[SEL] OT: WOO-HOO!

[John Culp]

I've had quite an interesting day today. Got up really early to take 
Jane for a same-day surgical procedure in the next city over 
(Kingsport), and spent the whole day either in the waiting room 
watching people or back in the room with her (as expected, sick as hell 
after anesthesia.) Finally got home with her, and the UPS truck was 
blocking the driveway. I could see that he had a box on the porch and 
was ringing the doorbell looking for a signature. I pushed the remote 
garage door opener, he finally saw us and I signed his computer. As we 
pulled in we saw that the big box said "Gibson." My wife, still sick, 
aroused enough to say in a rather accusatory tone "You didn't order a 
guitar, did you?" "No, not me. That certainly is interesting, though. 
Wonder what it is?" As we went in, she said again "You really didn't 
order a guitar, did you?" "No, wasn't me!" She said, "Maybe you have a 
secret admirer." "If they want to send me Gibsons, that's fine with me. 
Hmmm, I have entered a few guitar sweepstakes on the Web." My son came 
up from the basement in time to hear that. We went out on the porch and 
brought in the big box from the Gibson Guitar company. I opened the 
invoice on the outside first, and it said "Web contest winner." I 
couldn't stop laughing. Opened the big box and found a fancy archtop 
hard case with a Pete Townshend SJ-200 super jumbo acoustic inside! 
Also included are 10 sets of Gibson strings, a bag of Gibson picks, a 
fancy alligator leather Gibson strap, a sound hole humidifier, guitar 
polish of two sorts, string cleaner/conditioner and fretboard 
conditioner. Took me a bit to notice, but the guitar's also fitted with 
a pickup. No onboard preamp, just a basic piezo. The spec page says 
it's a Fishman picked out by P.T. Over on Harmony Central there's a 
blurb about it with Pete Townshend talking about it. Says he'd no 
sooner smash this guitar than he would his own right hand. It certainly 
is a pretty thing, and can be seen here: 
http://montana.gibson.com/guitars/J-200/ptsj-200.html It's got a 
wonderful sound and gobs of sustain. Smells new! Has a Pete Townshend 
signature inlaid in the fretboard, and he's also signed the label 
inside it. This is one sweet guitar! At an MSRP of $5198 it doesn't 
quite fit in with my cheap guitar collection, but then, free is pretty 
cheap!

Now I'm going to be hearing murmurs of "Look at that great guitar! Too 
bad it belongs to THAT bozo!"


John Culp
Bristol, Tennessee, USA