"Daria! Hurry up!" Mom (Helen Morgandorfer), yelled at me. "The moving guys are here!"
"Hold on!" I replied, making sure everything was packed, there I noticed an old guitar.
"Now Daria!" Mom shouts.
"I'm coming!" I yelled as I walk down the hall, somehow managing to hide the guitar. I climb in the truck with the movers because there wasn't any room in the two cars, there was barely any room for Quinn. So I just fiddle with this guitar that I found, strumming random strings when I noticed it didn't sound right, so I started to mess with the pegs (which I soon learn are called tuning pegs), until they sounded right. Thanks Dad, for those flute lessons in the third grade, I thought, and I'm glad I have an eidetic memory so I can remember those lessons from the third grade. So for the next 10 hours, when I wasn't asleep, I was fiddling with this new fascination of mine.
We arrive at Lawndale and I unpack all but my bone collection, as that's always in the box, and decide to explore the town and see if there's a music store, and if there is anyone that can asisst me in learning.
"I'm going out!" I yelled to Mom and Dad.
"Daria! We still need to unpack!" Mom returned.
"I'm done with my stuff! I'm just going for a walk!" I partially lied.
"Just let her walk, Helen," Dad said in my favor.
"Oh, alright, Jake. Have fun Daria!" Mom said.
"I'll be home before dark," I informed, as I closed the door.
I ended up in an area called Dega Street, where I notice a music store. I walk in with my guitar and see a guy with lond curly brown hair, black shirt, black jeans, and black boots, he had on two necklaces, one reaching mid torso the other not leaving his neckline, and he had a slightly darker skin tone.
"Oh, hello," he said in a slightly deep and distant voice. I was able to read his name tag, Jesse.
"Hello, I was wondering if you could tell me anything about this guitar? I found it when my family and I were moving out of our old house," I said.
"Let's take a look at it," He gestured to the counter.
I set the black case on the counter and opened it.
"Oh, wow, haven't seen one of these in a bit. Okay its a Martin 15 Series 000-15M Burst Auditorium Acoustic Guitar," he said.
"Oh, do you know anyone who could teach me how to play?" I asked. "I have previous music experience, and am a fast learner."
"Sure, if you want I could," he suggested.
"That would be great," I smirked.
"Come on, let's go to the back," he waved. "Jamie, could you watch the store?"
The man in question nodded.
"Okay the first thing you need to do is teach you about the guitar. The construction is a simple dovetail neck joint with a body size of 000-14 fret. The top, side, neck material, and back is a solid mahogany with a single ring rosette and doesn't have any back purfling. Your top bracing pattern is an a-frame 'x' while the actual braces are a solid sitka spruce 5/16 of an inch. This guitar does not have an endpiece, inlays- other than the finger board position inlay which is a diamonds and squares short pattern-, fingerboard binding, or heelcaps. The neck shape is a modified low oval, with a bone style nut material. It's headstock is a solid/square taper and has a solid east Indian rosewood for it's headplate, bridge material, and finger board. It has a total of 14 clear frets and 20 frets total, with a 1 11/16ths inches wide at the nut and 2 1/8 inches wide at the 12th fret. It has a satin finish on the neck, back, and sides, while the top is a satin finish with 15 style burst. The bridge style is a belly and has a 2 1/8 inches bridge string 's saddle is 16 inches radius/compensated/bone. The tuning machines are nickel open-geared with butterbean nobs, and the bridge and end pins are a solid black ebony. When it comes to strings I recommend Martin SP Lifespan Phosphor Bronze Light Gauge (MSP 7100), pick guard a Dalmar tortoise color," he explained all the details about the guitar. "Do you follow?"
"Kind of, but I don't know what some of that stuff is," I said honestly.
"Alright lets see here, can I hold the guitar?" He asked.
I nod and hand him the guitar.
"Okay this here is the head of the guitar," he said pointing to the head. "It is where you tune the instrument. This specific guitar has three tuners on both sides. On the head or headstock you have tuning peg, each of these has a tuning machine- now this is the part that turns the posts and winds the strings. To tune it up you make it tighter, to tune it down you make it looser. The tuning posts have a hole to thread the strings through," he points to the holes. "This is also where you have something called a truss rod, which runs along the length of the neck, and that increases or decreases the bow in the neck, which can help eliminate fret buzz. You with me so far?"
I nod, and wave at him to continue.
"At the bottom of the head, top of the neck is where you have something called a nut. The nut is responsible for seating the strings as the pass from headstock to the neck and fingerboard. The strings are seated into these slits here," he pointed. "It marks one end of the vibrating length if you pluck the strings the other end is on the bridge."
"Oh," I said in acknowledgement.
"Then you have the neck, which your thumb will be positioned around the back of. Know on the neck you have a fretboard, which is glued to the neck. The fretboard can also be called a fingerboard, this where you 'press' the strings creating notes, and chords. With the fretboard are raised metal frets or fret wires if you want, by pressing the string/s down just behind the fret wire you create a note or chord. The fretboard will often have inlay markers, which yours does, and these are markings positions at the regular fret intervals usually 3, 5, 7, 9, and 12. Now you also have a neck guard which connects the neck to the body, and is attached through a bolt on using 3 or 4 screws, or set in through construction."
I nod.
Then you have the body, which is the larger part of the guitar. This is where you find the sound hole," points to the hole in question, "the pick guard," points to the area by the sound hole, "and the bridge," points to the area holding the bottom of the strings. "The pick guard is also known as a scratch plate, and this protects the finish on the body against the scratching as of the pick as you strum or pluck, they're also there fr cosmetic reasons. The sound hole is used to amplify the sound of the strings. The bridge transfers the vibrations of the strings to the body, typically consisting of a single piece of wood and a raised saddle, this allows the strings pass into holes that are plugged by bridge pins or fixes within the bridge itself."
I nod again.
"That's about all there is to know about this guitar," He finishes.
"Do you have any books on the subject?" I inquire,
"We do," he nods. "They're found over by the strings and picks."
"Thank you," I said as we leave the back room.
I walk over to the books and pick up a few music books and a few books on guitars themselves. Then I head to check out.
"You're total is $46.89," Jesse said.
I hand him $50, which he hands me back the change of a whopping $3.11.
"You're new around here you said, right?" He askes me.
"Yeah just moved in yesterday," I reply.
"I'm meeting a friend and his sister at Pizza King in half an hour, if you'd ike to join us?" He asks.
"That sounds fun," I said. "But do you have a phone I could borrow so I could call my parents?"
"Yeah sure," He said and hand's me the phone.
I dial the number.
"Hello," Mom chimes.
"Hello, Mom?" I ask.
"Hi , Daria," she replies.
"I made a friend, they invited me to pizza with their friend and sister," I said.
"Oh, well, okay," She replied.
"Thanks mom," I said as I hung up and hand the phone back to Jesse. "She said it's cool."
"Cool."
We pull up to Pizza King and Jesse parks his car, we head inside and I follow Jesse to a table where I see a guy about Jesse's age with very short black spikey hair, a green tshirt, grey pants with holes in the knees, black boots, he has piercings in his hears and rings on all his fingers, and a girl about my age with black hair that falls just shy of her shoulders, three piercings in her left ear, a black tshit, a red jacket, black shorts with black leggings underneath, and black boots.
"Hi guys," Jesse said.
"Hi Jesse," they said.
"Who is that behind you?" The guy coughs.
"Oh yeah," he said as though he'd forgotten, "This is Daria, I met her at work. Daria, this is Trent, and his sister Jane."
"Hi," I said in a meek monotone voice, with a wave.
"Wow, you sound different," the guy- Trent- observed aloud.
"It's her voice, it sounds the same," the girl- Jane- responded. "Not your typical Lawndale lacky."
"Where you from?" Trent asked me.
"Highland, Texas," I responded.
"What's it like?" Jesse asked.
"It sucks, there were two boys who wouldn't let anyone get anything done, uranium in the drinking water, basically it was shit," I explained.
"Ah," Jane said.