I drive around the San Francisco Bay Area a lot for my job, and there are a few Guitar Centers within half an hour in any direction. As I am sure many of you are aware, there are some times when they have nothing that I would even bother to take off the wall to play, and there are other times when they have a bunch of interesting stuff. It's fun to take pictures too - my wife will even take some if I'm playing something.
I thought of you guys when I saw this (looked like a used Les Paul Double-Cut - at first I thought it was a Money Bass):
I also played a couple of Warwicks - one of the Rock Bass imports, not sure the model - Corvette maybe? Would've been a lot more impressive with fresh strings:
And a crazy $3000+ 6-string monstrosity that must have weighed at least 15 pounds:
Unfortunately, the Alembic was too high up to just grab - $3300, I think it was a Europa 5-string:
I didn't plug anything in - there had been what I think was an Ampeg rep demoing a new combo amp that tilted back and had built-in distortion. Should have played the Alembic through that while he was there!
I was really surprised to see the Alembic. They had a brand new Rickenbacker 4003 Fireglo and one of the new Gibson hollowbody basses (maybe a Midtown?) too.