“I fell in love with a guitar and married it!” This remarkable statement comes from comedian Marc Maron on the intro to one of his recent podcasts*! Friends of Empire Guitars already knew about the marriage when this photograph showed up in their Facebook feed. Seen here from left to right are: Empire manager and musician Mike Samos; Marc Maron with his new 1960 Les Paul Jr.; Dean Delray who opened for Maron on the tour; and Ryan McEwan, salesman extraordinaire.
Mike Samos was not in today, but I had a great chat with Ryan — who also plays bass in the recently formed Sleep Mode. Assistant manager Mike Schiavone, who took the picture, was also on hand (see below). They were unaware that Maron was still excitedly talking about the purchase. They were still excited as well. (They both raved about the Maron show at the Columbus Theatre, with praise for Mr. Delray’s opening act.)
Maron and Delray dropped in to Empire Guitars, early in the afternoon of the show on February 21st, and shopped and noodled around for over an hour. According to Ryan, Maron headed straight for the vintage Les Pauls. Maron pointed out a Fender Deluxe amp just like the one he had at home, so that got hooked up, and Maron was able to try out some of those hard rock/bluesy riffs familiar to fans of his show and podcast. (He’s very modest about his talents, but he’s very good.)
Maron almost bought the 1956 Gibson Les Paul Jr. W/HSC for $7,500 (seen below) — it’s still there — but went home with the ’60 Les Paul Jr. double cutaway, single P-90 in bridge position.
Some one had apparently tipped Maron off to this great Providence guitar store on his Instagram account. Here is an excerpt from his comments on the recent podcast:
It was a real-deal place, they had real vintage shit . . . and they had several Les Paul Juniors from the ’50s and ’60s, one double-cutaway Les Paul Junior with the single P-90. I don’t know much about guitars, but I know I like that sound . . . and I don’t know man, the rest was sort of like . . . I put it up on my Instagram . . . Dean shot it, you can see the moment where I’m just like, “I love this thing.” I fell in love with a guitar right there on camera, and I bought it and they’re shipping it out to me. It’s my first vintage electric guitar purchase. It was completely reasonable . . . not gross in any way, in terms of cost . . . and I can’t wait. It was so exciting. So that happened on this trip as well. I fell in love with a guitar and married it!
It’s weird that we both had to be apart for a few days, but I hope when we finally come back together we’ve made the right decision and the honeymoon is lovely. You will hear it. I will play it for you. So that was an exciting part of this trip.
If you missed the show at the Columbus, “End Times Fun” will start streaming on Netflix on March 10. When I wrote about the upcoming show last month, I suggested that Maron might bring up the time decades ago when his car got stolen in Providence. So I had to ask the guys, did he bring that up again? And he did! Maybe we’re kind of cosmically even now. Although, I bet that guitar cost even more than his car.
Empire Guitars, 1271 North Main Street, (directions)
*WTF with Marc Maron: Episode 1100, interview with Juliette Lewis.
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Ryan McEwan and Mike Schiavone both had high praise for Maron’s skills. He’s not just another west coast, show biz dilettante. (And for what it’s worth, as the only one of us who had ever seen Juliette Lewis perform — a million years ago at the Century Lounge — neither is she.)
Here is Maron with his new 1960 Les Paul Junior Double Cutaway. He had it shipped home.
This 1955 Fender Deluxe 5e3 amp with cover is still for sale: $4250.
Below is the Les Paul Junior Maron did not buy.