This story begins back in 2003. I had completed my first year of college and completed my Initial Entry Training into the Army (PVT McDonald at that time). At this point I just moved out to my first apartment while continuing college (Chemical Engineering at University of Pittsburgh).

I thought: I would be so cool if I could play guitar…

My dad had this old guitar that has always been in our basement. Green and black with pickups and everything! I mean what more does a guitar need? So I asked him if I could have it, he said “sure, but nobody has touched it for years.”

So I go and get the guitar and realize that there are a few things that may need to be done to the instrument before I can play it. Now, I’m a pretty hands on person, so I decided (being an engineer and all) that I would just do everything myself. The problem was that I didn’t know anything about guitar maintenance, and it was 2003, the internet wasn’t exactly full of useful information at the time. So…I did what any self respecting engineer would do, I made it up.

I knew how to polish paint and metal from my father as we’ve built cars and houses at that point so I was well versed in tools and different polishes. So I figured that a mild wash with soap and water would remove the mildew from the paint, then I would wax everything with a polishing wax to remove any remaining marks in the finish. I then used a chrome polish to make the metal shiny :)

The fretboard was a different story, I had no idea what to do there as that looked like bare wood. So I went to guitar center and bought a “fret board conditioner and cleaner,” this seemed to work as all the stuff that came off the fret board turned the rag black (color equals progress?). At least it didn’t change the color of the fretboard? So I cleaned and conditioned.

Now the guitar looked good :)

I know nothing about strings :(

Well being the 19 year old I was, I of course didn’t ask anybody anything at guitar center. So I knew Fender was a type of guitar, and that the strings seemed to come in light, medium, and heavy tension, so, medium tension it was.

I also bought a Hal-Leonard book about how to play guitar (I had many of these books when I learned music in middle/high school). I figured it’s sort of like typing, put finger in spot A, pluck string, make noise.

So I installed the strings and tuned the guitar (bought a tuner, at least did that right :) ) only to realize that the strings made crappy buzzing noises if I had the strings close to the fretboard, so I made them farther away…obviously. Also, the electrical part didn’t seem to work, well all the time anyway, and when turning the knobs or when I moved I got crackly noises.

But I was 19. This is how I learned the guitar. I could play cool Green Day, Deep Purple, and CCR songs, oh and everything in the “learn guitar” book (good thing I already knew how to read music).

The second part of this story doesn’t take place for another decade! That’s how long it took me to fix this guitar right.