Every year at this time my hometown of Austin, Texas, Live Music Capital Of The World becomes infected with South By Southwest (when hip: South By). Swallows go to Capistrano, scraggly 20 something Japanese gospel punk bands come here. It's wonderful and lively and incredibly engaging for the inanity of it all.
We locals huff and puff about it, but in general The People's Republic Of Austin embraces this chaos and in the spirit of the thing. I toddled downtown for the SXSW Guitar Show. Seen the movie Up? The cranky old Ed Asner character? That's me.
After getting lost less than the normal number of times in a town I have lived in for 30 years, I got parked and inside the convention center without harming anyone who seemed important. Trade shows are the same everywhere, but the mooch gifts vary.
Our anniversary is coming up and the bride is more than her usual wonderful self about guitars. She loves them so I was pre-approved for some serious self giftage. Allah Akbar. Nothing jumped out and said "take me home" until I toddled into the Eminence speaker booth. Two guys, one guitar, and a 4 way switch that put the sound through four different Eminence speakers so you could clearly hear the voice of each speaker. Amazing differences. We chatted about enclosures, I learned that they made their speakers in TN, not China. No sales pitch, but I am now a customer for life.
But the real happy place was in the VisualSound booth. Again, two guys and some guitar effects. Steve Mikesell is the Dealer Relations guy who schooled me. Patient, listened to my (many) issues. Showed me some possible solutions. Demonstrated them. Credible beyond reason. Knowledgeable. Do they have good products? Yeah, I think so. Do they have a new zealot? Hell yes!
In all of this what struck me dumb was that the difference was the sales guys. Do you need good products? Yes, absolutely. Were these the back slapping let's-do-lunch types? Sorry, no. But they quickly became trusted advisor's through product knowledge and simple and decent human concern for my problems.