The recent four-oh descended upon me, and in there with the booty was a $40 gift certificate to an online music store I have frequented in the past. Musical instruments? For only $40 you ask? Well… not really. Maybe a decent harmonica or a starter ukulele. But knocking 40 bones off the price of, well, anything, is a start, right?

I could always go the accessories route, but I really wanted to put a dent in something more… I don’t know, real I guess. Something that will show up on a track on a record so I can point to it and say, “Hey! That’s the <insert instrument name here> I bought with the gift certificate you gave me.”

Hmmmmm.