As I had mentioned in a previous entry, the shop where my son takes his guitar lessons had a used ash-body Fender American Standard Telecaster for sale for $600 – more than half off the regular price.
I finally decided that if it were still there last Friday, I would go ahead and get it. If such a bargain was still available, then I was meant to have it. If it was gone, then it wasn’t meant to be.
Friday afternoon a salesman came in the office looking for a co-worker, who was unavailable at the time. He and I had talked before, so while he waited we were making some small talk. He noticed the Beatles calendar on my wall and deduced that I liked them.
He said he did too, and they got him interested in playing guitar. I mentioned it was the same with me. He asked what I played, I said blues and 60’s rock, he said he did, too.
And, very proudly, he told me that he had bought a new Telecaster just a couple of days previously. I told him that I was looking at buying an ash-body model, he said that’s what he bought. Not only that, he got a great deal on it, because it was used.
You can guess where this is going. With a sinking feeling, I asked where he bought it, he said West End Music, and yes, friends, that was the guitar I was going to buy that very evening.
I figured it wasn’t meant to be. So Saturday I went to Guitar Center with the intention of buying the Mexican-made Tele for $450.
However, hanging just inside the entrance was another piece on my Wish List: an Epiphone Les Paul Custom, in Antique White with gold hardware. What a beaut!
And while they usually retail for $800, the one I was looking at was used, and priced at $600! So, in the end, it was just as well the Tele had been sold; I can always get a MIM Tele for $450, but finding the Les Paul I coveted for $200 off is not a “can always get”.
While I can’t cross this Thing off of my list yet, the whole experience feeds my conviction that everything happens for a reason.
