The Musician

Throughout my entire life, I've been an active participant in the performing arts. I have been in two musical productions at my high school: "Guys and Dolls" as Calvin, and "The Music Man" as Marcellus Washburn. I have also worked as the stage manager for my high school drama club's spring play for two consecutive years. Those plays were "Tevya and His Daughters" and "The Dining Room". At Juniata College, I participated in the Choral Union throughout all 8 semesters of my collegiate career, and I also worked as a worship leader, rhythm acoustic guitarist, and occasional electric bassist for "Footsteps" - contemporary Christian worship on campus. Off campus, I played lead electric guitar for the contemporary worship services at the Christian and Missionary Alliance Church.

I started to play the acoustic guitar religiously (pun intended), around October of 2004, giving me five years of experience with that particular instrument. I began learning on my mother's Yamaha dreadnought, and continued with my grandfather's Washburn D10 CE acoustic-electric. Around January of 2006, I picked up my first electric guitar, and began to fall in love with the ease of play and faster action of my black Samick Silvertone (Stratocaster-lookalike) 6-string electric.

In late 2006, I started experimenting with the electric bass, purchasing a white Johnson J-Bass (Fender Jazz Bass lookalike), and I also started working with a few Digitech effects processors for my electric guitar. For the Christmas of 2007, my parents added a beautiful red Washburn WG 587 7-String to my collection, drastically changing my playing style and music of choice. At this point I started learning to playing much heavier music, such as Lacuna Coil and Within Temptation.

In the summer of 2008 I rounded out my collection with two Washburn Chicago Series model CS 780 guitars, and a Line 6 Spider III 150 watt half-stack amplifier with an effects pedalboard. The CS 780s are the same models played by Nightwish's Emppu Vuorinen on their earlier albums, prior to the "End Of An Era" tour. I had originally wanted to purchase a Marshall AVT amplifier, but found that I liked the versatility of the Line 6 Spider III, even though the sound quality wasn't superior. At this point, my playing style changed again, as I began to learn the more technically difficult lead guitar parts from bands like Nightwish.

In the future, I intend on having a 7-String ESP Horizon FR-II custom built for myself, and purchasing two Marshall model 1960 speaker cabinets as well as a Mesa Boogie Rectifer. However, I've estimated that the guitar itself will cost me on the order of $7,000.00. Therefore, it may be awhile before this particular dream manifests itself in reality.

I have been playing the piano off and on for about 16 years, and I learned how to play the Tenor Saxophone over the summer of 2004. I was beginning to get quite good at it...or so I'd like to think...until the school year ended and I lost my saxophone back to my high school's music department. I'm also an avid vocalist. I made PMEA District and Regional Chorus in both 2004 and in 2005.

If you are looking for a rhythm or lead guitarist for a worship team, special music segment, or are starting a new music group and need the expertise of a seasoned musician who brings original ideas and music to the table, let me know! I'd love to help you out.

The following summarizes my guitar collection: