... of old instrumentations.

I've got a nice acoustic guitar. It's an Ibanez acoustic, and it's 30 years old. People are oft to react with "Wah! Must be DAMN seasoned lah!"

However, it has multitudes of problems. It's neck was accidentally broken back in 1996 and subsequently repaired before it was passed on to me by my late uncle. It's neck has since warped, frets have worn off and it's intonation makes me cringe. There was this one time ("I was in band camp...") where I was just jamming in Exit 10 (near the old Psych department in HELP, one exit before the infamous Exit 11!) when out of the blue my strap came loose and my guitar dropped and hit the cement with a loud Craaaack! There's a handyplast holding it up now. Ask me and I'll show you.

Ok the point of this ranting is that everywhere I've gone to in efforts to get it repaired is rewarded with the same response and conversation.

Repair Man (RM): Eh! This is a nice guitar man!
Jerral Khor (JK): Thanks! My uncle handed it down to me, so I got kinda seasoned.
RM: Wow! I'm sure you must really treasure it.
JK: Yeah, I do. That's why I'm hoping to get all these little things repaired. What do you think needs to be worked on?
RM: You see, that's the thing. (pauses and worriedly looks at my guitar like how my foreman looks at my car)
JK: ... err... "That's the thing?"
RM: Yeah, that's the thing... I think you should just get a new guitar and keep this one as a display at home lah. You see, the truss rod has been damaged where the neck broke, so if I try to repair the warp, I might end up damaging the truss even further. But I can help you change the machine head and bridge lah.
JK: But... but... the main problem's the warp and the frets...
RM: Well, honestly I don't know if your guitar can survive refretting also. Why don't you take a look at this semi-acoustic here. Black color, very stylish. Comes with inbuilt tuner, my personal recommendation...

And yeah... that's pretty much how it went everywhere, with the only difference being the type of guitar being recommended at the end. Sigh.

Anyways, found a cool picture. Should bring a smile to all Calvin and Hobbes fans. It certainly made me smile!



This was built as a tribute to Calvin & Hobbes. I lifted the picture from www.fantent.com.


Listening to: Nausicaa Soundtrack by Joe Hisaishi
Just watched: The Last King of Scotland - A movie I quite enjoyed.