Greetings from South Jersey

I've been lurking around this forum for the past few days checking out gear opinions. I decided to join today in celebration of my newly acquired Bonamassa signature pickups. I'll be posting about them in the registry shortly.

I'm a southern New Jersey native who's always been a music nerd. I've played piano/organ for better than 10 years and guitar off and on for about the same duration, as well as many percussion instruments of all sorts from marimba to timpani to leaf blower to newspaper. I'm about to begin my fourth year at a university, where I was accepted as a jazz piano major. I switched to undecided for a number of reasons, but mostly to get my general education requirements out of the way and to focus on learning guitar more, much to the dismay of my piano instructors.

Now for a long trip down memory lane...follow along if you'd like. If not, skip to the last paragraph.

I was bitten by the blues bug in high school. In 2009, I saw Eric Clapton and Steve Winwood at what was then the Wachovia Center in Philadelphia after begging my mom to get tickets. It was a great show despite us not knowing a lot of the songs at the time. Afterward I got their Live from Madison Square Garden album. Of all the songs on the album, "Double Trouble" caught my attention the most. I guess you could say that was the beginning. The following year I overheard our jazz band's guitarist and our director talking about Stevie Ray Vaughan as the re-release of Couldn't Stand the Weather was about to come out. Intrigued, I picked it up. That was it.

Early 2011 comes along and I'm looking through the TV guide. Palladia was showing Joe’s Royal Albert Hall concert but it was just finishing up. But I saw that Clapton was a guest and decided I’d get the album and give it a listen on our jazz band’s trip to Berklee in Boston. I press play and, like a true road warrior, fell asleep. Slept through most of the album, in fact. I think I woke up to “Story of a Quarryman.” On the way back I attempted to listen to Joe for the third time, and it was indeed the charm. I tell my cousin, also a guitar player, about Joe and we decide to get tickets to see him at the Kimmel Center in Philadelphia later that year.

Needless to say, the show was amazing and Joe left my poor parents almost deaf. My cousin had to get home right after the show, but my gracious parents and I hung around with a small crowd to try to meet Joe. Security parted the sea of fans, separating me and my parents, and Joe comes out. He seemed rather stunned that there were so many of us waiting around! He signed my tickets and I, barely containing my excitement, asked Joe, and this is an exact quote: "So what kind of theremin do you use?" D'OH! For those interested in such things, it was a Moog. Joe also signed the only thing my parents had for him to sign: A parking guide.

Since then I've seen Joe 3 more times: At the Liacouras Center in Philadelphia in 2013, at the Count Basie Theatre in Red Bank, NJ in 2014, and most recently at the Susquehanna Bank Center in Camden, NJ on the first date of the Three Kings Tour.

If you're still reading this, or skipped to the bottom, I've got a SiriusXM receiver in my truck and it's always on Bluesville. I've got 7 guitars (for now), including an Epiphone Bonamassa Goldtop, which I will also be posting about in the registry, 2 amps (again, for now), and the black Bonamassa FET driver. I'm also interested in model railroading, New Jersey/New York sports, and video games (I am 21 after all).

I think that wraps up my long-winded introduction. I promise I don't usually talk this much!
-Chris