The Reward

So, after two and a half weeks, I got my first paycheck from my seasonal job I'm not supposed to tell you anything about. So I bought a new guitar. This makes seven. Three acoustic twelve strings, a classical, an electric, a three-quarter size student six that's actually my wife's, and, now, an electric twelve string. This isn't the best picture of it, but the Wifey gets incredibly intolerant of my exuberance when I get a new guitar, so rather than wait until I managed to sneak the latest pics off the digital camera's card, I just went with what I had.

I bought it at the local Guitar Center. I have almost officially forgiven Guitar Center. They sponsor lots of save-the-music type programs, they do alot to make instruments available to those who otherwise might not have access to them, and they do seem to hire people who know at least something about guitars. On the down side, they are loud, they are warehouse-like, and, as the Wifey observed, full of people who are trying to be cooler than each other.

(And playing guitar, loudly, trying to drown each other out. I don't. I toddle off to a corner and try to decide if it's love.)

This machine, an OLP MM12, I first saw at the GC some months back. I had been dreaming of an electric 12 for years, and this one looked enticing, but I was skeptical, since I had never laid hands on an OLP that I could keep in tune for more than ten minutes. I always ascribed this to the funky-shaped head, with four tuners on one side and two on the other. The 12 has seven tuners above and five below, which seemed like it might offer a better balance. Still, I didn't give the thing a spin that visit.

The second time I saw it, about a month ago, I picked it up and stroked it a bit. It felt good, but I still wasn't sold.

As that first paycheck loomed, I thought about the OLP more and more. Yesterday we traipsed out there-- and it's a longish traipse, all the way across town, literally on the other side of town from us-- and I got a sales guy to locate the thing, plug it up, and let me try it out. It was love, but not for the reason it probably should have been. I mean, it sounded great, and it felt about right, and it is very pretty, but that wasn't it.

See, it needed rescuing.

When I got it, the treble E was gone, and the treble G broke while I was tuning it. I got it in tune pretty easy (it was wretchedly out of tune when I got to it), but it very clearly would have tuned easier and sounded better with new strings. And, besides. Like I said: loud. Lottsa people sitting around trying to sound like they know what's what.

So I picked up the guitar and found the Wifey, then we spent about ten minutes tracking down the kid who had got it for me (they work on commission). He helped me get a strap, which wasn't what I was looking for, but worked out pretty good anyways, and sold me the goods.

After getting back to Rachelle's folks' place, then back over to our house for supplies, I re-strung it. Immediately, it was a different beast. The strings, factory strings which were probably Ernie Ball, were dull and brittle and stiff; the new D'Addario's are silver and bright and supple. The old strings had produced a rattle in the D-G-B strings on the first and second frets; with the new ones, clear as a bell. Back here at our house, I plugged it up to the 15-watt practice amp (this morning, after coffee), and it just absolutely sings.

So Olaf the OLP MM12 has been rescued from the Island of the Lost Toys. Huzzah!