When I go to Guitar Center, I get in and out as fast as possible. They never really any amps or guitars that grab my attention. But the shop I do go to for amps and guitars has private playing rooms. One room full of Fender Amps and the othe Marshalls, Heritage and Hiwatts. It is very cool store. Great vintage gear and Dobros up the wazoo.

Check out their website- http://buffalobrosguitars.com

This is where I just had picked up a mid 90's MIJ Jaguar with hardcase for $600. It was in never been played condition. Well, it used to be in never been played condition.

Our Guitar Center always has a bunch of young'uns plugged into B52 amps banging out Metallica riffs or speed scales. I sometimes check out the "vintage" corner of overpriced Fender amps, playing old chestnuts like 'Walk Don't Run,' 'Pipeline,' or 'Apache,' then when my fingers warm up, some of the new Atlantics stuff. It often draws a few people over to listen, surreptitiously. Funny how many people are attracted to surf...from old dudes to young rockabilly types. I think melodic music has a pull because hardly anyone plays melodies anymore...

WindanseaBeachBoy
Funny how many people are attracted to surf...from old dudes to young rockabilly types. I think melodic music has a pull because hardly anyone plays melodies anymore...

I think you hit that right on the head. I posted some demo stuff to another guitar board I frequent, and one guy posted this comment:

"I miss instrumentals and surf music on the radio---only been gone for about 40 years or something, right? Reverb is so cool! I really miss surf music as a mainstay in radio pop....these studio tunes make me feel more strongly that we should have more instrumental guitar stuff in the mainstream..."

The cat who posted this is in his lower/mid 50's. A really cool guy and a great guitar player.

My FAVORITE reaction is when we're playing gigs where we have a pretty mixed group of folks anywhere from their 20's up to 50's, 60's, 70's... It's funny, but when we do our big medley of Pipeline, Walk, Don't Run, Miserlou, etc..., there are always a bunch of 50-something year old guys who just stand there, and watch us transfixed. It like they're going through a time tunnel back to when they were greasy haired teenagers, and wondering if whether or not they might get more chicks if they learned how to play guitar like that! I love seeing that nostaligic look on their faces. Everyone else digs it, too, but not like those cats.

TJW

Aloha,
Kanekila

heh, I just dropped off my Jag to have a setup, and the owner who is a nice go tells me he has a 64 JM that i may want to kill some time with. He whips it out, the guitar is just fucking beautiful. He plugs it into a hotrod deluxe and goes PLAY ME SOMETHING! Of course knowing tons of surf songs I just froze and played a few blues licks, I then went into walk don't run, he smiled at me and walked away. Being put on the spot sometimes sucks. But playing the sweet 64' JazzMaster, I started ripping through every song I can remeber.

well--i am the over 50 guy (55) with the bald head and gray hair and salt and pepper beard and the gut. look just like an old dad. i am an old dad. but--i walk in a guitar store and some kid is playing some metal noise and then it's my turn--pick up a strat, hold it like i'm looking down the neck to see if it's warped and plug into whatever andset it up the way i like it and give the young boy a lesson in nasty guitar picking. oh buddy--the heads do turn and the sales guys are cracking up. they have watched this game for years==a couple of em even set up their friends for the blasting. a little 3 octave ascending run with the pinged note at the end of it then do it backwards and roll a bit of blues into it and finish off with a dick dale medley. or maybe some roy buchanan stuff or

My first post, It's cool to find a forum of people who have alot of the same interests I have. Saturday I was in the exact situation we are discussing at the local Guitar Center. I grabbed a sea foam green Jag and played some Walk Don't Run and Pipeline but it was hard to hear over the 14 year old next to me playing 8 notes a second on his Dimebag Washburn....

I don't really have a specific song that I play on drums when checking out gear... sorta a jazz odyssey I suppose... like Wipeout mixed with a Bo Diddley beat mixed with James Brown's Soul Power and a touch of Haulin' Hearse by The Ghastly Ones...
Wipeout tests out rolls on the toms... Bo Diddley tests out a beat on the toms... Soul Power tests out the high hat bass drum and snare... and Haulin' Hearse tests out rolls on the snare...

Scuttle buttin'n
Texas Flood
Walk Dont Run

Bass

John the Fisherman

-Fly on little wing-

Couldn't Stand The Weather...

www.myspace.com/yougottabeshittenme
...add me...

hmm when i bought my jagmaster i played
walk dont run, pipeline, miserlou
i feel uncomfortble tho when theres a dude watching me like a hawk
sometimes i play bit of stray cats riffs

after i finished the dude asked me "what episode of baywatch was that off?"

image

IronMaiden
Why is it that when you get someone to plug you into an amp they invariably turn the distortion all the way up? Like that is a good barometer to how the guitar sounds all fuzzed out

Learneth thee "Talk, Talk" by The Music Machine! That way, whenever they set the distortion to maximum, at least ya got something to go with...before ya inevitably turn it down, to try other things.

Matt

Fast Cars & Loud Guitars!