Stupid like a fox! My friend who died 5 years ago was the owner of the most successful music store in the city. He was a big band trumpet player. He, his wife and the owners of the other two popular music stores all worked together for 10 years at a large local store. When they started their stores, they all agreed to divide up the business. My friend did not stock and sell horns; he specialized in guitars and PA. His one friend did horns and the other specialized in keyboards. Thing is, he never learned a thing about stringed instruments. He would take an instrument down, run a had across the strings without touching the neck and say....WONDERFUL!, and hand the instrument to the customer. In 40 years, he never learned more, but what a salesman!

I ordered a red Guild hollow body. He called and said the thing was in. When I went to pick it up, it was sunburst. When I called that to his attention, he said, "I don't think so. That's a new Guild red." Then, he took me and the guitar over to a window and turned it several times to let the sunlight bounce off of it. Damn if he didn't convince me that it was some kind of proprietary red.

Two days later, the red one came in. I kept the sunburst one, played it for 40 years, and at his funeral, his son told the tale of his dad, the GREAT SALESMAN and Russ's red guitar!

I took it back to the store, where, for a year, it hung on a hook in the most visible place there, with a sign saying "Russ's famous red guitar".

Dumn salesman or dumn customer? You decide!


Russ (colorblind) Lay

[This message has been edited by captain Russ (edited 09-30-2009).]