How to get free clothing

[ericcoleman]

Simple ... fall on your guitar ...



Let me tell you about the weather here in Ames IA the last week or so. We had a bunch of snow, it melted, and then froze, and then melted, and then froze ... well ... you get the idea.

I was getting out of the van, heading to my sunday night bit of fun. Oh, I should tell you about myself. I am a songwriter/singer (if you heard me sing you would understand the order there) based out of Ames. I travel occasionally but mostly play open mikes, Science Fiction Conventions (long story) and the occasional Coffee House ... for free coffee. I claim to be semi-pro, but I'm lying, I'm not even partially pro. I do sell CDs occasionally and every so often I even get paid for playing. Sometimes even in double digits.

But I digress ...

So ... I was getting out of the van, heading to my sunday night bit of fun. (Yeah, I know I said that already, but I have a short attention span). I was standing on the now frozen snow. I locked the door to the van (since there is so much crime in Ames IA) and I took one step away from the van onto the sidewalk. The sidewalk that had been a conduit for the water runoff from the melting snow all day. It didn't occur to me that it had gotten significantly colder in the last hour. Not at all ... I'm a musician and ya know ... we tend to be a little unaware of our surroundings. There was a time when I was playing and ... well ... never mind ... that isn't important to the core of the story.

I digress again ...

I stepped onto the sidewalk that had been the runoff for water just a couple of hours ago and was now a full fledged ice rink.

I'm a big guy ... well over 5 feet tall and quite close to 300 lbs. When I hit the ground ... I hit it hard. Now I have years of stage combat behind me, quite far behind me, but I can still take a fall. But even still ... something has to brace my fall. I put my right hand down as I fell, I was holding my guitar in my left.

A bit about my guitar. I own two actually. One is a Martin that rarely leaves the house. One is a Takamine that goes everywhere with me. I love my Tak ... it has great electronics, a built in tuner (I play in several tunings) and is comfy and fun to play.

But I digress (AGAIN ... GEEZE)

As I fell the guitar went with me. I put out my right hand to break the fall. And placed it right in the middle of the back of my guitar case.

Did I tell you that it was a TKL case? It is ...

I went down hard ... With my full weight ... and put my hand right in the middle of the back of the case right over the middle of the back of the body of the guitar.

I was terrified, I scrambled to my feet and got myself inside. I opened the case ... so afraid that my guitar was damaged.

I took it out. Strummed a chord. Ran around the neck some. Checked out the back. Checked out the front. And went onstage and played my set.

The guitar is fine. The case is fine. I blame you.

All my cases are TKL from now on. Thanks so much.



I got an email back ... they are sending me a TKL shirt ... cool ...

Comments

[erik]

Awesome. So many people fail to write the letters about exceptionally good things and only write the ones about the exceptionally bad things.

[erik]

And for the opposite circumstance I would point you to the classic Tom Post song, Thank You Repulic Airlines, For Breaking The Neck On My Guitar

[ericcoleman]

I actually do things like that fairly often .. whether it is a letter/email or just saying something in a store or such ...

on the other hand ... the local Macdonalds has come to fear me ... in a really amusing way ...

[ex-erikvolso370.livejournal.com]

What I've noticed: Pretty much every player I know who gigs often has the cool guitar that they love, but never leaves the house, and plays a Takamine on the road. The guys who travel a bunch not only like the fact that they're playable, if something happens, it's pretty easy to get another one, no matter what city you are in.

And, yes. You've learned the less. Use good hard cases. Period. Gig bags are for suckers.

[ericcoleman]

I actually have a really good Tak ... which would be hard for me to replace ... it was a present from a pro friend of mine ... he thought I needed a good work guitar ... he was right ... he bought me a good case too

[starstraf.livejournal.com]

Excellent! Glad all if fine, and glad you let them know

[ex-erikvolso370.livejournal.com]

Most of the Taks are good players. It's one of the reasons it has become such a popular road guitar. The built in pickups are first-rate (which is another reason it's popular for performance.)

It almost seems as if the design constraint was "Take this player. He has a '66 Martin D-28. He doesn't want to bring it on the road, or put a pickup in it. Design a guitar that he can use on the road."

So, you need a good pickup. It needs to be reasonably priced. Being common is nice, too, in case something happens and you need to get another one fast. It also has to be playable -- the guy is used to a D-28, he isn't going to deal with something that doesn't play.

What do you get? Takamine. Great guitars, from the point-of-view of the soundman. Very clean, clear sound, very resistant to feedback.

[alymid.livejournal.com]

I think it is actually Tom Paxton ....