Guitar Center Hollywood - Vintage Room

One needs to remind themselves once in a while what the original iconic guitars and amplifiers sounded like, what they were meant to sound like, and what they felt like to hold in your hand. Each has gone through numerous incarnations, some for better and some for worse. But one thing is for certain, what is being produced today by the major manufacturers bears little resemblance in tone and quality to what was being hand built five decades ago under the original owners.

So finding myself in Southern California this past weekend I decided to make the trip out to some of the vintage stores on Sunset. I tried Vintage Gear of Hollywood, but found the store had sadly shut its doors. Per Yelp, I checked their new location only to find a gas station there instead. So my only other option due to time constraints was to check out the vintage room at Guitar Center Hollywood. If you have not yet checked this place out, I highly recommend dropping by and test driving a few guitars.

As I've stated in the past, I'm not the biggest fan of GC. And my feelings were once again reinforced by the end of my visit. But I'll get to that later. So, one of the very few reasons to visit a GC would be to test drive gear...either for the purpose of trying something you will later buy online or to play gear you can't afford in the hopes of someday... Well this visit was the latter. And if there is one GC you should visit, the Hollywood or NYC stores are as good as it gets...for Guitar Center. At the Sunset store, located right next to the "Sunset Grille" I might add (Don Henley anyone?), there is quite a healthily stocked vintage room. The girl with a Russian accent makes a mean fried egg sandwich by the way. And yes it's just like the song describes, I once saw a drunk, mumbling homeless lady lying on the ground get picked up by angry EMT's as a crowd tried to forece-feed her water. Lots of street kids hanging around, it's the reality of Hollywood and very sad. If you go, be on your guard as it's a seedy neighborhood with lots of addicts walking around scrounging for money. For those who believe, the neighborhood could use some prayer.

But anyway on to the guitars...walking in, you are surrounded by every guitar or amp you've ever wanted, some you didn't know you wanted until now. Directly in front of you is a 20 foot wall of vintage Fender Strats, Teles, Gibson SG's, Les Pauls, and ES335s. Scanning the room you see early 60s vox, late 50s Fender Tweed, 70s Marshall heads lying around, Epiphone Rivieras, early Gibson L5's, '59 Strats. This is not to mention the wall of traditional acoustics by Martin, Gibson, and Epiphone and another wall papered with lap steels. Shoved off in a corner are Airlines, Nationals, and Silvertones. They are all available for test drive. And they encourage you to crank. I only planned to stay there 30 minutes and ended up there an hour and a half.

For me, the first thing I notice upon entering are these Voxy ladies, pictured on the left...I see an AC30, then another, two AC50 heads, an AC30 head and cab, and finally an AC10...all early 60s, all in very good shape. So having played through a few 60s AC30s in my time and owning a '67 AC50 recently with mixed results, I opted for the AC10. I thought it would be a good idea to compare it to my current UK made JMI 4 which is the supposed to be modeled after the AC10, but with a single 10" blue bell rather than the twin set up. I was surprised to find the AC10 to be extremely warm. It took on an early 80s Les Paul beautifully and broke up just like a classic Vox. Let me just say, first...I need this amp...second, my JMI sounds nothing like it. I do really like the sound of my JMI, but I have to admit, it's just not close. It's still worlds closer than current Vietnam made Vox amps. Really Vox, Vietnam? The trem on the AC10 was quite subtle however. Almost not noticeable. I have seen this on another vintage AC30 at a shop here in the Bay Area and wonder if something has worn out in the circuit.

 Next I migrate towards the Fender Tweeds. And wow do they have a lot of classics. A quick walk through yields a '49 - '51 Champion 600, several tweed deluxes, late 50s bassman and twins, TV fronts, and several more I'm sure I missed. There were probably Princetons or Harvards in the mix but I didn't look at everything. Pictured on the left is only part of the collection to put things in perspective. So I end up A/B'ing two Fender Tweed Deluxes, one early TV version and one later 50s. To run through these beauties I grab a 1959 Sunburst Fender Strat. Here is where things get interesting. The tone is everything I've ever dreamed a strat should sound like. I don't mean to get overly sentimental, but it's the kind of tone that brings you back to why you started playing guitar in the first place. As a tech recently told me at Guitar Showcase, Leo had it right the first time. He really did. And once again I am surprised, the earlier TV is much more musical and pleasant than the later deluxe. After a little Lay Down Sally and some blues, I run a mid 60s Gibson SG through the deluxe...wow! I know Clapton used Marshalls in the Cream days, but this was pretty darn close. Perfect tone for British blues.

By this point I am starting to run out of time...I still have to drive five and a half hours back to the Bay Area and it's 8pm! Next on deck is an early Fender Champ 600. And I am so glad I did not pass up the opportunity. This little cub of an amp was a tone machine. First with a 1971 Strat it was warm, full, and had plenty of drive and bottom end. No glassy ice pick tone here. How I have no idea. Next I tried a late 60's or early 70s Black Les Paul Deluxe. What filled the air were gobs and gobs of creamy overdrive goodness. I immediately went into a Badfinger Baby Blue riff and it was "that sound." Just gorgeous. It would have been perfect for I've Got a Feeling if I had thought of it. I topped it off with a 1963 Gibson ES335. BB King tone just flows out of this thing on the neck and middle positions. And the bridge pickup was a little rocker. Remember, the pickups in these things were pretty much the same PAF pickups they used in the '58 - '62 Les Pauls of lore, but of course by this time they had a patent number. I've never been one to compare guitar tone to wine because it just sounds snobby and seems to represent everything collectors stand for and players do not. But dare I say the tone was complex? I just loved the breakup of this little Champ 600! The new Champ 600's have a terrible raspy speaker...but given a nice jensen or weber, you have yourself a perfectly giggable(given a PA) little amp that comes somewhat close to the originals. But really, I need one of these too!

I finished the Champ off with Gibson's version of the Epiphone Sorrento. I think it was called an ES295 but I could be wrong. It only had a neck p90, a single cutaway, and was light as a feather. It was a nice jazzer to finish things off with from an electric standpoint.

Knowing I really should be running to the car and speeding down the freeway, I went upstairs to play a few acoustics. I played a beautiful pre-pickup Gibson L5 Archtop for a few minutes noodling my best butchering of jazz and old time blues. It was such a sweet mellow tone. I imagine Les Paul plucking one of these next to a big band in Chicago. These early guitars make you feel like you're playing what a guitar was intended to sound like in days gone by.

Next to it was a beautiful blonde Gibson Super Archtop. One I wish I had played, but sadly did not. But what a gorgeous guitar to look at. The wave in the grain of the guitar just speaks class. I guess I will have to save her for next time, if she's still on the wall.

There were quite a few archtops hanging in the upstairs area I wished I had taken the time to look at. It really makes one wish they were a jazz player so they properly give these a run through. I challenge any shredder to listen to How High the Moon by Les Paul and Mary Ford and not have their jaw drop open. He was the shredder of his day, but in a classy and musically pleasing way. It was about crafting a song people would like to listen to rather than simply to show off one's technique...kids these days, get off my lawn! But I guess that's for another blog post.



I ended the night with a nice Epiphone acoustic. I looked for a Texan but sadly found none. This showroom was missing a 60's Casino as well which is inexcusable. But we'll let them slide. So I opted for an old Epiphone Frontier. Yes Epiphone was once made in the USA before Gibson destroyed them by outsourcing their soul. The Frontier is a really nice guitar in it's own right. It sounded like a Texan but with a little but of J45 mixed in. Blackbird and Jenny Wren just sounded right on this beauty. And it had a very cool country western look to it as well. I think I might have to start hunting around for one of these. Hard to believe GC had this listed for $6000 though. $1500 would have felt better.

Which brings me to my one negative of the night. I go up to the sales guy who has been helping me all night to ask him if there was anything in the showroom he has been trying to move, hoping he might deal on something. I wasn't really looking for a 1959 Les Paul for $500 or anything. But I saw a few Silvertone amps on the floor that were just ugly enough to hint there might be wiggle room on the price. The sales guy, who by the way has been extremely cool, helpful, and knowledgeable, goes on to tell me that entire room has been repriced to be more in line with the current market and that 70 - 80% of the room is listed a their cost. Really? I was having such a good night until I heard this. Apparently every price I had looked at was part of the other 30%. Because I saw Vox AC50 heads for $2500...they go for $1000 - $1500. And $6000 for the Frontier? The Champion 600 was $900. Seriously? And you can only imagine what the Fender and Gibson guitars were going for...tens of thousands of dollars beyond what one would expect. And yeah right, Guitar Center paid those prices for the gear. Don't make me laugh. Maybe I just getting too many of my prices  from ebay auctions, but these just seemed way out of the ball park of reality. Of course who am I to say people aren't walking in and paying those prices?

So overall it was an incredible night. How often does one have the opportunity to play the gear their heroes recorded with? It was truly a joy. And I will have to give credit to Guitar Center for having these vintage rooms open to the public, giving players the opportunity to take vintage gear for a drive. I recommend dropping in to anyone who is in the Southern California area. You won't regret it.

I'll leave you now with a few additional pictures for your viewing pleasure.