As a child, I grew up watching my dad play guitar. He would join random bands in hopes of getting somewhere; he played free shows just to get free beer. He also played at a wide variety of places including bars, concert houses, backyards, parties; any place you can think of that brings in local bands, he has played there. He was in several different bands. One of his more successful ones was called “War-Hammer.” It always put a smile on my face when he allowed me to come to one of their band’s shows. Even though I was only a child I still enjoyed it just because it was my dad. I remember waiting at home on the couch for him to walk through the door just arriving home from a gig to bombard him with questions.
He introduced me to many different bands and famous musicians such as Jimi Hendrix, Dimebag Darrell, Zakk Wylde, George Lynch and many more that all had played a small part in my desire to play guitar. My biggest influence was my dad. Just seeing how happy he was while playing guitar up on stage and even by himself at home with just me watching was just amazing. I was six years old when he first allowed me to play one of his guitars. It was an old sunburst Gibson. Just sitting there strumming on the strings I felt as if I was on top of the world. I continued to just mess around on the guitar for the next year or so.
When I was about 7 and ½ he thought it was time for me to get my own guitar. Words cannot describe how excited I was. But there was a catch; I had to learn one song before he would buy me a guitar. After contemplating which song to learn we finally came to a conclusion. I was to learn “Seek and Destroy” by Metallica. He showed me the basic riffs and some of the more difficult parts, but I had to learn the majority of it by tabs and ear. After listening to the song over and over again and practicing on a daily basis until my fingers bled, I was finally able to play the song all the way through. Granted it sounded terrible but I was so proud that I was actually able to do it, and so was my dad.
The daunting task was over; I was finally able to get a guitar! We went around to all the different guitar stores and pawn shops we could to look for the perfect guitar. There were so many to choose from I thought I was going to go insane. There was one guitar in particular though that caught my eye, and it kept popping into my head. It was a blood red Jackson soloist equipped with 2 EMG Pickups an 81 and 85 (the 81 and 85 are just different types of pickups; one of which has more treble or bass than the other) and a Floyd rose tremolo which is just a special type of bridge that allows you to change the sound by pushing or pulling on the bar. I think my dad noticed that I kept thinking about this guitar too because we kept going back to that pawn shop.
After about 5 hours of what seemed like endless driving, we finally stopped. This time he made me wait in the car instead of going in with him. I wasn’t sure why he did this at first until he walked out with a black hard-shell case, with the words Jackson written in white letters across the front of it. I instantly jumped out of the car and ran up and hugged him. I feel bad now that he had to stand there in the parking lot for 20 minutes while I thanked him and looked at the guitar. When we finally got home an hour later I instantly went into my room and started playing until my fingers were numb.
I was absolutely in love with this guitar and have never stopped playing since this day. Since then I have gone through about seven guitars that include a Paul Reed Smith, ESP, Dimebag Darrell signature series, a couple B.C Rich’s and many more. The one I currently have is an Alexi Laiho signature series LTD. Even though I love this guitar and a lot of the ones I have had before I must say that Jackson was my favorite overall. What made me love the Jackson so much was that it was just so easy to play and stayed in tune for days. I never really had to mess with it. Once it was set up, it was good to go for life. I really wish I had kept this guitar rather than trading it to get a new one just because I thought I needed a cooler looking one. I don’t think I’ll ever have another guitar that I will love or play as much as this one.