Thank you Shutterbugjohn
Luck maybe was on my side as i was reading some add at Guitar Classified. To start with, i've been fascinated by Les Pauls since i was 14 or 15, when i had the chance to play one for the very first time. It was a wine red Gibson Les Paul Custom. And since then i had a romantic relationships with LPs. Ace Frehley of KISS, a certified Les Paul user, once said '... this is one guitar that has a lot of balls'. A lot of 'balls' indeed!
As i was reading Guitar Classified, i saw a lot of ads plastered on my computer screeen selling les pauls of different brands, from Gibson to Epiphone, Greco to Bacchus to RJ. All jaw dropping! But there's one that caught my eye, it's a red sunburst Les Paul Custom, but whose brand i'm not so familiar with: Diamond. The ad said MIJ. Diamond? I told myself...'what the heck! It's another one of those lawsuit watchamacallit japanese brand!' Being sold by one Shutterbugjohn. I saw the pic... its 1:1 copy of the real. Though admittedlly not as jaw dropping as the other brands, it even looked old, but it still has its own appeal anyway.
But for one reason or another, of all the les paul brands being sold, there was a 'whisper' telling me to look at this mysterious 'Diamond". I called up Shutterbugjohn and asked him if could see the guitar. Surething! he said. So i went (Spyroghyro as with me). Finally i saw the 'Diamond'... staring right in front of me. Though not so diamond physically, true enough it looked old as in the picture, like it took a lot of beatings in the past... hehe. But to put it nicely, this guitar looked like veteran one.
It was handed to me, then Shutterbugjohn said 'try it!'. So grabbed it, it was practically light for a Les Paul designed guitar. It was plugged straight to a Yamaha amp with no effects in between, just the gain fully cranked up. As i hit the first note... Lo and behold!... the celestial sound coming from the guitar went straight into the stratosphere! AWESOME! My fingers practically flew across the fretboard on its own! The playability was just great as if it was set at my own specs. I have played many les pauls in the past, Gibson or others, but i have never played anything like it. It may be just a 'copy' with its stock pickups, but it sure can kick other guitars' butt! There are only two guitars, so far, that i have played so comfortably with, and that has the same playability: a Jackson ( owned by a long lost friend) which i tried a long, long time ago. And now, this Diamond Les Paul. This guitar may look old, but what the heck! It's like an old '57 Chevy.... in its Hot Rod mode! Raw power!
I went back to Shutterbugjohn the next day. Luckily nobody got interested in it. I bought. And since then, my hands has never left the fretboard. Now i have a Hot Rod... zoooming away! A name i've never heard of... a real 'diamond' in the rough.
So to all of you out there in search of a guitar... use y our gut feeling! Pick one up... and try it. don't be misled by appearances, they're just secondary. And don't be ashamed if it's not an original... coz it might be the right one for you
There's so much i like to thank Shutterbugjohn for. Hes such a nice guy to deal with. I just hope there other Shutterbugjohns out there (.... and Jon DLCs too... and emilM), these people makes living in this guitar world a lot better... Rock on!
