OK, well this is just too cool and i have to share..

[toddzilla]

I've been massively busy the past few weeks helping to open up a guitar shop with my former teacher and friend. I took lessons from him for quite a while and credit him with allowing me to become a pretty smokin guitarist at one point. So after a few years of lessons I end up teaching with him at a local shop, he has a falling out with the owner and ends up quitting, and subsequently i quit and helped him start a small lesson studio which becomes pretty sucessful. After a year or so of teaching i grow tired of students that don't practice and find work elsewhere doing commercial painting. I do work on and off for him for the next few yearshelping out with things and he has always treated me well. In december i lost my job painting and he is talking about expanding the store and opening a retail storefront. So he ends up moving the store and i ask him if i could be a part of it, and he says certainly. So during the construction/rennovation of the new space i end up doing all manner of work from building computers and point of sale terminals to all the painting/patching, light carpentry and anything else that needs doing, working many hours a week. I bill him for the painting, doing it for roughly half of what it would cost, and all the while friends and family are concerned that i'm not getting my due compensation. I've always trusted this guy and we've gotten along very well in the past. So we get the space opened up and it looks fantastic, and i work at the counter doing sales, running the website and inventory etc..

yesterday he told me he really appreciated what i've done and all the work i've put in, knowing that i understand i took a pay cut in order to be a part of a business that will most likely do very well in the future. so he tells me he noticed i liked a certain guitar we have in inventory and basically tells me he's giving it to me for the extra effort i've put in at the business.. Needless to say i'm floored:wow: as this guitar would sell for close to 600+ dollars. here's a picure of it..



I guess i felt like telling this story because it reminds me of why people need to consider much more than what their paycheck is, and concentrate on the people around you. I've really become a person that doesn't really care all that much about financial "sucess" as much as not dreading every day at work. Anyway.. i guess i just had to share how cool it is to be appreciated, and to be able to trust someone and know that if you do what it takes to make things happen that many times things have a way of working out to the best even if it doesn't appear it will in the short term.


:grouphug: it's good to have good people around you.

[Systematic Chaos]

1. What I wouldn't give to be in your shoes!

And, may I add, that looks like one very nice guitar. Congratulations all around! :)

[Syrinx]

2. cool!

I think there might be something to this karma thing. :)

[toddzilla]

3. I'm still kind of freaked out..

The funny part is i played it on and off all day today and when he came in before we closed (he was off today) he asked me if i'd read the backplate. I hadn't realized that he wrote a nice thank you message on the plastic trem cover!

I used to have a USA made RG770 that i sold in a moment of abject stupidity, and this guitar reminds me of it, although it's a prestige series and not an RG.


the store's website is www.davidsguitarloft.com if anyone is interested.

[Pale Blue Dot]

4. Instant karma's gonna get you.

I have really learned the lesson lately that the friendship that you show another human being gets rewarded tenfold eventually. Congratulations on the great guitar!

[Droopy]

5. Very cool

I'm glad things are going your way, man. I remember some posts from you from a while ago that said things weren't going so well. It's good to see something positive happening for somebody. :toast:

[flamingyouth]

6. That's beautiful

Good for you - you deserve it! And what a nice gesture. I love stories like this. Enjoy!! :hi:

[amerikat]

7. is that your reflection in the pic

can you play a riff that will help us dems?

[toddzilla]

8. no, that 's the shop "go-fer"

I had him take the pics of the guitars for the website.

I could play a riff, but i'm coming off a two-year layoff, i couldn't really play much while i was a painter due to hand fatigue. It's a long road back.. kind of like being fat after being in good shape, it seemed so easy when i was "in my prime" hehe.

[amerikat]

9. I know what you mean......start on good riff you don't have to fiinish

it tonight.......i will ask for a progress report later.....give it a try. I would love to hear what you will do with such a gift placed in your lap. mana from heaven.

[LastKnight]

10. ive always wanted an ibanez...

ive thought they were cool guitars... i work at a music shop too... but we arent an ibanez dealer... so i wound up with some nice gibsons/fenders in my house... but i will never be able to shake that urge to go find a good ibanez...

-LK

[toddzilla]

11. we do 80% used right now

we just picked up crate as a new line, and will go to NAMM next month and hopefully get some good high-end new lines.

Ibanez are far and away some of the most "playable" guitars made. I'm a strat guy through and through, but the urge to shred rears it's ugly head from time to time, and nothing but a modern design will do for me.

[LastKnight]

12. had a chance to play the 50th anneversary strat recently...

good neck, good feel. the pickups are real quiet but i wouldnt be able to hear a difference in the samaramium(sp?) cobalt ones they are so excited about and the regular noiseless...

but hey... maybe if i did a side by side comparison, maybe then i could tell the difference... all in all a real nice guitar though... until i looked at the price tag :wow:

-LK

[toddzilla]

13. my strat..

hard to tell from the pic, but it's an '88 model with an active pre-amp boost on board, seymour duncan in the bridge, hotrails in the middle, and stock strat pickup in the neck for the "stevie" sound. It's well worn and will NEVER be for sale. :loveya:

[LastKnight]

14. well worn? pffft. BUILT IN CHARACTER!

yea... mine are plenty beat up too...

have you had a chance to play the texas special pickups fender puts out? what do you think of em? i plugged in one of the store's SRV strats aaaaand... i wasnt exactly feelin the texas blues like i thought i should. i think they are kinda lacking, honestly.

-LK

[toddzilla]

15. shrill, harsh..

I dont' care for the SRV strat personally. Feels like a louisville slugger with a nut and tremelo to me. Just because stevie liked horribly high action and a baseball bat for a neck doesn't mean i have to. I've gotten closest to his tone with my stock strat, a late 70's super reverb on 8, and a crybaby left on about 1/2 way through the travel. doesn't get much closer than that to me, and i always make sure to tune down that 1/2 step for the loose jangly sound. I currently play through a peavey classic 50 4x10 and love the way it sounds.