My guitar is finally home!

Nope, this wasn't an impulse buy! It was the only guitar I've ever owned and bought for myself two birthdays ago. 

Everyone, meet Yoongi (or Yoongles), named after my biaswrecker for the main reason that I first knew of its existence when he played eight with his own sleek black Martin DX Johnny Cash guitar shortly after its release, to millions of fans tuned in to his live. May of 2020, if I remember correctly?

I loved that it's black, and I loved that he played guitar live for the first time. It didn't cross my mind then to get the exact same one (though it's straight fan culture to own things owned by your kpop bias - ahem Jungkook and his accidental Tazo lemon kombucha sold-out craze), I just know an all-black guitar is quite unique, hard to find and potentially $$$ expensive, if not hard to secure. 

What I do remember was the delight I felt with this SUGA x IU collab. It was released in the darkest of times, a couple of months after the pandemic began and the world shut down. Our freshly bought Map of the Soul Tour tickets got cancelled and the future was bleak all over, then boom, new song announcement! With IU of all people! 

To this day, eight remains to be a favourite of mine. When this song comes up on shuffle, I just feel the warmth of the sun and that spark all over again, no matter how rainy and gloomy the day gets.

I could talk about how the idea of owning this same guitar slowly became reality but to keep things short, eventually I bought it! My dad already has plenty of guitars, but I never had one I can call my own. Of course, I want to make sure its worth the huge spend so I've playtested it many times whenever I visit my local music store. Everyone I seek validation from seemed to find this one easy on the fingers and the sound, at mid to light pressure, had a nice tone to it - full, bright and resonating. There was no doubt that Yoongi will be my first guitar purchase. 

Wait, why is the title "My guitar is finally home"?

Well.. after two years of music and a couple of seasonal shifts, the wood succumbed to the environment so I had to turn Yoongi in for repairs and a much-needed set up/maintenance. I brought him to the shop in March and after (six) months of waiting, I finally get a call today that my Yoongi can finally come home! And the good news? Because of how long it took, they didn't charge me a single penny! 

The shop initially quoted me around $200+ worth of repairs and set up so I had to be mentally and financially prepared once I get the call, but apparently, it was still under manufacture warranty. I guess the magic of the purple universe is at play? Or was it good karma for being patient? Regardless, I'm not going to take this for granted and take good care of Yoongi so much more than I did before. I'm just grateful I didn't have to stress over the repair costs!💜

Today, I present to you, three lessons learned:

• Get a guitar humidifier to help with the temperature shifts (Done!)
• Patience will always be a virtue
• The universe is always on my side, specially the purple universe. ✊