New York, NY – December in Manhattan – there ain’t nothing like it. Rockfeller Plaza, Times Square – the lights, the electric bill – it’s truly an amazing site. Down in the heart of the East Village, you’ll find NYC’s best little Guitar Store, Rivington Guitars. And behind the counter, you’re likely to find the owner, Howie Statland.  Gbase drops in to see what their new location is up to in the City that never sleeps.

Gbase: Hey Howie – hope all is well here in the village. Tell us a little something about yourself. Prior to your opening Rivington Guitars in 1998, what was your background?  What got your started in the world of retail guitar?

Rivington: I grew up in Chicago and had bands there. I started playing in clubs when I was 16 years old, as soon as I could drive. We’d play from 9pm to 3am for $100 per night split between three guys.   I moved to NYC after high school to make it as a musician.  I started a band called Thin Lizard Dawn in ‘92 and we were signed to RCA Records. We made several records on and off the label and lots of extensive touring.

Gbase: So now it’s 1997 – what leads you to opening the shop?

Rivington: When we left RCA I started buying and selling guitars as that is what I really loved and wound up in the guitar business.

Gbase: As many of our Gbase dealers are, you’re a player – that’s great!  So are you still playing?

Rivington: My current band is called NYCSmoke.  We’ve been together since the breakup of Thin Lizard Dawn.  We play everywhere and we’ve released four records. (NYC Smoke has CD’s available – you can check them out at CD BABY)

Gbase: Very cool – what about guitarists? Who are your favs?

Rivington: My favorite guitarists are Pete Townshend and Lou Reed. My favorite bands are The Who and The Velvet Underground.

Gbase: Do you still gig out?

Rivington: Yes, we play all over and we just played Arlenes Grocery on December 3rd, (NYC) and we’ll be playing Fontana’s on January 14th, 2010.

Gbase: You recently moved from your original location over on – uniquely enough – Rivington and Essex – and are now located down in the East Village (4th St).  How is your new location working out?

Rivington: We love the new location. We took an old run down Bodega and renovated it into a beautiful new guitar shop. In our old shop we had roughly 300 square feet.  Now we have over 800 square feet and a much better layout so you can see all the guitars.  It really makes a huge difference being able to see all the guitars lined up on the walls. The new store is very inviting.

Gbase NOTE: Check out Rivington’s Podcast – it’s a great sneak peek at their store as well as some of the very cool guitars in their inventory.

Gbase: With nearly 500 pieces of Gear on Gbase alone, you must have a pretty impressive collection. What’s in your prized collection or at least, what is “THE ONE”?

Rivington: Here’s a list of some:

• ‘93 Gibson Les Paul Premium Plus, Sunburst (purchased with my Bar Mitzvah money!)
• ‘65 Gibson ES-330, sunburst (total John Lennon tone)
• ‘65 Gibson SG Special (Townshend Live at Leeds!!)
• ‘64 Gibson SG JR, cherry (nice wide neck)
• ‘65 Gibson SG JR, cherry (purchased back in 1992 on 48th Street)
• ‘63 Gibson Dove (remarkable guitar)
• ‘62 Fender Jazzmaster, sunburst (my favorite)
• ‘74 Fender Stratocaster, Black (David Gilmour style)
• ‘74 Fender Starcaster, White (love this rare beauty!)
• ‘83 Fender Bullet (my first guitar)
• ‘64 Gretsch Chet Atkins 6120, Orange (Plays amazing and has remarkable tone, Filtertron pickups rule)
• ‘52 Martin 00-18 (my songwriting guitar)
• ‘59 Martin 00-18E (my live solo show guitar for gigs the original Dearmond is killer)

My favorite is a ‘62 Jazzmaster, it’s a gem and it’s very special to me.  It’s pretty beat up and I’m getting afraid to bring it to shows as I can get carried away on stage. My other favorite is the ‘93 Les Paul and the ‘52 Martin 00-18.   I like the ones that feel like they have songs in them.

Gbase:  I must admit I’m a little jealous. I’m a big Jazzmaster fan and have been in the market for one for a while. It’s currently on the “wish list” but buying a house was a bigger priority. Maybe one day but i digress…. That’s a very sweet selection to choose from. I would want to gig all the time if I had to pick from that list. The Village has always been a hot bed for live music but music scene is constantly changing. How is the Music Scene in the City right now?

Rivington: It’s very much alive and thriving. There are so many bands in NYC it is unbelievable. I didn’t realize how many there actually are until I was on this side of the business as opposed to out there playing gigs all the time.  Every day at my store, there are local musicians as well as touring musicians coming in to check out some gear.  Some of our Recent customers include The Strokes, Nora Jones, The Killers, Flight of the Concords, The New York Dolls, The Arcade Fire, Muse, Brian Joestown Massacre, Elvis Costello, along with a bunch more.

Gbase: Has the downturn in the economy forced Rivington to do anything special to help induce sales? Promotions? Specials? Etc…

Rivington: To be honest, we’ve not had trouble selling guitars. This item (guitars), in our economy, does not seem to wane like others. When people see a guitar, they are immediately drawn in. It’s like a culture magnet.

Sure the high end guitars have come down a bit, but our guitars have consistently been selling strong.  Maybe it’s because we haven’t had the majority of our funds tied up in high end items.  Most of the guitars in our store are under $5000, and this market is thriving. It’s more of a musicians and players market as opposed to the collector.

For the collector, it is purely a buying market, as the high end guitars have fallen in price.  For the guitarist who is a professional or semi-professional, they are going to buy the guitar that is under $5000 because it’s a guitar they need to get a certain sound or for a certain gig.  This type of buyer has for the most part been our best customer and this market has remained fairly strong. I relate most personally to this type of buyer.

The nice thing is that it’s been a bit easier to get the guitars as people are selling their guitars as a result of the downturn.  So it’s a buyer’s market and we are buying as much as we can right now.  So if you’ve got a good one for a good price, call Rivington Guitars!!

Gbase: Where do you see the Guitar business headed over the course of the next 5 to 10 years?

Rivington: I think it’s going to level off for the next few years, with the exception of some models.  Martins have been accelerating in price at a steady rate and have not slowed down. Les Pauls and Telecasters seem to be the strongest appreciators in the electric market.  Strats have come down a bit as they bubbled quite a bit in 2006/2007.

Jazzmasters are under appreciated sleepers and in my opinion, they are the best deal going for Pre-CBS Fenders.  Fender Starcasters are being played by lots of big names like The Killers and Radiohead and I’ve got lots of people looking for them.

The more I do this, the more I realize the difference between guitars made prior to 1964 when the Beatles hit and the ones made after that time. When the Beatles hit, guitar companies had a much larger demand for instruments and changed the way they were doing things for a mass market. This affected the quality of what the companies were putting out.  So I recommend purchasing vintage instruments made prior to that time if one can afford it.

Gbase: Where do you see Rivington in the next 5 to 10 years?

Rivington: I’d like to expand the business, but I need to be careful not to expand too quickly. My goal is to have stores in LA, Chicago and NYC by 2015.  We’d like to become the Best Little Guitar Store in all these cities!

Gbase: That sounds like a great goal. Best of luck with that and of course, we wish you much success in the coming year. Thanks for being a great Gbase dealer. One final thought, you must have something extra special in the shop at the moment, something that certainly won’t last very long – wanna give us the overview?

Rivington: We’ve got a nice ‘66 P-Bass in Candy Apple Red, its super light and resonant and purchased from the original owner, the neck is amazing. A ‘62 Jazzmaster that has some wear is one of my favorites, we also have a ‘65 Jazzmaster with clay dots so it’s more like Pre-CBS that is remarkably clean and nice.   We’ve got three, very special ES-335’s. A ‘74 Walnut is the absolutely the nicest Walnut one we’ve had, a mint ‘77 ES-335 in wine red, and a rare ‘78 ES-335 in blond, the wood is stunning.    We’ve got a ‘62 Gretsch Chet Atkins 6120 that plays AMAZING! It sounds like Who’s Next! There’s many more I could go on and on.

Gbase: Well, thanks again for taking the time to be part of our Gbase Dealer Spotlight, Anything additional to add?

Rivington: I’d like to mention how much we appreciate GBASE and what it has done for our business. It is a great reference site for price estimation. t is a wonderful resource to find other dealers and network with them. We’ve been on Gbase since 1998 and it has helped our business tremendously so we just want to say thank you, great job and keep GBASING!!

Gbase: For more in on Howie Statland and Rivington Guitars – you can visit their Gbase store at XXX or check them out online at www.RIVINGTONGUITARS.com or call Howie directly at 212-505-5313.