Thanks Doc

In March 2006 Dr. Little performed his second surgery on my brain. This removed a tumor approximately the size of a grown woman's fist from the deepest caverns of the left side of my head. This surgery took more than 10 hours to perform and touched upon some of the most sensitive areas of the brain dealing with language.

Following the surgery, swelling affected these areas of language and led to a couple of weeks of me slurring words and at times saying words that in no way were associated with what I was trying to say. As a result, Dr. Little prescribed some speech therapy, occupational therapy, and neuro-psychology visits. Though I found almost no use in the speech therapy and occupational therapy, I found that my neuro-psychologist was a very motivating man.

In getting to know me, he discovered my passion for music. I love seeing concerts, listening to all kinds of music, and even writing about music. However, I've never been good at playing the guitar even though I've tried on several occasions. The doctor pointed out that having had two rather large tumors removed from my brain was significant towards my learning process.

As you've probably heard, the brain develops certain pathways to handle specific kinds of thoughts. Since I've had two tumors growing in my head for years, my brain had to alter its pathways to adjust to my learning patterns. Since these weren't the most direct ways, my brain wasn't being as efficient as possible even though I've always been near or at the tops of my classes. So my neuro-psychologist suggested attempting to learn the guitar again.

That was a wonderful prescription from my doctor. Since I didn't have a guitar, he said to go out and purchase one, which I did. I went out and bought the squire version of the Stratocaster. A nice place to start learning again. With my friend, Patrick's, lessons I was on my way toward becoming a much improved player. So I messed around with that guitar for about 6 months, learning what I could and sounding better all the time.

Now musical experts say that playing music isn't all about your equipment, thank God because the Squier Stratocaster is pretty cheap, but they also say that it is important to really bond with your instrument because it fits well both in size, sound, and easiness of play. This is what my Strat looks like. She's a beauty, but made out of some pretty cheap materials. Thus, it's not the easiest guitar to play and it isn't the best sounding.


Now in my search for a new guitar, there were three main criteria. First, the guitar had to sound good while being easy to play. Second, it had to have a cool look and feel to it to encourage me to play it. Finally, the price had to fit within my range, which was less than $1,000. So I did a bunch of research online into specific styles, their sounds, and price. Then I headed out into that great big world of guitars with a short list to try.

While at Guitar Center this Sunday, I had to try more than 30 guitars out. Many of these met my criteria. Finally, I noticed the following Gibson/Epiphone ES-335 Elitist.



Gibson, which now owns Epiphone has a long history. The company produced its first guitar in 1894 and was an instant success. It made its first electric guitar in 1938. Gibson was owned by Chicago Musical Instruments (CMI) and in the late 1950s, partly as a result of a guitar made by Less Paul, purchased Epiphone, which had been making stringed instruments since 1887.

This purchase created an interesting mix of guitars. At first, guitars were made using standard Gibson bodies along with Epiphone parts. Then in the 1960s Gibson/Epiphones were made using Gibson bodies and parts, thus making the guitars produced during this period truly Gibsons. Now Gibson lets Epiphone handle the entire deal.

While looking at the ES-335 Elitist, it became obvious that even the modern ones made by Epiphone are worth $1,300. However, at the Guitar Center, I realized that the model I was looking at was really from 1963 and was really a Gibson. When I got it home, I checked serial numbers out on-line and found out that this was the real deal. Searching through on-line ads made me realize that the top end price for a true Gibson was $11,999. That's $11,399 more than I paid for mine.

Besides the great bargain that I received on it, it also felt wonderful, and sounded great while being easy to play. Thanks guitar gods for leading me to this instrument.