C flat - LOL!!   :-D   Love the link too! But me becoming debilitated by such a grave affliction as G.A.S.? NEVER!! (never mind that I "forgot" to mention I already own a couple classicals plus the Seagull acoustic ... oh never mind that at all! ... and denial is more than a river in egypt too ...)

But it looks like I'm saved for today, anyway. NO-ONE in town had a small scale guitar left to show me! Apparently a lot of folks buy them for travel guitars in the summertime. So I'll have to wait a bit ... but in the meantime, I saw a lot of Strats priced to clear today! I'd rather wait till I can afford better than the made-in-Mexico variety though ...

Nick, I just excitedly measured the 'bad' finger (as my little students call it!) on my left hand, thinking gee maybe I'm not that physically constrained after all!   I can stretch 7.45 cm from palm to tip. That's not so bad, huh?

M Ted, the flippin book I bought is FULL of those notorious bends, but just as an example, one that I've been fretting over lately is the first note in the first bar of the first lead guitar solo in Susie Q. You're supposed to bend the note E up to F# (from the G string 9th fret), then twice more in the following bar, followed by same + a reverse bend on the first beat of the next measure... and on and on ... (Willie's right he IS repetitive!   and I have the trenches in my fingers to prove it!)   

NOw that's only a 2-fret bend and I'm still always at least a quarter tone flat!   arrrrgghhhh   *sniff sniff*   ok that's it i'm through waffling around ... c'mon fingers .... we're going to practice some more ....