how i bought an electric guitar

about a month ago, i decided to buy an electric guitar. i had been wanting one for a bit, and had occasionally played a guitar belonging to a friend as well as a few others. while a lot of what i listen to is folk and i love my acoustic dearly, i wanted more versatility in sound. i want to sing that rock and roll.

friends had told me of the power of facebook marketplace, so, having avoided it for many years, i made a facebook account. i opened the electric guitar tab and realized that i had no clue what i was looking for, so i closed it and opened youtube. i spent a great many hours watching videos on a variety of guitars and how to buy a guitar and learned a lot. i only have one video still saved.

i learned a great many things, and i'll recount some of them to you here. i am by no means an expert on this topic, but i think it's neat.

first, there are various shapes of guitars. two very popular shapes, both originated by fender, are the stratocaster (strat) and telecaster (tele). there are a lot of other shapes and models and other brands as well, such as the gibson les paul and various shapes manufactured by ibanez. this is remaining in solid-body electrics as well, not even looking into semi-hollow-body guitars.

one key thing for me to think about was pickups. there are two main types of guitar pickups: single-coil pickups and humbuckers. there are also active pickups, but those are expensive and only for playing really loud music, which is not my thing. single coil pickups tend to have a bright sound, while humbuckers are often a lot warmer. sometimes, humbuckers look a lot like two single-coil pickups stacked on top of each other. they're called humbuckers because they're designed to buck the hum (random extra noise) of single coil pickups to allow for louder sounds with more distortion. one thing that was recommended to me was to get an HSS guitar, which stands for humbucker-single-single. such a guitar has three pickups, with a humbucker at the bridge and single-coil pickups at the middle and neck. this allows for a really versatile sound.

to choose between a fender or a strat or some other type of guitar, i decided to look at the types of guitars some of my favorite artists play. i began with courtney barnett, because i love her music and she has a very versatile sound. from my research, i discovered she has three main guitars: a fender telecaster, a fender jaguar (jag), and a harmony rocket (semi-hollow body). she also plays a fender jazzmaster sometimes, and can also be seen with a strat. the tele and the jag seemed like the main things to consider, but we'll come back to the rocket. her jag has only humbuckers, and i like the sound, but i want more versatility. the tele is a solid possibility. haley heynderickx has a tele and a couple of semi-hollow body guitars. big thief plays a very wide variety of guitars, and sidney gish has a strat.

with my research done, i returned to facebook marketplace and began to browse. i'm of the philosophy that my gear being beautiful and me being in love with it is a little more important than it perfectly suiting  the sound i hypothetically want to play. my sound can evolve, but i don't want to spend a lot of money on something i feel lukewarm about. with this in mind, i plunged into the depths of facebook marketplace.

a lot of facebook marketplace is pretty bland. a lot of weird stains, odd shapes, and cheap guitars. a lot of black and white fender strats and yamaha pacificas that would be find but just don't grab me. one day, however, i found a strat with some character. it had an hss configuration and pickups with a golden color. it was subtle and a little damaged, but beautiful. it did have hot pickups, meaning the coils were wound tighter resulting in a more intense sound. perhaps not exactly what i wanted, and i deliberated for a while sadly, i eventually realized it had already been sold before i had even seen it, as the seller had double-listed it.

while i was hunting for a guitar, i also hunted for an amp. i didn't really know much about amps, but i didn't need to. the moment i saw an orange crush 12 i knew i wanted one. orange amps are a beautiful shade of orange, and the crush 12 is kind of the perfect amp for where i'm at. i did some research to make sure the sound was what i wanted, and after a friend of a friend confirmed it was a good amp, i bought one. i was a little late to the meetup, but it didn't matter. she was mine.

 

 

a picture from the first day, plugged into my friend's electric.

 

after buying an amp, i continued my search for a guitar. rather an odd order to do things in, but i was certain i wanted this amp and i wasn't certain about a guitar yet. i kept searching, and was really considering getting a cheaper guitar i'd like less, but i'm very glad i didn't.

before i get to the guitar i eventually ended up getting, i want to return to courtney barnett's harmony rocket. you can see her play it in her tiny desk concert, or in this performance of avant gardener. this guitar intrigued me a lot, so i decided to look into the company that made it.

that is how i found the harmony h62 rocket reissue, my dream guitar. she's so so beautiful, elegant, and has a gorgeous sound. really go watch that video i know there are a lot of links in this post but i promise that one's the most worth it. i hope to get one someday, but we'll see. i think between a semi-hollow body with humbuckers and a solid-body with single-coil pickups i will cover everything i could ever want an electric guitar to do.

back to my guitar. one day, i saw her. she was just the one for me. a fender strat, 3 single-coil pickups, and a limited-edition color that fit me well. billiard ball blue. i messaged the seller, she was still available, and i went to get her. the seller runs a small shop packed with guitars in a nearby town. when i got there, he realized he didn't actually have it in the store and very apologetically told me if i came back tomorrow he'd go get it and throw in a free bag and strap. he also taught me a lot about guitars, and let me play a couple of other beautiful guitars in his shop. the next day i went back, got the guitar, and the rest is history. videos of me playing her coming sometime, but for now here's a picture.