Well, I'm about your age and I'm a 25.5" scale kinda guy. So, 5 Les Pauls and the Gibson es335 RI (which I had to have as my final) sit in the closet. I got an Eastman T186MX 335 style guitar with a 25.25" scale.
The Eastman has Seth Lover pups and is flawless.
While you're looking at Eastman...
Spend $2000 then play it enough to justify the expense. If you buy a cheap guitar you will have a cheap guitar and will tire from it quickly.
Just my overinflated 2cents
I don't save any musical items, I go for the record of purchase or and proof of loss, to many musical assets.
CRAP, now I have one more thing to do, round up receipts and photos of record.
OKAY, probably my............................Oops, goodbye
When I was a young spike I played with a lot of reverb .One day an old buck says to me "you should learn to play without all that reverb, learn to use those fingers".
I love reverb but used it very very sparingly but, I took me YEars to figure out the fingers thing...magic on the tips...