A New Year, a Turn of the Page, and

this has been a good weekend already, even if it's only Saturday morning.

I haven't discussed this much ... at least not lately ... but I've been playing guitar since 1969.

When my wife & I took sabbatical from ministry, a few years ago, we were serving in the capacity as music ministers of our church. She plays keyboards, and I play guitar - six strings, 12, and bass. Rhythm & occasionally the odd lead break, if the song permits. I also finger-pick. (I love finger-picking!)

I went through a series of different guitars while at that church, starting out with an Italian electric 12-string which I bought in Naples in 1975. It played well, but the pickups were ... well, let's just say it had a funky sound ... sounding sometimes more like an electric banjo than a guitar. It took a bit of experimentation with tone controls & the sound man to make it okay.

After that, I had an Alvarez Yairi acoustic-electric ... then a Fender Stratocaster ... and finally wound up with another Alvarez acoustic-electric.

But then we had to step down. We'd been providing the music for two different churches (three, in my case) for 20 years, and finally became burnt out.


But it's been five years, and the muse is finally stirring again. Time to get out the guitar, replace the strings, and start building calluses. I pulled out the Alvarez, but it didn't inspire me. It's a nice guitar, but there was no excitement there.

After some conversation w/ Mrs. Paul, we agreed that we both need new instruments: she wants an electric piano, and it's high time she had one of her own.

While her keyboard has been selected, it will be a month or two before we pick it up. We went shopping yesterday for the guitar, and I found my new toy.

Happy New Year!