‘Why I believe the tone is in the fingers’

I have an Ibanez Gio, which is the brand’s cheapest and the most basic entry-level guitar. I didn’t buy it. It belonged to a colleague’s son who had moved to the US, leaving the guitar behind. Maybe this was his first guitar when he started learning (today he owns top-of-the-line guitars — in the US).

Then as his family here, that is my colleague, was shifting house, they found no space for the Ibanez Gio and decided to get rid of it, I believe after consulting their son. (I had once jammed with the son when he was still in Dubai. ) So, my colleague asked if I would be interested in taking possession of the guitar. Given the circumstances, I said OK and brought it home.

The guitar was in a bad shape. One volume knob was missing, the pick-up selector was without the plastic covering. But I knew what to do. I quickly ordered the missing parts from Amazon and fixed them as soon as possible. I also put a fresh set of strings as I became its ‘new’ owner. The pickups were just about OK and yes, I found the sound not too bad. The neck was quite comfortable and surprisingly the sustain was remarkable. I could see that the guitar had been played over wholesomely by its first owner who is now a very good guitarist.

Today the Gio is hanging on the wall among my other more expensive and versatile guitars. I don’t use it for my regular practice, it’s just lying there. But once in a while, I will pick it and play. But when I do play it, within minutes, we will start bonding and it can make me forget that I own a Fender Strat, a Gibson Les Paul, an Ibanez RG Prestige and a hot yellow Charvel. Yes, it has the power to do that. And I am never able to put it down quickly or switch to the ‘big brothers’. At that moment, that is the only guitar that speaks to my soul. It feeds the soul what it wants to hear. It was at that moment I realised that each guitar has its own ability to ‘speak’ in the hands of trained and passionate fingers - the fingers that have practised enough to recognise the ‘feeling’ the soul craves.

So at a recent Friday Night Jam at my place, I had no qualms about playing the headlining song of the evening — GNR’s Sweet Child Of Mine — on the Ibanez Gio. For this track, I should have played the Gibson Les Paul, but no, I played the Ibanez Gio. And it didn’t let me down. It only helped reaffirm my belief that the tone is in the fingers.