I guess we all won in the end there didn't we!
I certainly know that I couldn't be any happier!
The thing is, my dad has bought about 12 guitars from the same salesman at the same GC for 12 years and has developed a pretty good inside source for finding all of the deals that the consumers aren't ecer supposed to see. Funny, when we were leaving w/ the silverburst, he said, "You know, why don't you just buy the whole Guitar Center?" LOL.

Buy the way, just for fun I did a direct comparison between the Epi Custom Silverburst and a Gibson Standard Silverburst in the store and like the Epi better in all respects. I am really impressed and am a very proud Les Paul owner!