The other day, I posted an ad on freecycle to give away an old guitar of mine. I had received a few things from other freecyclers, and figured it’s my turn to give back to the community.

So this is the ad in its entirety, after the cut.

It used to be awesome, and it used to get a lot of use. It saw the inside of seedy south Jersey bars and the Grape Street Philadelphia.

But, sadly, nowadays the little Squier Strat sits in a corner, wasting away to
nothing, longing to be used just one more time!

It begs me to pick it up and just strum a few chords. Maybe set it up properly,
as its intonation has gone sour with misuse. It says, “I can be good again! All
I need is a little love and about five minutes of setup!”

But, alas, alack, I have no time to give the Squier the love and attention it
deserves. The rich, candy-apple red finish, is fingerprinted and dull, lacks the
luster it used to have. The Strat screams, “POLISH ME, THAT’S ALL I NEED!” But
its pleas go unanswered, for I am deaf to its quiet woes.

It needs a new home, a loving home where it can become useful again. It’s good
for recording, it claims, once it’s brought back to its original beauty. It begs
that the grade-school sticker be removed from its body, an ugly tattoo that it
no longer needs, nor desires.

It wants to be played again.

Will you be the one who picks up this guitar and gives it what it’s always
wanted, longed for? Will you make the guitar feel beautiful again? Will you love
the guitar like its previous owner did, all those years ago?

—–

The Stratocaster has a near-perfect red body, with few dents or scratches. The
headstock is a wide, 50′s style head that you don’t seem to find very often on
new Strats, and the logo is written in outline script, not that cheap
solid-black thing they do nowadays. Its tuners are intact, as is the rest of the
hardware. The whammy-bar, however, is missing, and the 5-way selector switch
fizzes out if the position is not perfectly on, though it can easily be fixed
with some wiring, and the strap pin on the neck end had fallen off due to the
awesome punk rocking the guitar had seen four years ago.

If you already play and are looking for a spare guitar, please send samples of
your work, so I know it’s going to a good home. If you are a kid or student,
please let me know, also.

If this would be your first ever guitar, please advise me, as I just might
possibly have a little extra something to offer, as well.

Thank you for shopping and have a nice day.

Someone wrote back to me suggesting that I write bios for her foster cats.