench to operate. One new bridge saddle and a shiny new set of strings later, I plugged it in again and gave it a test drive. I wept. Not really but it sounded dramatic didn’t it? Other than a minor cosmetic scuff where it had been on the wall hanger I could not find anything wrong with the guitar. I walked out of the shop with a top of the line Parker NiteFly for less than 2/3 the street price of the NiteFly M or hundreds of dollars less than I could ever have imagined. By the way, that's my guitar at the top of the page.

I am using the Parker every time we lead now. I run it through a Digitech RP-200A processor into the P.A. system. It is so much fun to play. It is such a blessing to have a guitar that you can rely on. Was it just coincidence that I found this remarkable instrument at such a great price or did Jesus really want me to have a new guitar? My guess is you know which way I believe.

Links to some of my articles:

Praise Band A little bit about how we got started.

Our Continuing Journey latest updates.

Introducing praise music in an established church This has become more of a history lesson of our struggle and our mistakes

Blended Services Do Work! The experts were wrong - We finally figured out how to make it work!

Come Let Us Worship And Bow Down The problem of Idol worship in the church

Hymns Versus Praise Songs A humorous look

A Little Musician Humor Lighten up!

Guitars! Jesus wants me to have a new guitar?

Terrorism In The Church Take a stand against spiritual abuse.

Cool Links Some helpful resources

Guest Article:

Blended Worship - Good for the Body A wondeful article by Pastor of Music Ron Man