Then there are the good days. Another guy stops by - he comes in every couple of months to look around. Wants to try the Gretsch. Sure thing. But can I use my own amp? He rolls in a Mesa-Boogie Triple-Rectifier lead with a Marshall half stack. Uhm, sure. I quickly mentally add up the current loads on my electrical outlets. Here, this one shouldn't blow too quickly. So he rolls it off into a corner and unleashes an absolutely thunderous torrent of good old-fashioned bay area rock. Thanks. He'll come back and discuss the guitar later. Anything you say. This guy has coffee with Ronnie Montrose, one of the legendary rock stars that came out of the bay area in the 70's. He's a working musician. Don't see a lot of those. Ronnie apparently likes Gretsches so he's interested in giving them a try himself.

Next guy buys a new trumpet for his son. Thanks. Stops somewhere to have lunch then walks back in an hour later with the trumpet. Uhm, something wrong? No, not at all. He wants another one for himself. You serious? Darn right.

Oh, what exactly defines something as bay area rock? The plates inside the vacuum tubes of the amplifier are saturated. The rich harmonics turn every little note into an orchestra. Only a handful of amps are capable of popping that much current at low volumes. So you need the right amp or a stinkin' lot of volume. Then the guitar playing involves heavy use of chords, and frequent use of a trilled third and a double bent seventh. Think Canned Heat, Moby Grape, Big Brother, Quicksilver, the dead, the plane or starship or whatever it is now. Then is was Santana with their latin twist, and Montrose and Stoneground and Earthquake. The Sons of Champlain brought some Humboldt County to the mix. Later it was Sammy Hagar after he left Montrose (and before joining Van Halen). These were the local heroes and those of us learning to play grabbed the same cool ideas from many of them. You could pick up a guitar in Borneo and I'll still know exactly where you came from.

Still can't figure out the sound I'm describing? I'll make it easy. Creedence Clearwater Revival.

Hmmm. Wonder what happened to Mountain View's homeless population? They all kinda vanished. Just the old drunk lady with Tourette's left and no sense asking what happened to her friends because she hasn't any, even if she understood what I was asking. There used to be at least a dozen people who called Castro Street home.

And what's with all these European tourists? I figure with the rest of the mixed demographics here that only about 10-15% of my customers speak English in their home. My business challenge is to get all these tourists up to the register. Coffee mugs. T-shirts. Postcards. They probably aren't going to want to lug a cello back on the plane. Music books are always a draw because it's a universal language. But tourists aren't looking for books to study. They want souveniers. I'll have to work on that...