This past Saturday I drove down to the official launch of the new headquarters of The North American Guitar. Apart from a severe dent in my wallet (more later) it was a very enjoyable day with Stuart Ryan demonstrating guitars and playing a sublime afternoon set on his own Ryan Gerber guitar and another from Turnstone. Both guitars were outstanding and tempting. (so were a lot more!!!)
http://www.gerberguitars.com https://www.turnstoneguitar.co.uk
I've bought and sold a few guitars through TNAG in the past but getting to their previous location in central London was a nightmare, driving being almost impossible and travelling by train allowing only one or, at the most, two guitars to be carried at a time. Now they are just a few miles off the M1 so it's motorway almost all the 200 miles from home.
It's good to see a music store doing well because a lot of my favourite stores have closed down in the past few years on both sides of the pond. These include Mandolin Brothers, Hill Country Guitars and literally right now, unbelievably and very sadly, Ivor Mairants are shutting up shop after 61 years. Bought my first Shubb capo from them in the early 80s and numerous instruments, amps and equipment over the years. History lost solely because a lease expired, its awful!
Several months ago I watched a TNAG video of Stuart Ryan playing a great version of Bill Withers' Lean on Me on a Brazilian Froggy Bottom H-12 and GAS hit me more severely than usual. Asking Stuart to play the song in person was part of the reason for heading down. Fortunately the guitar itself had sold before I got a chance to play it. However, very unfortunately, it reappeared last week. Oh dear, my day out ended up somewhat expensive but the guitar
is jaw droppingly wonderful. Judge for yourself:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tFVcpYXWMWM