Boudoir Guitar
Rock Star
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I had to make a super quick trip to Tennessee for a funeral over the weekend. I flew into Nashville, got a rental car, and had a couple of hours that I could kill Friday morning before driving out into the sticks. Not long enough to do any real shopping (and I'm not really in either the mental headspace, or the financial stability space to be Nashville Guitar Shopping atm, to be honest), but was a great recon for "would this be worth a return trip and if so how?" The answer to that is "yes; worth a return trip to coincide with the guitar show out in Franklin and should do it by driving down so I can bring stuff I might be interested in selling/trading and able to drive back with whatever I might get".
First stop was Rumble Seat Music. This place is great. It's a pretty small shop, but packed with goodness. Lots of great vintage Marshall and Fender amps a few Parks and Metropolis, handful of old Voxes etc.,, lots of vintage Fender solid bodies, including the '60s Jazzmaster and '54 Esquire shown below; plenty of Gibson stuff from late 60s-70s; some cool Kay/Silvertone things -- a few newer things, too, but mostly older stuff. Shop smelled like old guitars and employees that take a lot of smoke breaks. The two dudes running it were super chill and happy to let me play all sorts of stuff. The highlight here for me was being able to sit with a narrow-nut late 60s Gibson ES (the red 330 with chrome pickup covers). I've always wondered whether that vintage ES would be playable, or wonky, or what. Much to my pleasant surprise, was totally playable. Noticeable, but not WILDLY so. Would be easy to keep in a collection and swap back and forth between. Was also nice to see/hear that even the late '60s Gibsons have a different sound/vibe to any modern Gibson, including Custom Shop stuff...just more midrange forward (acoustically -- didn't plug anything in).
The kicker was as I was leaving the guy noted that all of their good stuff was already out at the guitar show in Franklin, so this was apparently just the stuff that got left behind. If they had stuff I was interested in, would be a GREAT shop to sit in and spend a lot of time with it. Small, good people, good amps to play through, rooms that are "normal" in terms of size, carpeting, etc.
Then I went to Carters Vintage which honestly was a bit like grown-up Disneyland. The place is huge and even at 11am Friday morning there were a LOT of obvious guit-ourists that were there like me just to see, not actually shopping. The amount of stuff, just hanging on racks that you could pull off and play, was pretty astounding. Most everything in the big-room shot was used/vintage. The pro here was being able to pick up several examples of a given instrument and play side by side -- they had a number of 50s 225s, 125s, and 175s and it was REALLY useful to play those all together...to hear/feel how different they all sounded. Which is to say, I keep getting more and more settled on "don't buy an instrument you don't have a chance to play yourself in the flesh." Stuff they had hanging in the main room ranged up to around $15k or so price tag wise? There was a side room with the more collectable vintage stuff that was staffed by people keeping a closer eye on things and notes all over the place saying not to handle without staff assistance. They were also filming a video of some dude killing it on an old tele through a silver face Princeton Reverb. Amps were all off in little side studio/iso closet/rooms and honestly I didn't really peak my head in much. I GUESS if you were legit looking at a guitar you'd take it into one of those rooms because the floor is loud, busy...and not a place I'd want to be seriously considering an instrument. Other highlights here were picking up a number of '60s duosonics -- I'm okay picking up a $4k guitar and playing, not a $40k one -- to see if '60s Fenders have a different vibe/feel to Custom Shop reissues. Big surprise...they do. Also played a Grez Mendocino which is a model I've been curious about for a while but a little weary of having not touched one. It was GREAT. Super light, resonant and loud acoustically with great feel/playability.
First stop was Rumble Seat Music. This place is great. It's a pretty small shop, but packed with goodness. Lots of great vintage Marshall and Fender amps a few Parks and Metropolis, handful of old Voxes etc.,, lots of vintage Fender solid bodies, including the '60s Jazzmaster and '54 Esquire shown below; plenty of Gibson stuff from late 60s-70s; some cool Kay/Silvertone things -- a few newer things, too, but mostly older stuff. Shop smelled like old guitars and employees that take a lot of smoke breaks. The two dudes running it were super chill and happy to let me play all sorts of stuff. The highlight here for me was being able to sit with a narrow-nut late 60s Gibson ES (the red 330 with chrome pickup covers). I've always wondered whether that vintage ES would be playable, or wonky, or what. Much to my pleasant surprise, was totally playable. Noticeable, but not WILDLY so. Would be easy to keep in a collection and swap back and forth between. Was also nice to see/hear that even the late '60s Gibsons have a different sound/vibe to any modern Gibson, including Custom Shop stuff...just more midrange forward (acoustically -- didn't plug anything in).
The kicker was as I was leaving the guy noted that all of their good stuff was already out at the guitar show in Franklin, so this was apparently just the stuff that got left behind. If they had stuff I was interested in, would be a GREAT shop to sit in and spend a lot of time with it. Small, good people, good amps to play through, rooms that are "normal" in terms of size, carpeting, etc.
Then I went to Carters Vintage which honestly was a bit like grown-up Disneyland. The place is huge and even at 11am Friday morning there were a LOT of obvious guit-ourists that were there like me just to see, not actually shopping. The amount of stuff, just hanging on racks that you could pull off and play, was pretty astounding. Most everything in the big-room shot was used/vintage. The pro here was being able to pick up several examples of a given instrument and play side by side -- they had a number of 50s 225s, 125s, and 175s and it was REALLY useful to play those all together...to hear/feel how different they all sounded. Which is to say, I keep getting more and more settled on "don't buy an instrument you don't have a chance to play yourself in the flesh." Stuff they had hanging in the main room ranged up to around $15k or so price tag wise? There was a side room with the more collectable vintage stuff that was staffed by people keeping a closer eye on things and notes all over the place saying not to handle without staff assistance. They were also filming a video of some dude killing it on an old tele through a silver face Princeton Reverb. Amps were all off in little side studio/iso closet/rooms and honestly I didn't really peak my head in much. I GUESS if you were legit looking at a guitar you'd take it into one of those rooms because the floor is loud, busy...and not a place I'd want to be seriously considering an instrument. Other highlights here were picking up a number of '60s duosonics -- I'm okay picking up a $4k guitar and playing, not a $40k one -- to see if '60s Fenders have a different vibe/feel to Custom Shop reissues. Big surprise...they do. Also played a Grez Mendocino which is a model I've been curious about for a while but a little weary of having not touched one. It was GREAT. Super light, resonant and loud acoustically with great feel/playability.
