Question:
In a few weeks I will be in Phoenix for a conference, and then Tuscon for a weekend of golf. I should be able to get away from the conference some, and will have an afternoon before 36 holes a day begins in Tuscon. Where can a get a guitar fix? (I don't have a Larivee parlor to take with!)
Answer:
About 6 months ago I was in playing a Collings C-10. One of the sales droids came in immediately, because they have a policy that a store employee must be present with you at all times in the vintage guitar room. I commented that the C-10 I was playing sounded a bit darker than I had expected, perhaps something about the bracing. The sales droid said, No, the C-10 is a rosewood guitar. I flipped the guitar over and tried to show him that it's easy to tell mahogany and rosewood apart by the grain, comparing the C-10 to an OM-2H they had. He looked skeptical, then left the room. Through the glass I watched him get the Collings catalog and look up the guitar. He came back in and said, You're right, it's mahogany. He had probably initially been thinking of the C-10 Deluxe, so I can understand momentary confusion, but his inability to tell the difference between mahogany and rosewood struck me as odd for someone expected to sell high end guitars. About a year ago I was in playing a Collings OM-2H. The sales droid came in and stood around, as usual, because of their employee always present rule. A couple of minutes later, a second droid walked in and told the droid hovering over me that he needed to go run some personal errands, and that he'd be back in 15-20 minutes. He left, and the droid in the room with me said, Well, I guess I'd better go back to the sales counter. I said, No problem, go right ahead, thinking that finally I would get a chance to play for a few moments without having to listen to a sales routine. He then reached out and grabbed the neck of the guitar while I was playing it!!! I said, What are you doing?! He said, I have to go back out to the counter. I said, You mean I have to stop playing? He said, Yeah. I said, Because your friend needs to go run personal errands? He said, Um, well, yeah. I told him to get the manager. He located the manager and the two conferenced for a moment, then the manager came to me and apologized profusely. He asked which guitar I wanted to play. I pointed to the one the droid had grabbed from me. The manager handed the guitar to me, then sat down and attempted to chat with me for the next 10 minutes while I played. I was trying to get a sense of the guitar's tone, but that was impossible given the constant vocal drone of the manager. I finally handed him the guitar and told him I'd be back on a day when they were busier. I stop in at Rainbow about every two or three weeks, and most of my visits have been much less eventful. They generally leave me alone now in the vintage room, and the sales people are passably friendly. However amongst guitar stores I've visited in my lifetime, Rainbow definitely ranks in the bottom half. Guitars Etc., across town, is usually just as busy as Rainbow. In contrast to the Rainbow employees, however, Mark and Adrian at Guitars Etc. are very friendly, incredibly knowledgeable about guitars, and they leave you alone while you play. The same is true of Paul, across the street from Rainbow at the Folk Shop. What a great old guy, and he really knows acoustic music and instruments of all kinds.
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