Well christmas is the time to spend with loved ones, and I was fortunate to spend mine with one of my most precious things (children!).....my Ibanez RG550 WH, which I have owned since 1988! It wasn't my first guitar, but it was my first 'proper' guitar, and I do love it more than anything! I am aware that I have butchered it by removing the original paintwork, but that is a long story. After playing my original guitar, which was a dubious Strat copy, but equally important as I know what effort and struggle went into my mother purchasing it for me, but two years in and with the influence of Satch and Vai and just how f*****g cool Ibanez guitars looked when compared to Fender's and Gibsons, I knew it was the one for me....well kind of. I was also a massive fan of Iron Maiden's Adrian Smith, and he had a white guitar and he played it on Stranger in a Strange Land....and that was cool. Anyway, I did briefly look at getting a BC Rich Warlock (thankfully sense kicked in, plus you couldn't play it sitting down!), but after saving my pocket money for years, and with a little help from my mum, the RG arrived, and I was instantly in love, a love which is still the same today as it was then! I am not ashamed to admit that I have fallen asleep holding his guitar, we have been through so many gigs together over the years, good ones, bad ones, one where guns were fired, strippers and cream, ho downs, Blues Brother tributes, originals bands, metal bands, funk bands, soul bands, school bands..and I think it shows a little bit on the neck, I think it really needs some TLC, and it will get it!So why did I strip the paintwork? Well, firstly as an idiot I thought it would be cool to write on it with marker pen (ala Joe Satriani and Tom Morello), but i am a s**t artist! So that was really bad, and also Nuno Bettencourt at that point in time was becoming one of my favourite players (funk and metal combined...now that is where I am coming from!) and he had an natural guitar....and I thought...cool. But at the same time I was studying for my degree in Acoustics, and we had a module on musical acoustics and I was fascinated about the natural resonances of wood and it's properties and how this affects the string. I do strongly feel that a cellulose paint drop dampens the natural resonance of the instrument and reduces it's tone, particular in the HF. I feel, in a more hippy sense, that the natural wood breathes and breathes life into every note, and this was my prime motivation behind stripping the the guitar....just which I had done a better job!!So why don't I currently play a natural finish guitar.....good question, well I am still waiting to find that dream guitar, I would probably love a Suhr or a Godin, but they are prohibitively expensive as a 'working' instrument, being thrown around at gigs etc. I am sure it will appear one day, and who knows, recently purchasing a Telecaster....maybe I am changing.....nah...Ibanez still RULE :)PeaceNeil