Guitar tone has played an exceedingly important role in my musical development. When I was a kid, my six-string fixation fostered an appreciation for the harmonic series before I knew there was a harmonic series, improved my Deep Listening skills before I ever read about Pauline Oliveros, and instilled a love of drone and trance before I ever encountered Morton Feldman, La Monte Young, or Detroit techno. In some ways, the knowledge I’ve gained since then (in college and otherwise) has expanded my vocabulary for talking about the sounds I love, but sometimes I think maybe it has only served to amplify what I already knew innately. And amplify it does. Reverberant steel strings rattle, echo, and chime like a mantra in my mind, an Om of plucked, strummed, and fingerpicked tones.

Now that I have a stable source of income, I’m finally looking to get a guitar (or two) to match my lofty ideals. I’m thinking VINTAGE. I recently discovered that one of the finest used guitar stores I’ve ever visited is right around the corner from my office and I’ve already decided I’m going to get my next axe (or two) there. Leaning toward an old Martin 0-15 (prewar or early ’50s):

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