It's Wednesday! You know what that means—Musings Time!
As promised, I'm here to deliver another blog post. Ironically, I plan to use this week's edition to write about how not slow our "slow season" has been. I was afraid I would have to fall back on my promise of making this blog weekly again, but luckily I've found the time to make it happen.
Things have been busy here, but now it's busy in a more unpredictable, sporadic kind of way. When I started here in the winter, business moved at a more consistent and steady pace. However, since we've moved into the summer, things seem to be much more sudden and unpredictable. The one thing we can count on is that the weekends are a lot slower. People are spending a lot more time at the beach and whatnot. We've also found that guitar services increase massively among the gigging crowd as they knock the dust off their workhorses and get them stage-ready. Sound system and P.A. system rentals also greatly increase this time of year too. We've had a pretty consistent lineup of DJs, sound guys, and promoters coming through every weekend for some event they're playing.
Another thing we've noticed is that a lot more people have come in to sell us gear (we do buy used and new music gear, for the record). We usually see a lot of gear trade-ins around the holidays as people get cash together for gifts, but I can't say exactly what's driving it at this time of year. As far as the unpredictable side of things goes, we've recently had a lot more instances of 3-5 different parties of people walking into the store 30 minutes before closing on a Tuesday night. We're happy to have you, but boy, does it present a challenge making sure everyone is being tended to fairly. Keep it coming, folks. You could send 30 people in here at once, and we'd still make sure you're all taken care of!
Luckily, tonight has been pretty chill across the board, leaving me time to get this blog post written. I know I've said it a lot lately, but I am very happy to have this going again. Writing is something I am very passionate about.
I would like to take the rest of this week's edition to tell a story about our friend Michael Hurley. Michael Hurley, a loyal customer of ours, has, in his own words, "been having a bad month." Michael recently purchased a brand new PRS Silver Sky SE from Guitar Center (not a cheap guitar!). Upon buying it, Michael brought the guitar to our lovely tech, Stefan. After having some trouble getting the thing playing right, Stefan came to the unfortunate realization that the truss rod was maxed out and the neck was twisted. Michael was very bummed to hear that he was going to have to return his new guitar. Luckily, Michael got his money back, no questions asked.
While at Guitar Center, he spotted a '90s American Strat that "he had to have." He purchased it, but not before asking if the guitar tech could check the neck on it. The salesperson confirmed the neck was okay, and he purchased it. So once again, Michael brings the guitar to his trusted tech, Stefan. Stefan gets to setting the thing up, and it's going pretty well. I actually found myself next to Stefan when he started giving the guitar a puzzled look. Stefan's expression quickly changed from puzzled to horrified as he realized he couldn't turn the truss rod anymore. It was maxed out, again! Aaron came over to confirm, and yep, it wasn't budging. Stefan then had a sad phone call to make. It was as if he had to tell Michael his puppy had died. I could make out Michael's frustration over the phone. He was mad, but not at us; he was mad at Guitar Center, Fate, and the universe! How could this happen twice?! It is incredibly unlucky to have two guitars in a row with maxed-out truss rods. These were nice, expensive instruments too. Michael lamented returning his guitar. He knew he had to, though. It would never play properly.
Upon arriving at the store and requesting a return, Michael reports that the Guitar Center tech asked to look at the guitar. They couldn't believe that he really had received two expensive, defective guitars in a row. They returned Michael's money, and this time, he was going to buy a guitar from The Laboratory. Michael had his eye on a beautiful Godin Stadium Pro, a Telecaster-style guitar we had. He picked it off the wall and made it scream. He was sold. However, he did ask me to check the neck, haha!
Michael bought his first guitar from us in February 2024, and since then, he has proven himself an extremely dedicated, thoughtful, and talented player. The new Godin found its way into his possession by way of fate, I tell you! Michael, you better be reading this. Congratulations on your new axe, sir. You've earned it.
That's all for this week, folks. Keep the business coming! Keep it unpredictable and sporadic! Until next time,
-Gavin
