DALLAS IN SPRINGTIME BY KEVIN BORDEN
Big guitar shows—I live for them. I plan my year by
them and set my watch by them.
Orlando in January, Dallas in
April, Philly in July, Arlington
in October, and back to Philly
in November. Then we throw in
a smattering of small shows—
be it Nashville, Spartanburg,
Charlotte, or Chicago—to
alleviate the jonesing after our
big show fix. Sound like fun? To
be honest, it is. I’m writing this
month’s column in the aftermath
of the Dallas Guitar Show, and
am still hazy three days after
wrapping it up. Johnnie Mason,
a fellow Premier Guitar reader,
and I were talking in my booth
on Friday and he had a great
question: What is it like to be a
dealer at a guitar show?
Well Johnnie, my business is
a wonderful business. Most of
my friends are fellow dealers and
many of my friends are clients.
Every few weeks, we congregate at the Temple of Gibson,
Fender, and Rickenbacker to do
what we do best—buy, sell, and
trade instruments.
Dallas is easily the most
physically taxing of all the
shows because the floors are
concrete and the walls are
cinder block. By day two,
your knees are shot. By day
three, your ears have a ring,
and by day four every joint in
your body is inflamed, you’re
exhausted, and your stomach
is upset.
The show starts with a 2: 45
a.m. alarm on Thursday so I
can catch the 6: 30 flight from
Newark to Dallas. After picking
up the rental car and driving
to Dallas Market Hall, I meet
my truck around noon and
unload 40 or so cases of basses,
stands, mobile office gear, and
coolers by hand. Bob “The
Swami” Hynosky and Dr. Ben
Sopranzetti, my “A-Team,” are
with me all weekend to help out.
After the gear is unloaded for the
crew to display, I scour the show
looking for basses. The weekend
is spent walking (or running)
up and down aisles looking for
basses—it’s a delicate balance
between saying hellos and peer-
ing under stones. The four-day,
1000-yard stare is in full force.
You are constantly scanning for
a bass case or a prior client who
may have a treasure for you.
Everything is bigger in Texas: Me and my business partner, Ben Sopranzetti, resting against a quartet of Acoustic 360 rigs.
walk them over to my booth? We
were able to procure five ’60s and
’70s T-birds, including two we
received from Tom Petersson—
great news since we haven’t been
able to buy a good Thunderbird
in nearly six months. In a
10-minute span, we had George
Lynch, Rick Derringer, Bugs
Henderson, and representatives
from three different magazines
and the Dallas newspaper stop in
and say hello.
There were many basses to
ogle in the hall. One dealer had
a series of Russian-made basses
that looked like the cool old
Euro-trash basses from 40 years
ago. Southside Guitars had an
incredibly gorgeous 1959 blonde
EB- 2! The interesting part of this
year’s show was seeing almost no
big-dollar bass gear. I’d say 99
percent of the wood was under
$5000, and 75 percent was
under $3500—a major difference from even a year ago.
The shows are always loaded
with laughs, and this one was no
exception. Let me start by telling
you that we wear recognizable
bowling shirts at every show.
I had just taken mine off and
gone outside to the dealer “chill”
area, where I quickly had a cold
beer in one hand and a Savinelli
pipe in the other. I was enjoy-
ing the company of my fellow
exhausted brethren for a drink,
smoke, and a little brain drain,
asks if anyone was interested in
buying a newer boutique bass.
I told him I’d be interested, but
he presented me with an offer
to buy a $2000 retail bass for
$2700. Respectfully, I declined.
This new dealer got all ticked
off and said, “You guys want to
steal everything! I just spoke with
my friend Kebo, the big bass
dealer, and he said if it’s still here
in 20 minutes, he’ll walk over
and pay me $1800!” The dealer
then asked what my name was,
since this was the first time we’d
met. I said, “Nice to meet you,
I’m Kebo.” We all laughed for 30
minutes on that one.
KEVIN BORDEN has
been playing bass since
1975. He is the principal and
co-owner, with “Dr.” Ben
Sopranzetti, of Kebo’s Bass
Works (visit them online at
kebosbassworks.com). You
can reach Kevin at kebobass@yahoo.com.
Feel free to call him KeBo.
