The wife and I are going to Chicago in February for a couple days and hoping we can make a "quick" drive over to Sweetwater. Let's see what happens if I have any money at that point... LOL
Do you have your Chicago visa application in? Have you been given clearance to visit? What are the components of a Chicago handshake?
I’ve been to Sweetwater on a detour on a business trip back last February or March. It’s an impressive shopping mall type situation. Kind of a vintage Sam Goody or Tower Records but for gear feel. Big selection with a lot of “normal” stuff in all shades/flavors. The way I see it with Sweetwater is that they’re a great big box to buy from—good detailed info about individual pieces, solid sales folk, good customer-oriented policies around returns, problem resolution, etc.
They’re kind of the first place I consider when looking for a brand new production guitar or pedal or basic whoozit. Some places have better prices, but Sweetwater is consistent and close enough that shipping doesn’t take forever.
CME is probably your better bet for whizbang vacation shopping. Tons of boutique brands and exclusives. An array of fancy Gibsons only really bested by the Gibson Garage. And the Fender selection is as good as the Fender flagship in Harijuku—although CME probably has more Custom Shop stuff. The have a big PRS wall as well. But if you wanna put hands on less widely available stuff like Kauer, higher end Yamaha, Collings, Eastman, Novo, Duesenberg, Reverend, Suhr, Powers, Ric, etc. all with minimal fuss, CME is great for showrooming. The salespeople are hands off and nothing outside of the appointment-only vintage vault stuff is under lock and key.
If you’re doing tourist stuff anywhere near Wrigley or Lincoln Park, you’d be super close to CME and there’s ample meter parking there (and there’s a nearby Brown Line stop).
