What do Monica Lewinsky , Melanie Griffith and Wall Street Rocker Chicks, have in common? :

Guitar A-Sex-Orries!

Sam Ash Music Guitars is most likely the busiest guitar store in the world.

Under one roof there is a custom shop vintage room with dozens of rare, unique and collectable instruments on display. There is a high  end acoustic room complete with a humidifier to protect the delicate instruments from lack of moisture. The left side of the store is loaded with instruments for the serious picker to a beginner. The bass section is located in the back of the store. Last but not least is the wall and counter display of guitar accessories.

Anyway, something about the nature of “accessories” brings out the risqué in our customers, and yes, even in our famous ones!

For example, early this past summer Melanie Griffith, preparing for her lead role in Chicago, was a surprise visitor to the accessory department. She stopped in to purchase an electronic tuner for her voice exercises, and ended up flooring our staff. One of the sales guys brought out a small pocket style tuner for her to check out. ‘Here it is Ms Griffith’ he excitedly said.  Melanie looked him straight in the eye and answered back, “its so small don’t you have a big one?” “I like the big ones!”  And then she started to laugh.  After a second or two the sales guy finally got it and laughed too!

“I’ll be right back with the Big One!” he said as he completed the sale.

A group of gals, though, took it to the next level. One morning I was standing nearby as our  sales guy John assisted a couple of well-dressed, attractive businesswomen. I had seen these girls here before buying gear for their  – believe it or not — rock band. (They were what we sales man  in the store nic-named “closet rockers”!)  The phone rang in front of the Wall Street gals. It was a customer calling for the other salesman, Jack. (FYI, there was a lot of tension between the three main accessories salesmen – Jack, John and Rob. They got on each other’s nerves big  time. And it’s only natural considering that salary is based on commissions: These guys fight for every sale to achieve their monthly goals and salary bonuses.) So, not knowing if Jack was scheduled to work that day, I asked John over the store intercom system who  was scheduled to work.  John yells out across the room to Rob: “Hey Jack off today?”  Rob — obviously very happy his adversary Jack was not scheduled to work that day — happily he yelled back to John, “YEH! YEH! YEH!”

Just then I overheard one of the girls in front of me whisper to another, “They sure do get personal around here don’t they?”

Speaking of sexual innuendo, it was only fitting that Monica Lewinsky, who was right in the middle of the Clinton White House Sex Scandal, would show up on music row – in the accessory department. And no, she’s not a closet rocker (at least that I know of!). She broke a strap on her shoe right in front of the store and then she stopped at the accessory counter for some tape to fix it!   As I said before   .  you  just never know who might visit the Guitar A-Sex-Orries department on music row