At the end of April [2006], I took a training swing through Orange County, California. To be honest, I've been so busy since my return that I haven't had a chance to go through the pictures and write the report. Now that I've got a bit of breathing room (not much, but a little), let me give you the low down on the highlights.

Two days of training were bookended by travel days. I still don't know why I had to fly east to get to the West Coast. Be that as it may, I routed through Atlanta on my way out, which meant getting up at Oh-Dark-Thirty to catch the first flight of the morning out of Indy - ninety minutes and a time zone away. By the time I got to the hotel in mid-afternoon, I'd already been up for more than 14 hours. Thankfully, Ross Miller (the District Sales Rep with whom I spent most of my trip) was kind enough to not plan any training for that day. In fact, Ross did a great job taking care of me. He even made sure we lunched at an Indian buffet, a hidden treasure near one of the stores. (I'm all about good, interesting food, so cool places to eat come high on my list.)

During this trip, I saw a total of six dealers: Ontario Music (Ontario), La Habra Music (La Habra), Wild West Guitars (Riverside), Corona Music (Corona), Roll Over Beethoven (Hesperia) and Jim's Music Center (Irvine).All of them were cool, with good staff. The training sessions all went very well, with the attending salespeople asking good questions and paying close attention to the answers.

All of the stores were clean and well-stocked, and looked like you'd expect a decent store to look. However, when we got to Wild West Guitars, I was floored. Ross had already told me about the place, but words just don't do it justice. To begin with, Wild West is a very high-end shop. Lots of boutique amps, tons of the best guitars from top manufacturers. Same thing in the bass department, and Eden was very well represented. Yes, the "showroom" was a bit different. In fact, there were several rooms, laid out in an "office" style. That could be due in part to the fact that the store is in an industrial building, and probably had the front area split into offices already.

Even more different, however, is the fact that just past the demo rooms is a full-on nightclub, complete with raised stage, installed lights and sound, and very nice decor. Originally built so that customers could try out their purchases on-stage, the room now plays host to concerts promoted by the bands themselves. It's just such a cool room, everyone wants to gig there. I don't blame them.

Before we took the pictures at Wild West, we had to bring the big Eden rig down from the recording studio. Yeah, that's right: the recording studio. In a store! As you can imagine, it would have been very easy to just hang there the rest of the day. But we still had one more training session and a Meet and Greet to go.

The Meet and Greet at Jim's Music went very well. Ross handed me over to John Pegler, the rep for that part of the territory. Jim's has a line of Eden guaranteed to make any enthusiast drool. We split the staff into two groups for training that afternoon. I got to meet several long-term customers, and even had a long phone conversation with one Eden user looking to upgrade his rig. During the Meet itself, I got to hook up again with forum member Planetary Citizen (Tony Alvarez), whom I'd first met at this year's NAMM show. I also got to meet Dev Torres for the first time. Dev (known by his real name on the forum) is a new WT1205 owner, so we got to swap stories about our new heads.

All in all, a very successful trip. As always, I got to meet a lot of great people, and pass along some information on Eden gear. And the food was great! See you on the road!

Check out the stores:

Jim's Music Center | La Habra & Corona Music Centers | Wild West Guitars

Lane with the staff at Ontario Music Center

Hanging out after training at La Habra Music

On the sound stage at Wild West Guitars.
The store includes a fully functioning night club!

Dev Torres and Lane pose with a WT1205 (they both have one,
and a 610XLT, too) and a stack o' cabs.

L-R: Tony, Dev and Lane

Senior staff at Jim's Music.

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