Show Me Thou Axe...

Guitar players have aways fascinated me since my secondary school years. We (together with a bunch of losers then) worshipped the likes of rock and metal guitarists such as Slash, Kirk Hammett, Joe Satriani, Steve Vai, and Gary Moore. My own group (bunch of wannabes) always traded chords, licks, and shared many guitar techniques as tribute to our respective guitar heroes. During our time, the kapok acoustic guitar was considered to be the epitome of an accomplished school guitarist the least. Anyone playing a kapok was deemed an approved guitar player as far as other school kids were concerned. Kapoks were always regarded by us as utility instruments, highly reliable and most of all cost efficient.
In the later years, I had elevated to an entry level Cort electric guitar. Korean made and well finished, I was pleased as punch with the purchase. With its lower action, slinkier strings, and bigger volume, I was rocking even harder... I explored further into the realms of other classic rockers namely; the Eagles, Bad Company, Dire Straits, Metallica, and anything I could get material on tape to A-B and ripp off!
In a matter of years, with long daily practices, I could already master the basic pentatonic blues scale, which assisted me to play along whenever a familiar tune came on the radio, etc. As a matter of fact, most rock tunes are blues based, so it was pretty easy for me to follow.
The serious damages came in my college years in America (yet again. It seems all damages happen in the USA anyway, what an irony). Consistent exposure to classic American guitars such as the Gibson Les Paul, the Fender Telecaster and Fender Stratocaster , and the Martin D-28s really flipped me over. I was infatuated with all these beautiful hand made instruments and more: these guitars have a long history tracing back to the 19th century..

Now, not only I had fondness to play these instruments, I had more and more interest to search for them. It became addictive, like treasure hunting. Along the Gulf Coast, these great instruments were quite available then, mostly from suburban folks. So, off me and my friend Mike Murphy went, to country sides, islands, crime-infested lands, and what have you. We came across widows, peasants, divorcees, fishermen, and some of the most cash deprived people we've ever met in our lives. Naturally, me and Mike were glad we were able to help these people out: to help themselves... :-))

Fast forwarding to 2006, I am proud today to have invested in 6 classic American guitars. 4 of them are of vintage status now. The other 2 I use nowadays for studio jams or get togethers... the rest they say is history. Long live American guitars.