Indie #1 - 'Shape' custom double-cut semi-hollow

When I was young and fitted into tight jeans I used to play the guitar a lot. Just like so many young men who get into heavy metal in their teens and feel the sudden urge to learn how to play an instrument like their heroes.

I was never any good but I did learn to play a bunch of Metallica, Megadeth, Black Sabbath and so on adequately in a stumbling self-taught manner. I even roadied for a 'squat rock' band for a few years but that's another tale.

Come my mid twenties, like the majority I also had given up on it. A job, house, girlfriend and the fact I was never really any good meant I just lost enthusiasm. I still had all my gear but it sat mouldering in the house unloved. Obviously it knew as all my guitars developed faults while sat. Really.

• Washburn EC29 - the active electronics got flaky like there was a loose connection
• Ibanez RS530 - the neck pickup stopped working and the frets had always been badly worn
• Aria MAB40 - stopped making any noise altogether
• All my pedals and leads were buzzy nightmares

This made sure any lingering desire to play was squashed.

Come autumn 2008 my guitars were just something else taking up space in my house until a friend from University called me out of the blue and asked if I wanted to go to a guitar show at the weekend.

Ordinarily I'd have said no, but I had nothing else to do and it would make a change.

Rupert had enlisted me to make sure he had a proper look round the show rather than just walking round aimlessly for an hour then coming home, which he'd undoubtedly have done if he'd gone alone. Birmingham is a long way to go just to spend an hour.

Once there my enthusiasm came straight back and after a bit of a chat with him decided that I was going to have a go at playing again. So I started to look round the show for things I might like that would mean I could do this without having to wade through the mire of old malfunctioning gear.

Various stands had guitars for sale but few appealed and many were pricey. I ended up spending quite some time circling the Indie Guitars stand because something about their own line stood out from all the conventional copies. Given the sort of money I wanted to spend I was definitely in the copy end of the market.

Indie also had some 'orphan' guitars which there were really quite good deals on.

In the end I came away with this.

This is an Indie 'Shape' Custom double-cut semi-hollow. Quite a mouthful and a bit of an oddity.

• Mahogany (very) semi-hollow body
• 5 piece set mahogany neck
• Twin P90s
• Combined tailpiece/bridge
• Carved top
• Satin quilt black finish

So it's effectively a semi-hollow double-cutaway take on the '56 Les Paul Goldtop. This was deliberately a massive contrast to my old EC29 which is a ridiculous shredder dinosaur. After all, why buy another superstrat.

I also came away with a Behringer V-Amp which is a cheap Pod-alike so I could practice without disturbing the neighbours.

This was the beginning of my slippery slide into a year of guitar collecting mania, but I'm still very fond of this, my first Indie. So much so I'd have another if it came up cheaply in the rather fetching blue/white they do it in.