Apr
11
2005

Violins and Guitars

PhotosMonday, April 11, 2005 - 06:02:04 pm
(Posted Under: Travel, Arizona Trip)
Voilin's and guitars and a world full of woman and bars. The sound of the city at night, and the sound of my heart. Voilin's and Guitars sounds so good in Tempe, and can really sum up the town, after dusk.

However, that's not the primary reason for the post title. After making an early start (earliest for me since I've been here anyway), we set out on our shopping day. Which has been on the cards for days, but hadn't yet happened - I'm sure Katie will attribute that to my sleeping late.

First over to Arizona Mills, via 5 and Diner for some lunch. I'd finally tried to get my head around the cost of things, in relation to Australian dollars, to have a benchmark for how much I was spending. As with the last time I was in the states, it was a train wreck. After lunch, we headed over to the mall, and hit the Van's shop, to buy some shoes. FYI, I'm wearing the Van's I brought last time I was in the States, in 1999. Some really good deals there, especially based on doing the conversion the wrong way. [wink] (Though, despite that, I got some good deals. I'll be interested to see how much the pairs of Van's I got are back home. I'm pretty confident that I got them really cheap here in comparison).

Then stopped by the Virgin Megastore, and picked up Sugar's Copper Blue (hi Kim if you're reading!), a must for the up coming Nevada road trip. ("Standing on the edge of the hoover dam").

Then the search for an Arizonian tray. Hi mum. I know you have your heart set on trays from every state, but it's not looking good. We'll see what we can do though. (We looked up in Flagstaff also - nada).

Then over to the Guitar Center, to buy - well, what else? Jamie, dooooode, I'm so pissed that it'd cost a fortune to ship a guitar home. Seeing the prices, I'd go absolutely nuts if I lived here. Admitadly we still had the currency conversion around the wrong way at this point, but still, awesome prices! Great range of electric guitars, however, there was nothing we wanted in the acoustic electric range. Well, except for the Ovations, which were slightly out of my price range.

After some deliberation, we decided to return home, to find the location of other music stores, and check the actual deal with the conversion rate, as it was hurting our, apparently small, brains.

As it happened, we drove from Arizona Mills through the town of Guadalupe, a hispanic neighborhood. (FYI, you drive into different cities in the Phoenix area) without even noticing you've gone from one place to the next. At first all I noticed were extremely cool, Mexican style bus stops. Then noticed a white mission style church, which I quickly recognised as the background for one of the Roger Clyne & The Peacemakers promo photo shoots. The church caught my eye because of how beautiful it was, and then Peacemakers connection was an after thought. We'd been talking about it on the way to Flagstaff, in reference to not being allowed to take photos of it, and how Roger swung the photo, so I quickly asked Katie if it was the church Denise had been talking about. We swung down the adjacent street, for a better look of it. There was indeed a sign saying photos were prohibited. A shame, because it's a beautiful looking place.

Driving through that section of Guadalupe was amazing, looking just like a little piece of Mexico. Houses with chilli's hanging drying on the porch, ... standing against the dusty building walls. Definately an experience.

Also amazing that all of a sudden you're back in suburbian Tempe, with a blink of an eye.

Soon we were again leaving Katie's apartment, with both directions, and currency conversion in hand (I need to guage prices against Australian dollars to put anything into perspective), we headed back out, this time to The Music Store on the border of Tempe and Mesa. Interestingly just a few shops up from Hollywood Alley (another club).

This looked better, they had a much better selection of acoustic guitars and only a few electrics. Katie knew exactly what she wanted - a blue guitar. (I saw that with so much love, baby. [wink] ). For a while, a blue 'Johnson' seemed like a go-er. Katie really liked it, and hey, it was a Johnson. (Scott Johnson, remove your minds from the gutter people.) Perfect color, had a very nice price tag, and didn't sound too bad, though wasn't a thin body acoustic. The fret board did feel quite rough on it also.

I'd noticed an Ovation style Schecter on the way in. While I was convinced Katie was sold on the blue Johnson, I went to the counter to ask how much the Schecter was. After much work for the clerk to find the price, I decided I wanted a play of it. I knew I prefered it out right. Once I played it, I think Katie was also sold on it pretty much immediately. After some comparison and Katie having a play, we both knew which we were going to buy. The one I played was actually more squarish, with a red sunburst finish. Katie decided she wanted to black one - same guitar, but slightly different body shape, and all black. The rest was rock 'n roll history - or something.

It was great watching Katie walk out the store, as they like to say here, giddy as a school girl.

I must say, on playing it while Katie was at work this afternoon, it kicks all over my acoustic electric, and I totally want one.

Photos from today, and the coverted axe are here.

It's so great that it's now 9PM, Katie has been home for over an hour, and has not put the thing down. [smile]:-)

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