Guitar dealers in Wyoming =0

[Deliberate1]

My home state of Maine is a whole lot smaller than Wy, but equally bereft of quality guitar stores. Though I am proud that Dana Bourgeois and Laurent Brondel send some of the best made guitars to the rest of the world from here. Today, I am making the 11 hour ride to Boston for a dentist appointment. I call that the perfect excuse to stop at Dana’s shop to leave my new to me Slope D 12 fret for a set-up. Next on the itinerary is a long stop at the Music Emporium outside of Boston. I am new to guitars, though been semi pro jazz woodwinds player for decades. Funny but in all that time, I have never lusted after a sax or clarinet the way I do guitars, in the barely eight months since I took it up. I just celebrated my 50th anniversary with the clarinet I got when I was 13 - my only clarinet. Have had my tenor and alto sax for nearly as long. Is it some sort of addictive fairy dust they put in the guitar finish that makes these boxes so irresistible? Anyways, I could not be more excited about a trip to the dentist as I am right now.
David

[LJOHNS]

Everything is a far drive in WY. I have visited there several times and would move there tomorrow if my family would go. If you like the outdoors and mountains it is an amazing place. I am not sure I would want to spend winter there however. I think Austin, TX for the winter would be about right!

[oldwasichu]

Relocating to Buffalo, WY in about 3 years when the wife retires. Can't wait. I think I have enough guitars that I can open my own shop.

[CodyToonz]

You'll love Buffalo. One of the top ranked retirement cities. Gets a bit crowded during Longmire Days. Nice to see another Taylor GC aficionado.

[jim1960]

Originally Posted by CodyToonz

Hard to believe.

It's not hard to believe at all. Wyoming has a population of under 600K and it's largest city only has around 64k residents. If your dream was to run a successful music store, would you pick a place with so few potential customers?

[Humbuster]

Originally Posted by KenL

Look at it this way- you're closer to Wildwood Guitars in Louisville, CO than 95% of the rest of the people in the USA!

32 year resident of Fort Collins. Wife retires in 2020 and giving serious though to leaving "the big city" and relocation to Sheridan or Buffalo.

Time will tell.

[Charmed Life Picks]

Originally Posted by Brucebubs

Just googled Wyoming.
Think I might have found why ....

The state population was estimated at 577,737 in 2018, which is less than 31 of the most populous U.S. cities including Denver in neighboring Colorado. Cheyenne is the state capital and the most populous city, with an estimated population of 63,624 in 2017.

I think I'd like it!

Bruce, hiya. I believe Wyoming is still the least populated state in the lower 48, maybe of all 50. Lots of wide open spaces.

My brother has lived in Jackson for over forty years. Beautiful, but so bitterly cold in the winter. To quote Groucho Marx: "It's God's country -- and he can have it."

sm

[ljguitar]

Originally Posted by mcduffnw

Man...that is a real shame.

You would think that Jackson...or Jackson Hole, which do Wyoming residents prefer to call it?...would be an ideal place for a Gryphon, or TME, or Mass Street Music type of really nice store.

Hi Duff

Jackson Hole is a tourist town of 10,000 people. Locals work (for the most part) for the tourist industry. I'd never try to start a guitar store in a town of only 10,000 people.

[ljguitar]

Originally Posted by Charmed Life Picks

Bruce, hiya. I believe Wyoming is still the least populated state in the lower 48, maybe of all 50. Lots of wide open spaces.

Hi CLP
Not only least populated, our population goes up/down depending on coal and oil industry. I've seen current estimates of around 450,000 for the state. But even if it were 1,000,000 we'd still have more land per capita than anywhere else. And accompanying the wide-open-spaces are mostly Blue Skies.

We have about 250 days of sunshine a year in Wyoming. And the other 115 days are partly cloudy (which means we often have sun all day and clouds/storms over supper).

It's 54°F today in Cheyenne (Christmas Eve-Eve) and projected to be 43°F with sunny skies on Christmas Day. We've had a couple snow storms already where kids got snow days from school. But so have most states around us in every direction…

The 'bitter' Western states for winter are North/South Dakota and Minnesota…far worse than Wyoming. The thing about our winters is they tend to be long (mid-October to late-May).

If sportsmen can travel hundreds of miles to hunt game and fish, then guitarists can drive hundreds of miles to hunt guitars and amps (and we do).

[Charmed Life Picks]

Originally Posted by ljguitar

Hi CLP
Not only least populated, our population goes up/down depending on coal and oil industry. I've seen current estimates of around 450,000 for the state. But even if it were 1,000,000 we'd still have more land per capita than anywhere else. And accompanying the wide-open-spaces are mostly Blue Skies.

We have about 250 days of sunshine a year in Wyoming. And the other 115 days are partly cloudy (which means we often have sun all day and clouds/storms over supper).

It's 54°F today in Cheyenne (Christmas Eve-Eve) and projected to be 43°F with sunny skies on Christmas Day. We've had a couple snow storms already where kids got snow days from school. But so have most states around us in every direction…

The 'bitter' Western states for winter are North/South Dakota and Minnesota…far worse than Wyoming. The thing about our winters is they tend to be long (mid-October to late-May).

If sportsmen can travel hundreds of miles to hunt game and fish, then guitarists can drive hundreds of miles to hunt guitars and amps (and we do).f

Larry, I'm sure you're about Minnesota and the Dakotas, although I just looked at Jackson and the next three days are highs of 7, 2 and 1. Just brutal. Please correct me if I'm wrong, but that looks like about 30-40 colder than Cheyenne on the same day. Is that typical?

I have heard (but not researched) that the way the mountains are lined up from Jackson all the way into Canada kinda funnels that cold arctic are down.

Appreciate you coming in, Larry, and offering corrections to my misunderstandings of your beautiful state. I used to always go to Jackson in Sept, after all the tourists were gone, those gorgeous Indian Summer days, and great fly-fishing.

And yes, I know about the feast and famine of the fossil fuel industry up there.

Thanks for your post.

scott

[ljguitar]

Originally Posted by Charmed Life Picks

Larry…that looks like about 30-40 colder than Cheyenne on the same day. Is that typical?

Hi CLP

Yup…We are at the same elevation as Jackson Hole, but it's about 300 miles further West, and about 250 miles north, and the city itself is surrounded by Mountains.

It's beautiful country, but represents a pretty small percentage of our state. It's in an area where often smaller highways are closed all winter because they get 10-20 feet of snow built up which never thaws till June or July. Vacations are wonderful there in the summer.

The Teton Mountains are staggeringly beautiful and being that close to a city causes drastic climate fluctuation.

[Billy Reams]

I can relate to the solitude described by several in this post. I live in small town Montana, on a dirt road, about two hours from Bozeman (commonly called Bozangeles by locals in that town). I LOVE Montana and Wyoming too, especially the Wyoming area near Pinedale, Gros Ventre and up around Jackson Hole. Beautiful! One note to consider for those making a drive and considering a purchase ....... there's NO SALES TAX in Montana. If you buy from a retailer, you can save anywhere from 5 - 8% over the cost of a guitar in surrounding states. There's a particularly good music store with popular name brand stock in Bozeman. The store is Music Villa and no, I have no affiliation or connection there. But they've always treated me fair, been helpful and I've found their employees to be very customer service oriented. Their prices are competitive too - like I said, no sales tax from in store purchases. Don't know much about the Billings area stores but Bozeman is worth visiting and the store I mentioned is well stocked and worth a visit for those coming through. Just FYI.

[sonic romp]

I lived in Jackson from 1999-2008, then in Laramie from 2008-2011. In Jackson, I bought & sold personal vintage guitars stateside, Puerto Rico, Japan, Taiwan...just had to troll with a deeper net.

[zmf]

Originally Posted by ljguitar

And accompanying the wide-open-spaces are mostly Blue Skies.

It's what we lovingly refer to as "The Big Empty". Someone needs to write a song about it.

It's also been described as "one step above sensory deprivation".

Take your pick.

One large challenge is to drive your camper forever to the middle of nowhere, get a fire going, pull out your guitar, and try to strum something that doesn't sound ridiculously small when confronted with infinity.

[Brucebubs]

Originally Posted by zmf

One large challenge is to drive your camper forever to the middle of nowhere, get a fire going, pull out your guitar, and try to strum something that doesn't sound ridiculously small when confronted with infinity.

Now we all know why they made these,