In life, there are hard choices that each of us have to make during our lives. Alan recently had to pick between two very bad choices over a used 1996 Les Paul Gibson guitar. He traded a new Michael Kelly Patriot Custom in order to receive this Les Paul Gibson. The choice, unfortunately, was not about the trade but what happened over an Ebay auction.

Tuesday, May 12th, 2009, Mike checks our Ebay responses for the 1996 Les Gibson guitar. We'd already gotten a thousand dollar bid on the guitar and the first response was a guy from Austrila looking to see if we could mail it to him. However, the second response was a very sour note on our hopeful moods that this 1996 Les Paul Gibson. 'It's a fake,' proclaimed the Ebayer, 'there's three screws on the headstock, there should be two.' Mike and I looked at each other after we read the list of impurities and sins that our Les Paul Gibson was being accused of having.

'We can prove our guitar is a normal Gibson, after all the guy we traded it from stated that he had sent it to Gibson and had it checked to be a real one!' I declared at the sight of the condemning comment. So our quest began, we started looking at pictures of regular Gibson guitars. There were a few things that the Ebayer had stated that were counterfeit but they were on real Gibson guitars, we felt assured with righteous indignation that our guitar was a real one. That was until we started looking through the Gibson's news post about counterfeit guitars that were being made and sold from dealers in China. Fake Gibsons vs Real Gibsons

Mike even went so far as to research the serial number. Yes, the serial number is to a 1996 Les Paul Gibson, but the place it was made was a factory that only made acoustic guitars. This 'Les Paul Gibson' is an electric guitar.

It was a most unfortunate finding, our guitar was most definitely a fake. We even went through uncovering truss rod cover and pot cover, both were identical to the pictures on the Gibson's website. We found ourselves at a crossroad, we already had a bid on this 1996 Les Paul 'Gibson' guitar, but we didn't want to sell a fake to an unsuspecting customer. Those were the two choices: either lose money or lose our reputation as a good seller.

Alan struggled with the decision. But in the end, he decided that is was better to lose money than to sell something that we know as being fake to an unsuspecting customer. That's think kind of store keeper that I appreciate working for, the one who weights being honest over making money.

Introductions, they say, are always the first start of a keen and long relationship. Allow me to introduce Adona Music, a local music and instrument supply store seated in downtown Harrisonburg, Virginia. The store owner, Alan, works with various vendors and bands to be both a store as well as a local performance host. Alan's mirror that sits behind the counter is quite literately covered with various papers and posters announcing the upcoming events for both the in house performances as well as the local activities for other stores.

Right now as I am writing this, Mike (one of the workers here) and Alan are sending newly serviced trombones to the Music and Arts Headquarters in Maryland where they will be distributed to schools. Adona Music has several different items up for sale, guitars, pianos, drums, and all the accessories needed to play them including music sheets, strings, cases, and other objects used in the general care. But what I think is the best feature of Adona Music is the 16 by 16 ft stage that has it's own lighting and sound in the middle of the store for bands or performers. That stage has seen many bands and seen several comics, and even now we're getting ready for the Summer season starts with 8 bands lined up for Mithosfest 3 to be hosted in the store on May 31st. If you're in the area, why not come out?

Who am I, you might ask? I'm Ana, the resident blogger, the new help for the new webpage design, and the all around computer girl – the newest add on to the Adona Music store. I'm hoping to spread Adona's net to people who weren't aware of her. We're the kind of store that would let you play with the instruments inside the store on our stage, just for the sake of hearing your music.

So Greetings!