I bought it at a pawnshop years ago. I had always played fenders, which were fine but always felt weird to me. I interned at MoonRa recording here in town for awhile and I got the chance to play a guitar that belonged to John Jinx, owner of Moonra and guitarist for awesome local group, Sunscrypt. The guitar he had was an ibanez rg, I hadn't ever played an Ibanez before that, but it felt pretty good, but still a bit odd to me, though it was at that moment I knew I wanted to get an Ibanez.
So i looked in local pawnshops and played a few that were decent but still didn't fit my hands exactly, something told me to try just one more shop. I walked into Cash America pawn on Fairfield and there it was, an orange quilt top Sa270fm. I played it and immediately was in love, the radius of the neck was perfect, the action was amazing. It wasn't top of the line but hell, neither was I.





I put it on layaway and saved up for a couple months. I didn't raise the money fast enough($415 was a lot to me) and the day it was gonna be put back on the shelf I walked into that place with a B.C. Rich NJ series warlock bass on my back and my entire DVD collection in my hands, and in trade they gave me the guitar.
I went home and played, and played, and played, and for once felt like I was writing music. I named it Abel. I credit the entire Orphic 'Style' to the purchase of that guitar, and I recorded our whole first album with it. There was something magical in that small beast of a six string. I later put a Seymour Duncan screamin' demon pickup in it and it was complete, that was my tone, and folks around town used to look for the guy with the orange quilt top at the orphic gigs, before they even knew my name.
I got an Ibanez s4 when Abel was damaged a bit at a show. The S4 was an amazing guitar, and since orphic broke up I didn't play Abel for awhile, and it hung on the wall just waiting for the day when I would pick it back up.
Unfortunately about four months ago someone broke into my studio, and stole Abel right off the wall, along with everything else, and I was shattered. It's just stuff, it was all just stuff, so I could get by without it, but that guitar, so much emotion and life was exchanged through it's fretboard. No one I know could quite understand, some even thought I was a little bitch for being so sad about that. I lost 8 grand worth of pro recording gear, but all I wanted was that guitar back.
Since I originally bought it I've never played a guitar that has felt the same, and I've probably gone through fifty or more since then, the little musical community I'm in trades and sells guitars like mad. However, right around the time Orphic decided to regroup I came upon an ad on Craigslist, a guy selling and old Ibanez maple neck RG with no strings and a missing locking nut. I've wanted a maple neck Ibanez forever. It had some aftermarket Seymour Duncan and diMarzio pickups installed, and a shaky volume knob. I bought it from him, took it home, cleaned it, got new parts, put strings on and played it... and played and played and played. It's inspiring, a very simple guitar but it feels... perfect, or as close to it as possible. It's fitting that I feel this way at the same time that the group(orphic) that features my most inspired playing decides to regroup. I'm interested to see where this instrument takes me. Maybe it took losing everything to realize what really matters. I have a guitar, and an amp, and that's it really, but I'm playing like I just bought my first lead licks book or something, I just can't stop. Maybe people will come looking for the dude with the green guitar, eventually.
Oh, and I named it finally... Abel II.