One day I stopped into a local music store to kill sometime before my teaching job. Something caught my eye while scanning the infinite wall of guitars. It was a 1987 Ibanez RG 560 in lipstick red. Compared to the shiny new guitars this relic seemed like a piece of hair metal history. There were dents and starches everywhere; to me this enhanced the beauty. My childhood metal dream machine was rediscovered. Suddenly all those hours of watching MTV came back to me instantly.
This guitar was coming home with me if the price was right. After a few minutes of haggling the salesmen on a price, the deal was done. I traded my old amp in and they gave me the guitar to take home. After some fixing up by the guys at the guitar factory this guitar was almost completely back to its former glory.
The next phase in the history of this guitar made it my favorite. In June of 2010 I was scheduled to attend to master class with my hero Steve Vai. Unfortunately, a week before the event I ruptured my Achilles tendon playing kickball. Yes, playing kickball. You can stop laughing now. Nothing was going to stop me from meeting Steve Vai. I had surgery two days before the master class with him. Needless to stay I was in a lot of pain on the big day. So after the master class I got to meet Steve Vai and have him sign my guitar. I told him, “Dude, I had surgery two days ago and nothing was going to stop me from meeting you.” He replied, “OK” and seemed a little scared.
