{"id":8498,"date":"2010-02-05T13:00:15","date_gmt":"2010-02-05T18:00:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/?p=8498"},"modified":"2010-02-06T11:42:06","modified_gmt":"2010-02-06T16:42:06","slug":"hot-gear-friday-the-paul-reed-smith-guitars-se-singlecut","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/?p=8498","title":{"rendered":"Hot Gear Friday: The Paul Reed Smith Guitars SE Singlecut"},"content":{"rendered":"

So I’ve been playing guitar for a long time.\u00a0 33 years next month, in fact.<\/p>\n

And back when I was 14 and was just starting to play, “cheap” guitars were really, really awful.\u00a0 By “cheap”, of course, I meant the kinds of guitar you found in department stores and catalogs for under about $200.\u00a0 They had anemic electronics, terrible workmanship, necks that felt like polished telephone poles, and wouldn’t stay in tune for more than half a song.<\/p>\n

The advent of the global economy, computer-assisted manufacturing and mass-marketing of musical instruments has had the sort of effect that the free market was supposed to; not only can you find guitars for under $300 today that rival the quality of some of the axes that went for $600 1980 dollars thirty years ago, but it’s even dragged up the quality of some of the few remaining knockoff brand guitars you can find at Target and WalMart, which aren’t professional-quality, but aren’t embarrassments either. <\/em><\/p>\n

Anyway – I’ve been playing a long time now.\u00a0 And that whole time, I’ve been playing three guitars:<\/p>\n