meet my new baby: NAMI

Is it just me or fans of Tegan and Sara are generally part of the LGBT movement? I don't mean to be sexist but it is a major observation. Does people relate more to them since they share common sexual preference or experience the same discrimination? T&G's songs usually deal with love and loss, which is also a universal theme. Hmmm. There is a connection somewhere.

ANYWAY.

I have been dying to own a guitar of my choice where I will pour on my savings (last time I checked, that word is not part of my vocabulary) and cherish it like it came out from my own womb.

I know guys don't have a uterus, but there is such a thing as Hyperbole.

I love my pink Squire Telecaster to bits (I lovingly call her "Areola") but that guitar was once a black telecaster owned by Khalid, my brother. It was passed on to me ever since I proposed the idea of Your Imaginary Friends. Besides, he preferred his red Aria back then. Eventually, there was a telepathic agreement on the change of ownership when I invested on getting it repainted.

5 years in the band, and 2 magnificent EPs later, I felt from my heart of hearts that I need to overhaul my sound to prepare for the best things that the next 5 years has to offer. I sold my guitar effects to get a new Zoom G3. I was using a Joyo California Sound for my dirt but eventually disposed it. 

***Currently in search for the best overdrive.

And so, we go back to the topic at hand: finding my dream guitar. Since there is the aforementioned dilemma of a non-existent savings account, Mawhi and I decided on conjugal ownership, which is swell since we were basically in sync with owning the best semi-hollow guitar out there.

We were almost convinced that Epiphone es-339 is it when I got a phone call from Czandro Pollack (Sugar Hiccup/Prank Sinatra). That course led me to agreeing to be the new guitarist of the indie/psychedelic outfit Prank Sinatra (Alright!), and meeting the incredible guitar collector Iman Leonardo, the brains behind the band. This guy knows guitar more than he knows his wife. I would visit him and take pictures of some of his rare gems.

He is instrumental of offering me what I have now: a Teisco EP-8T.

It is a red, small bodied, full hollow 1960's Japanese guitar that was exactly of my specifications..and more! Just look at those classic Teisco pick-ups that can emit a crystal sound, like a bastard child of a single coil and humbucker, or a noiseless, clearer P-90s, but more bad-ass looking.

Iman claimed to have found it one day when he was looking for his harmonicas, not knowing he owns one (Man, he got 400+ guitars. You can't expect his battered neurons to memorize everything). He remembered then that it has all that I want in the guitar. It did.

my muse and my "muse".

Mawhi was equally ecstatic upon seeing the internet images of the model. We did not expect it to look like a stunner with its wooden lipstick finish but boy, we were charmed beyond belief. We bought it home last September 13 along with a VOX pathfinder 10 to complete the package.

We baptized it as Nami, Japanese word for ocean waves. It represents peace of mind and continuous flow of positivity. It is also Iman spelled backwards, in tribute of the good man who dug this treasure for us.