jeffchin.com

Ever since my first incredibly difficult to play $125 Epiphone acoustic guitar that almost made me quit playing, I’ve wanted a nice acoustic guitar. Fast forward about 14 years or so, and I finally got one. At first I only had my eyes set on either a Martin or a Taylor, the two big dogs of the acoustic guitar industry. That is until I sat down and played a Breedlove brand guitar.I spent a few hours at Guitar Center this past weekend with Andrew and Don and hashed out all the positives and negatives about each guitar in the price range I was looking at. Ben, from Guitar Center, described the sound quality of the Breedlove as a very well balance guitar that rings out like a “bell”, meaning it has sustain, and is tonally somewhere between the typically bassy/mid-range Martin and a bright Taylor. He was spot on. And in my opinion, the Martin and Taylor were incomparable to the Breedlove.

In addition to the sound of the guitar, you get a few additional features/finishes when you’re not paying for the name. This guitar has rosewood back and sides, abalone edging on the face, around the soundhole as well as the fret markers, Grover tuners, and a Fishman pre-amp with built in tuner. I may have lost a few readers with that last sentence, but if you know what I’m talking about, then you know you’d have to pay about twice as much for some of those finishes.

I’ve only had this guitar for less than a week, but it’s already accomplished its mission of making me want to play guitar more often. I highly recommend considering a Breedlove if you’re in the market for an acoustic guitar. Check out the specs of my guitar here, and the rest of the pictures on my set on Flickr.

This is a little painful, but it’s possible! I’m composing this post from my nintendo DS using the DS browser and the mobile wordpress site [http://m.wordpress.com]. The site is super light and let’s me do almost everything that I can with the normal Wordpess site. A lot happened this weekend: saw Bourne Ultimatum, bought a sweet acoustic guitar (more on that later), and going to see The Rentals tonight at the 9:30 Club. As for a running update, no miles run in the last two weeks, a new personal record!
Okay, enough of this torture, it sucks blogging from my DS, but I proved it can be done. More on my guitar, India trip, Fantasy Football, and the DS Browser coming up soon.

Oy, I got back from the beach a few days ago, but I’ve been so darn busy catching up that I haven’t had a chance to post anything. As many of you knew, last week I turned another year older and I pretty much stretched out birthday celebrations over a week. Last Saturday, I celebrated my birthday with two friends that also have August birthdays and some of our closest friends. We pre-gamed pretty hard, and then finished up at the Clarendon Ballroom. The next day, I held myself together long enough to celebrate my Grandma’s 89th birthday. She’s in good health, and can still cook up a storm.

On my actual birthday we headed over to Sette Bello in Clarendon for some Italian. I’ve eaten there a few times before, but this was the worst service they’ve ever provided. We couldn’t get a decent table (we first got seated at a picnic-like table but then settled for a four top, when there were five of us) and orders were mis-heard thanks to a waiter that liked to stay at least 7 feet away from whoever was ordering. The food was good, but service has to get better for it to be a complete package.

Finally, the weekend after my birthday, I took my annual trip to Ocean City with Amanda, Nick and Amy. We indulged all weekend, but unfortunately snapping pictures escaped my mind. The only thing that I got a picture of was the table buzzer in the shape of a lobster we got at Sunset Grille. I’ll be back in OC in a couple weeks to chill out again before starting school back up. Summer, once again, was too short.

Check out all the pictures from last week in my Birthday Weekend 2007 Set on Flickr.

I’m headed to the beach for the weekend, but thanks to everyone for the birthday wishes.  I got some very cool presents, one I have to pick out from the guitar store, one that will make it easier for me travel, and a couple that just seriously increased the fun factor of my Nintendo DS.