TeoB's Blog: My Guitar Collection Continued

Hello everyone I'm back! Because technically, I am a newbie when it comes to blogging, I really had very little idea on how to properly go about it especially when I made my first post back in July. I was thinking that it's just ok to regularly edit a post until I noticed that the date was not changing hehe. I thought that every post should be regularly updated through the "Edit" feature which I eventually realized as something stupid. Anyway, I've decided not to erase or correct anymore the previous posts that I made so that I will have something to look back to if I want to know how I progress with blogging later on.

An MIJ Fender Squier Stratocaster

It was actually when I was fifteen years old when I felt the urge to learn how to play the guitar. It all started when I saw my friend, Bernie Balinas, played it and I was so fascinated by how the sound being emanated from the guitar blended with his voice. I immediately asked him to teach me how to do it and I could still remember how happy I was when finally I was able to do the open A and D chords within the first few hours of our teaching session. But that was short lived. It was only in my late teens and early twenties when I really felt the passion for guitar playing. This time my influence was my high school friend and kumpare (being the godfather of his son), Joseph Hitones. We've had a lot of Neil Young, America and Clapton's songs back then but sadly, he could no longer read this recognition because he has just passed away due to stroke. My condolence to his family and loved ones and may our Dear Lord Jesus Christ bless his soul in heaven.

My dear mother recognized my talent and granted my request and gave me my first axe, a brand new locally fabricated and personalized classical Jacinto guitar. This was followed by another gift from her when she let me buy the pre-owned locally made Fender Strat electric guitar a few years later. I was so inspired by them which has given me the motivation to learn all of the rock guitar riffs and solos that I used to perform in most of my gigs later in my rock & roll world We've formed bands of our own and managed to have a few decent gigs. But the Original Pilipino Music (OPM) during our time (it was in the 80s) was really struggling. It was also during that period when I was given the opportunity to work with San Miguel Corporation, Beer Division, the biggest beer manufacturing company here in the Philippines through the help of my dear father who was himself also a San Miguel employee during that time. I had no choice but to leave the music world and let my dream of becoming one of the best guitar players, even just here in the Philippines, vanish in thin air haha.

My MIK Epiphone Les Paul Studio

My MIJ Ibanez RG270

I thought that I would be completely separated from musicality when I entered the corporate world, but I was wrong. The moment they learned about my music inclination, the company encouraged me to form a band and bought us the whole band set, instruments, speakers and amplifiers. This has paved the way to make my music dreams come true. Some of our big corporate events became our concert venues. Even some of our sister companies and subsidiaries liked our music and celebrated their milestones together with our band.

When I retired from San Miguel and hired by La Tondena Distillers Inc., the world's biggest producer of gin,which later on became one of the subsidiaries of San Miguel as Ginebra San Miguel Inc. or GSMI, same opportunity of sharing my music was given to me. It was during this time that I had the chance to represent my company and had the luck to become the Grand Champion of the yearly held San Miguel Corporation Song Festival. This had been a yearly corporate-wide event participated by different San Miguel subsidiaries in the whole Philippines represented by those who was declared champions in their locally held singing competition.

My 1st electric guitar, a locally made Fender Strat

Today, I am very thankful that there are so many internet venues to where we can freely share our talent like YouTube, Facebook and Blogger to name a few. Like this Blogger, I have other YouTube Channels where I have been expressing my creative side. I am now an editor, director, extreme sports athlete, writer, an artist, a teacher in my own right wrapped into one, This was all made possible through the generosity and unlimited possibilities being offered by the internet. Please watch, like and share my videos and subscribe to my YouTube channels: TeoB Duremdes, Rendezbike, Petty Grime, Party Pak, Anne Boxing and Hawhaw De Carabao. I hope you'll find them interesting and enjoyable to watch.

My travel guitar, an MIJ Fernandes
Nomad Electric Guitar

I had this idea of owning again a guitar when my job at GSMI was transferred to a place about 60 kilometers away from my family's permanent residence. I met new acquaintances and one of them re-awoken my passion for guitar playing. The guy's name is Jayper Cruz and he has been very active in playing with his church band. He is also my FB buddy. In fact he was with me when I made my first acquisition, a Japan made Fender Squire Strat, among the series of acquisitions that followed. I convinced my wife that instead of having a party on my 50th birthday, I'd rather have the money so I could buy the Gibson guitar that I have been eyeing for every time we made a visit to Gibson guitar outlets, as a birthday gift for myself. But that has changed when I met Jayper. He introduced me to the beauty of pre-owned and Japan made guitars or what we call Lawsuit guitars. That was four years ago and the rest was history. I also made this an opportunity to acquire skills in guitar repair. I purposefully acquired a few defective guitars, repaired them and ended up owning some of them or selling them to make some profits. Now it's not just a hobby but it turned out also to become a regular revenue generating enjoyable activity that I have ever done in my entire life. Finally I am now making money like Michael Jordan. Earning while playing haha.

Below are other axes in my collection: I still have other project guitars but I have just decided not to include them anymore in this blog because I could not find their photos. Maybe I will just post them in my future blogs if time so permits. Enjoy reading!