A taste of heaven

The Mercury News has a very nice story about the Guitar Store at the end of the universe:

Guitar heaven
40-Year-Old S.J. Store thrives with Old Values in Internet Age

It may be San Jose's most secret museum -- largely because it isn't called a museum.

It's a collection of vintage musical equipment worth more than $1 million housed in two giant 20-by-60-foot vaults tucked away in the two-building music store called Guitar Showcase at Camden and South Bascom avenues.

In the vaults are hundreds of rare, antique and historical amplifiers and guitars, some dating back to the Civil War, others played by Jimi Hendrix, Jimmy Page, Carlos Santana and members of Journey.

Aspiring musicians not only can look at the equipment, but also try them out, and hear how they sound on the instruments that defined the sound of their favorite musical masters.

"I feel like a kid in a candy store when I go in there," says Andy Just, 51, the frontman for AJ and the Shapes and a member of the Robben Ford Band.

"It's like getting to try a Ferrari. It makes me feel real cool."

And a nice comment by owner Gary Wineroth:

"I think there's a revival of live music after years of techno," says store owner Gary Wineroth, 58.

"Some of it is the baby boomers, who can now afford the instruments they always dreamed of. Look, who is selling concert tickets? The Stones, Paul McCartney, those guys are still going, and the music is being passed to a new generation."

Techno is a lot of fun but it's a bit like white sugar -- too much rots your teeth. There is a difference between dazzling someone with sequencer riffs and loops and holding an audience in the palm of your hand with a quiet solo...