TheGreat R.
Yelp
I have been playing guitar every day of my life since I was 9 years old. I've done 10 years of music college, including a 2-year Harmony program at Citrus, West Covina. 5 summers at National Guitar Summer Workshop and much more, way too much training to list really - as guitar is all I've ever been interested in. I taught professionally for 30 years. Basically, I live and breathe guitar. I often work at hotel front desks to make money for guitar purchases and am constantly buying and selling guitars and amps. This month I have purchased four excellent acoustic guitars and have been on the lookout for a good Stratocaster with binding along the neck. A couple weeks ago I was at Sam Ash and happened to luck upon a beautiful Gibson Dove from 2007 at a low price, due to the fact that it's oldish now but not vintage. I spent a couple hours chatting with amazing sales associate Sean and met some fellow shoppers and went ahead and popped on the Gibson. A great choice that I was very happy with.
Three days ago I sold my truck and I've been on the lookout for a good Stratocaster with neck binding to use the money on. That night I worked a night shift at the hotel and stayed up to visit the Souplantation. While eating I decided to look on the internet for some bridge pins for the Gibson and came across a nearby music store called Future Music in the Highland Park area near Eagle Rock / Glendale - a hipster community festooned with coffee shops and vintage stores. I called Future Music and spoke with a very amicable sales gentleman named Brian. Brian's enthusiasm gave me the impetus to stay awake a bit more and drive the six or seven miles further to get there. Upon arrival I was astonished to find an identical Gibson Dove hanging in the shop behind the register! All I could think was "I have to have it!". They too had it priced more reasonably than the new ones so I wanted to grab it up since they are not making those this year. Brian assisted me and at first I found a lot of dead spots on the fretboard, likely due to the ancient strings. (Also they didn't have the bridge pins) I told Brian that I would be happy to buy a pack of strings if they would be good enough to put them on this guitar for me to try, and possibly even put a small shim under the saddle while they have the strings off to raise the action a bit and improve the tone. Brian helpfully recommended that I go to nearby Kumquat Coffee for a nice cuppa while waiting. The coffee was quite excellent there and I was having a brilliant day, excited to have free M L K Day holiday meter parking and to have lucked into such a magical music store. Upon my return I played the freshly restrung Dove (Brian refused payment for the strings) for about a half an hour, unable to put it down but too tired to truly play even though people kept saying nice things walking by. the finance terms were very short at this store so I had to spend some time trying to figure out which credit cards, and how much of the truck payment and whether to wait for my paycheck to hit in a couple days and I discussed some of this with Brian and chatted with people while shopping when I noticed an awesome vintage Morely phaser that I desperately wanted so was trying to figure that in when a man from New York asked me as a favor to demo a guitar he liked. Brian saw this and set up an amp, then right above it I noticed an amazing looking Blue Straocaster with neck binding. This was a day of Eurekas! I was going to be able to get BOTH the guitars I wanted and a vintage pedal that I hadn't even known about all in one stop! Apparently though, from way up at the front of the store, the owner, who had been reserved but helpful in answering a few of my questions earlier, noticed, it seemed, that two of his customers were communicating with each other and he motioned for me to come follow him. Naturally I assumed he was going to take me aside and offer me a better price on the Gibson if I bundled it with the Morley pedal as he didn't know yet that I was also interested in the blue Strat. But imagine my horror when this complete horses ass walked me outside and, out of the skyblue thin air, started YELLING at me and slandering my character by hollering that I am a big BULLSHITER WASTING HIS TIME and that I need to "GET THE FUCK OUT OF HIS STORE!" Mind blown. I have never been treated like that in any retail environment in my whole life. Ever, for any reason whatsoever. and in fact, I couldn't even imagine speaking to a customer like that. I started to let him know that I wasn't a bullshiter and reached to show my truck money but he cut me off by yelling yes you are you are a bullshiter a big bullshiter. I hadn't bullshitted once, but resigned to respect his decision to expel me and lose the sale, and tried to shake his hand but he simply brushed past me back into the store. An absolute, 100 percent pure asshole move. Store was amazing/1 star for Brian. Owner clearly insane.
