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This. This is fantastic. This is an admittedly rather lame pic of something fantastic. Maybe I’ll revisit this in the future and try to come up with some good lighting and whatnot, but I wanted a shot of it, and in the limited time that I had available, the dining room table worked as well as anything.

Remember that post from a couple of days ago with the cute little lady holding the Eko bass? That was the day of the guitar show, the day I wandered around looking for…something. I wasn’t sure what I wanted, although I was hoping I might find a replacement for my 80s Fender Telecaster. Yes, I could have kept using that same guitar and not suffered an physical ailments or infirmities, but I wanted something different. At the very least I knew that if I didn’t replace that guitar I’d have to put another pickup in the bridge position, because the stock one was lame.

I didn’t have my heart set on anything, really. I didn’t go there with a handful of cash, shaking and babbling and just dyyyyying for new gear. I went with the knowledge that, if I did come across something, I could make some trades or sales of my current gear and make something happen. I knew two guys who wanted to buy two different guitars of mine, so it seemed like a pretty good idea to make two things into one thing. How often do you have two buyers lined up like that, anyway? Seemed like a good opportunity.

I got to the show, and wasn’t inside the building more than fifteen minutes when I ended up at the booth of the vendor who was putting on the show. He had a nice 2002 reissue of a ’52 Telecaster. It looked gorgeous, and my bandleader/guitarist was there to act as pro counsel on any possible purchases. I took it down and looked at it. Price wasn’t too crazy on it. I could afford it if I found some more stuff to sell. I was sitting there goofing with it when a mutual friend appeared from out of the crowd.

“What are you doing?” he asked me with some surprise. (I’m never really seen with a guitar.)
“Trying out this guitar.”
“Are you thinking of buying it?”
“Well, yeah.”
“I’m selling mine. It’s out in the car.”
(In my head: “Oh, reaaaaaally?”)

I knew that guitar. It was “the red one.” My friend is always buying/selling/trading one thing or another. He’d picked up this red ’63 Telecaster Relic about a year ago. The first time I saw it I thought, “That’s one damn cool-looking guitar.” I’m not even that into red, it just looked good, and I’d heard him play it, and it sounded good. Plus, he always buys good gear, so I knew this wasn’t some whack job that had issues.

To make a long story somewhat shorter, I went out and looked at it, and my bandleader stopped his conversation with my friend at one point while I was noodling to tell me, “That’s a really good guitar.” I took that as a sign that I would have no regrets in buying it, but I held off. My friend suggested I go through the building and look at all the other stuff just to see if there was anything else I liked. I did, and I found one other thing I liked…except that it was a custom color green ’71 Tele, and it was priced at a for-me-staggering $8,900!

After I left the show I called my friend. “I’d like to buy your guitar,” I said. “And if you don’t need all the money today, I’d like to get it right now.” Lucky for me, he didn’t need all the money that day. He brought it over straight away. I think I’m starting to see how people can get all moony-eyed over their guitars. This thing rules! Just looking at it makes me want to play!