Small Business owners - Guitar Shop

dirtydeeds22 · Post by **dirtydeeds22** » Sun Jan 23, 2005 1:15 pm

So after reading Gnugears bummer post about being laid off I was thinking about my job. I'm so tired of working for someone and I'd like to have my own business some day and was thinking about a guitar shop/Music store

. The problem is that I really know nothing about running a business and with 2 little kids it seems so risky, but that nagging feeling that you gotta do something is going strong. I really think it would work. Here is the situation.
I live in a ski/resort town (8,000-9,000 with 12,000 in the county) . Lots and lots of money is here and continually coming here. We have a average music scene, live music every night with 2 -3 music festivals a year. 3 highschools in the county that rent band equipment from a town 90 miles away. There is only a pawn shop and a small stringed instrument shop in the whole county. Both places only carry shitty gear. Cheap acoustics and electrics, solid state or the typical fender amps (hot-rod deluxes etc...) The gear at the pawn shop is totally overpriced. If you want to get anything good, the average musician has to either get it off the net, or make a 3 hour drive to Denver or Grand Junction.
So I was thinking I'd start a Guitar Shop/Music store and carry quality instruments, not necessarily vintage, but good quality and give the folks around this area some better choices. Try to get a instrument rental program and also have lessons. I have thought instrument repair would be a good thing to offer as well.
Have any of you guys ever done anything like this? Start up a small business or small guitar shop? I'd appreciate some feedback and or suggestions about things to look into, or look out for. Good resources to contact. Necrovore has posted links to people he knows that have shops. Maybe I could contact them. I guess I really don't know quite where to start and thought I'd tap this resource for some insight.

Thanks
Jeff

Necrovore · Post by **Necrovore** » Sun Jan 23, 2005 1:40 pm

Both the people I know that own shops, My cousin and a college friend started out dealing exclusively with vintage gear. Jason the guy who owns Spacetone deals with more lower end to upper mid level stuff and just opened his large store, and carries as his main new amp line Orange. Otherwise the rest of the amps are used. He carries Dan Electro stuff as well as Daisey Rock as his new guitar lines, the rest is used. Other than that he sells vintage drum stuff, but I think his main selling points are small consumables and pedals. Small consumables I mean like strings picks etc...
He does do small repair stuff but has no amp tech. He subs this out to a guy who is like asking God for a personal favor. Meaning its nearly impossible to get a hold of the guy and he takes forever.

Now Bill on the other hand is a cork sniffing vintage dealer. Im talking Bill is the kind of guy who goes to a guitar show with $100k cash hoping he can score a holy grail. He has bought and sold at least 3-4 holy grail Lesters as well as Strats to serious collectors. Mostly to Japanese collectors who think nothing of paying $50k+ for a vinatge instrument. Bill has pickups hand wound using NOS wire using custom bobbins to replace vintage gear if something is broken so it fits specs exactly. He even has small stuf like screws made if he has none and the part is needed. Really anal cork sniffing stuff. More of a museum piece dealer than anything.
Bill's main gig is tech work though. He makes more money from doing repairs on guitars and refins.

I think for what you are proposing would be to start up a repair shop out of your garage. Advertise at the pawn shop and the stringed instrument shop, and especially the live music venues. Gather a customer base and build from there. Start carrying small stuff like strings and picks/cables, etc... This way you start to have customers coming to you for quick buy items besides the repair work. then you can implement a consignment type program for those who want to get rid of older equipment. You can also start aquiring used gear to sell locally.

Start small and take baby steps. In this business its easy to get bogged down with too much gear to sell and no income coming in then you go under. Seen it happen to quite a few people here locally. They have good ideas and good product but no plan except that they have specialty items like this one shop that only carried Orange amps and BC Rich guitars and that was it. This shop lasted about 4 months. They offered nothing but those items, no repair work, they couldnt even set up any of the new guitars they had for sale.

See where I'm coming from?

dirtydeeds22 · Post by **dirtydeeds22** » Sun Jan 23, 2005 2:05 pm

You're the 2nd person whe recomended the garage shop/repair thing. I probably could do some of the work, but have to sub out anything that was big. I don't know of any luthiers up here either. I was also thinking of doing the string/ picks small items thing, and buy and sell mid priced guitars out of my house and ebay. Can you get business loans to cover this kind of enterprise? It'd be a totally part time home based thing. I do like the low overhead thing. Keep costs low.
Thanks for the words of advise
Jeff

Necrovore · Post by **Necrovore** » Sun Jan 23, 2005 7:29 pm

You could get a small business loan only if you have a completely solid business plan down on paper. Trust me I've tried, and not for a small music shop. As far as luthery type work, what are you unable to do? The biggest jobs that repairmen do out of a music shop are headstock repairs, refrets, and refinishes. The latter is best subbed out unless its a small repair refinish. It costs way to much to have a good spray booth that provides good clean air circulation.

Can you do basic setups on guitars? I'm talking being able to recrown frets, adjust string height at the nut, set intonation on a floyd? Those three jobs would constitute your biggest money makers as those are th most common "hard jobs" that you would run into.

How good is your electronic tech work? You would run into that as well. I'm not talking just ampwork either. Do you know anything about working on a broken keyboard? I'm not trying to dampen your interest in this I just want you to realize what you might be up against.

I think starting the small repair thing out of your garage until you get too much work to keep it there is the best bet. If you dont understand how to do something like fretwork there are always great forums online as well as online stores that sell books and stuff dealing with information like that.

Here are a few sources that I know off the top of my head.
Moser Shredderite board: mcs.acidpit.org
Project Guitar http://www.projectguitar.com
MIMF forum http://www.mimf.com
Stewart McDonald http://www.stewmac.com

Stew Mac sells books and parts. MIMF is more of a hardcore luthery website, very very good info there though. Project guitar is a DIY luthery site. Much larger than MIMf but not as well organized. The Shredderite board is one that is from the Moser Custom Shop guitars site. The Brotherhood of wood forum is the best section on that forum. Neal Moser has been building guitars and tech work for over 30 years. He answers your emails and pm's as well as posts very quickly, usually in less than 24 hours. Neal Moser was the designer of the original BC Rich Rich Bich.

Have a go at it, the worst you could do was fail and then you just pick yourself up again and keep marching.

Flames1950 · Post by **Flames1950** » Sun Jan 23, 2005 9:24 pm

It would be sweet to get away from working under someone else's thumb wouldn't it?
I've toyed with the idea of building custom amps based on Marshall and Fender stuff. But I'm kinda like you, I've got a seven-month old boy and a wife in college and the idea of venturing into the unknown is frightening to say the least!! Plus I can't help but feel I owe enough money as it is without any more debt to get up and running.
Maybe some day down the road, though......

myker · Post by **myker** » Sun Jan 23, 2005 11:34 pm

the american dream.
i think alot of us share your goal, jeff. i have a friend that quit his job armed with nothing more than a credit card with a 10k$ limit and a cool idea. within two years he was very well off running multiple skateboard/snowboard shops around southern california. but i know many more, like myself, who have tried and tried again with no success at all, even through bankruptcy and bad reputations. but like necro said i just keep on marching. i save my money then i try again. i have lost everything on two seperate occasions and had to start over. i have a wife and two kids. i currently run a division of someone elses business that is very profitable, but ironically i havent been able to make it on my own yet

. the bottom line is that you aren't gonna die from trying your idea and neither is your family, so if you feel it get your feet wet and get involved and get out there. there is always more to it then you originally thought, and plenty of things to come along and smack you in the face. its how you adapt to these things. or you could start the safe way and test the waters a bit like necro suggested (which i recommend). build a reputation for yourself. maybe buy broken guitars and amps off of ebay for cheap, fix em' up and sell them locally. keep the overhead low while you gain experience...oh yeah, and did i mention to keep the overhead low?
mike

dirtydeeds22 · Post by **dirtydeeds22** » Mon Jan 24, 2005 9:41 am

Thanks so much for the words of advice. My thought has been that, shit I love playing guitars so much and spend so much money and time with everything related to them that having a guitar shop would be a great way to make a living, but pulling the trigger on the idea has been the hardest thing. So all your words of advise is definitely inspiring to move forward.
I talked to my wife and I think I'm going to start with buying broken or used instruments and practice my repair work. I can do setups, though I've never tried crowning of frets, but there is so many resources out there that I'm sure I could be directed in the right direction. Electronics work might be somewhat of a challenge, but I already do everything for myself anyway, so again I'll figure it out. I'm planning on running a add in the local paper to buy used or broken instruments and start from there. Ebay or selling locally is the plan. I think that way costs will be down and I can get valuable experience fixing and doing setups. Thanks again for the words of encouragement.

Jeff

Flames1950 · Post by **Flames1950** » Mon Jan 24, 2005 9:55 am

Crowning your own frets isn't so bad if you don't take the file to them right off the bat.
My favorite tool for leveling frets is a long sanding board made for automotive bodywork and about 600 grit wet-or-dry sandpaper. With the neck straight, the 600 grit levels things off without going too far too fast like a file can.
I usually use a homemade block of wood with a round "notch" filed in it and the same 600 grit sandpaper to form the crown. Again, it won't remove too much too fast, and the 600 grit leaves a surface that's easier to polish. Go over everything again with 1500-2000 grit and polish with steel wool to finish. Only once have I taken a guitar in for a grind and polish.