One time, at band camp.... no wait. This is a bit of a story...
Two things I yearned for during my assistant engineer years were a decent acoustic guitar and a piano. Living in NYC, though, a piano is a real burden. So I was looking for an acoustic and found one for sale in the classifieds that looked promising. I called the guy and he said he worked at Kauffman-Astoria studios, and could I come out to Queens to see it. So I hopped on the subway, signed into the building, met the guy and saw the guitar. It wasn't so great.
I asked him what he did, and he said he worked for Sesame Street and would I like to see the set. I mean, would I?!?! It was a Friday afternoon, it was the last shoot of the day so he snuck me down there. To actually be standing on Sesame Street was one of the most mind-blowing experiences of my life. Apparently it is usually a closed set, and some folks who actually work for "Sesame Workshop" have never been allowed in. I got lucky.
Riding back into Manhattan I thought, "well, that was great but I still don't have a guitar". I decided to check out a pawn shop two blocks away from the studio where I was eventually headed. I walked down a block I never walk down, 22nd, between 5th and 6th and saw what looked like people loading stuff into a car, because there was a big black case sitting there amidst some other bags. But then I realized the guys were sitting in the car, not loading it. And the "stuff" consisted of trash bags and this black case - what musician loading stuff would set their things down next to trash?
I hesitated over the black case. I stalled. I hemmed and hawed and hawed and hemmed. I looked around for some kind of sign. The man in the car rolled down his window. He said, "I'm the super of this building right here and that thing has been in our hallway for years. It's some kind of piano and if you want it, it's yours".
And that's the story of how I got to Sesame Street and trashpicked a Fender Rhodes 73 within a two hour period on one day.
The end.
Noah