Members Goofball Jones Posted October 6, 2009 Members Share Posted October 6, 2009 Woodwind & Brasswind is a HUGE music store near Southbend, Indiana. It's all part of the Guitar Center/Musician's Friend/Music123/GuitarSale.com conglomerate...but the showroom is much better than a typical Guitar Center. I mean, it's huge. It also features...of course...woodwind and brass for orchestras. But it also has a very nice guitar section and I tried out quite a few guitars over a 2 hour period. Ones that I really liked: PRS Starla. Wow...I couldn't put this thing down. When I first saw this guitar at it's launch I was like "meh". I wasn't thrilled really by it's styling. Didn't like the looks of the pickguard and other superficial things. But I picked it up and...it was outstanding. The feel was great, the Bigsby was set up great, the set-up was great. The sounds I could get out of it with it's push-pull coil taps were great. In a word..."great". I'm giving this guitar some serious consideration. Gretsch White Falcon. Really liked the feel of it. I'm considering a 6120SSLVO, but they didn't have one in the show room...but they DID have the White Falcon. I liked the fit and finish of it. The feel and the sound...but don't dig the garish sparkly bindings and things like that. I like a little more subdued instrument. But if the 6120SSLVO is anything like the White Falcon in terms of sound/playability and workmanship, it's also in serious consideration. Gibson Les Paul Traditional Pro. This is the special one made for GC (and since WW&BW is part of GC, they have them there). I really liked this LP a lot. Wasn't that heavy. The Cherry Sunburst wasn't as garish or saturated as the pictures on the GC website make it out to be. It's got kind of a satin finish on it also. Very well put together. Top notch workmanship. Push-pull coil taps worked great. Locking tuners. Pleked frets. 60's neck. Really played very well. Not to mention that it's under $2K and around the price of the Starla. Guitars that I was a little disappointed with: The PRS Mira. Maybe it didn't have the wide-thin neck, but I just didn't like the feel of it as much as the Starla. It was put together very well, I liked that. But can't understand why the Starla has a push/pull tone knob for the coil taps and the Mira has to have a little dainty switch for it. I can see this thing becoming bent. Otherwise, I liked the Mira...just wasn't blown away by it. But to each their own I suppose. I'd still like to test out the maple-top ones to see if the tone is any different. I did dig the tone of the Mira as-is. Guitars I was just totally let down by: WW&BW had some Gibson Historic Reissues. I tested out two R59's...beautiful quilted maple tops. But just blah in terms of sound. Seriously, the workmanship on it was no better than the $1900 Les Paul Traditional Pro, and wasn't as versatile either in my opinion. I mean, it was nice and all, but with a $5999 price tag on one of them, I was like..."what exactly are you paying for? That long tenon in the neck?". Tested out an R8...but it was heavy as sin. I know, they're all different in terms of weight and if it's chambered or weight relieved...it was just that THIS particular R8 was heavy. Plus all of the historics were the VOS versions...so they had this gunk all over them. . Were the original Les Pauls you bought in 1959 all gunky too? I looked at the SG's. They had a VOS Custom Shop one for $3K and the '61 Historic for $2K. Other than the color, didn't see or hear a difference other than the VOS had the gunk on it again. Supposedly the VOS versions have the long tenon, but honestly it didn't make any difference at all. I'm a firm believer that the long tenon thing is just marketing bullshit. The SG's were nice, but I'd pick up the LP Traditional Pro before I would get one of these. So all in all, I liked the Starla, the White Falcon and the Les Paul Traditional Pro. It was a good day. I'm still about 6 months away from making any big purchases though, but this has giving me plenty of fodder to think over. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Slave2TheAudio Posted October 6, 2009 Members Share Posted October 6, 2009 no pics...? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Goofball Jones Posted October 6, 2009 Author Members Share Posted October 6, 2009 no pics...? I'm camera-less. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Slave2TheAudio Posted October 6, 2009 Members Share Posted October 6, 2009 Me too man! We should start a club! Sounds like you had fun though. I'm jealous. The only thing that's close to me is GC. I really have never played any REALLY nice guitars. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members cratz2 Posted October 6, 2009 Members Share Posted October 6, 2009 I've never been to WW/BW but I did spend about 4 hours at Sweetwater a few months ago. They were very attentive and they offered to bring out any guitar I was interested in from the factory but since I wasn't actually considering buying any guitars or amps, I didn't take them up on the offer. They had some nice stuff in the display/demo room, but it wasn't a huge selection... I'd say 1/3 the size of our larger Guitar Center... nothing at all like Chicago Music Exchange. But they definitely had some stuff I'd never played or even seen in person. The thing that had me most captivated was the Vox AC15HTVH and the 2x12 cabinet. I was in LURVE! Probably the thing I was most disappointed in was the PRS Head with the EL34s. I know it's apples and oranges, but it was three times as expensive and didn't sound as good in my opinion. I do need to get a set of tires in the next couple months and will likely head up to Tire Rack in South Bend so hopefully I can stop in WW/BW. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members linusâ„¢ Posted October 6, 2009 Members Share Posted October 6, 2009 thats a great place.. i have not been since it was bought out by musiciansfriend/GC. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Goofball Jones Posted October 6, 2009 Author Members Share Posted October 6, 2009 I do need to get a set of tires in the next couple months and will likely head up to Tire Rack in South Bend so hopefully I can stop in WW/BW. It's open from 10-7 on the weekdays, 9-5 on Saturday, closed Sunday. It used to be much bigger than it is now. It was the distribution center for Music123...everything shipped from there mainly. But when GC bought them, they moved a lot of it out. Not sure if the web based services are run from there or not. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members bsman Posted October 6, 2009 Members Share Posted October 6, 2009 Plus all of the historics were the VOS versions...so they had this gunk all over them. . Were the original Les Pauls you bought in 1959 all gunky too? I'm curious about this "gunk". Was this uncured nitro you're talking about? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Goofball Jones Posted October 6, 2009 Author Members Share Posted October 6, 2009 I'm curious about this "gunk". Was this uncured nitro you're talking about? It's stuff the put on the guitar to make them seem old. Not a relic...but as if it were made back in the 50's, then sat around for 50 years or something. Not beat up, but just...old. Yeah, I don't get it either. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members cratz2 Posted October 6, 2009 Members Share Posted October 6, 2009 It's almost like Cosmoline, but certainly not that sticky/gooey/gunky. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members EADGBE Posted October 6, 2009 Members Share Posted October 6, 2009 Woodwind & Brasswind is a HUGE music store near Southbend, Indiana. It's all part of the Guitar Center/Musician's Friend/Music123/GuitarSale.com conglomerate...but the showroom is much better than a typical Guitar Center. I mean, it's huge. It also features...of course...woodwind and brass for orchestras. But it also has a very nice guitar section and I tried out quite a few guitars over a 2 hour period. Ones that I really liked: PRS Starla. Wow...I couldn't put this thing down. When I first saw this guitar at it's launch I was like "meh". I wasn't thrilled really by it's styling. Didn't like the looks of the pickguard and other superficial things. But I picked it up and...it was outstanding. The feel was great, the Bigsby was set up great, the set-up was great. The sounds I could get out of it with it's push-pull coil taps were great. In a word..."great". I'm giving this guitar some serious consideration. Gretsch White Falcon. Really liked the feel of it. I'm considering a 6120SSLVO, but they didn't have one in the show room...but they DID have the White Falcon. I liked the fit and finish of it. The feel and the sound...but don't dig the garish sparkly bindings and things like that. I like a little more subdued instrument. But if the 6120SSLVO is anything like the White Falcon in terms of sound/playability and workmanship, it's also in serious consideration. Gibson Les Paul Traditional Pro. This is the special one made for GC (and since WW&BW is part of GC, they have them there). I really liked this LP a lot. Wasn't that heavy. The Cherry Sunburst wasn't as garish or saturated as the pictures on the GC website make it out to be. It's got kind of a satin finish on it also. Very well put together. Top notch workmanship. Push-pull coil taps worked great. Locking tuners. Pleked frets. 60's neck. Really played very well. Not to mention that it's under $2K and around the price of the Starla. Guitars that I was a little disappointed with: The PRS Mira. Maybe it didn't have the wide-thin neck, but I just didn't like the feel of it as much as the Starla. It was put together very well, I liked that. But can't understand why the Starla has a push/pull tone knob for the coil taps and the Mira has to have a little dainty switch for it. I can see this thing becoming bent. Otherwise, I liked the Mira...just wasn't blown away by it. But to each their own I suppose. I'd still like to test out the maple-top ones to see if the tone is any different. I did dig the tone of the Mira as-is. Guitars I was just totally let down by: WW&BW had some Gibson Historic Reissues. I tested out two R59's...beautiful quilted maple tops. But just blah in terms of sound. Seriously, the workmanship on it was no better than the $1900 Les Paul Traditional Pro, and wasn't as versatile either in my opinion. I mean, it was nice and all, but with a $5999 price tag on one of them, I was like..."what exactly are you paying for? That long tenon in the neck?". Tested out an R8...but it was heavy as sin. I know, they're all different in terms of weight and if it's chambered or weight relieved...it was just that THIS particular R8 was heavy. Plus all of the historics were the VOS versions...so they had this gunk all over them. . Were the original Les Pauls you bought in 1959 all gunky too? I looked at the SG's. They had a VOS Custom Shop one for $3K and the '61 Historic for $2K. Other than the color, didn't see or hear a difference other than the VOS had the gunk on it again. Supposedly the VOS versions have the long tenon, but honestly it didn't make any difference at all. I'm a firm believer that the long tenon thing is just marketing bullshit. The SG's were nice, but I'd pick up the LP Traditional Pro before I would get one of these. So all in all, I liked the Starla, the White Falcon and the Les Paul Traditional Pro. It was a good day. I'm still about 6 months away from making any big purchases though, but this has giving me plenty of fodder to think over. What amp(s) did you play them through? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Goofball Jones Posted October 7, 2009 Author Members Share Posted October 7, 2009 What amp(s) did you play them through? I just picked a "clean" amp to play them through, a Deluxe Reverb reissue Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members cratz2 Posted October 7, 2009 Members Share Posted October 7, 2009 I have a Deluxe Reverb and love it... and I regularly play an LP through it, but I must say, it's not the ideal amp for comparing different LPs and different Gibson pickups. I'd say if you had plugged them into a low gain Marshall, there would be a more pronounced difference between 57 Classics vs Burstbuckers. I'm not really an SG guy at all, but I played one one of the VOS in TV Yellow and it was a spectacular sounding guitar in my opinion. Not in the market at all, but it was SERIOUSLY hot, but I think it was over $3,000 and there's just no way I'd pay that for one. The Traditional Pro is definitely sweet. I'd likely change the BB3 to a BB2, but I think the BB/57 is a great combo. Super smooth on the neck pickup, a little raunchier on the bridge. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Goofball Jones Posted October 7, 2009 Author Members Share Posted October 7, 2009 I have a Deluxe Reverb and love it... and I regularly play an LP through it, but I must say, it's not the ideal amp for comparing different LPs and different Gibson pickups. I'd say if you had plugged them into a low gain Marshall, there would be a more pronounced difference between 57 Classics vs Burstbuckers.I'm not really an SG guy at all, but I played one one of the VOS in TV Yellow and it was a spectacular sounding guitar in my opinion. Not in the market at all, but it was SERIOUSLY hot, but I think it was over $3,000 and there's just no way I'd pay that for one.The Traditional Pro is definitely sweet. I'd likely change the BB3 to a BB2, but I think the BB/57 is a great combo. Super smooth on the neck pickup, a little raunchier on the bridge. True, but I was comparing a bunch of different guitars and they didn't have my amp there anyway, an Orange Tiny Terror which I'm totally happy with. So I just picked a "default" amp. If I were to go with the LP Traditional Pro, the only thing I would do is just put covers on the Pups. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members scottgd Posted October 7, 2009 Members Share Posted October 7, 2009 We stopped in there on our way back from Toronto a few years back. Walked out with a Fender TC-90. I had no plans of getting a guitar. To date that was the only TC-90 I ever saw in person. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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