steve morse at guitar center

[kbaim]

Thought I'd share this...

Went shopping for my mom today at the mall (tomorrow being mother's day). I decided to throw my black sparkle steve morse guitar in the car just in case I ended up at guitar center a few blocks away Which I did.

One of the sales guys spots me picking away and does a double take. Well, it wasn't long before he pulls up a stool and I invite him to try the rarely-if-ever-in-a-guitar store ebmm steve morse model.

We spent the next hour yapping and handing the guitar back and forth. Turns out the guy was on his lunch hour and chose playing my steve morse over eating. Him asking such questions as, Uh...how do I select the neck humbucker (perhaps only funny to those familiar with the pickup switching of this guitar).

He was saving up for a silo special but after playing my Morse he was interested in making an offer to me on it. Can't sell it I told him. But there was a used one at another guitar center 10 miles away I told him.

I always get a big smile on my face when good players (like this guy was) that play any and all guitars from lots of different manufacturers settle on the guitars all of us on these boards love so much.

KEITH

 

[OrangeChannel]

Awesome story dude. That's a pretty cool feeling to when people ogle one of your pride and joy like that.

 

[peter71]

Very cool stuff! I think that is the one thing I really like about Guitar Center. The opportunity to hang out and play and, in this case, talk to other guitarists. It kind of sucks because the guitars get pretty beat up, but on the other hand, I always feel a little anxious in smaller, privately owned shops because the sales people are a little more intrusive and a lot of times there isn't much space.

Anyway, thanks for the great story and I hope that you continue to build up a little army of Morse players. That way they will be more common on store shelves...

 

[kbaim]

Yeah, it would be nice to see a morse model at a store.

I think the unique pickup switching might scare off a lot of players though. Once you figure it out, it just gives so many tonal options.

Maybe the best part of the story though is that the guitar center guy was looking for a silo special to be his main guitar (he plays strats now).

Then a day later Jdouglee posts the story of his gear being thieved and now needs to sell his silo to raise money to replace his recording gear.

Here's hoping the 2 of them hook up and doug gets both a really good deal on some new gear and finds a great home for a beautiful guitar. Sweet.

Wouldn't that be nice given how doug could use some cheering up after such a bummer.

KEITH

 

[peter71]

Man that sucks! I hope that Doug is doing ok. He will definately be in me prayers! Hopefully he can get some stuff back without it being too painful!

 

[PurpleSport]

With apologies to The Police, how's this for synchronicity?

- I tried a used Morse (black, but not sparkly) for the first time at GC in Manhattan weekend before last- they wanted $995, but I'm pretty sure they just auctioned it off on their website for about $200 less a week later...

- They had a Silo Special (hardtail tho) EXACTLY like JDoug's on sale there too that I also got to try out (liked the Morse far better on all counts, even tho it needed an neck tweak - gunstock oil treatment/humidity level neglect, as usual). That said, both sounded quite nice on the $2200 Zinky amp I was using!

- I too have had all my gear stolen in an apartment break-in my last nite in college (luckily, my folks' renter's insurance covered it, and I've had it ever since to this day myself - it's not that expensive, about $10-20 a month)

Small little karmic world we live in, ay?

 

[kbaim]

Hey purplesport,

Did you not get the Morse because of the price? Or were you not really in the market for another guitar and just wanted to try one out? I kinda like the fact that these guitars are so hard to find.

Hey Peter71,

I agree on your guitar store take. Sometimes it's nice to hang out with all those guitars and other players in a store. Especially if you can hear yourself over the young players that crank up the amps they're trying.

KEITH

 

[SGMan88]

Awesome Story and of course he fell in love with an MM...who wouldn't!!!

 

[PurpleSport]

Hey purplesport,

Did you not get the Morse because of the price? Or were you not really in the market for another guitar and just wanted to try one out? I kinda like the fact that these guitars are so hard to find.

Hiya Keith -
A little bit of all of the above, actually!

The taxman and my divorce lawyer recently took a couple o' big bites outta me. Plus I thought the price was a tad high for a used stoptail bolt neck instrument - even tho it was an EBMM in fairly good shape and had a Joe Barden single coil installed. Plus I figured one could be had for less on eBay (which seems to be the case based on recent auctions).

I almost bit the bullet on the GC auction since the price was so low compared to the floor rate, but decided against it - the fact that EBMMs are so consistent actually makes it easier for me to hold off for a future deal.

I must say I was far more impressed with the Morse than I thought I would be - I think the neck was second only to the Axis in my book for all-time best feel, and the sound variety was awesome and much brighter than I expected (I'm almost afraid a Floyd would mess it up based on my past experiences with guitars that have been converted - and I simply prefer vintage styles these days). I didn't have the benefit of a knob/switch diagram or a knowlegeable salesperson, so it was fun poking thru all the tones and then seeing what they really were when I looked it all up online afterwards...

And, most importantly, it was the first Strat-styled axes that actually looked "right" hanging against me - for some reason, Fenders and I have never really quite meshed in the visual department!

 

[PurpleSport]

BTW, I might add the Manhattan GC is freakin' HUGE!

They have an entire wall of vintage stuff you can walk right up to and theoretically grab and wail away on (I wasn't gonna try to pull that off and risk getting a free trip to the emergency room courtesy of some hidden bouncer!). Not many EBMMs on hand, tho - only saw the Morse and Silo, a beat to hell MM90/trem-ed platinum Axis Sport, and several basses in the bass room (the Subs were nice - looking forward to the guitar version!)

Then there's an entire bottom floor devoted to keyboards and pro-studio quality equipment - they had a MASSIVE Trident console down there when I swung thru - would loved to have stuck around, but I hadda leave to go somewhere else as I'd spent all my time puttering away on the Morse. Ah well, all the more reason to go back again!

Definitely worth checking out if any of you folks are visiting NYC - it's the Times Square of music stores, and in a nice neighborhood (Union Square, not Times Square, BTW), too.

 

[OrangeChannel]

I got a friend that's the senior door guy in the entire chain. They sent him to the NYC location to train the door guys.

 

[lindy]

Very cool stuff! I think that is the one thing I really like about Guitar Center. The opportunity to hang out and play and, in this case, talk to other guitarists. It kind of sucks because the guitars get pretty beat up, but on the other hand, I always feel a little anxious in smaller, privately owned shops because the sales people are a little more intrusive and a lot of times there isn't much space.

Anyway, thanks for the great story and I hope that you continue to build up a little army of Morse players. That way they will be more common on store shelves...

Back in the early 90's my bass player bud (I'm a drummer and his fave) used to work at Guitar Center on Milwaukee ave north side of Chicago, calls me and asked to pickup Steve Morse with him at the airport, you know I was down for that ride, anyway we picked him up and he actually smoked a doob with us on the way to the center and we got to know him a bit, really nice laid back, cool dude! One of my top 3 fave axemen of all time along with Al DiMeola and John Goodsall from Brand X SINCE i'M A PROG ROCK NUT!