A long hiatus, from playing Guitar...Epiphone or otherwise?

[JefferySmith]

I'm not only as old as dirt' date=' I guess I'm as poor as dirt too. I didn't take a break, it just took me 51 years to save up the cash for a G400 and then suddenly I had money for all kinds of guitars. Funny though, my wife keeps telling me we don't have the money for all these guitars. Hell, who needs food, its overrated.

 

[/quote']

That happened to you too? Growing up in the 60's when the minimum wage was $1.25, a nice guitar cost three months' wages after taxes, so they were just things I yearned for. As a result, we have to buy our toys after getting out of the poverty category. It is worth the wait. When I was 16 years old, I had a 335 and it never crossed my mind to have 2 guitars. Now it doesn't occur to me to have 1 guitar. And that is part of the problem. Americans want to own lots of stuff, but we don't want to produce lots of stuff. If Epiphones were made in Kalamazoo, I'd own one or two. Since they are made in China et al., I own......you know.

[CodeMonk]

Well, my hiatus was sort of forced upon me by my future ex-wife (girlfriend at the time).

When I started my hiatus, I was playing in band in Southern California. This was in the mid 80's.

And no, I wasn't in a "Hair Band" at that time. I played in, for lack of a better word, a Mexican band.

What we played what is known as Cumbias and Rancheras. Cumbias were sort of like a 50s - 60s style rock,

and Rancheras were kind of like Country music from that era. Well, they were a rough equivalent for that culture anyway.

 

We practiced after work Monday through Thursday, then would play somewhere either Friday or Saturday night.

Sometimes she would go to the gigs with me.

Sometimes both nights. Quite often if we didn't gig on one of the weekend nights, my bandmates and I would

cruise the local bars/nightclubs and watch other bands, and sometimes would talk them into letting us play a set.

Just for fun (no pay except we would get some free beer)

Practice usually ran until 11:00pm or so. I'd get home around midnight or so.

The gigs, I would get home at around 1 - 2 am, give or take.

My ex-wife to be didn't like it that I was only home 1 - 2 nights a week.

I ended up selling all my stuff, except one 3/4 sized classical guitar, which I still have.

 

Got back into it, about 5 - 6 years ago, I left my wife (she and one of her co-workers as well as the guy

across the street would uhm well, play the horizontal bop together).

I never lost my love for music, but one of my passions became computers. Particularly computer programming.

I had female friend that helped me move, she became my girlfriend not long after I moved. She really re-ignited my

love of music. She, as well as her mom and her daughter all played the cello.

Her mom is damn good at it to and gets her primary income from that (she plays at the renaissance fair as well as

alot of the weddings in the Lake Tahoe area and even played a few times at that that celebrity golf tournament they

have up there every year. I saw playing in one of her bands that played mainly Baroque music and it nearly brought

tears to my eyes it was so moving.

 

Anyway, I continued to play that little classical guitar, and one Christmas my mom (who REALLY hated my wife)

bought me an electric guitar from one of the TV shopping channels. Its an Esteban Electric guitar. Came with an amp,

case, A-frame stand and a DVD. Not long after that (Well, maybe 2 years), I went into this one pawn shop and saw this

black Epiphone Les Paul Standard. Of course I had to play it and at that point I KNEW, that that guitar was MEANT FOR ME.

Paid $350 for it and it came with a case. That same pawn shop is now selling those LP standards for $500+

Some of you on here may have seen my wonderful Epi LP. Its the one with the granite looking formica pickguard:

 

Since then, I have also bought a Strat, a Vox AD30VT, and AD50VT, and my pride and joy amp a Vox AC30 head.

Also a Boss Dr. Rhythm drum machine (also does bass), a Tascam DP-02CF, and several pedals, as well as made a few pedals myself.

[Dave]

One of the good things that came out of playing in a band as a teenager was that I could afford to buy a better guitars and amps and pay them off over time. The other one was that playing in a somewhat respectable band that stayed booked every weekend brought me from utter obscurity (except for my circle of close friends) to the point where people I didn't know suddenly knew me! I still see schoolmates from time to time that remember that I played in a band.

 

And then there was the chick factor. It was worth the practice time and late nights...grin.

 

As an adult, it's just good fun. Not to mention the fact that I can be completely burned out from work, come home and pick up the guitar and the mood elevates, the tiredness subsides, and the world is a better place. I'm hooked.

[MelodyMaker1]

My hiatus, for lack of a better word, was about 35 years, give or take a few. Played as a teenager, but also played sports so the girls were there always. Being from New Orleans, besides secretly liking Les Paul, the band that influenced me the most was The Meters. But, realizing I could never be really good sort of took the luster off of playing guitar. I was much better at basketball anyway. Then college, work, marriage, and two hungry kids, finished killing my musical aspirations. Now that the kids are grown, the wife is mad at me most of the time, and I am retired, has given me loads of free time. Except for my "honey-do" time, so I seemed to have gravitated back to the guitar. But, so far I am better at collecting them, than playing them.