A “Sweet” Expedition
Written by Jennifer Leonard
Here’s a tip for every Hillsdale student: read the entire Student Activities Board Newsletter. Resist the temptation to dismiss that weekly email and leave it unread. So many off-the-beaten-path campus events are just waiting to be discovered in the fine print!
I stumbled across one such event recently. Staff from Information Technology Services organized a trip to Sweetwater Sound, a music store in Fort Wayne, Indiana, and opened the opportunity to anyone on campus. I had wanted to go to Sweetwater for some time, but since I don’t have a car on campus, it was difficult to arrange. As soon as I saw the trip listed in the newsletter, I jumped at the chance. All I had to do was follow a link, complete a Google form, and I was good to go.
Sweetwater is a 90-minute drive from Hillsdale, and it has a nationwide reputation for its wide-ranging selection of both musical instruments (thousands of guitars, acoustic and electric) and music technology, from recording equipment to synthesizers. They carry every instrument accessory you can imagine, and they have some of the most knowledgeable and kind staff I’ve ever met.
About 20 students met on a Saturday morning and loaded into the campus van. I went with a few music-loving friends, including Paul and Stephen, two friends I met within the first couple weeks of freshman year. We spent our first few Friday nights that year at Howard Music Hall, singing harmonies in the stairwells when no one was around. As a nervous new student, time spent playing music with them reminded me of high school and helped me ease into the college experience. Our love for music and playing together expanded to gigs at Penny’s Coffee Shop, and Stephen and Paul have played at Concert on the Quad.
As we walked into Sweetwater, all three of us were amazed. The store was massive and bustled with sound. To give you an idea of how great Sweetwater is, they give you a bag of candy just for buying one of their instruments. That’s right–if you order a guitar online, they will go through the effort of mailing you a bag of candy when they receive your order. And if you buy in-store, you not only get the bag of candy immediately, but they often give discounts simply for buying in-store. If that’s not enough, Sweetwater has so many instruments and accessories to choose from, that they can’t put them all on display—even in their massive store. Instead, customers can search an online database of the thousands of guitars in their warehouse and request to see whichever ones they like right there in-store. The Sweetwater staff are extremely helpful and accommodating—it’s like the Willy Wonka Chocolate Factory of music, candy included.
Both Stephen and Paul are great guitarists, so we spent a lot of time experimenting with the Gibsons, Martins, and Fenders hanging on the wall. We even got to play a $94,000 piano in the keyboard room, and I must say my rendition of “Heart and Soul” sounded pretty great on those keys. Stephen’s Rachmaninoff sounded better, but hey, it’s not a competition.
But the trip wasn’t all fun and games; I had serious decisions to make. For example, which type of percussion egg was I going to buy? As one of the most indecisive people around, I knew I had to set aside at least 30 minutes to experiment with the percussion eggs before I could commit. Sure, they are only $2 a piece and sure, all you do is shake them around like a baby rattle, but I know myself, so I headed to the egg bins early. Meanwhile, multiple students came away from the trip with new guitars and amps, including Paul, who discovered an electric guitar he loved mere minutes before our van was scheduled to leave! Luckily, the organizers of the trip were kind enough to delay our departure long enough for the staff to package up the guitar (and the candy!) for Paul to take home.
Before we left, we stopped by the diner conveniently located inside the store itself. Just beyond the fountain drinks, we discovered a giant slide fit for kids and adults alike and went down a time or two. In the midst of a winter filled with academic challenges, it was wonderful to take a break and have some good old-fashioned fun with friends. It felt so nice to spend a Saturday off campus exploring a well-renowned music store.
So keep your eye on your email inbox, because trips like this prove that you should always make sure to read to the end of the student newsletter!
Photo credit: Mike Brinkman
Jennifer Leonard, ’24, is a student writer for Hillsdale’s Student Stories blog and an editor at The Forum. She enjoys studying English, pressing flowers, and dreaming about writing her Great American Novel.
Published in April 2022