The most expensive guitar lesson ever

I had my first guitar lesson tonight. I'm going to a local family-owned place called Arthur's Music. We're doing a story on the store for the magazine, and I had to go over there last week for a photo shoot. I got to talking with Linda and Amy who own the place, and before I left I had signed up for lessons. I've started lessons twice before and quit both times. I've been playing for 12 years and sort of know what I'm doing, so having somebody say, "Buy this book to learn an A chord so you can play 'Michael, Row Your Boat Ashore' and 'Mary Had A Little Lamb' " is not really what I'm looking for. But tonight was great. We actually got into some theory pretty quickly, covering some very basic scales and triads, and my teacher seems to understand what I'm looking for out of this experience. Teach me songs, and then we can talk about how the song is structured. So far, so good. Of course, it may have been the most expensive lesson ever, since I left with a new guitar, amp, case, strap, and cables, but Oh. My. God. This baby is worth every penny.

The Epiphone Les Paul '56 Goldtop Reissue. Two Alnico-V P-90 "soapbar" style pickups. Mahogany/alder body and top. Mahogany neck with 22-fret rosewood fingerboard and trapezoidal mother-of-pearl inlays. Chrome accents. Metallic gold finish. Ever since I played my very first note, this is the guitar I've wanted. The guys who made me want to pick up a guitar are so identified with Les Pauls that they have their own signature models. Jimmy Page plays a Les Paul. Slash plays a Les Paul. And now, so do I.

Since I couldn't afford the $2,500 for the Gibson version, I got the Epiphone reissue. Epiphone is Gibson's "cheaper" brand, but the quality is still much higher than either of the electrics I've owned in the past, and according to Amy, this model is not far off what Gibson is currently cranking out. If I were a professional musician, I'd probably be able to tell the difference, but since I'm not, this guitar is more than enough for me. This is the sweetest instrument I've ever played, and I've only owned it for 5 hours. I feel like a kid on Christmas morning. I had forgotten how much fun it is to play electric, and the fact that I finally own my dream guitar makes it that much better. It's all mine now. My own. My precious. I'll probably emerge from my apartment sometime towards the end of March.