This one was acquired by pure chance. My wife Anita Gayle and I were shopping for some gardening supplies and made the mistake of "just dropping by" our local Guitar Center store on our way back to the car. We made our way back through the store making jokes with the sales staff about offering them a little snack from a small veggie fertilizer bag I was carrying. As we approached their wall of used guitars, one stood out from the rest, a new-looking Gibson SG Deluxe. "Oh, that's a lot of guitar there, and the price seems a bit low considering the excellent, spiffy condition," I thought innocently.
Anita Gayle sensed my mental drooling and asked, "Would you like to have that guitar?"
"Well, sure, but I have a few really nice ones now," I said, not taking my eyes off this orange beauty.
"Why don't you try it out. Maybe you should get it," she countered. Then, she said something about me not living forever, which is actually very logical, but a little morbid and sweet at the same time.
Anyway, I called over one of the sales staff who took it off the wall and handed it to me. I looked it over very closely and remarked it looked new. He agreed and told me it had likely set in a guitar case (included in their price, BTW) and hardly ever played since it was bought three years ago by some rich guitar collector. He had brought in three of these 2013 SG Deluxe models and traded up to something (or things?) of more value two weeks ago. The other SG Deluxe models were blue, and lime. This stunning orange one was the only one left.
Anita Gayle was listening intently and asked what this guitar sold for new three years ago, got an answer from the sales guy, looked at the price tag and said to me, "If you want it, I think you should get it". And, I am a firm believer in not arguing with your partner when she is handing you what you want.
So, I did get it, along with a nice strap. I played with it for about two hours yesterday, and another two hours so far today. It is another very sweet guitar "ride" in my stable and I will be surprising my guitar teacher with it for my lesson in two days. It has more features than I had discovered at the store so I did get a pretty good deal.
As you can gather from the previous fortuitous tale, I am one lucky camper on a number of levels, right?
