CBHScott
How did I get here?
Short version:
I got a PRS SE Mark Holcomb sig at a stupid low price.
(cheap hotel room shot)
LONG version:
So, yeah...after a long and brutal week with a lot of road miles logged, I got home on Friday night around 8. I had already been waffling on whether to actually go to SWGF this year, because I was dead tired, the weather for Saturday looked iffy, my budget would be VERY low due to our upcoming home purchase, and I had the Outlaw Music Festival to attend on Sunday. Nonetheless, I told the women that as long as the weather looked decent, that we could still go on Saturday.
Saturday morning: wake up, and the wife was not quite feeling it this time, so she bowed out, and the SIL and I rolled into the car to take the 3-hour trip. On arrival, we were greeted with rather cool and breezy sunshine after coming through overcast skies (yes, I can paint a picture
). We check in, and the first place I (always) go is the Open Box tent. In recent years, it has been a bit disappointing guitar-wise - in years past, they would usually have quite a few well-discounted blems, returns, or in some cases, huge amounts of an overstock or two that they wanted to move. This time, however, the one guitar that caught my eye this was the aforementioned Holcomb sig SE, which new retails for about $950.00. They had three of them all marked for just over half price. These examples seemed to have some minor cosmetic defects, or nut issues, but otherwise well worth the asking price. I continued to peruse the tent, then left to go look at other stuff.
Out of curiosity, I returned to the tent about an hour later, but found only one of the three guitars left. About another half hour passed, and there were no more. Cross that one off the list, I thought. I have this nagging instinct, though, that later on, I should check it out again. So I go in, and find two more back on display. I ask one of the sales doods "what's the deal?". He says that they had some overstcks, and these were the last two left. I replied "Hmmph...I suppose you probably won't go lower...?", and he says "Yeah, probably not". So I leave again.
After having some food and checking everything else out, I says to the SIL that we should check it out one more time. So I goes in, and there are two still sitting there. I go back to the same dood, who tells me that for sure these are the last two. I then had a peek behind the secret curtain, and there are like TWENTY of these sitting in stands, brand new, with a couple of those dewds prepping them for sale. I call one over: "What gives??!?" THIS guy breaks down and confesses they that are severely overstocked, and need to move them. He says, not blinking an eye and with a straight face, "I'll do two for $700".
Thinking just a tad too quickly, I said "How about one for $350?" (thinking I should have gone even lower right after the question mark had left my mouth) and he says "It's yours. Also, we are getting Mark to autograph all of the rest of them, if you want to wait a bit". Not that I am a fan, but why not? Holcomb, having been a presenter for PRS last year, was hanging out in the Seymour Duncan booth this year. He seemed to be a pretty cool guy, to the point of putting his guitar in fans hands so they could try out the guitar and hear the pickups.
About an hour later, I go to check out, and after receiving the box, I find that sure enough, Mr. Holcomb was kind enough to leave his mark on the back electronics cover. Classy, especially considering how he must have been approached to autograph 20+ of his guitars that were slashed bloody in price.
So, for those of you who kinda sorta know me, I'm sure the question is: Why would you, a typical fifty-something classic rock and blues-type guy, want a sig guitar by a guitarist from a not-so-well-known prog metal band? Well, because I had tried this guitar out previously, and found it to be quite awesome, even if it was designed to be a 25.5" scale tuned down to C. The great thing is, with that scale, you could still put a string gauge on that can tune to standard just fine (as it is, it comes with .010 - .046 strings, even though Holcomb uses an 11 set). Spec-wise, it comes stock with Holcomb's sig SD pickups (ceramics, but splittable, and not too overwound), a beautiful, bound ebony board (with a 20" radius), but with a neck profile that, while considered "wide thin", actually has a carve that is well-rounded, and quite full for a shreddy guitar. The purple-to-grey fade is cool as well.
Perhaps the coolest thing about this guitar is that in having some time to play it this weekend, I first tuned it to standard, but then, thought about what it was intended for, and detuned to C. I was shocked at how much I enjoyed playing around in that tuning - mostly, I did clean with a little delay, but later did dirty it up (sounds great doing the "Sabbath Bloody Sabbath" riff
). I was enjoying it so much, that I am going to get a set of 11s to swap in to get the tension a bit more balanced, and keep it in C - it has opened my mind in just a few hours, and I want to explore that tuning a lot more.
The moral of the story is: if you are in a rut, try something out of your comfort zone - you may be pleasantly surprised - and get a nice guitar dirt cheap, to boot.
I got a PRS SE Mark Holcomb sig at a stupid low price.
(cheap hotel room shot)
LONG version:
So, yeah...after a long and brutal week with a lot of road miles logged, I got home on Friday night around 8. I had already been waffling on whether to actually go to SWGF this year, because I was dead tired, the weather for Saturday looked iffy, my budget would be VERY low due to our upcoming home purchase, and I had the Outlaw Music Festival to attend on Sunday. Nonetheless, I told the women that as long as the weather looked decent, that we could still go on Saturday.
Saturday morning: wake up, and the wife was not quite feeling it this time, so she bowed out, and the SIL and I rolled into the car to take the 3-hour trip. On arrival, we were greeted with rather cool and breezy sunshine after coming through overcast skies (yes, I can paint a picture
). We check in, and the first place I (always) go is the Open Box tent. In recent years, it has been a bit disappointing guitar-wise - in years past, they would usually have quite a few well-discounted blems, returns, or in some cases, huge amounts of an overstock or two that they wanted to move. This time, however, the one guitar that caught my eye this was the aforementioned Holcomb sig SE, which new retails for about $950.00. They had three of them all marked for just over half price. These examples seemed to have some minor cosmetic defects, or nut issues, but otherwise well worth the asking price. I continued to peruse the tent, then left to go look at other stuff.Out of curiosity, I returned to the tent about an hour later, but found only one of the three guitars left. About another half hour passed, and there were no more. Cross that one off the list, I thought. I have this nagging instinct, though, that later on, I should check it out again. So I go in, and find two more back on display. I ask one of the sales doods "what's the deal?". He says that they had some overstcks, and these were the last two left. I replied "Hmmph...I suppose you probably won't go lower...?", and he says "Yeah, probably not". So I leave again.
After having some food and checking everything else out, I says to the SIL that we should check it out one more time. So I goes in, and there are two still sitting there. I go back to the same dood, who tells me that for sure these are the last two. I then had a peek behind the secret curtain, and there are like TWENTY of these sitting in stands, brand new, with a couple of those dewds prepping them for sale. I call one over: "What gives??!?" THIS guy breaks down and confesses they that are severely overstocked, and need to move them. He says, not blinking an eye and with a straight face, "I'll do two for $700".
Thinking just a tad too quickly, I said "How about one for $350?" (thinking I should have gone even lower right after the question mark had left my mouth) and he says "It's yours. Also, we are getting Mark to autograph all of the rest of them, if you want to wait a bit". Not that I am a fan, but why not? Holcomb, having been a presenter for PRS last year, was hanging out in the Seymour Duncan booth this year. He seemed to be a pretty cool guy, to the point of putting his guitar in fans hands so they could try out the guitar and hear the pickups.
About an hour later, I go to check out, and after receiving the box, I find that sure enough, Mr. Holcomb was kind enough to leave his mark on the back electronics cover. Classy, especially considering how he must have been approached to autograph 20+ of his guitars that were slashed bloody in price.
So, for those of you who kinda sorta know me, I'm sure the question is: Why would you, a typical fifty-something classic rock and blues-type guy, want a sig guitar by a guitarist from a not-so-well-known prog metal band? Well, because I had tried this guitar out previously, and found it to be quite awesome, even if it was designed to be a 25.5" scale tuned down to C. The great thing is, with that scale, you could still put a string gauge on that can tune to standard just fine (as it is, it comes with .010 - .046 strings, even though Holcomb uses an 11 set). Spec-wise, it comes stock with Holcomb's sig SD pickups (ceramics, but splittable, and not too overwound), a beautiful, bound ebony board (with a 20" radius
), but with a neck profile that, while considered "wide thin", actually has a carve that is well-rounded, and quite full for a shreddy guitar. The purple-to-grey fade is cool as well.Perhaps the coolest thing about this guitar is that in having some time to play it this weekend, I first tuned it to standard, but then, thought about what it was intended for, and detuned to C. I was shocked at how much I enjoyed playing around in that tuning - mostly, I did clean with a little delay, but later did dirty it up (sounds great doing the "Sabbath Bloody Sabbath" riff
). I was enjoying it so much, that I am going to get a set of 11s to swap in to get the tension a bit more balanced, and keep it in C - it has opened my mind in just a few hours, and I want to explore that tuning a lot more.The moral of the story is: if you are in a rut, try something out of your comfort zone - you may be pleasantly surprised - and get a nice guitar dirt cheap, to boot.
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