The Talking Guitar

The Talking Guitar

My name is Nuno Vega and I am 14 years of age. This is the story of …., Well let me tell you the story...

I was inspired by my father’s collection of Rock music. Every night before dinner, my sister and I used to hear the sound of Vinyl playing on great Bose speakers. The sound usually would be of Jimmy Page easing his ways through melodic riff-based songs. Great sound with crisp vinyl grade audio and loose playing of Jimmy made great food for my young brain and I listened carefully at what Jimmy was up to. I couldn’t fully comprehend the genius of the man yet it gave me a sense of things to come as I had developed emotional feelings of becoming a better guitar player than Jimmy. I would often dream of big concerts, fans, groupies and sex, drugs and alcohol. The feeling would be like any other teenager dreaming to be a star.

The fantasy world that might become a reality one day, would usually be cut short by the announcement of dinner and would all sit at the dinner table and eat our food quietly randomly discussing our daily events. We had a great bond with our parents and enjoyed this 30 to 45 minutes thoroughly.

I came to my bedroom at around 9.30 pm. The weather was cold so I closed the window slightly and went to the bathroom to brush my teeth and take a quick shower as I had to get up early in the morning. It was a Sunday next day and I was going to a garage sale to look at some stuff I thought might be interesting. I had heard that they were selling some old Vinyl and I was aiming to secure something good for my father. Obviously, I would’ve enjoyed it as well. I was not allowed to touch the Vinyl player so by buying him the Vinyl, I would get a chance to listen as well. I took a shower and went to sleep.

I had set my alarm for 8am in the morning and the tuneless alarm went off. A recurring thought came to my mind as usual, “Please change the Alarm Sound.” I got up, had breakfast and was on my way. The sale was at a Huge Mansion nearby. Maybe 4 to 5 Kms away from my house. I marched slowly towards the Mansion. I was humming the song going to California by Led Zeppelin. Someone told me there’s a girl out there with the love in her eyes and flowers in her hair lalala… The early morning breeze heightened my senses and, in my mind, I was playing the guitar more accurately than Jimmy. The question that arose in my mind was that precise tempo playing is better than loose and free playing or the other way around. Well, the time passed quickly and by 9am approximately, I had reached my destination.

I was met by a 6-foot 4-inch guard with an obnoxious mustache. He asked me why I had come and I told him that I was here for the garage sale. He let me in without asking any further questions. In retrospect, when I think about it now, when you are destined for something, all hurdles are crossed with ease. I leapt towards the garage sale. One thing was clear in my mind that this big mansion must’ve belonged to rich people and that would mean a better Vinyl collection. Calculations were clear in my mind. You should never approach any place with preconceived notions.

I skipped my way through household items like furniture and old electronic trash. I guided my way through to the musical items section. I saw a couple of Vinyl and soon realized that the taste of the old inhabitants was clearly different from mine. There were some Blondie records along with some Old Boney-M and Abba Vinyl. I purchased a single LP which had the track Rasputin in it. It was a musical masterpiece and sounded great on Vinyl. As I was skipping through the junk, I saw an old guitar case which immediately caught my eye. It had the logo “Fender'' written on it. It was pretty beat up and had stood the test of time. I opened the guitar case and found a black guitar inside with no strings. The condition was extremely poor. After careful examination, my gut feeling told me to purchase the guitar. I asked for the price and an old lady told me that it cost about 30 dollars. I quickly took out the money and paid for the items and was on my way home. I was very excited to show my friends and family.

I reached home around 11 am and ran up to my room to examine my purchase. The guitar needed repair work so I decided to put it back in the case and not experiment on it further. My father was good with electronics and he would guide me properly on the way forward.

All day the guitar was on my mind. I would imagine myself with the black guitar playing to an audience of 50,000 people. The day passed quickly due to such over the top thoughts. My father was a bit late that evening so I had my dinner and went to bed around 11pm with the guitar case securely positioned in one corner of the room. I was thinking of the C, F, G scale and the seven notes to practice as I fell asleep.

At around 2am, I heard a scratching sound and upon verifying the source, I zoomed in on the guitar case. At first, I thought I was imagining it but then repeated noise made me go closer to the case and opened the case. To my amazement, I saw a brand-new black guitar with all strings attached. I took it out and was thinking HOW?? And I heard a voice, “If you add A-minor to the C, F, G scale and then add an E-major to it, making it a combination of 5 chords, you can play almost all the songs.” I threw the guitar on the bed and took 4 steps back in fear. The voice came again. “You can use the chords associated with F and G and A and E major chords to enhance the sound bank of the group. Although I understood the concept immediately, my thoughts were on the Talking Guitar. It said again, “My name is Blackie and I am the Talking Guitar of Jimmy Page.”