story #1: I went to Mars Music the other day, on the very last day they were open. ’twas the most depressing thing ever. The entire store had been moved out into the middle of the floor, there was exactly two guitars and 1 amp left in the entire store, the amp being a fender vibro king with missing knobs and the input jacks lost inside.

By the door I noticed a very beat up looking Roland amp. VERY beat up, if you picked it up by the top handle you’d find it was held together by the tolex. Apparently it had been dropped off a truck after shipping. I asked a guy what they wanted for it, he said $50. The grill cltoh looked fine, so I figured the speaker was worth more than $50.

I bought the amp, took it home, and wouldn’t you know it, one circuit board was cracked, and needed one channel to be fixed.

So for the princely price of $50 i got a Roland VGA 4, basically a Roland Line 6. It’s a 60 watt 1X12 combo with amp and cab sims, plus roland chorus, delay, reverb, and EFX (pick from wah, tremelo, compresser, slow gear, phaser, and flanger). Not bad eh?

Story 2: I went to the music city guitar show last weekend, in Nashville Tn. And while there I picked up the coolest (non Jazzmaster) guitar you’ve ever seen. It’s a fender Telecaster with a vintage (or reissue) neck, American Standard hardware and electronics, and a body in Midnight wine red (prob. Mexican). All this for $350. And to think I almost bought a fiesta red Jazzmaster for $850.