Today
was a really nice day. After spending most of last night (when the
sun came up at 4:10am I decided to go to bed -- my sleep schedule's
still fuckt from the weekend's events) tweaking my system with TweakUI
and Xteq's X-Setup (which I highly suggest downloading, for
free -- I got mine at www.pcworld.com) and making my system even mo'
better (I'm such a dork, but everything's running faster, and all
the extra crap that I never use is gone with the wind, and it kicks
ass), um, jeez, where was I, and what kind of shitty-assed run-on
sentence is this?!?!
So
it's a really nice day, and around 1pm I head off to Ochanomizu to
get a guitar. I've got $500 in yen in my wallet, and I have a general
idea of what I want; something big, with fine-tuners on the bridge
and a locking nut. I was thining Ibanez, since my last few guitars
have been Ibanez (each brand feels a little differntly, and getting
a new brand means you have to relearn things a bit -- kind of like
when you drive someone else's car, and everything's just a little
different from what you're used to.
There's
7 different stores along this road, and leaving the eki I visit
each one, see what's on hand, and jot down anything notable. At the
bottom of the hill I hit Ticket Pia and buy tickets for the Wildhearts
/ Sex Machine Guns / Guitar Wolf show coming up (Y6000, Arena section).
My
notes (all the V's are the Mustainey type; not Gibsons):
1st
store - used Kelly, used Ibanezs, $200/$250ish.
2nd
store - nuthin' (it was one of them hoitey-toitey $2000 Gibson-and-Fender-only
shops. (Although in one corner they had some nice Jackson Mustaine
Flying Vs, in this little Dave Mustaine shrine. But those were all
$2000 or more too.)
3rd
store - Aiji (Pierrot) F200 purple $487, Fernandes strat-shapes
($200)
4th
store - Used Kellys, blue/gold nice, $400s. Lots of overpriced
Ibanezs ($1500 Korn models etc)
5th
store - Cool! Aiji quilted new $480, purple V (Edwards) $490.
Green V $300 - new?
The
other two stores are ont the other side of the street, and I was too
lazy to take notes -- but one ended up having the 5th store's purple
V, same model, only for $368!
I
first tried the purple V at the 7th store, and it was cool. It looked
cool, it sounded great, but you can't play it sitting down, which
is how I practice 90% of the time. The fact that it was $100 less
than at the other places excited me, too. But I have to play it standing
up?! Boo!
Then
I crossed the street to shop number one, and asked to play a $200
used Ibanez. Plain, white, with locking nut and Floyd Rose. The guy
had trouble with the cord/plug while tuning it, and then after I played
it for maybe 5 seconds it was already out of tune. Pass! I think the
clerk was actually embarassed.
I
ended up going for the F200. The 3rd store had a purply one, the 5th
store a brownish one. I tried out the purply one, and just figured,
oh fuck, buy the damn thing already. Then I thought about the pretty
blue Kellys downstairs, but they're too tiny -- the things look small
on midgets. And I reconsidered the V... but it just didn't feel right
on me, it'd take a lot of getting used too -- whereas the "strat"
(dual horn) shape of the F200 was pretty much the same thing I'd always
been playing... and it felt lightweight, too. Not as light as a $1250
Parker Fly, but lighter than you'd expect.
So
I bought the quilted purple Aiji model, on my credit card (and it's
Y123 to $1, so the guitar, at Y48,700, is actually less than $400US
-- a bargain!) and a Y10,000 gigbag that they reduced by 10% for me,
and the total came to around Y60,000 -- $475US. (The gigbag was the
best they had -- a Ritter. There's cheaper, less-padded, weaker ones
for $40, $60, and $80, but if you have to take your guitar on a jam-packed
Tokyo train, you want lots o' padding!
I
just noticed the gigbag has "Fast Access Zippers". I wonder
if I can get those for my pants!
So
I got it home, and even my father-in-law liked it! ("Oh, very
nice! Do you have speaker [aka "an amp"]?")
Also,
sometime during the day (I was there from 2pm to 6pm, bouncing from
store to store) I ended up buying a bunch of Iron Maiden, Wildhearts,
and Megadeth stuff, and the Def Lep Tribute which was 25% cool, 50%
forgetable, and 25% insulting. All in all, a good day!
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