NGD: It's my birthday and I'll buy if I want to [Pink Les Paul Muse]

[Embenny]

Buy if I want to,
Buy if I want to.
You would buy, too, if it happened to you.

OK, so basically today is my birthday and for whatever reason, I've always hated celebrating it, never throw parties and generally don't even like receiving gifts. But my wife loves birthdays and I'm making an effort to get into them for her sake. Hers is two weeks before mine, and I always do something special for her, and it drives her nuts that I don't let her do the same.

So, knowing me, this was her gift: "Get any guitar you want, from anywhere you want, but we have to pick it up in person on your birthday and make a whole day out of it to celebrate you, you grumpy asshole."

OK, so I may have added that last bit of colour in there myself, but the rest was her.

I have way too many guitars, but how could I turn down a birthday gift from the woman I love? She clearly twisted my arm here, so I've reluctantly accepted the challenge to buy another guitar.

You know me, I love a good guessing game. First hint is that you may notice that this is in the "non-Offset" section of the forum, and unlike Reddit, I believe in the definition of an Offset guitar as laid out in Leo's patent. Don't make me bust out the cat diagram!

[Chippertheripper]

A bird of some sort.
Happy birthday, ya grumpy asshole.

[countertext]

‘59 LP Jr.

[Surfysonic]

Happy birthday, Mike!

Without any other clues to go by so far, I'll go with another Gibson ES-335?

[sal paradise]

Like a phoenix rising from the ashes after being banished from the offset section, with mini humbuckers that you love in your V, and shares a name on the headstock…?

[Steadyriot.]

Nothing says birthday guitar like one of these:


Though it could also be one of these:


I mean you’ve got single coils, humbuckers and firebird pickups covered so where else can you go from there?!

[JSett]

Having recently seen you guitar rack, I'm amazed she instigated/sanctioned this but I'm glad she did (not that you need permission, but 'if the rack is full'...)

As for guessing. Jeez. There's a dual layer hint in there so I'm going to say Firebird, either reverse or non. A lot of reddiots claim these to be offset when they're not, and I know your favourite pickups are Firebirds

[ThePearDream]

I'm with you on not liking my birthday I've never liked all the attention. You really do seem like someone whose existence is worth celebrating annually though. And I mean that from the bottom of my heart . Anyway happy birthday!

Is it an Epiphone Sheraton?

[luau]

You would buy, too, if it happened to you.

Can confirm.

Happy Birthday month. I suck at guessing and this seems like an easy chance to be right, so Firebird. I'll live vicariously through my guess and say it's a silver I.

[Embenny]

A bird of some sort.
Happy birthday, ya grumpy asshole.

Thanks!

I love birds of all sorts, but this isn't one.

I'm with you on not liking my birthday I've never liked all the attention. You really do seem like someone whose existence is worth celebrating annually though. And I mean that from the bottom of my heart . Anyway happy birthday!

Is it an Epiphone Sheraton?

Thank you so much for the kind words! I'm glad you can empathize, though. The attention always felt uncomfortable to me, even as a kid. I also never liked the sense of pressure to "make" a day special. To me, "special" is something you call a day when it's over and you're looking back at it. Sometimes my wife and I have gone on trips or adventures that we wanted to be special, but kinda sucked. But then you have a random Sunday where you bump into someone and make a new friend, and then you accidentally end up having the best meal you've tasted in months, and then a rainbow pops out and you see some majestic wild animal you've rarely seen in your life. And you look back on it and go, "damn, this was a really special day."

As for the guess, it's not a Sheraton, but you've nailed the brand.

Having recently seen you guitar rack, I'm amazed she instigated/sanctioned this but I'm glad she did (not that you need permission, but 'if the rack is full'...)

As for guessing. Jeez. There's a dual layer hint in there so I'm going to say Firebird, either reverse or non. A lot of reddiots claim these to be offset when they're not, and I know your favourite pickups are Firebirds

I know, I really need to clear out guitars instead of adding more, but she's infinitely forgiving of the amount of space taken up by gear and is 100% of the mindset that, "if it brings you joy, that's all that matters." So to her, my slow process of selling underutilized guitars is independent of the acquisition of new instruments, if that new instrument will inspire me to play a new style, try a new tuning, or even just bring a smile to my face because it sounds, plays, or looks different from what I already have.

She's the love of my life, and not just because she's a GAS enabler, haha. To her, clearing out guitars is a chore/housekeeping type thing, and bringing a new one in is a joyful thing that shouldn't be tied directly together. I think she's noticed that most of my "new" guitars these last few years have basically been trades I took because I had trouble selling something, or cheap/underpriced used guitars I jumped on to try out and then flip if I don't bond with them. The Flying V and Comet were happy accidents that I kept, but everything else has been a case of "well, I've never gotten to know one, and I know I can get more for it than I paid," or, "I didn't want this, but I got 50% of my money back out of that guitar I was selling, and the other 50% can come from selling this one."

So she wanted me to just buy something purely for the sake of it being exactly what I wanted, not "a good deal I might grow to love" or "a cool guitar in a colour I hate, because that's what I got offered in trade."

I did give a bit of a misdirection in my hint, and this one isn't a Firebird. In fact, it's not a guitar anybody would ever mistake for an Offset. It's neither reverse-Offset nor "wildly asymmetrical, but with a straight waist," which seems to be the other Reddit criterion.

‘59 LP Jr.

This guitar has two humbuckers.

Happy birthday, Mike!

Without any other clues to go by so far, I'll go with another Gibson ES-335?

Thanks, Steve! A solid guess, but my Comet really has killed my 335 GAS, possibly forever. Famous last words, I know

Like a phoenix rising from the ashes after being banished from the offset section, with mini humbuckers that you love in your V, and shares a name on the headstock…?

If a Firebird had been available anywhere near me in a cool colour, I'd have been into that 100%. But the only ones being made new are Epiphones, and they're all sunburst. I love fun colours. I had a Pelham Blue Firebird "T" with the proper carved headstock and Steinberger tuners and everything, but I got it off Reverb and it played like absolute hit garbage no matter how I set it up. I ended up trading it and a garbage Eastman with pickups routed off-center from the strings for a beautiful ES-335 two years ago, with no idea how the other guy could have play tested those two guitars and decided to go ahead with the trade. But I thanked my lucky stars and vowed that I'd only buy another Firebird in person so I could make sure it played well, but they're super rare here in Canada.

So that's another hint - this guitar is not what I'd call a "boring" Gibson/Fender colour, as in sunburst/black/white/red/natural.

Nothing says birthday guitar like one of these:

Though it could also be one of these:

I mean you’ve got single coils, humbuckers and firebird pickups covered so where else can you go from there?!

The Abasi looks great but I'd be lost with that many strings.

The Falcon would 100% be a tone, look and neck I'd be into, but I'm 5'7" and like 140lbs right now, so the size is a bit unwieldy.

So that's another hint: this is a much smaller guitar than a Falcon.

You would buy, too, if it happened to you.

Can confirm.

Happy Birthday month. I suck at guessing and this seems like an easy chance to be right, so Firebird. I'll live vicariously through my guess and say it's a silver I.

Thanks!

I'd 100% have gone for a silver Firebird I if one had been available anywhere locally. I love Firebirds and I love flashy colours.

With everyone guessing Firebird...does this mean I have to go buy a Firebird?

Probably does. But for now I'll have to settle for my Flying V with Firebird pickups, and my Jaguar with Firebird pickups, and the incoming Sunday Handwound Firebird pickups in Jazzmaster covers I just bought for my JM build on OSG

Maybe if I clear out all my "need to be sold" guitars, I'll treat myself to a custom Firebird in a metallic colour, or pick up a sunburst one and get it refinished.

But my wife would be the first to tell me that I shouldn't wait to clear everything out to do so if I have the budget - I keep a strict "guitar budget" in order to avoid overspending on gear. And all my new guitars are paid for by selling old guitars.

I had a really lucky purchase and sale this summer of that red ES-335 that someone was selling believing the neck to be defective, when all it needed was a proper setup. I spent three weeks slowly working the severe bow out of it with the perfectly-functioning truss rod, gave it a thorough cleaning and fret polish, took my time dialing in the setup and ensuring all was stable, and then managed to find a local buyer for absolute top dollar on it. I had intended to keep it after rehabbing it, since it turned out to play beautifully, but the Harmony Comet I took in partial trade toward one of my Flying Vs just blew it out of the water by playing even nicer and weighing 2lbs less.

So I had a fair bit of "guitar budget" from the 335 to put toward this guitar, but here's the good news and another hint: this guitar did not cost me much money at all, even though I bought it from a music store and had to pay tax on it (and unfamiliar experience, it's been years since I did that).

[ThePearDream]

One of the Crestwood reissues? I'm specifically thinking of the new orange one with mini buckers

[JSett]

Can we ask where it was made?

[Embenny]

One of the Crestwood reissues? I'm specifically thinking of the new orange one with mini buckers

Ooh, that's a good guess in that it's something I might like in a fun colour, but this is a different model and colour.

Can we ask where it was made?

[luau]

With everyone guessing Firebird...does this mean I have to go buy a Firebird?

Yes, yes it does.

Muse?

[JSett]

I was worried that would be the answer. Narrows it down to almost anything out there

Epiphone Explorer Korina?