Great guitar stores in Seattle?

D

Dave Merrill

Axe-Master
Are there any great guitar stores in Seattle? I'll be visiting my daughter there in September, might do a little prowling...
 
2nd Emerald City. Be aware their website mentions booking an appointment for an in-store visit. If you dig Basses, the Bass Shop is a cool stop.
Non music related (other than they have a jukebox), go to the 5 Point Bar in Pioneer Square for some good food and a beer.
 
I went a while ago, but the Pop Culture Museum (when they had a different name) had Queensryche’s costumes from their 1986 Rage for Order tour, which is my favorite album by them. And very cool props from movies, like Dune, Star Wars, and Alien. It was so cool.

We lived in Seattle for a little bit, and it was a really interesting place. I loved the architecture and the bay. And weather that I live for.
 
Hellbat said:
2nd Emerald City. Be aware their website mentions booking an appointment for an in-store visit. If you dig Basses, the Bass Shop is a cool stop.
Non music related (other than they have a jukebox), go to the 5 Point Bar in Pioneer Square for some good food and a beer.
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+1 for Emerald City. Amazing gear, super cool people, and always a fun time to explore their stock.
 
la szum said:
Also make sure and check out the Museum Of Pop Culture. So cool!
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Originally, MoPOP was called "Experience Music Project". I worked there from 1999 - 2004 as a software developer and technical program manager. I was there when many of the artifacts were being installed, and directly handled some of those incredible historic guitars! The grand opening party was epic. The place has been through some iterations... it was briefly "EMP and the Science Fiction Museum and Hall of Fame", and eventually became "The Museum of Popular Culture". When I have friends visiting Seattle, I sometimes take them on a curated tour of the museum. I could tell you some crazy stories about the artifacts (and how we acquired them), the building, and the great stuff that happened there over the years.
 
Sleestak said:
Originally, MoPOP was called "Experience Music Project". I worked there from 1999 - 2004 as a software developer and technical program manager. I was there when many of the artifacts were being installed, and directly handled some of those incredible historic guitars! The grand opening party was epic. The place has been through some iterations... it was briefly "EMP and the Science Fiction Museum and Hall of Fame", and eventually became "The Museum of Popular Culture". When I have friends visiting Seattle, I sometimes take them on a curated tour of the museum. I could tell you some crazy stories about the artifacts (and how we acquired them), the building, and the great stuff that happened there over the years.
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Is this the one that was originally connected to Hendrix, had a lot of his stuff? As I recall there was a bunch of haggling, about ownership, control, etc?

Is that curated tour still available? I'll be in Seattle visiting my daughter in September. She has health troubles, but she'd get a kick out if it if those issues allowed her to go, which is a day by day thing. I would too!
 
Dave Merrill said:
Is this the one that was originally connected to Hendrix, had a lot of his stuff? As I recall there was a bunch of haggling, about ownership, control, etc?

Is that curated tour still available? I'll be in Seattle visiting my daughter in September. She has health troubles, but she'd get a kick out if it if those issues allowed her to go, which is a day by day thing. I would too!
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Yes, it was originally going to be The Jimi Hendrix Museum. Paul Allen purchased "the westerner", a hat that Jimi owned, and he decided it would be great to open a Hendrix museum. The notion expanded as more artifacts were acquired, and the facility became known as "Experience Music Project". There are a lot of interesting Hendrix artifacts there, including the white Woodstock strat. There was indeed a lot of work in securing the rights to use images, and Paul Allen did a lot to ensure that the Hendrix estate regained control over his music rights.

In the guitar gallery, there are some really amazing instruments. Super rare vintage / prototypes and so on. The '58 Flying V on display is actually a 1957 prototype (!) that was supplied to the case designer in anticipation of the production run. It's in astonishingly good condition, and has a slightly different neck profile from the '58 production run. One of my favorite "holy relic" guitars is Hank Williams Sr's acoustic. Zowie. Clapton's "Brownie" is mighty inspiring too. When those guitars were being acquired, they'd arrive at the warehouse (before the building was completed), and we'd all stand around and gawk as they were unpacked. Magic times, those. At one point, we received a crate of KISS costumes from the Destroyer tour. My inner 12 year old was in awe. We had some incredible music events in the building too. I'll always count myself as fortunate to have been part of the planning, creating, and launching. I got to develop some creative tech, and be around smart mad musical scientists.

If I'm around, I'd be happy to show you around the museum. I have some gigs out of town next month, my schedule is a little unpredictable.
 
Sleestak said:
Originally, MoPOP was called "Experience Music Project". I worked there from 1999 - 2004 as a software developer and technical program manager. I was there when many of the artifacts were being installed, and directly handled some of those incredible historic guitars! The grand opening party was epic. The place has been through some iterations... it was briefly "EMP and the Science Fiction Museum and Hall of Fame", and eventually became "The Museum of Popular Culture". When I have friends visiting Seattle, I sometimes take them on a curated tour of the museum. I could tell you some crazy stories about the artifacts (and how we acquired them), the building, and the great stuff that happened there over the years.
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Very cool! Paul Allen still own it?

Seems like Robert Irsay Jr. is building a similar sort of thing in Indy.
 
la szum said:
Very cool! Paul Allen still own it?

Seems like Robert Irsay Jr. is building a similar sort of thing in Indy.
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Paul Allen passed away, but the museum still operates. It's always been a 501(c)3 nonprofit. He bankrolled the building, which was designed by Frank Gehry, as well as most of the initial artifacts. Paul was a good guy, and actually quite a decent blues guitarist. He loved music, sci fi, and all kinds of other cool nerdy stuff. You gotta dig it when a guy decides to buy Captain Kirk's chair, or Jimi's hat, just because it would be cool to have it around.
 
Sleestak said:
Yes, it was originally going to be The Jimi Hendrix Museum. Paul Allen purchased "the westerner", a hat that Jimi owned, and he decided it would be great to open a Hendrix museum. The notion expanded as more artifacts were acquired, and the facility became known as "Experience Music Project". There are a lot of interesting Hendrix artifacts there, including the white Woodstock strat. There was indeed a lot of work in securing the rights to use images, and Paul Allen did a lot to ensure that the Hendrix estate regained control over his music rights.

In the guitar gallery, there are some really amazing instruments. Super rare vintage / prototypes and so on. The '58 Flying V on display is actually a 1957 prototype (!) that was supplied to the case designer in anticipation of the production run. It's in astonishingly good condition, and has a slightly different neck profile from the '58 production run. One of my favorite "holy relic" guitars is Hank Williams Sr's acoustic. Zowie. Clapton's "Brownie" is mighty inspiring too. When those guitars were being acquired, they'd arrive at the warehouse (before the building was completed), and we'd all stand around and gawk as they were unpacked. Magic times, those. At one point, we received a crate of KISS costumes from the Destroyer tour. My inner 12 year old was in awe. We had some incredible music events in the building too. I'll always count myself as fortunate to have been part of the planning, creating, and launching. I got to develop some creative tech, and be around smart mad musical scientists.

If I'm around, I'd be happy to show you around the museum. I have some gigs out of town next month, my schedule is a little unpredictable.
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How is it for a person in a wheelchair, if you know? My daughter said she'd love to go if it's accessible. (It's still a toss-up of she'd be feeling good enough, but she and I appreciate the possible tour offer.)
 
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