I toy around with the acoustic guitar. Wouldn't call my self a musician, but I have committed to studying music for the rest of my life. I like the idea of being old, sitting on a porch with a guitar and a good 40 years of music study under my belt.

THe only guitar I have is an old Syari acoustic, that my dad played when he was younger... so it's a good 30 years old. It's all beat up and gnarly looking. I've had nicer guitars (tacoma c1c chief, alvarez 6 string, takamine 12 string), but none of them felt as good as the old beat-up thing my dad gave me.

I went to a music festival in Pagosa Springs Colorado weekend before last, and saw some mind boggling musicians. All these young people playing bluegrass, jazzgrass, newgrazz.... jamming on fiddles, banjo's, mandolins, cellos, stand up bass, and guitars like you've never seen.

I've listened to and been a fan of my fair share of hardcore, loud, electric music. I roadied for a band for 3 years, that had a rock/funk/rap thing going (http://sonicgarden.com/sonic-web/artist.cfm?artistid=10779# few samples here). Nothing, however hits home quite as much as actual acoustic, unplugged, music made from a couple of strings and a few peices of carved wood.

I play bass, (for the past 6 months) and have really enjoyed it.

This is the one I play. Very nice, got it almost new for $200, but I have DR black beauties on it. (note: this is not my pic.)

Well, digging up the thread and adding...

I've now got a Roland TD-10 electric drumkit as my primary with quadrouple (4) bass- lets me attempt Dimmu Borgir without scaring me... Sounds amazing though, just like a normal kit- has mesh heads so every drum is uber bouncy and acts like a snare.

Also just got a new Steinberger Spirit Double neck lmt edition guitar. They aren't expensive, but they are outstandingly good. The bass and guitar necks both have great action and play quickly and smoothly.

The Steinberger trem is also amazing- the quality of a floyd, but the design altered completey so tuning is easy and fine tuned with the same 40:1 ratio tuners at the bass of the trem. Its also locking- allows you to not only play like a fixed bridge, but also a trem, and the unlocked bridge tension can be tuned down so when unlocked it can be 1/2 step down or more. The trem is amazing, has top and bottom inputs for the arm (to allow you to use your forearm to play the whammy) and also keeps a chord in tune with itself when it dives.

The bass portion is really sweet, but being my first bass I can't say much. Other bassists who have had a go on mine say its a really sweet bass- nice and fluid, so I guess its a good'un.

The guitar as a whole is just amazing, paid only ?290 for it, and as for the missing headstocks- balances the guitar better, removes the neck widening that occurs behind and around the 1st fret (allowing much easier play of chords around 1st) and also allows quicker application of strings because they are double ball ended. The pickups also allow play of razor sharp metal to punk or jazz sounds with really warm tone. My best instrument buy after my TD-10 I think.

Its very cool for song writing, and also for lower tunings- the bass can be put through its own amp or through the guitar amp, so you can get some really unique guitar riffs going into fat distorted bass riffs- you can harmonise the bass player or the guitarist in a band too- really unique playing style stuff.

But as I said, with song writing its cool to be able to quickly flick between bass and guitar to create riffs with nice bass and guitar.