One Year with a Martin

With the recent passing of my birthday, I could help but think that it's been one year since my Darling Wife gave me a very sweet day and a very sweet gift.

This will probably sound like bragging, but I swear I don't intend it to - it's just looking back over a year. I've made some fairly significant progress as a guitar player. I wasn't touched by god, I simply practiced and played a lot.

Part of it was having a good guitar - having a Martin on the guitar stand made me more driven to play. Part of it was having good examples - playing in a band with two good guitar players helped me pick up some things by osmosis. And part of it was just getting into a good positive feedback loop - seeing progress made me want to play more, which generated more improvement.

The last year also saw the addition of a PA setup in the basement. It's hard to overestimate what a big thing this is. It's a simple setup, and it didn't (relatively) cost much - but it's *huge*. We use it for a few things, but the most fun is DW and I using it for acoustic duo practice. And now, my Martin is fully pluggable.

I mentioned two weeks ago that baby was in the shop getting a K&K Pure Mini pickup installed. Well, I picked her up, and it works as well as advertised. The unplugged sound is unaffected, and plugging it into the PA sends the sweet sound of the Martin to the speakers. I brought her home Saturday (on the way home from fiddle camp - about which there will be much more), and I played with her plugged in all evening. DW joined me, and we played every song we know, and then some.

More open mics are sure to come. And here's hoping that year two with my Martin will continue the journey.