Selling the Salesman

I stopped into a local Guitar Center today to see if they had a pedal. I of course had to step into the Platinum Room to see what Music Man guitars were there, and there was a store employee in there noodling around (noodling quite well, I must say) on a new Gibson Firebird plugged into a boutique amp that had come in on a trade. We spoke for a minute or two about the Firebird, and then I pointed to and asked him if he’d played the buttermilk Valentine hanging on the wall across the room. “I’m really not much of a Music Man fan,” he said. I encouraged him that he really should play that one, so he said, “Yeah, I should,” then placed the FB back on the wall and went to unlock the Valentine’s hook and plugged it into the same amp. He tuned it up (badly out of tune when he picked it up) and played it for a couple of minutes before stopping, turning it over and saying, “That neck!”

I thought, “My work here is done.” 😀 I had to wonder what his impression of MM guitars was based on previously, but I didn’t probe. I hung out another couple of minutes and then left him to continue enjoying the Valentine. Such a versatile, impressive guitar…