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  • A kid in a candy store

So I'm sitting here in Heathrow airport with lots of time to kill and fond memories of a great trip to the western USA. One of those memories, that few others would understand so I felt I'd post about it on GFSA where peeps would understand, was the singular joy of browsing through a Guitar Center in San Francisco, a truly massive shop. They had every Fender Strat that I was interested in trying out, bar for the Eric Johnson signature strat, and as I went through them I reached levels of stimulation that would not be appropriate to describe on this forum.

Here is a wall full of mostly American Standards. They had a similar wall full of American Deluxes.


And here is a section of one wall in their "special" room with the higher end guitars.


Here's another wall with a bunch of custom shop Les Pauls. I played a few of these as well, just for the fun of it. They were very accommodating even though I must have numbed their skulls with my limited repertoire.


Here is a section of the shop that I managed to capture by stitching a few pictures together.


And I had to spend some time in the acoustic department as well. Yes, "department" would be the appropriate word as it wasn't just a room or an isle. Here's a picture taken in one of the rooms where they had a bunch of Martins, Taylors, Larivees and Gibsons.


Of course, I walked out of there the very proud new owner of a strat. I left it there for two weeks though while we headed off on a road trip around California, Nevada, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, Utah and Arizona and picked it up the day before we flew out again. If you look closely you might find my guitar in the crowd above. Here's a hint, it wasn't this vintage '56 strat. I just didn't quite feel that I could afford the $38,000 price tag.


Yummy. I could have taken a few more days to hang around the shop if the wife didn't insist that we had to see the Golden Gate Bridge, San Francisco Street Cars and Alcatraz as well.

Arriving back in SA tomorrow and will then try to get a few nice pics of the new family member and put them up for your perusal.
    Awesome photos and what an awesome experience!! I'm glad you managed to get some photos. I was so mesmerized I forgot to take pictures. My wife had to literary tell to calm down at one point. ??? They really have almost everything under the sun! I had three guitars in the exact same spec that I could try and choose from. I also spent quite a bit of time in that acoustic room... so many jaw dropping guitars to try...

    Congrats on the new guitar!! I walked out of that same store in San Fran not even a year ago with my American Standard Strat!! Was such an awesome experience... the guitar automatically comes with back story and memories the moment you buy it...

    I had the good fortune to also visit the Los Angeles store... their reserve section is off the hook... wall to wall vintage stuff on the stage of an old theater.

    Anywhoo... enjoy the road trip, and when you're in some airport cursing at the stupid big guitar flight case that's giving you a cramp in the neck... it'll be all worth it when you're home!! ? ? ?
      I'd be too scared to go into a store like that. They'd have to drag me out in cuffs coz asking me to leave at closing time wouldn't work ?
        They close at like 9pm if I recall correctly...

        Also, I wan't all the Gretsches..... ALL OF THEM!
          deefstes wrote:
          Here's a hint, it wasn't this vintage '56 strat. I just didn't quite feel that I could afford the $38,000 price tag.

          .
          Looks like the 56 Strat has been re-fretted with jumbos.
            I know the feeling Deefstes,, I had a similar experience last year in New York's Guitar Center.. so many guitars so little time... :'(
            Next trip to the states aint gonna be the Statue of Liberty or Empire State,,,
            its the Martin Factory and as many other guitar places as possible.. ? ? 8)
              In the GC where I ordered/bought my G6120-DSW they had this on display:



              Let me get a close up of that price tag for you:



              They had some really nice stuff, really well priced.

              And at GC, they realise that just because you can't play guitar like a champion doesn't mean you can't afford the guitar.
                Greg wrote: Let me get a close up of that price tag for you:

                Hey, it includes a case, what a bargain ?
                  deefstes wrote:
                  Greg wrote: Let me get a close up of that price tag for you:

                  Hey, it includes a case, what a bargain ?
                  86,999.00 USD = 746,729.86 ZAR

                  Not bad at all! ?
                    Remember, that's before tax ?
                      Deefstes... Me thinks you went for the Fender Select Strat?!
                        Norman86 wrote: Deefstes... Me thinks you went for the Fender Select Strat?!
                        My guess is also that Select Strat, in a similar colour to the normal Sienna Burst. ?
                          ? You guys read me like a book. I'll take some pics of it tonight and post a NGD thread (wow, at last I can make a NGD post). ?
                            dude thats awesome ?
                            I am sure you're seriously chuffed with your purchase!!
                              Wow Deefstes, that looks like an awesome experience!

                              Congrats on your new purchase! Hope you have heaps of fun with the newest member to the collection!

                              I also want to go to America one day, yah to see some of the land marks etc, but I want to go to LA and NY especially to experience a bit of the musical hype. Maybe see a few live shos and browse a lot of music stores ?

                              Once again enjoy!
                                Congrats! We demand many many pictures!!
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