Wow. I really wasn't expecting much but it came in under my expectations. Here's what they had for basses.....
Ibanez (not sure the model but the $299 CAD one) one 5 string and one 4 string, both red.
Ibanez SR500 and SR505
Fender MIM Jazz x 2
Fender MIA Jazz x 1 (burst)
Fender MIA P x 2 (burst and black)
Strangely... not a single Squier bass.
The only not completely run o' the mill bass they had there was a EB MM Stingray 5 in a blue burst with maple board and matching headstock. But....it was appallingly priced at $2465 CAD. (I know our dollar ain't that strong at the moment but yeesh.) Even the MIA Fenders were a little rich for my taste at almost $1700 CAD. And I should mention that's without our 13% harmonized sales tax. I'm getting off topic here but in my opinion, the used market has been too good lately to blow the dough on anything like these examples.
For electric guitars it was the same ol' mix of Fender, Squier, Gibson and Epiphone. One single solitary lower end Gretsch and no other brands at all. (Well... maybe there was an Ibanez hiding in there somewhere but my eyes were pretty glazed over by that point.) The only thing of real note was a custom shop LP that was almost $5000.
I didn't bother to check on the acoustics.
Looks like someone had their heart in the right place but couldn't follow through. I was assuming - because they have a national network of 60+ stores - they would pull some more interesting stock from other stores for the "occasion" they made it out to be on the flyer. Don't get me wrong. I love Long & McQuades. They do one hell of a job 99% of the time for me. Especially if you do any touring in Canada. You can rent stuff in Vancouver and return it in Toronto for example. But the mix of basses/guitars they had in the shop for the "leftorium" is really the minimum they should have in that particular location at any time. It's their flagship store and it takes up about a half a block of downtown Toronto real estate. I didn't get to talk to anyone at the shop today but in their case, I would make a simple suggestion. With the amount of locations they have, and the incredible buying power they have (their parent company is the official Gibson/Epiphone distributor and they own Yorkvile and Traynor for example), they could easily make a lefty boutique at their flagship store in Toronto. They do stock transfers from location to location all the time and the they could use the Toronto lefty inventory to feed the other locations. At least it would all be in one place and easy to catalogue on their website.
But.... maybe I've put too much thought into this. Maybe.... ah who cares.
