GT Gets a Make-Over Through a Donation

I’d like to begin this post with a little storytelling: GT’s first guitar was a maroon nylon acoustic from Lapu-Lapu City, Cebu, which has received its share of use and abuse through years and years of playing. If you look at our archives, you would probably remark that we pushed that guitar to its limits(it’s the one we used for the Sk8r Boi video). It sounded pretty well but there came a point that requested songs demanded a nicer sounding guitar, one that will do more justice to the website and to our mission of helping you guys. So came our next guitar which we have used for most of our songs here. The light-colored Davis was borrowed from a friend(thanks Jerome!). There is no doubt that it was a good guitar: but although it looks and sounds really good, we had some problems with it because the strings are too stiff and we had to press them against the board really hard to come up with the sounds that you’ve been listening to, and hopefully singing along to, for some weeks now. Inevitably we had to return it to its rightful owner, and so for some time we pondered on whether to use the old guitar from Cebu again. This was just last week by the way. Truth is, we’re already running out of funds and although we wanted to keep playing, it just wasn’t possible without a good guitar. Just as our last hope fluttered to nothingness, we received a good news from way out on the other side of the world.

We received an e-mail from David Hill of United Kingdom, volunteering to donate a small amount of money for us. He only asked that we play and shoot a song for him(it’s already posted, guess which one). So we practiced for the song and posted it for him, and as promised, we received his donation. Yesterday we went to Manila to look for the guitar which will eventually be seen and heard here in GT. We saw a lot of good ones, and expensive ones at that(we were targeting a guitar less than 10000 Pesos, or 200 Dollars). At first we wanted to bring home a locally-made guitar, but we were surprised to discover that international quality units are way off our budget. It’s a little funny really when you think of it–Filipinos not being able to afford a high-quality guitar made right here in the Philippines. We continued looking and finally, in one of the Lumanog stores in Sta. Mesa, Manila, we had our eyes on a red Davis which was imported from China. We fell in love with it immediately. It’s got a very nice acoustic sound and the fret spacings are just right. The finish is glossy red with a black shade at the borders, and the body is dark brown. The guitar also has a built-in pick-up which would probably find its use in the future. We were able to tune it right away and the strings are not stiff, making them easy to press. And it fits our budget just right that we were even able to haggle for good reserve strings (D’ Andario), a foamed soft casing, and two thin picks.

The guitar has yet to break-in in terms of sound quality, but with further use in the next few weeks, it will. We promise. With that, I would like to share a quote from David’s e-mail:

It’s so gratifying for me to be able to help you for all your efforts with music. I know it’s not much but I hope it helps as I really admire your skills… You see you give so much on the site, I didn’t feel it right just to take and I’m in a position to help you financially.

Thanks again for ‘beautiful,’ it was fantastic.

From GT: Thanks as well David.

We were a little hesitant at first in receiving David’s donation, considering what he has asked us to do is practically what we’ve been doing for everyone ever since for free. But we realized that for us to meet your demands and help you better, we better get the best equipment. The guitar purchase is just one of them, and the red Davis will have to do for now. We also would like to have better lighting by obtaining a professional softbox(we’re currently using a makeshift one), a better video camera(HD quality at least), a better and more directed sound recorder(so we can shoot anytime and you won’t hear our neighbor’s roosters again). There’s so much that we have to improve on and the expenses are just too much for us financially. As I’ve told David, his offer was like an answer to our prayers and that it couldn’t have come at a better time.

In this regard, we would like to ask for your help as well in furthering the goals that we have started. If you believe in what we are doing and there is any way you can help us, please contact GT through our e-mail address: guitar.tutee(at)gmail.com. Better yet, you can donate to us through Paypal and Credit/Debit Card by using the following link:

Thanks and we hope to bring more songs for you to learn. Have a great weekend everyone, and keep rockin’!

– GuitarTutee