I don’t particularly like the marshmallow test. It’s not because I fail the test. I can delay gratification when necessary. What I don’t like about it is that the closer you are to success, the more excruciatingly painful the waiting gets. It’s probably a little difficult to see the ‘excruciating’ aspect of the pain of waiting if you think about a marshmallow and the twenty-minute wait. However, the real world hardly deals in marshmallows, and it is rarely a matter of just twenty minutes. Add my ADHD to that mix and it can really become frustrating.
My marshmallows at the moment are electric guitars. The missus and I plan our family’s expenses, both regular ones and big, long-term ones. We don’t just plan for what we need and living expenses, we also plan for what we want. Electric guitars and recording equipment are part of that plan. My long term plan is to own seven electric guitars and one bass guitar. Here is my wishlist.
The Jaguar. My favorite Fender guitar.
The Telecaster. My favorite Fender guitar before I saw the Jaguar.
The Stratocaster. Probably the most-cloned guitar.
The Jazz Bass. The only bass guitar I want.
The SG. My favorite Gibson guitar.
The Flying V. Screaming with attitude.
The Les Paul. The first electric guitar I used to play my own songs. The one I used was a copy, of course.
The semi-hollow archtop. Classy. Full stop.
The guitars above are arranged according to manufacturer, with the first four being Fender models and the next four Gibson models. The Jaguar and the SG are my two favorites among the seven electric guitars. But I’m not picky when it comes to brands. I never wished for my guitars to be Fenders and Gibsons. I don’t even require them to be Squiers and Epiphones. I’m good with good copies.
Of those eight, I only own one at the moment. It’s my first electric guitar, a black Telecaster copy that I bought six years ago. I need to bring it to a luthier to get it reconditioned. I’ll probably have it repainted white with black binding. The repairs and repainting will probably cost like I bought the guitar all over again, but it will be worth it. I love the sound of that guitar.
Now that you have a good idea of what my marshmallows look like, let’s look at the actual test that I’m undergoing right now.
I’m scheduled to buy a guitar in December. I’ve had my eye on an SX SG copy that I saw in JB Music last year. Waiting for December wasn’t so hard because it was a current model and JB would periodically restock the item.
SG copy is good enough for me.
Then I was sent to Kuala Lumpur for a workshop. When the workshop was done, I asked the front desk of the hotel if there were any guitars available. They gave me directions to a music store that was a couple of blocks from the hotel. That was where I saw a Squier Jagmaster that was all black. When I got back from the workshop, I did some research and found out that the Jagmaster was locally available at Yupangco Music. It was even a bit cheaper than the price tag I saw in Malaysia. Again, the waiting was bearable because it was a current model and the store would have it in stock.
Jaguar+Jazz Master=Jagmaster. They could have been a tad bit more creative.
Enter boredom. I was idly surfing the net one evening and had the idea of searching for guitars at sulit.com.ph. After a few pages, I came across a Fernandes ‘The Function’ Stratocaster copy for sale. That’s when the marshmallow test began.
Blue, black, and gold for the win!
It's more than just The Function. It's als the form.
I had the money to buy it, but it wasn’t December. We also seriously did not have space for another guitar at home. It was difficult not to think about it because I knew the guitar could disappear any time. But things became a bit easier when we had to use the money for Gray’s birthday bash last weekend. But I still think about The Function every now and then. I haven’t looked at sulit.com.ph again. I don’t really want to know if it’s still there or if it has been sold. I try not to think about it.
A couple of days ago, I was on the train ride home. As the train approached the station, I spotted a streamer in one of the low-rise buildings that had a drawing of a Gorilla with a Les Paul. Curious, I read the words beside the drawing.
Musical.
Instruments.
Japan.
I instantly knew what it meant. I wasn’t in any hurry, so I went to the store to check it out. The first floor wasn’t impressive. They had a handful of amps (Marshall, Roland, and Yamaha), an Ibanez GRX, a couple of no-name Strat copies, a drum kit, a trumpet, and a few keyboards that I didn’t even bother inspecting.
But then I saw the stairs. The stairs that led to the mezzanine. The mezzanine that held the walls and walls of guitars. It was awesome. Not even the new JB branch had that many guitars on display. There must have been a hundred or more. I didn’t know most of the brands, but they looked like good enough copies. They’ll probably need some careful testing, of course.
I also saw a few Fenders (which were above my price range), a few more Ibanez, a handful of Grecos, and several Fernandes. And then I saw a guitar that spoke to me, a Fernandes Jaguar copy.
The Fernandes JG. It speaks to me.
It was a little pricey, but it almost looked new. Initially, I thought the JG would replace The Function as my marshmallow. But no. Now it’s two marshmallows. And this test is just twisted. Instead of seeing one marshmallow, I see two. Instead of twenty minutes, it’s two months. And instead of being assured more if I wait, the chances of getting the marshmallows grow slimmer as I wait. It’s insane!!!
But all I can do is wait.
It really isn’t that bad, actually. It’s mostly me being an impatient brat about it.
But I’m keeping my fingers crossed. Please do too.
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