APRIL 2009, GBASE DEALER of the MONTH – RETRO MUSIC – KEENE, NH

Hard to find a cooler spot than Retro Music, located in the quintessential New England college town of Keene, New Hampshire (home to the Keene State Owls). Jeff packs in lots of cool gear and guitars in a tight space but that doesn’t seem to slow the steady-stream of visitors that come by to oogle the oddly interesting selection of instruments, amps and other goodies. We stopped in for a quick chat with Jeff recently….

GBASE: Jeff, give us a little history on Retro Music and how you started your very cool shop in Keene, New Hampshire.

RETRO: I was always was a gear-hound back in my playing days, and ended up working in a music store in Vermont. In 1988, I left there, and opened up Retro Music.  In the early days, we used to sell used music-related EVERYTHING. Instruments of all kinds, PA’s, stereos, records and CDs, but as the years went on, we’ve gradually stopped selling everything but guitars, and things related to them. We used to sell a ton of Vintage gear, but as the prices started getting goofy, and the fun went out of it, we started focusing more on more affordable “player’s guitars”. We dabbled with some new lines for awhile, but being a small shop, we really couldn’t be competitive on pricing and still stay in business, so we went back to selling just used guitars. We still see some vintage pieces, but our primary focus is now on used. Most of what we sell these days range from $100-$2500. Lots of trading, and we have a pretty high turnover of guitars-you never know what’s going to walk in the door!

Gbase: Is this your first and only location or were you someplace else before this?

Retro: The Keene store was our first location. Back in the early 90’s, we opened up a second store in Northampton, MA., but only kept it open for around 2 years. At it’s best, it did as well as the New Hampshire store, but should have done five times the business we did here in NH, plus it was a long drive, so we closed it, and consolidated back here. One of my customers took it over from us, and ran his shop there for 15 years, but just closed last fall.

Gbase: You have quite an eclectic mix of instruments. Do does your store focus on anything in particular (for instance, are you a Dano guy? An amp guy, etc….)?
Retro: No particular focus as far as guitars and amps. My personal guitars are a mix of vintage and newer, electrics and acoustics, cheap and expensive, US and import—I buy a guitar for myself strictly because I like it. I don’t care when or where it was made. I try to not put my personal taste into what we sell. I try to get my customers to buy a guitar because it works for them-they’ll be playing it, not me!

Gbase: Are you in the “hunt and seek” mode? Is there anything you are currently looking for that you haven’t been able to locate?

Retro: Customers with disposable income! (laughs)

Gbase: Outside of Retro Music, do you have any other interests that eat up your time?

Retro: I have a recording studio at home that I try to spend as much time as I can in. I write and record some pretty out there stuff, all on guitars. Just for fun. Also, we live on a farm, and have lots of animals-9 dogs, 6 cats, birds, and my wife runs a non-profit donkey and mule rescue (http://www.saveyourassrescue.org), so we have about 20 of them at any given time.

Gbase: You must have an “I can’t believe that just walked in my store” story. Care to share it with us?

Retro: Honestly, I can’t think of any one particular piece-over 20 years, we’ve seen it all at one time or another

Gbase: Keene (NH) seems to have a very cool music scene. It’s very local and clearly it leaks over into Vermont and has everything from acoustic funk to college indie. Are there any acts that you work with or that visit the store for gear?

Retro: Well, pretty much all the local musicians wander in regularly. We occasionally see some bigger names. Ronnie Earl is a regular customer here. T-Bone Wolk (Hall and Oates, Sat. Night Live, etc.) wandered in around 20 years ago, and we’ve been good friends ever since. Daryl Hall’s bought 2 or 3 guitars here. Ray Davies from the Kinks came in once, and bought a guitar. J. Mascis from Dinosaur Jr. has bought a lot from us over the years. David Grisman, J.Geils and Peter Wolf  used to come by when they were in the area. Others as well.

Gbase: That’s terribly cool. Alwasy good to stay dialed into the local musician scene plus getting some of the bigger names.  Do you ever get a chance to get out and catch live music?

Retro: I hate to say it, but rarely. Usually when I’m done with work, I want to go home where it’s (relatively) quiet, and not hear any more guitar playing!

Gbase: I would think that’s fairly understandable.  What’s the coolest piece of gear you currently have up on Gbase at the moment?

Retro: Just personal opinion, ’cause it’s not the most rare of guitars, but we have an ‘08 Custom Shop Relic Strat in at the moment that I think is one of the nicest playing and sounding Strats I’ve ever picked up.

It just illustrates a point-it doesn’t have to be old to be good. I don’t buy into any of the hype and myths about guitars. I really believe that you should close your eyes, pick it up and play it, then decide if it’s good or not. I’ve sold very expensive guitars that I thought sounded like dog meat, and vice versa. It’s all what works for the individual player, in my humble opinion.

Gbase: Will we see you on the road at any shows in the near future? Philly, Pittsburgh, Ohio, maybe?

Retro: We stopped doing shows years ago. We used to do maybe 3-4 a year, but it stopped being worthwhile some time ago. Plus, I really don’t like to travel.

Gbase: Comments you’d care to share – hype a website – hype a link to Gbase – a band – any thought you might like to share – now is your time to speak!

Retro: Support your local music store! We’re a dying breed that you will sorely miss when we’re gone. When I say support us, I mean just that. Buy your strings and accessories locally. Sure you may pay a bit more, but don’t you want a music store in your neighborhood? Who will repair or set up your gear if your local store closes? Do you like to have your favorite strings or whatever available at the last minute for a gig? Why would we stock them if no one wants to buy them?  If you try to get us to sell you our products at below our cost, how long do you think we can keep the doors opened? Life is a 2-way street. Sorry for the rant! I would obviously like to mention the stores website, www.retroguitar.com , and also get a plug in for my wife’s site www.saveyourassrescue.org for you equine loving guitar players!