Here's a question for you guitar players:

I played the euphonium in all the way through college, and started playing guitar as a soph in HS. I ended up being a music major at a liberal arts college, so I know some pretty decent theory.

The problem is that the local guitar instructor was a jazz guitarist, which was okay at first, but got pretty old, as I am a rock guy. I ended up sticking with him until HS graduation and signed up for guitar lessons at college (over an hour away from home). Who's my new teacher? The same dude! It sucked, because it was the only guitar lessons available in the small town.

After college, I basically quit playing, becuase I was too busy, but now want to get back into it. My brother-in-law is getting fairly decent, so I was thinking we could play some little songs at church or something.

I would like to start taking lessons again, but really don't want to take them from a 16 year old who shreds on Good Charlotte songs. Any suggestions on how to find a good instructor? The thought of going to a local guitar shop seems pretty odd, but I could do it, if that's usually the best option.

Also, if you play guitar by yourself at home, what do you play? I always end up playing the same few songs over and over and get pretty bored with it. Do you just keep trying to learn new songs?

Sorry for the long post.

Almost missed this post. Here's my setup:


The one on the left is my Jackson PS-4, and the right is a '98 Fender American Standard Strat signed by Yngwie Malmsteen.
The Boss GT-8 floorboard is my new baby. Hopefully I'll be replacing the Line 6 Flextone with a pair of full range speakers soon.

As for learning, I'm completely self taught. As you can see from the picture above, I purchase subscriptions to Guitar magazines, but I've also started printing powertab tablature for use at home. The binder is open to Opeth's Leper Affinity which I've been attempting to learn with moderate success. I listen to a lot of music, and I attempt to get tab for the stuff I like. I've been playing for about 12 years now and am continually finding new songs to learn.

I'm not a good guitarist, but I could be if I could get some practice in. As it is, most of my playing time comes Sunday morning at church where I basically play chords with the very occasional lead break. My problem is that I'm a shredder at heart (I play a lot of Malmsteen, Satriani etc.) but I don't quite have the chops or technique. I can fake it and probably impress all but good guitarists, but I'm nowhere close to being happy with my limited abilities. I've been trying to work on my alternate and sweep picking, but I can't find the time to really put in for it to pay off.