Love of my life...

For more than a year now I've been teaching myself how to play the guitar.
It's difficult to learn an instrument while going to school and working full time, but I manage to squeeze in a few hours of playing time here and there. I started learning last year on a low-end, shallow body acoustic. It met an interesting fate that was a result of rage and frustration. But we won't talk about that. This summer I restrung an old parlour guitar with nylons. I got it as a gift many years back when I was of the age that quickly dismissed hobbies. I got the idea for nylon strings because I had jammed on a vintage classical guitar this summer and realised how fun and easy they can be to play. The guitar turned out to be pretty great. It is small, lightweight, can take a beating, and easy to play. The only downside is that it sounds like garbage.
As my skill advanced I realised that I needed a better instrument to hear my improvements. So did my parents. So this christmas, I was fortunate enough to pool together some funds and buy a brand new guitar.

Now the problem was choosing the right guitar withing my budget. I'll be honest, I am no guitar legend. It is more of a hobby to be honest. Playing guitar is something I do after a long day to get my mind off life for a while. I don't perform or record, I just jam in my room. I took some advice and decided to get an acoustic electric model so that I could explore my options of hooking the guitar up to garageband and playing it through my PA system. With that said, the going rate for acoustic electrics is rather high. For the same price as my new Fender CD-60CE, I could have had a nice Simon and Patrick acoustic. I know the brand reputation with this Quebec-made guitars to be fairly good. They look and sound awesome too. However, the Fender stood out because it had literally everything I wanted.
The beautiful thing about the Fender CD-60CE is that it has features of a pro-model guitar for a fraction of the price. Little things like an on-board tuner, cutaway, decorative rosette, TWO strap buttons, and inlay fret markers instead of stickers. On the other hand, it does lack a few small things that bring up the value of the guitar. It is manufactured in China, little of which is done by hand. It has a plastic saddle, nut, and bridge pins (which i plan on upgrading to TUSQ) And the overall finish is rather basic. To be honest though, I can't see those being things that will affect my enjoyment of the instrument.
Comparing the Fender to my old parlour guitar, the difference in sound quality is staggering. I can't believe what I've been missing playing on cheap guitars. Yeah, so mine isn't really an "expensive" guitar, per se. But I see things in it that value it way higher than anything else I've ever palyed.
Since it's christmas break, I've obviously had quite some time to jam. I've learned a few new licks, songs, and chords. I can't wait until I get back to Waterloo tomorrow so I can run it through some simulated amps and here how I fare on an "electric" guitar.

Fishman Isys Preamp

I have some plans for taking care of this baby which I have named Ethel. I plan on putting in new bridge pins and a new saddle when I need to do my first re-string. I want to experiment with different materials. It's a cheap and harmless upgrade that could benefit sound. Also, I want to invest time in cleaning and polishing it every so often. I've always been a fan of beat up looking guitars, but this one might be just too nice to ruin. I'll save that for when I get an electric.
Yeah, at some point I wouldn't mind getting an electric guitar. The problem is that I have expensive taste in that category. I really want an American made telecaster. Google it and you'll understand why that's a problem.
I've embedded a slideshow below with a bunch of picture that I took this evening. I was rather limited in terms of camera gear but i think I captured some of the more attractive attributes of the guitar.
I hope to actually maybe possibly record some stuff in the coming months to put it up here. That's a big if, but I know a lot of you would want to hear. :)

Anyways, happy new year. Enjoy the photos!

And here's one more of Moe and I jamming on New Years Eve.