Well, it took me a couple days but I finally got to the Guitar Center to check out a guitar. They did in fact have that used SG Gothic I was interested in, and after fondling it for a few minutes I had to have it. So I bought it, and after some internal debate decided to go a bit cheaper of the amp and bought a Katana 50. Plus I'm sure the other people in my apartment building will appreciate the .5 wt mode and the headphone jack. Plus I grabbed some incidentals like a guitar stand, some extra strings, a tuner, and some guitar polish and some fretboard oil so when I change the strings that came with it I'm can give it a nice going over. The only thing I didn't get was a strap, and that was because none of the ones they had where long enough for me. (I'm 6'5" and chunky). So I'll have to look around online for an XL one.
Also, have to give props to the store. When i was checking out I asked if they could make sure the guitar was set up right as I'm new and didn't have the slightest idea how to do it myself. The tech was there at the register and he said no problem, grabbed the guitar, and went over to one of the practice rooms to check it out. he came out a few minutes later and said "hold on one minute, something's not right." he took it over to his work area and after he gave it a once over he said that the pickup switch was bad, but he had a replacement in stock so he swapped it out in about 10 minutes.
So now I can start practicing again. After tuning it I discovered that even the few simple chords I knew before where long gone, so I'm gonna be starting from scratch. I'm gonna look into lessons, as I can use all the help I can get. But at least I've got a guitar and amp again.
