Now, normally, I wouldn’t brag about having gas, but in this particular instance, I’m ok with trumpeting it. (Pardon the pun.) You see, I have Gear Acquisition Syndrome (GAS).

I think I’ve known this for quite some time. Look at my Canon and Apple exploits. They’ve got GAS written all over them. The gearlust begins when Canon announces new hardware, or when Uncle Steve steps on a stage. Usually those events are the precursor to my wallet and some of my cash soon parting ways.

Lately, it’s been guitars.

I’m loving the heck out of playing my guitars, and have one in my hands at least an hour every day. Becky says that I’m enjoying it because it’s so different than what I do the rest of my day — it’s not computer-techy, and exercises the other side of my brain. She’s probably right; she usually is. All I know is that I find such relaxation when one of my guitars is hung around my neck, whether I’m tethered to the amp and practicing hard, or just strumming quietly while I’m watching TV.

As I’ve been taking my musical journey, I’ve really hung my hat on the Takamine line. For my budget, they make a mean guitar, and I haven’t found one yet that I didn’t like. They’re not as flashy (well, in their pro line anyway; the G’s and Jasmines have some flashy looks) as the Carvins with which Kevin is so enamored, but for my style — both lifestyle and playing style — they are exactly the right answer for me. I still think there’s a Carvin in my future one day, though. Something about a custom-built guitar that is entirely unique to my tastes appeals to me. Pricing it out, that’s about a $2500 instrument, and I’m just not quite ready for that… yet!

After playing so many guitars last Wednesday at the Mozingo launch party, I really cemented my opinion of the Takamine line, and couldn’t get that crazy bearclaw instrument out of my noggin… so much so that I actually dreamt about the guitar! Now that’s some weirdness, eh?

After all that, how could I resist? Today, I completed a deal to put the ETN10BC that I mentioned here on Wednesday in my rotation. This means the Yamaha would be traded away, but I don’t have a problem with that. The Yamaha’s a beautiful instrument, and plays well, but the Taks play circles around it (to my fingers, anyway). By the time I left the shop today after my guitar lesson, I had the ETN10BC on layaway, reserved for me.

The cool thing was that Mozingo had two to choose from. That meant that I had a choice between one that had just a bit of “clawing” on the top, and another that was very well marked, and quite symmetrical along the long axis of the instrument. I love symmetry, so it was an easy visual choice for me. I played ’em both, just to make sure there wasn’t anything weird about one of them. Looking at the serial numbers, they were manufactured about a month apart (mine was made in September of 2009), and as expected, there really wasn’t a difference I could sense between the two of them.

I’ve had a real tough time finding much info about this particular model, so I posted a question about it on the Takamine Forums. Mike Markure (product manager for Takamine) indicated in response to my question that this was a “SPIKE” run — a short run of instruments run as a limited edition due to availability of a particular kind of wood, in this case, bearclaw spruce. From what I’ve been able to gather around the ‘net, there were only about 120 of these made. Mozingo Matt told me that at one time, they had three of them in the store, which is pretty surprising. Out of a run of 120, Mozingo had (at one time) 1/40th of the total made? That’s pretty cool, and tells me that Mozingo’s relationship with Takamine is pretty solid. That probably means bad things for me in the future. 🙂

Watch for a “birth announcement” sometime after we get back from vacation!