You probably saw my post about our trip to Nashville and visiting the requisite guitar shops: Gruhn's, Carter's, Rumble Seat. The day after going to the Eric Clapton concert we visited the first two of those. And before visiting those I had given some thought to what I am missing in my guitar "stable". I had been giving some thought to this even before the drive down. And it became obvious what I am missing is the Tele "snap". I, of course, being a blues guy, or wanting to be, never saw me with a Tele. But then I thought about Robben Ford, Keith Richards, The boss, Bruce Springstein, and others.

And most influential among those was Robben Ford. Here is the blues guy playing a Tele.

So with the decision made, or almost firmly decided, it was off to the stores the day after the Clapton concert. And certainly we had to hit Gruhn's first. They had about five Teles including a Vintera, a couple 75th Anniversary one, a Signature (I can't remember who) and a Professional. I didn't like the Vintera at all. I'm opposed to relicing. The Signature was way too heavy. And the was something distasteful about the Anniversary ones. They just didn't connect. But the Professional did.

Gorgeous natural wood finish, not painted. And it played really nice. I didn't plug it in and told the salesman we would think on it. Which was code for we still had to check out the other stores. Which we did. We went to Carter's. And I was shocked. I found Carter's inventory to be way bigger than Gruhn. But nothing in the Teles called out.

So the next day we went back to Gruhn's and I played the Professional plugged in. And it WAS awesome. I loved it. And kids! Here is the life lesson. I told the guy I wanted to think on it one more day. We were leaving town the next day and would stop back to play it one more time on the way out. And now you know where this is going On the way to Gruhn's my wife had pointed out a shop and said, "There's a guitar store! Called Rumble Seat. why haven't we gone there?"

So finally, we are packed and heading out of town and I am just going to swing by Gruhn's and pick up my new Tele. Which we did. At least stop by. And the Tele is gone! So we headed back to the parking lot with the intent of pointing the car west. And I said, "Ok. Just while we are here, so I can say I've been there, let's just pop in Rumble Seat".

And we did. And they had a shocking inventory on the wall. A Strat played by Ronnie Wood and a Tele played by Keith Richards just for two examples. And about 10 Teles. And here is the one that spoke to me! It's a 2018 and it played great. And sounded great. And it has been all I have played, almost, since home!