Vintage Room at GC Hollywood

Well, I finally made my first trip to the Vintage Room at the Hollywood Guitar Center. Unfortunately I went on a Sunday, so many of the shops that surround GC were closed, but I walked into the Vintage Room and was...
* Overwhelmed by the guitars
* Underwhelmed by the room. The ad in Vintage Guitar magazine makes the room look much bigger than it really is.

I'll write more about the experience in my next post, but for starters here I am playing the cheapest guitar in the room -- a 70's Tokai copy of the Fender pink paisley Tele with a price tag of $1,695.00. That guitar was in great shape and had a nice big neck...but of course it paled in comparison to the Gibsons and Fenders that dominated the room.

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Good thing I've never seen that ad.... The vintage room always seems big to me, especially when I compare it to any of the guitar shops I've been to (which are usually the size of just the vintage room of smaller). Did you make it into the side room with all the high end Relics, PRS, and other "new" models?

I've seen that tele there.... I never looked hard enough at it to realize it was a Tokai. Last time I went, I fell in love with a bunch of early 70's ES-335s on the left side of the room floor. Only about $4500-6000.... not bad considering they want $3500 for a new 335 with a lot of the same features. Last time I was there they had the Eric Clapton Cream 335 on display (the real thing.... not for sale).

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Here's a more complete review of my first visit to the Vintage Room...

We drove to the Guitar Center Hollywood on a sunny Sunday afternoon. As we arrived I was amazed by all of the guitar shops that surround GC. I knew from Adaptable that Mesa had a store across the street, but I did not realize there were a least 3 or 4 other guitar shops on that same block. I was also disappointed to realize that most of the shops were closed on Sundays. Bad planning on my part.

We also couldn't help but notice that the neighborhood left a bit to be desired. I'm sure that sounds horribly Midwest of us, but Hollywood is definitely not what most tourists would picture it to be.

We pulled into the parking lot behind the building and managed to squeeze into the last available spot. As we approached the main entrance we stopped to look at the musicians' walk of fame. That was pretty cool, especially since they had artists' handprints in each block. My wife has recently expressed interest in learning to play guitar and she was encouraged to discover that her hands are about the same size as Nancy Wilson's.

The main room was typical GC. Busy and loud. I noticed the "Platinum Room" (?) to our right but decided to go directly for the Vintage Room first. So, we descended the stairs and walked through the doors. My first impression was that the room is much smaller than suggested in the Vintage Guitar magazine ads. (The photo in that ad was taken from the balcony and it makes the room look really large.)

However, that impression was gone in about 3 seconds, as I began to focus on the quantity and quality of the guitars in the room. Also, I realized what a peaceful place that room is. At first there were ZERO guitars being played in the room. Then a guy that absolutely had the look of a professional (if you look closely, you can see him in the photo below, sitting behind me with his back to the camera) sat down, plugged a 70s Tele Custom into a small 60s Fender blackface amp, and began turning out some of the tastiest alt-country licks and chords...he was great. He was also about 6 feet tall, probably weighed about 140 pounds, and looked like he had just finished a gig at some local venue. My wife said something about how good he was, and I think she added a crack about my relative lack of skill with the instrument. Then one of the Vintage Room guys said to the player (who I took to calling "Texas Slim"), "Hey, you should buy that guitar." Texas Slim immediately said, "I think I will!" I hope he did, cuz that axe sounded great in his hands.

I'm guessing it's probably that way every day in the Vintage Room. If you're going to walk in there and take one of those expensive vintage instruments off the wall, AND ask to plug into an amp, you're probably not going to throw down some crappy version of a Nickelback song.

As I walked around the room I was surrounded by vintage Strats, Teles, ES-series guitars, SGs, and of course some great Les Pauls. There were no Bursts on display, but I saw a few gold tops and 50s customs that made my heart skip a beat. After a lap or two you got the lay of the land. The really expensive stuff either hangs on the main display in the back of the room, or is kept in glass display cases. In those cases I saw custom-color pre-CBS strats that just oozed coolness and begged to be played. But with price tags of $40 grand or more, I doubt they get handled very often.

So, I told my wife I wanted to play the cheapest guitar in the room. She smiled and helped my find the Tokai tele copy I showed you in my first post. I didn't plug in -- Texas Slim was still in the room at that time and I was not going to subject myself to that comparison -- but I can tell you the guitar looked beautiful, played effortlessly and had a great, chunky neck profile. I've heard and read good things about those Tokai lawsuit-era guitars and I can see why.

Next I played a Silverburst Gibson ES-335 Professional (?) from the early 80s. I love Silverburst guitars, but this guitar had turned a very dark green, and frankly it was ugly. This version of the 335 has no F-holes and has smaller "horns," and it has little of the visual appeal of the classic ES-335. It also did not play well as it seemed to be in bad need of a refret and setup.

The last guitar I played was a 74 Les Paul Custom in cherry sunburst. WIth a price tag of $8,500 this was no cheap guitar, and I handled it like a baby. I was rewarded with a few minutes of pure guitar joy. Say what you want about 70s Gibsons, but that guitar had all of the heft, beauty, and resonance you'd expect from a great Les Paul. It was one hell of a substantial axe, its gold hardware shone like new, and even unplugged it was loud.

WIth a sigh that said, "I can't afford you girl," I hung the LP back in its stand and made one last trip around the room, taking in the guitars I missed the first time -- An ES-175, Some nice Gretsch guitars, and a few funky 60s Italian guitars (EKO and others) that were surprisingly pricey.

After that I walked reluctantly out of the room. Tammy was a good sport and came with me through the Platinum Room and one more tour of the main showroom; then as promised, I drove her to Beverly Hills and we walked down Rodeo Drive.

All in all it was a really fun afternoon and quite a departure from daily life in Cincinnati!

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Glad to hear you played some choice axes....

Yeah, that part of Hollywood is kind of sleazy. At dusk it feels like the opening to "Entourage" and I always seem to get stuck in traffic at some point when I go there. LA is one of those places where there are incredible things to see and do, but its usually reserved for the locals or "insiders" like "Tuesday morning at 10am is in Santa Monica is the Playboy open casting call and there is a Starbucks right were the line passes".....or the drive up on Laurel Canyon at a specific time of night.

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