Just ordered a Michael Kelly 1953 T style guitar. Probably going to put an Allparts TRO-FAT neck on it.

Long time lurker here but I thought if anyone would enjoy my recent trip to Nashville, y'all would. TLDR at the bottom.

Wife and I had a very emotionally tough January for reasons I won't get into, but on a whim we decided to take a trip to Nashville. Always wanted to go to Nashville and would highly recommend it to anyone. We did just about everything; Broadway, Ryman, Opry, Cash Museum, Lynchburg, and live music with every meal. While researching places to go/things to do, the 'Gibson Garage' kept coming up.

I'm mainly an acoustic player but my ultimate dream guitars have been a Les Paul electric and a Hummingbird acoustic. I've held off buying any low end Epiphones or knockoffs because they wouldn't be the same. I recently bought a nice Taylor last summer and explained to my wife that the only guitar I'd ever want to buy after this would be a Hummingbird. (N+1 rule)

We hadn't really planned on going to the Gibson Garage but I saw it on the map when we made a run to Whole Foods and decided to stop by. Come to find out the Garage is essentially the first floor show room for Gibson Headquarters on the higher floors. We walk in and are amazed by the revolving drycleaner rack of over a hundred SG's, ES335's, and LP's in every color. Was overly greeted by a tall guy with long hair walking in. More on him in a minute.

I go straight over to the Les Paul custom shop were you can build up a custom guitar. I walk around in awe for about 10 minutes until I make it over to the acoustic room. Sales rep asks if I wanted to play anything, so of course I ask for a Hummingbird. They only had a few sunburst Hummingbirds that were left handed but had Hummingbird Rosewood Studio in natural finish.

So I sit down and play for 5-10minutes talking with the sales rep while my wife is becoming increasingly bored and hungry (not the first time I've done this). Satisfied with getting to sit a play for a bit we kind of start to wrap up when the sales rep askes if we had a chance to meet 'JC'. Turns out the guy who greeted us at the door was JC Curleigh, the CEO of Gibson. About that time JC actually walks in to the acoustic room and starts chatting with us and another person (who was playing their new G-00 with top sound port). He was so excited telling us about this new innovation for their low end guitars and says he really liked it for helping him play better (I played it later and wasn't too impressed).

We chat with him and the sales rep for at least 15minutes about different guitars(obviously), the sales rep being from Austin, me being from Fort Worth and JC's trip to the stockyards after the 49ers game vs the cowboys a few weeks prior. Really cool guy. I made a joke about playing 'Stairway' and he goes "Jimmy was here a few weeks ago and really got a kick out of our 'NO STAIRWAY' sign". Sure enough he shows me a picture of Jimmy Page bowing in front of the sign out in the store...

Crazy experience. We didn't think to ask for a photo with him as he breezed out of there leaving us (and the sales rep) in awe. I hand the Hummingbird back and the wife and I go next door to the Mexican restaurant for chips and margarita's. After 2 marg's and a quick huddle with a few of my guitar buddies, we decide that there is no way I can't NOT buy the guitar. Between the reasons we were in Nashville, the dream guitar, story, and experience, I HAD to buy this thing.

So an afternoon trip to Whole Foods ended with me buying my dream guitar and having it shipped back to Texas. It plays great and has settled in nicely next to the Taylor. They play completely different and I've found myself playing different styles depending on the guitar. It was an amazing experience and a trip I'll never forget. Every time I play its much more to me than just a pretty guitar but a light in a dark time.








Thanks for reading!
TLDR: I bought a Gibson Hummingbird after meeting and play with the CEO of Gibson at the Gibson Garage in Nashville.

So what's some stuff you guys have let go over there years? I'd mentioned before I had two PRSs previously, a 2001 CE24 and a Platinum Tremonti model that I sold and bought these two Les Pauls.



I ended up selling those to grab these two Warmoth LPs so I could get nicer finishes with all the parts I wanted.



Sold the one on the right to grab an acoustic and the one on the left as part of picking up a different PRS. Warmoth guitars are cool, but even with the LP models being discontinued I got less than half of what I put in them because they're considered kit guitars.

I ultimately ended up selling the guitar that started this thread as I found a blue version I liked better and sold that one as part of picking up the Tremonti I just got. I think I miss all of them to some extent except for the two recent PRSs I sold because I ultimately grabbed others that suited what I wanted better. I'm probably the most irritated about the original Tremonti I had as, unbeknownst to me 15 years ago when I sold it, that color was fairly rare and they basically never come up for sale as a result.

Oops I did it again







Incoming 2016 Gibson Les Paul 50s Tribute Gold Top. These usually have a black back but this one was sanded off and stained, with PRS style faux binding added.