Ditch the big box at Go Go Guitars

PHOTO by RALPH PALUMBO

It’s funny: the thing that finally soured me on mega-music retailer Guitar Center wasn’t the know-nothing salespeople or the mass-produced, overpriced merchandise. It wasn’t even the omnipresent teenagers, emboldened by a night of “Guitar Hero III” ecstasy, butchering some riff from some Every Time I Die (or is it As I Lay Dying?) song at full blast.

No, in the end, it was cured meat that did it.

On a recent trip to the music retailer, I was greeted outside by pimply faced staffers serving up free hot dogs. Sadly, it took a schlocky car dealership gimmick for me to realize all that is wrong with the big-box instrument shopping experience.

Thankfully, there’s an alternative: Naples music shop Go Go Guitars, a real musician’s haven that gets it right.

Step into the Second Street store a few doors down from Morry’s (just look for the cool neon sign) and the difference is immediately apparent. Affable co-owners Chuck Compton and Paul Ulino have constructed a space with the style of a chic clothing boutique—minus the pretense (and the clothing)—and the selection of your coolest musician friend’s practice room. “We basically don’t put anything out here that we don’t like,” says Compton. “Here, it’s just me and Paul selling stuff that we dig.”

That includes new and used guitars and basses ranging from $99 starter axes to $5,000 vintage prizes like a 1964 Gretsch Tennessean—all hung neatly like artwork on the brick-red walls. Beneath them, a row of high-end tube amplifiers from the likes of Bogner, Carr, Kustom, and Blankenship lines the hardwood laminate floors. Motorcycle-inspired stools (Costco, baby!) and exposed silver ductwork complete a look that is part nightclub, part hot rod garage.

Before setting up shop in Long Beach in April 2006, Ulino and Compton spent a combined 30 years on New York’s “Music Row,” a Midtown Manhattan block lined with legendary music shops—places where the regulars were guys with names like Clapton and Page. After years hawking big-ticket items to big-name customers, Compton and Ulino decided to concentrate on selling great gear from smaller companies. “There’s enough people making stuff—cool stuff—that I don’t need to carry this big brand that everybody’s got,” says Compton.

So they carry mid-priced guitars from Huntington Beach-based Lace, and affordable vintage reproductions from Eastwood Guitars. There are quirky hand-built effects pedals with sounds as colorful as their names (Total Sonic Annihilation!), accessories like vegan guitar straps and high-end cables, and an ever-changing selection of used gear. “We never know what the hell is going to walk in the door next,” says Ulino. Like a hand-wired 18-watt Marshall head, or a left-handed Rick Turner Model 1 guitar (made popular by Fleetwood Mac’s Lindsey Buckingham).

Another thing Go Go has that the chains don’t is “the vault”—a totally soundproofed isolation room for testing gear at full blast in full privacy. “The door by itself cost three grand,” says Ulino. “We got it from a place that makes doors for the Pentagon.”

When you’re ready to buy, ask for another specialty: the “wife receipt.” “Basically, if someone comes in and wants to buy a certain guitar or amp but they’re afraid of what their wife might say, we make a special receipt out for much less than they actually spent,” says Ulino.

Go Go Guitars is a full-service shop. They offer everything from strings and basic setups to guitar and amp repairs—and gift certificates!—to private guitar, bass and piano lessons from talented local multi-instrumentalist Jeremy Long. Still, they know they can’t really go head-to-head with giants like Guitar Center. “That would be impossible,” admits Ulino.

Maybe there are still reasons to visit the big-box stores. Like free hot dogs.

GO GO GUITARS 5752 E SECOND ST | LONG BEACH 90803 | 562.434.1300 | GOGOGUITARS.COM

Tags: go go guitars, Long Beach, Music, second street