And the Lord Did Grin

The gods of guitar acquisition hath smiled upon me. I took back the Eric Johnson strat I mentioned awhile back because, for me, no guitar is worth $1650. Perhaps as karmic payback, I discovered yesterday a Starfield Cabriolet. Starfield was a brand made by Ibanez for a few years in the early-to-mid 90’s. They listed for around $650, and this one was in apparently perfect condition for $319. Here’s an example of what it looks like.

I found it yesterday at the Blue Suede Shoes Antique Mall in Bryant while shopping with Heather and Kristin. I didn’t jump on it initially; I wanted to research it a little beforehand. These are pretty rare guitars, and I think there might be some collector value to it. I also took an amp with me to make sure the electronics were OK. Everything felt great to I took it to the register and the nice lady informed me that everything in that booth is 30% off right now….so the guitar cost me $224.

So jazzed was I about the 30% off that I went back and bought two cymbals and a microphone (Sabian crash, Pearl ride, and Shure SM48) for $34, $40, and $24, respectively. Hooray for cheap gear!

In other news, PBS’s Soundstage program featured Bill Laswell’s musical circus of freaks, including Bootsy Collins, Buckethead, Zakir Hussain, Ustad Sultan Khan, DJ Disk, and several others. I had always assumed Laswell’s work to be too far under the radar for PBS, but perhaps the world is changing for the better.

On a completely unrelated note, I had a dream last night that my ceiling was covered in ants. I woke up to discover my can of ant-fighting Scrubbing Bubbles somehow made its way into the bathroom overnight. I think I woke up in the middle of the night and moved it there for some reason. Weird.