In March, with a trailer full of the hottest vintage acoustics, electrics, and amps, Rick and Alex hit the road for the 2025 Nashville Guitar Show. Held annually in the beautiful hills of Tennessee, the Nashville show attracts just about everybody, from fledgling guitarists to celebrity musicians. No matter how our booth does year in and year out, it’s always a great time catching up with old friends from the vintage trade world and, of course, making new friends along the way.

The first day, we met Tyler Larson, who was there to document the expo for his wildly popular Youtube channel Music is Win. He interviewed Rick, who’s been attending the Nashville show for 30-odd years, and you can catch their conversation at around the 11:30 mark. Tyler brought a good mix of professionalism and personability that definitely shines through in the video and we look forward to working with him again.

We also met one of our heroes, Tommy Emmanuel. As we'd soon discover, he's a top-notch gentleman. But all we knew in that moment is that Tommy's the greatest acoustic guitarist in the world. So when he walked straight up to our 1953 Gibson J-45 and asked to try it… Well, obviously yes! 

It was incredible. Tommy sniffed it out like a bloodhound, like instinct told him just by looking at the thing that it was a great guitar. He sat down and, despite the high-gain riffage that batters the air of all guitar shows, tuned that ol’ J-45 by ear and put it through its paces. For us, it was like our own little concert. Tommy hung around for a bit chatting, then took his “new”  J-45 to a jam session at another booth. How cool is that?

Luckily, Tyler was in the right place at the right time to preserve this meeting for posterity. You can check it out around the 7-minute mark.

All in all, it was a great show! Though we returned road-weary to Annapolis, we’d gladly make the 10-hour drive again in a heartbeat.