When life was simple.

[Music&Chaos]

Ha! I found someone on Ebay selling the exact little ones we had if you want to hang some on the wall and feel really special:

 

[shar-vell Dan]

 

[rstites]

very cool. I played my first paying gig on guitar at age 14, and that took more of my time. The class a year ahead of mine had some of the best musicians in jazz band - we lost bass and guitar when they graduated; it was the piano player (who also played several woodwind instruments) who persuaded me to try out for first chair on guitar in my senior year. Never got into session work, I went to college (for computer science) , and played in punk and rock bands on the side, then eventually metal, thrash, hair metal, prog metal, and finally death metal at 32, which was my last band, and live gig.

Your story sounds a lot like mine. I played my first few gigs at 14, though don't recall if we got any pay for them - block/street party, backyard party, etc. I started playing in active bands all through high school (connected to a bunch of young adult guys and sneaked in the backdoor with the equipment at bars for a couple of years!). Went to college for engineering, but played bands throughout my 20's, into my early 30's, and then quit when I had my second child and haven't since......now I'm an empty nester and realizing how long that's been.

I did play in jazz band in high school too but never learned to sight read for guitar at all. Somehow got through it with chord charts and puzzling things out. Still had fun. Wasn't too serious with the other high school bands but had fun - mostly there to chase girls. That's all probably why I never got any medals for playing in bands, though played almost strictly metal!

 

[TheGreatGreen]

There are countless musicians out there making money and not really giving a damn about gear, while we fuss and whine about the most minute differences online. It ultimately doesn't matter, this is all an unnecessary hobby in the end.

Every hobby is unnecessary. Doesn't mean the best ones aren't awesome.

Diving into gear is almost as fun as the music you can make with it.