We recently moved into a new house and our new sofa was delivered last Saturday.
The house is older, with awkwardly small entrances, and while we had some concerns that we might not get the couch inside, we decide to leave it up to the Delivery Gods. Well - our 2 large, friendly, Eastern European Delivery Gods don't smile on us this day and pronounce that the only way to get the couch inside is to remove an old, heavily-painted-shut exterior window on a deck at the back, and that they were very late with their next appointment and couldn't wait for us to do that.
Bummer.
So we ask them to take the sofa into the basement laundry room (the only way it'll get into the house) and leave it there for us to plan our next move. As they lower the couch to the basement floor they can see into the next room - my 'office' - replete with Axe-FX Ultra, PRS & Gibson guitars on stands, Yamaha monitors and my Mac-based studio setup.
"Can we take a listen?" they ask. Turns out that both are new-ish musicians, a drummer and guitar player.
"Aren't you late?" I reply (very generously, I thought).
"The traffic's really bad today," they respond with little glints in their eyes. "We've got a few minutes". At the basement door, my partner Camilla not-so-quietly grumbles "Well if you've got a few minutes shouldn't you be moving the f*****g couch inside?" She grabs a long bladed knife from the basement, and with a slightly murderous look on her face heads back upstairs to attack the exterior window.
I fire up the studio, do a quick Garageband demo (as new musicians AND PC users they were impressed by what Apple gives out for free) and then ask what the guitar was plugged into. MY turn for the glint in the eye. On goes the Axe-FX, first into the Yamahas, then into the Verve 12ma.
Egnater Rebel patch, I think. Loud.
Their eyes go very, very wide.
So I bugger about on the DGT for 10 minutes or so, wooing them with Axe-FX tones, ever-conscious of the blade-against-wood sounds and quiet swearing from upstairs that I hear during patch changes. The DGs are mighty impressed by the Ultra, and after calling it 'a magic box' (interestingly my nickname for it also) and announcing their intention to buy one, one of them looks at his watch and reluctantly admits:
"We really DO have to go now - we promised the next customers we would be on time." And they're about 45 minutes late now.
I give them Fractal website & model info, along with a promise of assistance when they complete their purchase, and out they lumber, only to find the ever resourceful Camilla covered in paint chips, and the upstairs window mostly loosened from it's painty prison. Their eyes sparkle again and without a moment's hesitation it's back to the furniture delivery business. They attack the window with gusto, get it open, and before you can say 'Bogumil's your Uncle' the new sofa is standing proudly in it's pre-destined spot in the living room.
The Delivery Gods then head off to their next appointment, muttering apologetically on the cell phone to their next customer about how bad the traffic has been today.
Thank you, Cliff & Fractal, for your amazing product, and for it's ever-wider reaching benefits. Without it, there would still be a sofa in my basement.
The house is older, with awkwardly small entrances, and while we had some concerns that we might not get the couch inside, we decide to leave it up to the Delivery Gods. Well - our 2 large, friendly, Eastern European Delivery Gods don't smile on us this day and pronounce that the only way to get the couch inside is to remove an old, heavily-painted-shut exterior window on a deck at the back, and that they were very late with their next appointment and couldn't wait for us to do that.
Bummer.
So we ask them to take the sofa into the basement laundry room (the only way it'll get into the house) and leave it there for us to plan our next move. As they lower the couch to the basement floor they can see into the next room - my 'office' - replete with Axe-FX Ultra, PRS & Gibson guitars on stands, Yamaha monitors and my Mac-based studio setup.
"Can we take a listen?" they ask. Turns out that both are new-ish musicians, a drummer and guitar player.
"Aren't you late?" I reply (very generously, I thought).
"The traffic's really bad today," they respond with little glints in their eyes. "We've got a few minutes". At the basement door, my partner Camilla not-so-quietly grumbles "Well if you've got a few minutes shouldn't you be moving the f*****g couch inside?" She grabs a long bladed knife from the basement, and with a slightly murderous look on her face heads back upstairs to attack the exterior window.
I fire up the studio, do a quick Garageband demo (as new musicians AND PC users they were impressed by what Apple gives out for free) and then ask what the guitar was plugged into. MY turn for the glint in the eye. On goes the Axe-FX, first into the Yamahas, then into the Verve 12ma.
Egnater Rebel patch, I think. Loud.
Their eyes go very, very wide.
So I bugger about on the DGT for 10 minutes or so, wooing them with Axe-FX tones, ever-conscious of the blade-against-wood sounds and quiet swearing from upstairs that I hear during patch changes. The DGs are mighty impressed by the Ultra, and after calling it 'a magic box' (interestingly my nickname for it also) and announcing their intention to buy one, one of them looks at his watch and reluctantly admits:
"We really DO have to go now - we promised the next customers we would be on time." And they're about 45 minutes late now.
I give them Fractal website & model info, along with a promise of assistance when they complete their purchase, and out they lumber, only to find the ever resourceful Camilla covered in paint chips, and the upstairs window mostly loosened from it's painty prison. Their eyes sparkle again and without a moment's hesitation it's back to the furniture delivery business. They attack the window with gusto, get it open, and before you can say 'Bogumil's your Uncle' the new sofa is standing proudly in it's pre-destined spot in the living room.
The Delivery Gods then head off to their next appointment, muttering apologetically on the cell phone to their next customer about how bad the traffic has been today.
Thank you, Cliff & Fractal, for your amazing product, and for it's ever-wider reaching benefits. Without it, there would still be a sofa in my basement.
