Yeah, I'm 20 years into this hobby and finally had the money to buy something really nice. My first guitar was an ovation acoustic. It was decent enough to learn on but sounded terrible(more the player than the guitar). When I was 19 I got a summer job doing manual labor and saved every penny to buy an American made fender Strat. I played the crap out of that thing. Got one of those practice amps you have. Later invested in a better quality accoustic and got an Ibanez Artwood. Certainly not a Martin or Taylor, but sounds pretty good, but I've wanted a Gibson Les Paul for forever. I'm a huge slash fan and love his sound. Plus so many of the great players played the Les Paul. So I saved for a couple years and bought a real one. None of the copy cat knock offs. I'm so glad I did. It took my playing to another level, mostly because I wanted to play more often, but that's when I really started to learn how to make different sounds with the tuning of the guitar, and not just playing notes/chord.
very nice... i don't know how far i will go down this road, just know that it is a very satisfying hobby i wish i had started many years ago... i now have something to do when it's 30 below and i'm sitting around the house...
