Time For Change

I shudder to think how many guitars I’ve bought, sold, traded or swapped over the years, but a review of blip has revealed there have been ten in the last two and a half years alone!
So…..today I went to R&T Music thinking I might buy another bass guitar - one I’d checked out last week. When I got there, I was told it had “sort of been sold”. Someone had pressed the “ buy now” button on the website but no money had changed hands yet. I decided that as I hadn’t snapped that guitar up when I saw it last week, I obviously had doubts about it so I’ll not pursue it.
But then, almost magically, a new trade in appeared in the shop - a Yamaha “TransAcoustic”. This was a lovely bit of kit with a torrefied spruce top, rosewood sides, mahogany neck and ebony fretboard and bridge. So far, so standard high end Yamaha acoustic. But the really clever bit is some complicated electronic trickery that enables the guitar to benefit from reverb and chorus without actually being plugged in. I don’t know how it works, but the difference between it being on or off is remarkable. With it full on, it almost sounds like you’re playing a 12 string in a concert hall rather than just strumming away in your living room.
At this point, I should probably mention that me and acoustic guitars have had a difficult relationship over the years. I love having one in the house, but have struggled to find one I’m completely happy with. In fact, my third ever blip was of a new Martin acoustic that I hoped would be “the one”. Spoiler alert - it wasn’t!
Now, the guitar I was going to trade in for the new bass was my Fender Acoustasonic. Something I thought would tick a lot of boxes as it had both electric and acoustic sounds available. But it needed to be plugged in for the best acoustic sounds and I would always go for my old Telecaster if I wanted electric sounds. So the Acoustasonic was neither fish nor fowl and has been little more than an expensive (dust gathering) wall hanging for the last year. So when I was offered the same deal against the Yamaha as I was against the bass, I very quickly decided that I didn’t need another bass, I actually needed a different acoustic guitar! Fifteen minutes later, a new set of strings had been fitted and the deal was done. An application of guitar polish when I got home removed a few sticky marks and dull patches and it now gleams like new.
I think I’ve ended up with a far better guitar than a) I had before and b) the bass I might have bought. But I would not be so foolish as to call this “the one” or even “a keeper”. Every time I’ve said that about a guitar in the past, I’ve ended up getting rid of it a few months later. So I’ll try a bit of reverse psychology on myself and see how long it lasts. Probably wouldn’t hurt to play it now and again either!