On 1/19/2018 6:33 PM, True North wrote:
On Friday, 19 January 2018 19:15:47 UTC-4, Mr. Luddite wrote:
On 1/19/2018 2:02 PM, Tim wrote:
Mr. Luddite
- show quoted text -
I enjoyed having the guitar shop and learning about them ... how they
are built, their histories, which ones are valuable, which are not, etc.

It was the customers that drove me nuts.

....

Yep. But it was fun while it lasted... 😊👍



By far, most of the people that used to hang out at the shop were great
and we enjoyed them coming in, often engaging in impromptu jam sessions
or just talking about guitars, etc. But, a few really got under my
skin due to enormous egos. I gained a reputation that Rick and others
used to kid me about for kicking people out of the shop, permanently.

An example:

One Saturday the shop was full of people. We had a stage with a bunch
of tables and chairs in front for people to sit when we had events.
People were having a good time talking, having coffee, etc. when a guy I
had never seen before walked in with his wife or girlfriend. He
demonstrated an arrogant attitude right away and told me he wanted to
see a vintage amp that we had advertised on the shop's web site.

Showed him where the amp was and he wanted to try it out. No problem.
My son was there and he got the guy a guitar and a cord. Guy plugs in,
turns the amp on, turned the volume up full blast and started wailing
away. It was so loud (and distorted) that nobody in the fairly large
shop could hear each other talk anymore. Whatever he was trying to play
was horrible. This went on for a few minutes until I had enough and I
walked over to him, reached down and turned the volume down a bit,
politely telling the guy that it was a bit too loud.

He became indignant. Said, "I am a professional musician and I want to
check out this amp." That's all it took. I said, "I don't care if
you're Eric Clapton, there's the door ... get out!" His wife or
girlfriend couldn't believe it and asked me if I was serious. "Yup,
there's the door, get out".

That was one of several.

He probably wasn't going to buy anything anyway...or maybe he was on dope. Good move.



I wasn't always an ass though. The guitar shop for me was more of a
retirement hobby than a real business venture. I had some extra money
and needed something to do so, with the strong persuasion of Mrs.E. I
opened the shop.

There was a young couple that used to come in every weekend for a while.
The guy was a guitar player of sorts and I had a guitar that he wanted
badly. It wasn't a super expensive one ... in fact I think it was one
of those "shredder" type guitars popular with young people. Anyway,
they would come in, he'd quietly play it for a while but didn't have the
money saved up yet to buy it.

Then one day they came in and he said he had the money for it. After he
played it again, his young girlfriend and he went outside and talked a
bit. When they came back in he announced that he decided not to buy it
after all because his girlfriend was pregnant and they were getting
married soon. He said they realized that the money for the guitar would
be better spent on preparing for their new kid.

I was impressed with this young couple for thinking so maturely and told
them so. Then I went over, grabbed the guitar and it's case and handed
it to them. Told them it was a wedding present.

A few months later they came by with their new baby and gave me a
picture of her. Still have it.

Some memories of the shop are pretty good.