I've been an occasional lurker here for a few months and have finally joined. Been playing for a long time, but am still not much more than an accomplished dilettante.
My first "I want to play guitar" moment was at about age 11 when my Dad bought a portable cassette recorder that came with a demo tape of The Ventures' "Walk Don't Run." Coolest thing I'd ever heard. 3 years later, I got my first guitar.
Some years back I sold all my steel string guitars to focus on flamenco. Did that for two years and life circumstances took me away from it. The two things that stuck with me were a taste for exotic scales and using my fingers instead of a pick. Unfortunately, it's hard to do tremolo picking on a steel string electric. I've been working on using a pick again.
I'm amazed at how much great surf music is out there, and listen to it a lot at work. Slacktone, Bambi Molesters, Los Twang Marvels, the Torquays, Vari Tones, Satans Pilgrims...all in regular rotation.
Like many here, I have a bit of a guitar acquisition problem. My offsets are a Reverend Double Agent and two Johnny Marr Jaguars, which are the favorites of my collection. I'd post a photo, but can't figure out how. The photo icon doesn't seem to work.