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How many years did I have to wait to get the guitar of my dreams???  … 24 years!!!  Are you kidding me?? Let me tell ya, I moaned and groaned, hemmed and hawed, paced back and fourth and agonized over this purchase before I bit the bullet.  Once I heard her sweet siren song, I was smitten.

It’s been a long journey to “deserving” this guitar.  I started playing when I was around 14 years old.  (side note: My friend Jack Bennedict taught me how to play and the first song I learned was Grateful Dead’s “The Monkey and the Engineer”).  I’ve actually had some really nice and really different guitars including a cherry Red Vox thin body, a Fender Flame, Fender Strat and a Ampeg “Dan Armstrong” Clear body guitar, but none really matched the soulful tone and craftsmanship of this Les Paul Custom.  I have to admit, I have never seen a natural finish before and that’s what drew me to it.

The price was hard enough to swallow but other circumstances made this purchase even more painful.  It just so happened that right after I bought the guitar, we had the only real snow storm on Long Island and I managed to blow my transmission in my car trying to get it out of the driveway….to the tune (excuse the pun) of $2000.  So, monthly total for shit I didn’t need for the month of February??…about $4500!!! WTF

When I bought the guitar I also got a drum machine and made a sound sample of the ballsy sound of this baby with a slow blues tempo backing me up.

What helped me buy my dream guitar was selling the electric drum set I bought for James (rrrrr…me).  I bought it on ebay in 2006 for $1100 and sold it on ebay in 2009 for $1400…SWEET!!!! I loved the drum set but obviously love my guitar more.

At the moment my baby is in the midst of a fret job.  I knew when I bought it that it would need one, but really didn’t anticipate the friggin ordeal it has become.  The guy doing the job is great.  His name is Joseph Jesselli and he makes unbelievable hollow body electric guitars that are works of art.  Check this out  (sick or what???)

Now the man is a master craftsman….but he’s also friggin nutz!! He’s really working with me, but I have to make him repeat back to me exactly what I told him I want done.

Here’s the madman at work…..