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Hello Everyone. My name is Scott.

"Hi Scott".

I am new here also, both to playing guitar and visiting this forum. It looks like a friendly place to go, so I guess I'll just jump right in.

I too just bought my first guitar, a week ago last Saturday. I know nothing about the instrument, but have always wanted to try and play. I am actually a drummer, or rather I was back in my High school days. So I have been around music allot and listen to it constantly, but have never tried to play it on a melodic instrument.

I just turned 49 (man, that's hard to type) and felt I needed something to do at night to stimulate my brain, instead of just sitting there watching TV.

I am not sure what I really expect to get out of playing, but I thought if nothing else it would be nice to at least know a few chords and maybe a little riff or two. If I could teach myself to play simple 12 bar blues songs, I'd feel like I accomplished a great bit.

So after a week, I've learned about 7 chords or so. C, D, E, G, A, Em and Am. Not much, but I feel I am making a bit of progress. I didn't know any of the chords or the string names a week ago, so it is progress nonetheless. I cannot switch between them with any proficiency, but it's getting better. (The F chord is really wearing my patience)!

My biggest problem right now, as I'm sure you've all gone through, is that I can only go for about 1/2 hour until my fingers hurt so bad I have to stop. But I can tell they're starting to get tougher just by typing on the keyboard. I'm sure it will all pass with a bit of time.

My musical tastes are mainly in classic rock (Rush, Kansas, Zeppelin, Stones, CCR, Traffic, Dire Straits, Clapton) and also in jazz and blues. For my guitar, I got an Epiphone Les Paul Standard Plus Top. I just liked the way it looked and it felt like a quality instrument for the price. I'm not prepared to fork over $5k for a Gibson just yet. I also bought a Tascam MP-GT1 guitar trainer so I could practice without waking the dead. I did by an amp, but I am waiting for it to arrive. It should be here tomorrow (Fender Hot Rod Deluxe).

Anyway, that's about where I stand right now. Look forward to hanging out here and seeking some advice from all of you experienced players.