first lady member replies...
ahhh yes well gentlemen, I may use that term loosely here....
I am 48 yrs old, ride motorcycles, surf and have a passion for playing the guitar. have played since the age of 13. started on a generic Classical gut string. played off and on throughout my teens and kinda lost my playing into young adulthood. spent too much time partying to be honest.
the first "real" guitar I bought was my '77 Strat which I found in a West Hollywood pawnshop. practically stole it cuz I was dating a guy that worked there. kept that guitar when all else in my life kinda fell apart. pawned it several times, only to rescue it again.
Once I hit my thirties, I settled down enough to work and started owning other guitars. A cheapie Fender acoustic with terrible action was mine for about 5 years, until I wandered into a little store in Alexandria, VA and purchased my first Guild. I was really into Suzanne Vega's early stuff then and she's played Guilds for years. So I still own my '86 (?) D-25 and this year, yearned for a Twelve string to accompany it. purchases the D25-12 off ebay and so wandering around in cyberspace, found you guys.
I really compose a lot of my own songs and am working on jazz progressions now. I like everything from '70's progressive rock: Yes, King Crimson, Genesis etc. to jazz: listen to Joyce Cooling, Craig Chacico and Larry Carlton. So inspired by Larry, I just bought a DeArmond X-155 off ebay. love it. It's no Gibson ES, but love it anyway.
Guild is a great American company, and I hated to see Westerly close.
I still have my old Strat, mostly for sentimental reasons and it's probably not a bad investment. don't play it, tho, my Guilds are soo much nicer.
that's me, guys. I will post from time to time, but I'm reading and learning. I'm in Los Angeles, anybody else live here?