Guitar Gear

It’s a Gibson J-45 Avant Garde Walnut Burst and it’s also the first brand-new guitar I’ve purchased in a few years. It arrives tomorrow, and I can barely contain the giddy feeling I have in anticipation of unboxing it and playing it the first time.

For me, the J-45 is the acoustic I’ve wanted for a long, long time. I fell in love with one in Hawaii while visiting my daughter a few years ago, and the memory of playing that wonderful guitar left an indelible mark.

After I completed the purchase, I was a little surprised that I bought this guitar without that old feeling of GAS. In fact, my purchase was the result of literally months of research, playing various J-45’s. The one I got was actually at the lower end of the price range for J-45’s, but that wasn’t a driver. Since it’s made of walnut rather than rosewood or mahogany, the price was significantly less for the same features.

I actually did some careful planning on this purchase. I knew that I was going to spend in the $2k range. I wanted a dreadnought with a cutaway. But specifically, I wanted a J-45 body shape with a cutaway. All it took was time.

That’s not how it has been in the past with my guitar purchases. I’d see something, and I’d just buy it. Admittedly, at the time, I didn’t have multiple college tuitions to pay so it was a lot easier. But all these years later, I’ve had to take a much more measured approach to major gear purchases.

Admittedly, once I make a major purchase, it’s a little anti-climactic because I would have spent a lot of time researching leading up to the purchase. But that sense goes away quickly when I realize that I’m finally getting what I spent so much time getting educated.