I’m on vacation. Staycation. Home with my darling wife. We’ve been doing the usual sorts of things: home improvement, planning and decorating for Christmas, recreationally visiting stores that we haven’t had time to peruse, etc. Vacations have traditionally been bad for my guitar budget because I get time to visit the local guitar stores and my wife, my enabler, goes along with me.
It is an especially hard period right now: Even I have acknowledged that I have too many guitars. I’ve farmed some of them out to live at the studio and I still can’t make ‘em fit in the guitar room. It has become a jumble. I had begun to discuss this with my wife at the beginning of the staycation and she was amazed that I had come to the conclusion that a few had to go eventually. The last thing I wanted was another guitar.
Yesterday we made up a list of places to visit for shower rods, par38 bulbs, meds, and coffee. One of the established shops in the area, Alpha Music, was near a store we were visiting and I remarked that it had been months since I had been there and they had a new manager. She cheerfully piped up, “We ought to drop by!” Oh my. How could I refuse?
When we got there we just wandered along looking at the three walls of guitars and talking with a salesman. He pointed out a few new Taylors and Guilds. As we discussed Andy’s new designs at Taylor my eyes dropped onto a Taylor grand concert 12 fret with the 24.75” scale and I asked to take it for a quick spin. I’m a Gibson scale guy who has shorter fingers and who benefits from shorter scale. When I got the thing in my lap I was amazed with the rich sound and the fantastic feel of the guitar and naturally just started running down my favorite fingerstyle tunes. My wife looked over and said, “Wow, you are
really comfortable playing that.”
What is it the Eagles penned? “Hopeless romance, here we go again.” This is a 312e 12 Fret. It has a sitka top, sapele back and sides, mahogany neck, a bound, pure black ebony board with no streaks, a stripey rosewood headstock overlay, and diamond inlays. I had wondered if the intonation was good on the short-scale Taylors because intonation is really important to me. Check! The action was nice and low and the strings felt slinky because of the scale. And it just felt like home.
The salesman said, “You know, the boss still has the Black Friday sale up. This one is twenty percent off.” I did the math. Ding, ding, ding. The bells went off in my head. I said, “I don’t do anything on impulse. I need to think about this one overnight.” I asked if he took trades (yes) and then my wife and I headed out to finish our excursions. Back in the car she said, “I liked how that guitar sounded. I could tell you were extremely comfortable with it and felt at home. And you know what? I watched you face and could tell you really loved it. It would make the perfect guitar for the couch. Let’s make it happen, one way or another. We’ll make it an early Christmas present.” Oh, my gosh.
We eventually got home and I took stock. I had a fistful of dollars and three low-level electric guitars I needed to clear out to give me room. I knew my guitars’ retail prices and figured out their wholesale value based upon that. I figured between that and my cash I could possibly come up with the fodder to make the deal without burdening the family too much. My wife said, “We’ll make it happen.”
Today we went back to the dealer with our pile o’ stuff and got down to brass tacks. We had a figure in mind for the trade-in, a fraction of the Taylor’s price, and were willing to forget the trade and sell the guitars on the open market after we bought the guitar if we couldn’t get what we needed from them. The store’s tech evaluated the trade guitars and our salesman went to the boss for an estimate. We sat and stared off into space waiting for a verdict. Eventually he came back with a smile and said, “I convinced my boss to make an even deal.” My wife and I wanted to jump up and shout but instead we tried to hide our excitement. Never in our wildest dreams would we have expected that. This meant I was recovering nearly all my investment in the three guitars. We hadn’t even bargained. What was it Amy Grant said? “A good deal is only a good deal if it is a good deal for everyone involved.” A few minutes later I walked out of the store with my money still in my pocket and the new guitar in my hands without paying a penny. We are still amazed and feel extremely blessed. I spent some time this evening sitting on the couch and enjoying the high-end zing across the low strings and the comfortable action.
So here is a first pic in low light. Pics or it didn’t happen, eh?
So, storage problems solved and new guitar day accomplished in one swell foop.
Bob
