Guitar Geek Stuff

Greetings,

There may only be one or two people out there who actually give a crap about anything I'm about to write, but I care about those people, so I am going to write it anyway.

I made the "Guitar Store Rounds" today. You see, every so often, I make a circuit of all of the different guitar stores in town. I just like to look around and try out new things. It helps me feel like I've still kind of got my finger on the pulse of the cool new gear out there. Back when I used to work at a guitar store, I felt like I was an expert on guitar gear, and since I don't work there anymore, I feel like I have to try to keep up a bit. Also, sometimes I find some really cool used toys for a good price.

So today, I went to three different music stores and I found out some cool things. First I went to a consignment/used gear store and found out that I could sell my old amp there for a little more than I thought I would get out of it. This is good because whenever I sell any of my old gear it means I have money to buy new gear. I love buying new gear!

Next, I went to the only real "full-line" music store in town that is locally owned. By the way, locally owned music stores are the best. Yeah, you can get a better selection and better prices at Guitar Center or one of the other corporate chains, but there's just something about a "mom and pop" shop that's not all crowded and doesn't feel like a Wal-Mart. The other thing that is cool about this particular music store is that if any music store in town were going to have a David Gilmour Signature Stratocaster, this one would be it.

Now, I didn't go to this store looking for a Gilmour Strat, but when I first heard that Fender was finally making this guitar a couple of months ago, I thought to myself that this would be the only store in town to get one. The reason for this is that the Gilmour Signature Strat is selling for $4799.99 for the "relic" version. Now Guitar Center has some $4000-$5000 guitars, but they tend to not carry any of the signature models.

So I walked into the store, and, as it should be, the David Gilmour Signature Relic Stratocaster (pictured) is proudly displayed in its own glass case at the front of the store. The lighting made it look like it was under a spotlight from heaven. I just stood there and stared at it for a while, when Matt, one of the managers at the store who knows me came up and asked if I wanted to play it. Now it is no secret to anyone who really knows me that David Gilmour is my all-time favorite guitarist and the man to whom I give the most credit for shaping my own playing. Of course I wanted to play it!!

He unlocked the case and we went over to one of the Fender SuperSonic amplifiers that they have on display. (The SuperSonic is the amp that I currently play through.) We plugged the guitar into an Electro-Harmonix reissue of the Sovtek Russian Big Muff Pi pedal, and then into the amp's '65 Bassman setting. I let it rip, playing as many of the classic Gilmour riffs as I could think of at the time. It was dead on for tone, and I had a thoroughly good time playing it.

All of that said, there are a couple of things I must say about the Gilmour Strat. First is that this guitar is modeled after David Gilmours infamous "Black Strat." This is the guitar that was used to record some of the most influential music of the 70's - including the albums The Dark Side of the Moon and Wish You Were Here, and The Wall. When I first fell in love with David Gilmour's playing and tone, however, he was not using this guitar. He was using the "Red Strat" which is a completely different animal from the "Black Strat." When I bought my current Fender Stratocaster, I did everything in my budget to make it into a replica of the "Red Strat," and I have to say, I prefer that tone to the tone I got today out of the signature model. I just like the tone of my DG tribute Strat better.

Dispite all of this, however, I am still very tickled that I got to play the Gilmour signature model and it is a very cool guitar.

The last music store that I went to was a tiny little boutique store that I had never been to before. The cool thing that I found out here was that the guy who owns it does really good repair work and would be willing to re-fret my Paul Reed Smith for almost half of what other places have quoted me. He showed me some of his work and it seems like he does a good job, so I think I am going to go there to have it done.

Well, that concludes my report on the "Guitar Store Rounds" for today. I hope somebody gets something out of this.

I am the Reverend Humpy and I have approved this message.