I met the guy in a parking lot to pick up the new amp, and its story got a lot more interesting!

The guy said in his ad that this was one of 20 amps he had. That sounded incredible, but examining his E-Bay history revealed he was buying and selling amps all the time.

I wrote to ask him if he could meet me somewhere to pick it up and refund the shipping cost. He said, "I'll be working in my home studio Thursday, so I could do that." Now, nobody in Atlanta says "working in my home studio." They might say, "I'll have a day off from my job selling air conditioning units Thursday, incidentally I'll be wanking around in my home studio." So the fact he used the word "working" was interesting.

Due to an unforeseen need for a break repair, I asked him if he might be able to meet up Friday. He said he was going to be out of town working for three days. Hmm...so he works in a home studio, and then his studio job requires him to travel?

As I'm waiting for him in the parking lot I tell him on the cell phone I'm in a silver Corolla. He says, "I'm almost there. I'm in a black BMW." Okay, this guy is in music, travels for music, and drives a BMW? This is getting better all the time!

Finally we meet and I'm picking up the amp. I ask him if he produces jingles or something, because I have met one guy around here who did that kind of music. He says, "No, mostly rock n' roll bands. I've worked with a band called Shinedown..." I had to tell him that Shinedown was a bit of a new school name for me, but I did know they were huge. Then he said he had also worked on solo albums with Nikki Sixx (!), and Trey Anastasio from Phish (!!!). He said he had also rented a couple of rooms for awhile at Tree Sound, a studio up the road where Pearl Jam, Stone Temple Pilots and Smashing Pumpkins recorded some of their biggest albums. The guy had told me his name was Rick, but I started thinking that was a fake name. This had to be Brendan O'Brien I was talking to!

However when I got home I looked him up, and it turns out he's Rick Beato, who has, in fact, written songs for and produced albums by Shinedown, Trey Anastasio, and Vince Neil. He's also written songs with Desmond Child, so I guess this guy is the real shizznit!

And I have his amp! And much as I expected, a few squirts of Armor All have it looking very nearly mint. I'm going to have a tech look at it, though, because it sounds like it might need a tube or two. Not at all bad for $290, though (he credited the shipping as promised)!

Originally when I asked him if I could just meet him somewhere for the amp, he said he was going to ask if I wanted to come by and pick it up. There was an opportunity missed! I could've seen the house of a real-life record producer! Oh, well. Check out that MySpace page linked above and you can see his incredible amp farm -- not the software program, I mean a REAL amp farm! And his pic with Trey Anastasio. Maybe "Esther" was once noodled through my amp...

* Further reading reveals this guy has also worked with Zakk Wylde, Mark Tremonti and Marty Friedman! Do you guess those guys might've pounded some power chords through my amp?!