THE FRUGAL GUITARIST MAGAZINE

I stumbled upon this website today looking at reviews of the Vox AC4TV in the preceeding post, and it's a very cool website. Frugal Guitarist dot com is located at, amazingly enough, http://frugalguitarist.com/Contents.aspx.

For the person who is picking the guitar back up after an absence, for the kids whose parents can't or won't spend big money for musical gear, or for the person who NOW wants to learn to play guitar or bass, it's a great find. Most of us can't or won't spend thousands of dollars on gear with which to jam at home, learn to play, do home recording or informal jams with friends and the like.

I say this in spite of the phenomenon referred to on various musician (and other hobby websites) called G.A.S., which stands for Gear Acquisition Syndrome or Gear Accumulation Syndrome.

Alot of the more inexpensive stuff coming out nowadays is pretty cool. For example, for a little more than $100, you can get an excellent bass or guitar from SX guitars at the Rondo Music website. A friend gave me a gift of one of the SX fretless jazz basses in Lake Placid Blue. It is perfect in every way. The pickups are actually excellent as are the tuners. The bridge is a little lightweight but for a guy like me, it really doesn't matter.

I'm not playing the bass live, I use it for songwriting and for recording on Garageband.

So if you're itching to learn to play the guitar, get yourself an SX strat for about $150 (these cost a bit more than the cheapest ones but have much better tuners and pickups) . Add one of these $250 tube amps and you're in bidness for the blues and for blues rock.

So go peruse the Frugal Guitarist online magazine. It's really custom made for me, and I spent several hours there today reading the various articles and reviews.

Yes, it's possible nowadays to have a very low cost amp and guitar arsenel that you can record onto Garageband with and have quite a selection of really cool guitars and amps for the price of a mid-highend Strat or Les Paul. In some cases, the sound of cheap guitars has rivaled or excelled that of the original brand.

And websites like the FrugalGuitarist.com help the normal guy have some killer musical gear on the cheap. I'm not saying that high end gear isn't cool. One of my friends has a Gibson Custom Shop Les Paul with an aged Pelham Blue finish and some of the finest HB pickups I've ever hear. PAF's.

But I won't be buying one of those anytime soon, but I could see an $100 SX or a Brice or Stagg or Hondo Les Paul in my mid-range future.