Why, oh why, can I not just walk out of a guitar store?

Cafe Society
1

Got my haircut today - I needed two sets of strings and some gypsy picks, so I stop at Ring Music which is just around the corner from the barber. While I’m paying, I say “So, has anything interesting come through the store lately?” Next thing I know, I’m sitting there with one of these in my hands, and I like! It’s got a nice chunkachunka huckadoo for those big band gigs, and the solo notes have some very nice bite and project well. Could play rhythm or solo in a gypsy band with this. How’s that Carl Kress sound? Mmm, mmm, lovely, too bad it’s gonna cost - Holy Crap, it’s only $500? GET IT!

And now the devil and the angel are duking it out on my shoulders - ‘You gave those crappy shoes to GoodWill, you’re not allowed to have more guitars than pairs of shoes and right now, you’re even; the Chancelloress of the Exchequer will never tolerate this; you can’t get another guitar, you’re supposed to be packing right now; you will die slowly, painfully and horribly at the hands of your wife if you add so much as a paperback to what we already have to move!!!’ and the devil just hums ‘Limehouse Blues’ and ‘Nuages’ with a stripper’s grin on his face…

I made it out of the store empty-handed, but I have to admit it’s only because they didn’t have one of the ones with the pickup in it (yet). Stay tuned, it’s only day one of fighting the temptation.

2

No no no, that’s pairs of guitars. The same number of pairs of guitars as you have pairs of shoes. So you’re good to go.

Damn, do those look sweet.

3

I’m not much of a guitar player. I can strum rhythms well enough, but not much more than that. Still…

Back in the '90s a friend needed some money. He wanted to sell me his guitar. It was an American made Fender Telecaster. It was pale yellow, but I think they call the colour ‘Antique White’. It had a white pick guard, plain chromed knobs, and a rosewood fret board. I bought it from him for $400 with a little amp and actually played it a bit. Years later he wanted to buy it back, so I sold it and the amp back to him for $400.

After a while I wished I still had it so I started looking for one. Turns out Fender no longer makes that configuration (‘Antique White’ and rosewood fret board). I was thinking about it last week and asked them again. No joy. Plus they’re like $900 now, even if they did make it.

I think their Squire brand might make it. I haven’t looked. And I’m not good enough for a Fender anyway. In the meantime I still have my Takamini I bought in '84.

4

$500?! $500?! Dude - go buy it - that guitar reeks of cool!

How big is the neck - if you tell me it is on the chunky side I will be hunting one down for sure! What’s the scale length? Hmm <checks link again> close to Gibson 24.75" Just my type…

5

Django’s dangler, guys, you’re not helping!
What do you call a jazz musician who just broke up with his wife?

HOMELESS!

And I’m not going back there tomorrow with a signed copy of “Masters of the Plectrum Guitar” under any circumstances, not even if I’m in the neighbourhood. At least not first thing in the morning… GAH!!!

6

Fender calls it “Vintage White” but banana pudding yellow would be more accurate. It’s one of my all time favorite colors for a guitar. Looks great with a rosewood fretboard. I’ve got a '62 reissue Strat in that color. A brownish tortoise shell pickguard also goes great with VW, IMHO.

Here’s a great place to get nitro laquer paint for doing guitars.
Guitar Reranch. They call the color we’re talking about “Vintage Cream”.

If you have any experience with this kind of thing, it’s not hard to respray a guitar body.

7

Thanks for the info. I don’t think I’ve ever used a spray gun. Apart from that I assume it’s just a matter of taking the guitar apart, sanding the body, and then spraying it? (Maybe I can get someone to paint one for me.)

EDIT: Looking again, I see these are aerosols. I might be able to handle that.

8

There’s tons of info on that site regarding refinishing guitars. I believe they have a message board in addition to the how-to section.

There’s a place called Stratosphere that parts out new Fenders and sells the components on the 'bay. The prices can be a little high but you can get exactly what you want. There’s a vintage white Tele body on there now but it’s a mite heavy at 5.0 lbs.
3.5 to 4.5 would be a good range.

Stratosphere.

9

I can sympathize. As a photographer, I have trouble walking into this place. At last count, I was up to four DSLR bodies, eleven lenses and three flashes.

My wife wants me to go into a twelve-stop program.

10

Will you be here all week? :stuck_out_tongue:

11

Thank you. I was afraid no one would get that joke.

Oh, and don’t forget to tip your waitress.

12

If you figure out how to get out of the guitar store, will you share? Because I can’t get out of the yarn store (or Half-Price Books). In our house it’s known as “mom’s going out for SEX again”–a Stash Enhancement eXpedition.

13

Curse you, Le Ministre de l’au-delà!

Had you not started this thread I may have gone on wistfully thinking of the guitar that got away.

Instead I looked at eBay. Even though I know I’m not a good enough guitar player for an actual Fender, I did find a '93 Telecaster in Vintage White with a rosewood fretboard just like the one I bought and sold. The plastic was still on the pick guard, though the seller took it off because it had started peeling away. Basically it’s near-new. I did get it for less than the cost of a new U.S.-made Telecaster.

14

Johnny L.A. - I feel terrible, I really do! Console yourself - sometimes what we need is an instrument that inspires us. I don’t know how things are with you and your Takamine, but I do know how vital it is that you be in love with the sound you and your guitar make together.

I played a real beater of a classical for years - finally, my teacher told me “get a new guitar or get a new teacher - I’m not putting up with hearing THAT thing for another year!” So, off to the stores to check out new classicals. I ended up buying the first guitar that Ed Klein ever sold, before he went to offset soundholes.

The next few months were spent in amazement - my new instrument allowed, nay, demanded, that I pay more attention to what I ask it to do, because whatever I ask, it’s gonna do it. The fact that it responded so well to my choices caused me to make better choices, and so that axe made me a better guitarist. My old guitar, despite its sentimental value to me, had been holding me back.

I got an electric just over two years ago - I love my Telecaster! I love the feel, I love the range of sounds I can access easily, I haven’t even begun to explore what it can do with a good pedal set because the basic sound is so satisfying. The beautiful jazz tone from the neck pickup with the tone rolled off, the country twang of the bridge pickup, the raunchy bark when you overdrive the amp, the Randy Bachman lead sound, it’s all there in the instrument. I even love the look of that model and finish.

There’s something thrilling when you get a new instrument in your hand, and bang, it’s like thunder and it’s like the first time you touch someone and they smile, as if to tell you that they weren’t expecting that, but they loved it, too. And the future is now going to be different… That first touch, and it’s like you and the axe are asking each other ‘What do you like to do?’

So I apologize for enabling, but I hope you and your new Tele have a marvelous time together. Let me know what it’s like in a month or so - I’ll be damned if you don’t say it’s improved how you feel about your playing (which, pro or amateur, is what really matters - you feel better about it, you play better.)

Meanwhile, Ring Music is closed until Wednesday for the long weekend, so I have an enforced cooling off period. Interestingly, The Chancelloress of the Exchequer read this thread before I got to see her on Friday, so I’m not gonna get away with anything! The other GAS prevention measure in place around here is that I have to make enough money with the gear I’ve already got to pay for anything new. That’s slowed the pace a bit…

15

I hear you, **Minstre ** - that’s how WordWife manages my GAS issues, too. I want to start building a new Parts-o-Caster (another Tele with different specs) but I need to sell a guitar before I can start. I have one I want to sell, but need to go to the trouble of getting it onto eBay, etc. I even have a MIM Tele Body that I got when I did my last Tele build that I thought about offering to Johnny L.A. for dirt cheap so he could paint it Vintage White - but figured he’d find a good 'un on eBay far more easily…

Keep us posted on that Godin - again, let me know how thin/chunky the neck is.

16

Stop saying that. It’s important to have as good an instrument as you can manage. Especially if you’re not the greatest player in the world. Get your new baby professionally set up and enjoy. I bet you a dollar it will help you become a better guitarist.

I spent 20 years playing flute part time, using a student model. When I finally moved up to a professional grade instrument, I couldn’t believe how much my old flute had been holding me back. I’m still no great shakes on the thing, but I’m a hell of a lot better than I would be if I thought I didn’t “deserve” a high-end instrument.

17

This is goddamn silly, and you should stop thinking this way [Unknown Hinson]RIGHT NOW[/UH]. A good guitar will make you a better player, and a beautiful guitar will invite you to pick it up every time you see it - which will make you a better player. You should go out and get yourself that beautiful telecaster with antique white and a rosewood fingerboard (I’m partial to rosewood myself.)

And telecasters - oh my god in heaven, telecasters - they’re the first solid body electric, and they are still the best. Goddamn, you can do ANYTHING with a telecaster. And I mean anything. You can play music, or hammer railroad spikes, or seduce women, or turn water into wine, or defeat the Kaiser’s army with a telecaster.

They’re just that awesome.

Ironically, I do not have a real tele. I have a G&L ASAT Special (G&L was created by George Fullerton and Leo Fender, and the ASAT is the G&L tele), but mine has the P90-ish soapbar pickups. Photo here. Note the rosewood.

And even more ironic, before I get a real tele, I will be making another bastard anti-purist tele, with a humbucker and a minihumbucker. Photo here. Ignore the toggle on the upper bout.

GET A GOOD GUITAR. I can not stress this enough.

PS: By the way, Ministre, you can’t walk out and abandon that Godin, because it’s freaking gorgeous, and reeks of class. Now I want one.

18

Ring Music? On Harbord? If we’re talking about the same place, I got my second acoustic guitar there. Don’t even remember the make. It was $200, and like a moron, I asked if I could trade in my old guitar to bring down the price. The guy said, “Well, if that thing you’re holding is an upgrade, I don’t even want to see your old guitar.”

19

Ah, I see you’ve already met John… Yes, that Ring Music on Harbord in Toronto. It’s not a huge store, but they have excellent taste in what they do stock, and John Laroque is one of the best guitar techs in the city. They’re within my feeding grounds so I’m over there way more often than I ought to be. Thank Og the Twelfth Fret is way on the other side of town and I’ve not got much call to be over there; I’m sure I’d be jonesing about some of the vintage kit they mention on the website.

Something I haven’t figured out how to break to my wife - my browser’s history features a ‘sort by most visited’ key, and it would seem that I go to this page , this page or this page more often than I visit Google. In fact, that seems to be my picture in the upper left corner of the last site.

But I am stronger than my covetous nature, and besides, I’m getting a new piano after we’ve moved. I can wait for another guitar (‘think unsexy thoughts, think unsexy thoughts - D’oh!!!’)