Tastee Lixx!
My quest for a new, “real” guitar came to an unexpected but totally awesome end this past Friday. I’d been trawling on eBay — I almost closed on a Les Paul Special a couple weeks ago, in fact. But I always kept Guitar Works in the back of my mind. That’s the guitar shop in Evanston where my friend (and sometimes-ZP-drummer) Larry works. Larry’s kept an open invitation for me to come up and see what they have; it’s just taken this long for the stars (and budgets) to align…
It’s a great, friendly store in a slightly grungier area of Evanston that I’d forgotten exists. Larry steered me towards a couple of Gibsons, because that’s what I thought I wanted. You see, I’m not much of a gear-head, and to be totally honest, I always stayed away from Telecasters and the like for the simple (dumb) fact that I didn’t like the way they looked. Journey, AC/DC — these are the Gibson-playing bands, and their axes looked as substantial as their sound. By contrast, the highest-profile Fender player I knew of was Springsteen, who you can never hear above all those drums and saxophones anyway.
So I’m sitting in the shop, trying out some Gibsons and Gibson-esque guitars through the most basic amp Larry can find. They sound pretty good, and the necks are basically what I’m used to. Then out of nowhere, Larry very nonchalantly hands me this Fender Jazzmaster. Not to bore anyone even less technically inclined than me, but the Jazzmaster is a different Fender entirely from your Stratocasters and Telecasters. I’ll let the pictures speak for themselves, but suffice it to say, it’s gorgeous in a far less symmetrical way.
Riff-ola!
And I wonder how much that look has influenced the fact that, in a sense, this is the indie rock guitar of choice. Forget Journey — the Jazzmaster is what Dinosaur Jr. and Sonic Youth play! This is the guitar on the cover of Loveless, man! In fact, to be completely honest, I’d always thought the Jazzmaster was actually a little too cool for someone like me… But here it was in all its glory, and it was not outside of my budget, so I had to shake off my inferiority complex and just take that bull by the horns. Besides, wasn’t this supposed to be about sound and feel and playability — not looks and image and cache? Indeed it was.
But sometimes a flashy leather coat can be more than an accessory. It can fit like a glove and keep you warm and hold your cellphone. And not to stretch the metaphor too far, but this guitar was exactly THAT kind of coat. It produced a clean, boomy sound, and with all the knobs and switches I could shift into more menacing timbres with ease. Most importantly, it played like a dream. It had a substantial body, which I like, and the neck was extremely comfortable. My fingers just felt at home — no strangled bar chords, and the bottom two strings (very important to my playing) seemed to ring out for hours.
I tried a couple more guitars just to be safe, but I knew what I’d be going home with. Thanks much to Larry and Guitar Works for a great experience. Everyone else, look forward to the new and improved sound at my upcoming shows! Yowza!
