I finally have to face the fact that the acoustic guitar that has been a ready toy for the past decade is ready to be retired. Og knows I’d gotten my money’s worth out of it. It was the first guitar I bought when I was fifteen, not sure that I would stick with the hobby, and without more than $100 to spend. It’s always been a mediocre sounding, high-action piece of junk that slipped out of tune after ten minutes of play. But damn it, it was my lump of plywood. It went with me from my family’s home to my first dorm, then my second dorm, first college apartment, second college apartment, first apartment after college, second apartment after college, and now my first owned home. And it got lugged to parties and time with friends throughout. Even when I bought other guitars, it was the one that I played the most, because I didn’t mind shoving it in a corner of a dorm room, banging it up against a desk, leaving it in a car overnight. A decade of my abuse, and it paid for itself many many times over.
But now the bridge that was glued to the body is very nearly unglued. There’s a very large gap, and it would only be a matter of time until it violently snapped off and smacked my hand while playing. It’s not worth repairing such a cheap cuss of a guitar, and I’m willing to let it go.
Unfortunately, I had a tendency to buy multiple other cheap guitars instead of one or two good ones. Like the electric that needs some wiring work. And the dreadnought that needs a new bridge because it was not properly drilled in the first place (my own stupid fault for not realizing it before I bought the guitar. The bridge looks something like |between the pickup and the holes for the strings to anchor, instead of a less tense \, so the E and A snap far FAR more frequently than all the other strings, having too sharp an angle at the bridge pickup, and putting too much pressure on the spot). The nylon is fine, except for a cosmetic hole my sister managed to punch in the body’s side when I let her borrow it for school. But it’s a nylon, and just doesn’t feel the same for rock.
I guess I’m going to have to get a new guitar (or else get a new, proper, bridge put on the dreadnought), and it’s money I wasn’t looking forward to spending. If I buy a new one, I want to buy one right. One that will last, will not only give me another decade (or more) of good time, but also sound and feel good doing it. Sigh. Sigh, indeed.