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#1
08-01-2015, 07:33 PM
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The Death of NYC's Music Row
It is a sad day for anyone that knew the heyday of this area.
http://nypost.com/2015/08/01/nycs-fa...-a-ghost-town/
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2011 Gibson J-45 Standard 
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#2
08-01-2015, 08:30 PM
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So sad. Rudy's was a special place for sure. The Soho shop is cool, but there was just something about that music row store that made you physically aware of the history in that place.
-Mike
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For sale: Mint Condition Guild D125-12 All Mahogany 12 string 2009 Martin 000-18 Golden Era 1937
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#3
08-01-2015, 08:37 PM
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We stayed in the Doubletree two short blocks away in May, and I could see the "Bass Shop" sign from the window in our high-up room. I had zero time -- otherwise I would have at least walked over.
But it's not unexpected. The neighborhood is a sensory overload of tourism, lights, and noise, (and implied cost) and even more so at night.
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#4
08-01-2015, 08:45 PM
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It's happening all over, and it's not about high rents or too many tourists. Simply put, the Internet caught most manufacturers off guard, but there is hope yet for real guitar stores, even new music rows perhaps.
Last edited by Ted @ LA Guitar Sales; 08-01-2015 at 11:33 PM. Reason: Felt like editing
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#5
08-01-2015, 09:41 PM
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I lived in New York City for a summer eight years ago and didn't have a guitar with me. So I would visit the shops on 48th Street as often as possible, playing just enough to stay fresh.
I remember happening to visit one of the shops on a night Jean Larrivee was giving a presentation -- that was pretty cool, even though I didn't win the raffle for the guitar he was giving away. The best electric guitar I've ever played was at Rudy's -- a humble 69 thinline Telecaster reissue that just sounded like butter through the Deluxe Reverb. I'd have bought both on the spot if I weren't making just enough money to eat and hadn't lost a couple grand to a dishonest landlord. I have heard great things about the Soho Rudy's shop, but the original was a NYC landmark and a personal favorite guitar shop of mine. Too bad.
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#6
08-01-2015, 10:01 PM
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A sad day indeed - I'm just old enough to remember the last of the real glory days...
I had my first direct exposure to Music Row in late 1963, when my dad and I began shopping around for my first electric guitar. What many players have either forgotten or didn't realize is that a number of the long-defunct smaller operations - where the first-call guys went to get the ultra-primo stuff the rest of us would never see, at prices we'd never pay (more on which later) - had a strict "trade only" policy, and unless you could show an A.F. of M. membership or business card (my father had one of the latter thanks to a co-worker who played the local club scene on weekends) they might not even buzz you in the door; while Manny's anchored the block - Sam Ash wasn't even a presence until the late-60's - there were smaller retail operations along the entire length of the street as well as repair shops, recording studios, teaching studios, and talent agencies (my mother was a receptionist at one of the latter during her high-school years), spilling over to the adjacent blocks as well as across Broadway and 7th Avenue... For those knowledgeable (but unconnected) NYC players who didn't need/couldn't afford the top-shelf gear, the real bargains were to be had elsewhere - either downtown on Park Row (at Silver & Horland or Harry Newcorn), or at then mom-&-pop Sam Ash in Brooklyn (Mama Ash still worked the cash register well into my twenties) - and it was arguably Sam Ash who broke the unwritten policy of "40% off for the working pros, 30% for the teachers, full list for everyone else" that flourished at the time. Ironically, it would be the same forces of mega-buck redevelopment that drove out the Park Row operations - Silver & Horland would relocate twice and eventually would up on 48th Street before closing altogether in the early-80's, and Harry Newcorn spent his last years working at Sam Ash (to whom he was able to bring his remaining customer base - smart move on their part) - that would, eventually and inexorably, put an end to Music Row. Truth be told, it was a long time in coming - the handwriting was on the wall 30 years ago as the smaller stores began to fold, either to be replaced by the ubiquitous Times Square knick-knack/souvenir shops or absorbed by the ever-expanding Sam Ash; when Manny's sold out in 1999, I saw it as a matter of not if, but when. While Rudy's and Alex Music (once a far larger full-line retail operation, BTW) toughed it out as long as possible I'm sure they both knew it was a losing proposition, particularly vis-a-vis the massive GC right on their doorstep; Godspeed, gentlemen, best wishes for success - and another iconic piece of New York history bites the dust...
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"Mistaking silence for weakness and contempt for fear is the final, fatal error of a fool" - Sicilian proverb (paraphrased)
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#7
08-01-2015, 10:33 PM
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I am not sure this means much to any but those of us who haunted those shops in the 1960s. They were as much a part of a musical coming of age as seeing Dave Van Ronk at the Bitter End or the after show jam with Clapton sitting in with Wilson Pickett's band at the Murray the K Easter Show. That step down into the guitar area at Manny's and drooling over the Vox Super Beatle amps as they came up on the freight elevators near the front of the store, literally bumping into Steve Stills walking out of Dan Armstrong's repair shop. This is stuff that fueled us.
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"You start off playing guitars to get girls & end up talking with middle-aged men about your fingernails" - Ed Gerhard
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#8
08-02-2015, 04:18 AM
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Thank God Mandolin Bros is still hanging in there.
NYC used to be a colorful, interesting and authentic place. Now, it is just becoming a homogenous mush of whitewashed corporate blah.
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Martin D41 (2004) with chrome Waverly tuners Martin 000-28EC Martin CEO-7 Basic Fender mandolin Kalii concert uke, mahogany
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#9
08-02-2015, 04:28 AM
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Quote:
I had a conversation with a shopkeeper in Tin Pan Alley, who said a similar thing was happening there with rents rising by the day and the property developers circling like vultures.
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#10
08-02-2015, 08:59 AM
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Quote:
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#11
08-02-2015, 09:09 AM
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In late 1966 my band went down to 48th Street with the intention of replacing our Dearmond pickup fired acoustics with electrics. The other guitar player walked out with a brand new Strat. The bass player and myself being less well heeled did not fare as well. He snagged a used Hagstrom bass while I ended up with a used Dan Electro.
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"You start off playing guitars to get girls & end up talking with middle-aged men about your fingernails" - Ed Gerhard
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#12
08-02-2015, 11:52 AM
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It's been going down hill since the 1990s. I used to take the R train into the city with my buddies when I was fourteen, and spend the day on that street. It was 1980 I think?
In the late 1990s I was doing well at work, and I had guys I managed (Wall Street) who were closet musicians like me... I gave them their bonus checks inside guitars I bought at Mannys... I think they have been going down since. Maybe I jinxed the mojo with Wall Street touchings...
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i got tired of updating my guitars.
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#13
08-02-2015, 01:23 PM
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Steve Maxwells drum shop is there, entrance on 7th Av. He took over Rudy's 4th floor amp room as well. Most awesome drum shop in the world! Rudy will do fine in SOHO.
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Bourgeois, Collings, R Taylor, Santa Cruz
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#14
08-02-2015, 01:44 PM
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Just about 10 years ago, I worked right around the corner from there and would drop by Sam Ash and play the drums, stroll through Manny's and look at the Wall of Fame... The whole block was bustling with starving artists and aspiring musicians. I just went there a few weeks ago. The signage is still up at Manny's. The various Sam Ash shops are empty along with Manny's. The only other thing there was Rudy's, which I dropped by one last time before it closed. It looks like a ghost town now. An older guy was taking pictures of Manny's, and I also stopped and snapped a few shots. He looked at me and we exchanged an knowing glance. Sad...
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#15
08-02-2015, 01:55 PM
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To those of us with memories there it is a sad thing. My company had a studio in the Brill Building before it became too expensive. Of course, 48th Street Music Row was only a block down and a block over if you needed strings. I bought things at Sam Ash back in the '70s and visited the row whenever I was staying nearby in Times Square or down the Avenue of the Americas.
But the problem is far larger: property rates in the major metro areas have increased to the point where major studios and music industry and broadcast support concerns are being sold to make way for housing or businesses. In Manhattan, A&M Studios, Sony Studios, and the Record Plant are all now upscale housing. Howard Schwartz Recording was priced out of the Gray Bar building. The same happened all over Hollywood and L.A. Sadly, retail is just the more visible tip of the iceberg. Bob
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"It is said, 'Go not to the elves for counsel for they will say both no and yes.' " Frodo Baggins to Gildor Inglorion, The Fellowship of the Ring THE MUSICIAN'S ROOM (my website)
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