Local Music Shops

redhedded1

redhedded1

Experienced
I have been over to the local music store where I worked in high school and the first couple years of college. The big brands: Fender, Larrivee, Taylor, Gibson, Martin, etc. will not even respond or talk to him. They only deal with Guitar Center/Musician's Friend, Sweetwater, big volume retailers. It is sad because he has been here in Peoria for 54 years in business. My boss is in his early eighties. Still fit and trim, moving around, constantly working, just a tad slower, but still excellent.

I took a Suhr JS Standard in to get a push-pull pot, and I had a schematic sent from Suhr directly to me from support several months ago. I didn't look at it closely, except to see the pickup configurations. I wanted to be like most Suhr Strat/SuperStrat types, to split the neck to single coil, etc. with the 5-way switch. A stellar tech saw it was not correct when he opened her up. He called Suhr and they were of course very cool, and sent him an updated schematic. He essentially re-wired a large portion.

It is sad that the smaller shops that helped get gear (esp. Fender in this case) into peoples hands for so many years, and build up relationships with customers, provide expert service like today, and have so much knowledge cannot be one of their dealers anymore.

Also gave me a job, direction, advice, and we had a lot of fun. Who takes the high school kid to the NAMM show and requires him at meetings like all these guys he just looks up to, wants to play six string like them, and just a great laid back but hard working team. I was just there a short time, but I learned how to be responsible and how to work hard and do an excellent job cleaning up amps, attention to detail, etc.

Not trying to be melancholy wishing for the past or anything, but it makes me sad. All the tech is great to help kids learning today, but who is going to run through all the classic rock and blues songs in a certain key with a similar chord progression and help you put it all together, support and praise you, and guide you with positivity. Not their phones.... at least not really authentically.
 

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Larry Ball said:
I have been over to the local music store where I worked in high school and the first couple years of college. The big brands: Fender, Larrivee, Taylor, Gibson, Martin, etc. will not even respond or talk to him. They only deal with Guitar Center/Musician's Friend, Sweetwater, big volume retailers. It is sad because he has been here in Peoria for 54 years in business. My boss is in his early eighties. Still fit and trim, moving around, constantly working, just a tad slower, but still excellent.

I took a Suhr JS Standard in to get a push-pull pot, and I had a schematic sent from Suhr directly to me from support several months ago. I didn't look at it closely, except to see the pickup configurations. I wanted to be like most Suhr Strat/SuperStrat types, to split the neck to single coil, etc. with the 5-way switch. A stellar tech saw it was not correct when he opened her up. He called Suhr and they were of course very cool, and sent him an updated schematic. He essentially re-wired a large portion.

It is sad that the smaller shops that helped get gear (esp. Fender in this case) into peoples hands for so many years, and build up relationships with customers, provide expert service like today, and have so much knowledge cannot be one of their dealers anymore.

Also gave me a job, direction, advice, and we had a lot of fun. Who takes the high school kid to the NAMM show and requires him at meetings like all these guys he just looks up to, wants to play six string like them, and just a great laid back but hard working team. I was just there a short time, but I learned how to be responsible and how to work hard and do an excellent job cleaning up amps, attention to detail, etc.

Not trying to be melancholy wishing for the past or anything, but it makes me sad. All the tech is great to help kids learning today, but who is going to run through all the classic rock and blues songs in a certain key with a similar chord progression and help you put it all together, support and praise you, and guide you with positivity. Not their phones.... at least not really authentically.
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Which Peoria? Illinois? Azirona?
 
Larry Ball said:
I have been over to the local music store where I worked in high school and the first couple years of college. The big brands: Fender, Larrivee, Taylor, Gibson, Martin, etc. will not even respond or talk to him. They only deal with Guitar Center/Musician's Friend, Sweetwater, big volume retailers. It is sad because he has been here in Peoria for 54 years in business. My boss is in his early eighties. Still fit and trim, moving around, constantly working, just a tad slower, but still excellent.

I took a Suhr JS Standard in to get a push-pull pot, and I had a schematic sent from Suhr directly to me from support several months ago. I didn't look at it closely, except to see the pickup configurations. I wanted to be like most Suhr Strat/SuperStrat types, to split the neck to single coil, etc. with the 5-way switch. A stellar tech saw it was not correct when he opened her up. He called Suhr and they were of course very cool, and sent him an updated schematic. He essentially re-wired a large portion.

It is sad that the smaller shops that helped get gear (esp. Fender in this case) into peoples hands for so many years, and build up relationships with customers, provide expert service like today, and have so much knowledge cannot be one of their dealers anymore.

Also gave me a job, direction, advice, and we had a lot of fun. Who takes the high school kid to the NAMM show and requires him at meetings like all these guys he just looks up to, wants to play six string like them, and just a great laid back but hard working team. I was just there a short time, but I learned how to be responsible and how to work hard and do an excellent job cleaning up amps, attention to detail, etc.

Not trying to be melancholy wishing for the past or anything, but it makes me sad. All the tech is great to help kids learning today, but who is going to run through all the classic rock and blues songs in a certain key with a similar chord progression and help you put it all together, support and praise you, and guide you with positivity. Not their phones.... at least not really authentically.
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It's been an unfortunate trend in all types of small/family businesses for quite a while now. Essentially it's Mom and Pop are closing shop. As you said, sad.
 
Unfortunately this is true also on this side of the world (Europe). Small shops are dying, left out from the main distribution since they can not grant to the major brand the same turnover as a big music store does. BUT sometimes the reason they are dying is that they werent0 able, in many years, to "evolve": how many time do you go in a shop with a question and nobody can help you out; so you go back home, search the web (with all the bad that can be in this) and then you go back (maybe) and do the purchase or (and this happens often) you just purchase online. I love when I found a small shop with a great know how built on many years. I spent my teen years in a local shop waiting to try new guitars (especially after NAMM show); during the years they start to have guitars on order and not available to try, so I start to visit bigger stores where gears were available. Unfortunately IMHO the major brands selling policies could be the reason of the "dying" of local and small shops but they didn't evolve ( trying to be a step ahead the major shops where you are just one of the customer while in the small one your are "the" customer.... I don't mind to pay more if I have a great customer service.
However, as many have already written, all this is sad for youngest people...
 
unix-guy said:
Local shop here has loads of Fender, PRS, Ibanez, Charvel, Gretch, Martin, Yamaha, etc...

I think some brands require a minimum "buy in"...
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Yeah you are probably right, he just doesn't do the volume with Guitar Center and another local in town. I know he carried Yamaha and Fender when I worked there. Also a lot of stuff you just can't find anywhere, band instrument stuff, keyboard, PA and then Boss, Hagstrom... Back in the day he was the biggest music store in town for working musicians, he still caters to them. Has a suite of studios for lessons... good quality teachers.

Might just be they won't deal the same way they used to, I don't know exactly what he meant. But he was right that the small shops service their products and helped them get to where they are in a lot of respects. At least with working musicians, if you had a good product, they would sell it... and honestly sell you what you needed or something that could actually do what you want. There is a lot of info out there now on the internet, but anyone with a camera and some basic production skills can be giving info about things they have not actually done themselves.

Just an observation, things change, the world changes.
 
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My local music store switched its focus years ago to music education as a key to staying in business. They have a small stage in the store for recitals. Most of what they sell is entry level gear for their students. They are the nicest people and I still use them for strings and other accessories as well as setups. As I’m older and like and can afford more high end guitars I’m not their market anymore. However I found out a few years ago the are a G&L dealer and I had them custom order a guitar for me. I got the Strat of my dreams and was able to support a local business.
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These folks are 5 minutes from my house, and they're great for what they are:
https://themusicemporium.com/

Years ago they had mostly accoustics, plus a few somewhat lame electric brands, which clearly weren't their thing.

These days they have a lot of mid and high end instruments and amps, new and used, electric and acoustic, and are Fender, Collings, b3, Huber, Magnatatone, Carr, Swart, and Milkman dealers, among others.

I used to not go there because they weren't great for electrics. Now I don't go much because a lot of what they have is way out of my price bracket, and I have to be real careful about that border inching over; see my recent NDG thread ;)

There are a surprising number of employees on the floor, and the ones I've talked to seem to know their stuff. Friendly, no hype.

Good store, glad they seem to be doing well, I know it's the exception for small local shops.
 
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Diego said:
BUT sometimes the reason they are dying is that they werent0 able, in many years, to "evolve"
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The shop I referred to above has stayed with the times. They have a Reverb shop with much of their inventory listed, they sell on Craigslist and probably other online sites.
 
unix-guy said:
The shop I referred to above has stayed with the times. They have a Reverb shop with much of their inventory listed, they sell on Craigslist and probably other online sites.
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Ok but I wasn't referring only to sales channels, I was referring to a "real" customer oriented approach; if I go to a shop to ask I presume I don't know the answer:
Q:"Has this guitar an ebony neck? and what are pros and cons with this?"
A:"well.... I have to check the online specs and I THINK that they are the same...."
 
Diego said:
Ok but I wasn't referring only to sales channels, I was referring to a "real" customer oriented approach; if I go to a shop to ask I presume I don't know the answer:
Q:"Has this guitar an ebony neck? and what are pros and cons with this?"
A:"well.... I have to check the online specs and I THINK that they are the same...."
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Ah, yeah, I got you.

The shop owner is also a working musician and all the "sales" people are musicians. They're very aware of the details, so that's great!
 
Lucky one!!! I had to visit you and this shop!!!
When I'm in LA i spent at least one afternoon at Norman's and even if I don0t buy anything when I got out I can say that I learned something new: all the guys are so well trained, musician and if they don't know something they don't give you a random answer but stop, ask to someone else or tell you that they will back in a few hour/day with the answer. Ok, maybe this is the top but I would love to have this kind of approach; I can not speak for the US but in Europe there are a very very very few place with this kind of approach and going back to what the OP wrote, this is sad.
Thomann in Europe has a great sales system, fast shipping, great money back conditions BUT if you want to know something more on an item you better look for yourself on the web...
 
The Walmarting of music stores. It's terrible. We've been dealing with the death of mom & pop shops of all kinds for decades now, lead by Walmart killing mom & pops in smaller towns, but it's a disease that's spread to encompass instruments too. I hate it. As for service, it seems like a random thing in my experience. I've always had my bullshit meter go off when salesmen start spouting their expertise in anything, in mom & pops and in chains. It's just like the internet, people love to self-aggrandize their own familiarity with any subject.

But at least with mom & pops you have the chance for quirky inventory, and maybe you'll be exposed to a place with character and soul, maybe a vision of how things should be. I lament homogenization in this and so many other realms.
 
State of Epicicity said:
The Walmarting of music stores. It's terrible. We've been dealing with the death of mom & pop shops of all kinds for decades now, lead by Walmart killing mom & pops in smaller towns, but it's a disease that's spread to encompass instruments too. I hate it. As for service, it seems like a random thing in my experience. I've always had my bullshit meter go off when salesmen start spouting their expertise in anything, in mom & pops and in chains. It's just like the internet, people love to self-aggrandize their own familiarity with any subject.

But at least with mom & pops you have the chance for quirky inventory, and maybe you'll be exposed to a place with character and soul, maybe a vision of how things should be. I lament homogenization in this and so many other realms.
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Another way I noticed "homogenization" was in researching and shopping for a good acoustic guitar: Martin, Larrivee, Taylor, Breedlove, etc. offer the same type of guitars. Their stock guitar offerings vary very little. Larrivee used to have flatter necks, now they are similar to Martin necks, and initially had more unique offerings. They didn't offer the same guitar styles as Martin, but now they do because people asked for them. Taylor has gotten huge since I remember even hearing about them or seeing their guitars anywhere.
 
There are only one or two local music shops in our valley, and they are either entry-level Fenders, Ibanez, or perhaps Yamaha on a good day. The larger stores are in either the metro or highway corridor locations (GC, Sam Ash) where the access and draw is greater/easier. There used to be a medium-sized franchise just east/northeast of us, but I think they've closed shop and consolidated their business to their home base in MA.

GC was the only place the bigger ticket items ever were in stock, and only one place in Groton, CT ever stocked production model PRS. The Groton shop is also now closed.

There are several additional retailers with an online presence towards southwestern CT (Brian's Guitars, Analog.Man, etc), though the drive is too much in unfamiliar territory, so it's more or less necessary to conduct business online, instead of being able to examine merchandise first-hand.

The mindset is that you need to do your research before considering a purchase and know what to expect so there aren't any surprises. Many times I've personally bought something after researching it fully and discovering later that reviewers naysayed the item because of whatever issue. Rather than deal with potential repairs, the item was returned/refunded and money credited for a more reliable purchase.

The critics have their own agenda, but it is a sorry state that local Mom & Pop stores are being relegated to entry-level music shops, with repair service as part of their core structure. Not that they're great for small ticket items like strings, cables, sheet music...you just won't find a PRS Wood Library, Martin D35 or Taylor 812ce on the Mom & Pop music store walls.
 
I guess this is a good thread to list good mom & pop shops: I really love FlipSide Music here in Denver. They have very cool inventory, the staff is approachable, not elitist, friendly, and helpful, and the owner is a very cool guy who just loves gear. Plus, it's the most insane pedal inventory I've ever seen, like, for any pedal person, it's heaven. They're a Vola dealer too, which is a cool thing.
 
State of Epicicity said:
The Walmarting of music stores. It's terrible. We've been dealing with the death of mom & pop shops of all kinds for decades now, lead by Walmart killing mom & pops in smaller towns, but it's a disease that's spread to encompass instruments too. I hate it. As for service, it seems like a random thing in my experience. I've always had my bullshit meter go off when salesmen start spouting their expertise in anything, in mom & pops and in chains. It's just like the internet, people love to self-aggrandize their own familiarity with any subject.

But at least with mom & pops you have the chance for quirky inventory, and maybe you'll be exposed to a place with character and soul, maybe a vision of how things should be. I lament homogenization in this and so many other realms.
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Welcome to Teh United States of Generica. "It's popular in <insert other city here>, so let's shove it down everyone's throat and make tons of $$$$$$$!" Yay capitalism! The Stupid Bowl XXX dumped a ton of $$$ into Tempe, AZ, and killed its soul. The last remaining bit of its soul, Elvis Del Monte, died in '99. The place is dead to me since then. I can count the number of times I have shopped or eaten there since on one hand with plenty of fingers left over....
 
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