The CRAZIEST Guitar Store Stories Across the USA 

After nearly four years of travel and work, the #GuitarStoreTour is finally finished. Check out where I went in your state: musiciswin.com/guitarstoretour

The guy that came in to get his "TELE" repaired, probably the funniest story.

I owned a guitar store in the late 2000s. We sold James Hetfield a Zemaitis Flying V that was then on the cover of Guitar World the next month.. Pretty rad!

Mad respect to the Rusty guitar center donating everything they make to charity, really wholesome

100% true story from my local guitar store in the U.K where I teach. One day, we had a guy come in asking if our in store guitar tech could repair his Gibson 335. We said 'sure, no problem', so he said 'great, I'll go fetch it from the car'. He came back with a bin bag and proceeded to empty a black 335 onto the counter that had been smashed into at least 20 pieces! The conversation went as follows: US: Er, what happened to your guitar? HIM: I smashed it. US: Er, why? HIM: The devil came out of my toaster and told me to do it. Our tech glued his guitar back together. It took him 7 weeks.

I worked in a guitar shop in Marin County, CA in the 70's. One day this really scruffy "hippie" looking guy walks in and proceeds to ask to play several guitars, so I obliged him. He finishes playing the last one and walks up to me and says "I'll take all of them" and pulls out a wad of $100 bills and slaps a few grand on the counter. It was Jesse Collin Young. I learned the lesson, that day, to never judge a book by its cover!

This needs to be a series. Just you interviewing store employees and owners about life and such. Guitar players have the best stories....but dont tell the drummers...itll hurt their feelings

My old guitarist used to hit up the pawn shops for deals he could fix up and resell at his own shop. One day he saw something suspiciously impossible, but took it down, played it, and handed over $180 cash to the pawn shop owner. When he got it back to his shop and tore it down his suspicion was confirmed. It was in fact a 1955 Strat. The pawn shop guy thought it was a partscaster since there were certain idiosyncrasies with the first couple of years, like the Fender decal being in top of the headstock lacquer, a different bridge, tuning machines, I forget what else. Long story short, word got around, the pawn shop guy showed up demanding my friend give it back, and one of the owners of the store my buddy worked at just said, “Man, I was there when this guitar came in and we both thought it was fake. This kid knew what it was and bought it fair and square. You coulda done what he just did and confirm it was it wasn’t a fake, but you didn’t, so I suggest you cut your losses and move on.” Anyway, my buddy kept it for about 25 years then auctioned it along with his ‘58 Plymouth Fury to buy a house (well, the down payment).

Customer: "I need a magnetic latched secret compartment to hide a Derringer in, in case I need to shoot someone." Scott from Roman Guitars: "Well Mr. Nugent, we'll see what we can do."

Heres my super crazy story... There has been the same homeless guy living in the woods a few miles from my house for years, I always see him at the WalMart down the street... One day I bought him some food and sat down next to him, just trying to help him out. I got to know him, super nice guy....He tells me he has a Master's degree in electrical engineering. I asked him what sort of work he used to do- "Oh, I built guitar pedals, and I worked on electric guitars. I used to work for Eddie Van Halen and the Jay Giles Band" He says. Then he explains in incredible detail how he helped EVH by building pre-amps for his guitars, and tells me all about the work he did with Eddie on the first Van Halen album. At the end, I shook his hand and he says "My name's Tommy. Look at the first Van Halen album, in the credits, it says right there "special thanks to Tommy." and I checked, he was right, his name is right there. He had a ton of stories about how he met Van Halen in Pasadena, what they were like, he offered a bunch of opinions on Valerie Berinelli, I could not believe it. And in the end he got back on his bicycle and went back to his tent in the woods. I see the dude all the time... Unbelievable but true!!!

The last guy is an amazing human being!

I need to buy something from that last place. In the late 80s, I worked for Guitar Center as a fresh college grad while looking for a career. It was the equivalent of a cut throat used car dealership. Hell, we smoked cigarettes on the sales floor. After about a month, I found out how the guitar guys made so much money (we were all commission sales)…when they would take in a used guitar, they put all the value in the case. For example, I buy a used Ynwie Strat with case for $500. As I enter it into the system, I value the guitar for a penny and value the case for $499.99. When I sell the Strat for 1000.00, my profit becomes 999.99. The commission is double what it would be if I had 500 into the guitar. Of course, then you end up with a basement with $250,000.00 worth of cases that might sell for $250.00 in bulk. Two years into my time there, they introduced computers onto the sales floor…actually the same system as now. And that was that. A few heads rolled.

1:34 South Dakota 1:47 North Dakota 1:57 Virginia 2:08 Maine 2:18 Louisiana 2:39 West Virginia 2:59 Alabama 3:13 Texas 3:33 Arizona 3:54 Arkansas 4:20 Georgia 4:34 Wisconsin 5:00 Nevada 5:26 Minnesota 6:11 Colorado 6:45 Oklahoma 7:12 Delaware 7:45 Iowa 8:16 Florida 9:12 New Mexico 9:40 New Hampshire 10:19 New York 10:44 Tennessee 11:05 Rhode Island 11:42 Hawaii 12:05 Alaska 12:32 Illinois 12:54 Nebraska 13:34 Vermont 14:17 Wyoming 14:37 Indiana 15:05 Massachusetts 15:55 Kentucky 16:57 Pennsylvania 18:02 Maryland 19:01 South Carolina

Those guys brokering that Telecaster for that old lady made me tear up a bit. That was so nice of them to do that for her.

That guy that didn’t hose that lady who had the 53 Fender deserves some recognition. Not a lot of folks would do what they did for her especially the guitar store I worked at in high school.

This is a true story, about 15 years ago, before vinyl became hipster crack I was in a charity shop in Wells Somerset UK and in their collection of old records, mantovani, military brass bands etc I found a mint original pressing of Rubber Soul and they'd priced it at £4. I checked the condition of the vinyl but decided I was gonna buy it even if it was scratched to hell....Luckily it wasn't scratched and I couldn't hand my money over quick enough. I remember giving the woman £5 and she was thrilled when I refused the change. I got the record home, turned on the stereo and pulled the record from the inner sleeve for the 2nd time that day, and something fell out of the outer sleeve and fluttered to the floor. Intrigued I look down and it's an old black and white postcard. I pick it up , turn it around and on the back there are four signatures , well I guess you'd call em autographs. I shit you not. Still got it. Paul; George John and Ringo

The story about the lady having hospital bills is just touching.

A guy I served in Iraq with as a medic took a part time job at Guitar Center, he was okay, worked in accessories. So after the 90 day period his shift manager says "Now you can use your in house discount." He says "Oh cool" and grabs a ten pack of Martin strings, and then takes a $2300.00 Les Paul off the wall. Just whips out a wad of cash and pays and walks out.

I was once at Guitar Center in Rockville MD and I saw Peter Frampton playing. I went over with a guitar off the rack and sat next to him and started talking about how much I love Talk Boxes and the 70s etc for about 20 mins. Turns out it wasn't Frampton at all. It didn't even look like him. It was just some old man. I hate that old man now.

I was in Killer Vintage in St.Louis one day looking at an old strat and this homeless looking guy came up on his bike with a trash bag wrapped something in the front basket. He proceeded to come in and ask the owner if this guitar was worth anything. He was hired to clean out her garage in N. St.Louis and found this old 1956 Fender telecaster. It was in rough shape but was all there. A rat ate some of the bone nut. The owner told him to him to stick around for 20 minutes and he will be right back. Dave came back and handed him a serious amount of money. The look in his eyes was priceless. He walked out the door, looked both ways at least ten times and was gone. Nice to see people not trying to rip people off. Fair deal for both. Owner is a good guy.

Mick Mars and Earl Slick trading licks across the store....now that would be worth 100 times the price of admission.

I am always excited to go to a music store because I tend to meet interesting people with stories and a passion for music just as big as mine!

I'll share a story of accidental camaraderie that happened when I worked at a guitar store a long time ago: I sold a hard shell guitar case to a woman as a gift for her husband. About 2 hours later, I got a phone call from her asking why the case smelled "like chocolate". I explained the process of making guitar cases to her and that what she's smelling is a byproduct of the glue that's used. She was pretty skeptical and asked if she could exchange it for another one, expressing how displeased she was with the smell because she drove so far to buy it (I later did the math - she drove about 3 hours round trip from her house to the store and back). I told her I would save another case for her so she could come back and swap it out. Another 2 hours passed and she came back into the store with the case I sold her. I brought the other case I stashed for her, put them both on the counter, opened both of them up, and took a good whiff from each one. And when I say I took a whiff, I'm talking full on nose dive straight into each case and sucked in as much case smell as I could. "Yup, that's fresh! Check it out. The other one smells like this, too." Looking slightly confused, she eventually sniffed each case quickly and rather sheepishly. She was still skeptical over why new cases smelled this way. We were starting to talk in circles when a co-worker of mine came around the corner and asked what was happening. "We're checking out these new cases and how good they smell!" I remarked. "Oh, absolutely!" he said, right before nose diving straight into the open case she bought and inhaling deeply. "Ahh yeah, that's fresh!" he said with the biggest smile. She started to ask him the same questions she asked me about why new cases smelled this way. Then a third co-worker came around the corner and without missing a beat goes, "Hey guys, what's happen--OOH HEY, NEW GUITAR CASE!!", then immediately does his nose dive in the case she bought. "*WWHHHHIIIIIFFFFFFF* Oh yeah, that's the stuff!" and walked away. It took everything in me to keep from bursting out laughing right there on the spot. The look on her face was priceless - one of shock and bewilderment. I turned to the guy that walked away, then turned back to her and simply told her, "Well...what else can I say? We love new case smell." She took the same case I sold her back out of the store. The moment she went out the front door, I immediately bolted to the closest stock room we had, slammed the door behind me and had a laughing fit for what felt like 10 minutes straight. When I asked the other two guys about that encounter, they had no idea what was happening. They simply saw open guitar cases and decided to smell them. We all had a good laugh after I told them the whole story!

5:02 After what happened to our beloved Dimebag, I don’t blame the guy for wanting this made. Sounds pretty cool, too. Sidenote, I wonder if it would affect the tone 🦻🏼

10:45 too quick to name drop! I call BS on this one!

A guy came in to my regular shop and asked something like, "How much is that Martin?" or whatever. The shop guy said something like, "Thirteen hundred dollars" and the customer said , "They're eleven hundred down the street." The shop guy said, "Then you should go down there and buy one." Customer said, "They're out of them," and shop guy said, "When we don't have them, they're eleven hundred here, too."

My story: I took my Original Jackson RR to a guitar shop in Missouri, while I was working there. I chipped the wood on the corner and left it there for the "repair guy". They called me a week later and said that the guy quit and the couldn't do anything with it. So I came back, opened the case, saw my guitar, and said ok, and left. I left to go back home to Alabama a few days later. A couple weeks go by, I decide to play some, and my wife asked me how much my RR was worth, so I decided to look it up. I flipped it over to get the serial # off of the neck plate, and to my suprise, my serialized plate was gone and a "Fender" plate was on there. I called them, they denied any wrong doing. I know it was there before, because I looked it up when I bought it. That was the only time it was ever out of my possession. Morale of the story: Never leave your rare/expensive guitar with someone you don't know, otherwise you'll have a worthless Fender/Jackson.

Man we need this content as a series.

This is great. Makes me realize I'd love someone to do a series like this. It makes you realize how much of a community this really is, with real people all over. And I miss music stores too. So many shops are gone or are just big box retailers.

You saved the best for last! That is so cool to be able to help other people and animals like he does. Rock on Dude!!

'The Sliding Nuns' would've been a great 90s band name. Called it! Great stuff Tyler!

I live in Shrewsbury, England and the only guitar shop in town is one of the friendliest places I've ever been. The people in there are really nice and they won't sell you anything you don't need

Sold a 1960 Gibson SG for 400 bucks - no way I could take advantage of someone like that :( …but I'm from SC where the last vid is about Rusty - my personal story is i fixed up a 70s SG pro 2 that was born a pro 1 and installed t-top mini gibson humbuckers and old pots from a tube radios for vol and tone..best sounding guitar i got ..and only paid 100 for it from ebay yrs ago as a shell that needed electronics, frets, and a broken truss rod, i learned how to fix her up using youtube vids :) and a summer project

I worked in a music store in Palm Desert Ca for years. The Betty Ford Center was not far from the store. When patients would get leave after transition they would come in the store and spend time. Some celebs had homes in the area or were playing gigs at Coachella fest or one of the casinos in the local area. I met quite a few celebrities. I have a story about Steven Tyler that is hilarious.

The gentleman you interviewed at the end is what it is all about. Giving to others. He was your best interview. Much respect to him and his business!

The music store that twerk girl visited looked like a gun store. The ammo boxes didn’t look like guitar strings. But my strings are mostly .009’s and my ammo is 9mm. Bang up job on the video!

5:28, they should hire that guy just to go around the store playing stuff, since everything he touches gets sold. Sales will go up 20%!

So great to see Buckdancers Choice in Portland Maine and "The Voice of the Choice"" Tim Emery, a phenomenal guitarist if there ever was one!!

I was hanging out at Guitar Center in Crestwood, MO back in 2001, after only playing bass for a little under a year. I met Al Caldwell(Vanessa Williams' bassist) and he let me play his signature 9-string bass. Dude was cool as shit.

I live in Northern Minnesota. We miss you Joe. Riff City was always an awesome shop to visit. Hope hes doing well. Awesome video Tyler.

At 11:11 I couldn't take my eyes off the guitar right in the middle of them, it's an Ibanez AF-55, a cheap hollowbody that sounds great for its price. I have one and I absolutely love it.

As a former guitar shop employee, this is BEST content on your channel so far! So relatable and entertaining. Well done.

Oklahoma, Delaware, Illinois and Massachusetts stores had my favorite stories.

these stories, its a rollercoaster man...

Wow! What great stories! God bless that gentleman that gave his proceeds to charities!

Cool to see Rusty's Cool Guitars featured! I live in Charleston and have been in there.... great store

I like how you saved the best story for last, Rusty lives on.

Forest is a funny dude. He and Cody are my two main dudes helping me out with my music needs while I am up here in the Army in Alaska... Cool as hell to see him...

I’m sure glad I watched this. I’ve been planning a trumpet heist for months. Back to the drawing board.

I've been buying guitars from Mr Music since the early 80s. There's always something very cool in there, begging you to buy it whenever you go in for a pack of strings. It's one of those joints that the who's who of players know about and will pop in while in town.

This is pure gold! No one has done this kind of video compilation. Respect 👏👏

That last story.... man, what a great dude/idea/mission....just the best.

Thanks to all the folks who shared their stories! Thank you Tyler for the effort!

Great episode Tyler. We could listen to crazy stories for HOURS.

I personally know both Rob and Tim from Dietz and Lidgett and they really are a couple the most easy-going top-notch guys anyone could ever want to deal with. I couldn’t say enough good things about either one of those dudes and I bought gear and guitars from both of them. I honestly kind of feel loyal to both of them to the point where when I buy something from of one of them I kind of feel like I’m cheating on the other one . lol

I LOVE this video. The best part of checking out shops in different cities are the cool stories the staff have & some of the guitars have. Props for having Eliot from Rumble Seat in the video. Bought the guitar in my avatar there.

Josh at Mele Ukelele in Hawaii is a good friend of mine. Got quite excited seeing him in the vid. The guy is a really good dude with an Awesome family!

If you’re ever back in the Providence area, Empire Guitars is the place to stop. They sell new pedals and have lots of great used and vintage guitars. 60s Strats, etc. really comfortable vibe too. In Boston, the Music Emporium is an outstanding shop with lots of boutique amps and guitars.

Every story is worthwhile listening to. Amazing stuff !

Wow! Those were some crazy stories! Thanks for sharing!

Great taste from Josh prestige pawn shop 2:51, shure shot from intervals

A great guitarist and a great story teller. Very entertaining! love it

This was the most enjoyable video I've watched in a long time! Love the format and the real people across the country!

This was so awesome, Tyler, thank you for sharing with us.

Last guy with the donations, hats off! What great work! Loving the content and all of the stories from these stores. Thanks for putting this vidio together.

This might just be your best upload. Great stories! Wish you had more like this...

Really nice piece! Should be made into a documentary!

The last one was the best. Bless.

Shouts out to Backroads Guitars in ABQ NM, locally owned business that just opened a few months ago

Some incredible stories - saving the best and most moving till last - but it's sad how many are about theft, even tho they're individually hilarious.

That “tele” story has me crying 😂

What a great video! I enjoyed all the wonderful stories, what a fantastic idea traveling to all those stores!!!

I just love all the different people and how they all tell stories differently ..man.. I should travel.

Great episode! As many had said this should be a series. I really liked the PRS bit he is such a guitar geek that is definitely something he would do!

I feel like Tim Pratt, the guy from Omaha, and the 53 tele is really underselling it. That’s a crazy story.

I really enjoyed watching this video. I like listening to stories like these.

Dude, congrats! Been looking forward to the finished idea!!!

I just bought an old danelectro and the electronics were all messed up so I took it to my local guit-mechanic. He opened it up and it was full of peas! Literally hundreds of little green peas started rolling out, all over his table. A bunch of wires looked like they were randomly cut with a pocket knife. He said that he'd run across a lot of pot but never peas 😂 Still don't know if it was a mouse nest or if someone put them in for moisture absorber, or something else completely.

40 years ago I walked into our local music store and sincerely asked for a gabo.

Great video one of your best and this tour idea was very cool. I was so happy that you picked the guitar store where I have bought several guitars.

2:40 damn Aaron Marshalls stuff is so recognisable, his style just hits different. - Sure Shot - Intervals

More of this. This is good content. Real people, funny stories.

In my mind Ben Stiller is playing the guy who kept trying out equipment which got bought by someone else and taken out of his hands.

Great stories!! What’s cool is a good number of those we’re about helping people who really need it.

Watched quite a few video's from this channel, have to say this was my favorite, so far. thanks.

2:40 never ceases to amaze me how pawn shop owners love bragging about people they ripped off.

Would be cool if you could continue this into different stores from different countries and their stories. Like a Europe tour for example.

Awesome video! So glad you asked, these stories are classic

I live about 20 miles from island music...very cool to see that you had visited. I've dropped a few c-notes there and have absolutely no regrets 😁

First how cool is RUSTY"s Guitars? naming a store after a rescue dog and the charity is amazing. If I ever get to South Carolina I'm buying something from that guy. I worked in a Music Store when I was teenager in the 70's. It was 6 miles from the Fender factory in Fullerton. A couple years after Leo sold to CBS they brought in security guards to intimidate the workers and I guess to keep employee theft down. This backfired in a big way and soon about once a month a Fender PARTS guitar would walk in the front door.Tele neck with strat body, pots all mixed up by year just all kinds of weird combinations. Mustang body with tele pickups, Electric 12 with only 6 strings and mustang pickups ,- just weird combinations but all pretty new. Disgruntled employees - about 90% Hispanic were stealing parts and putting them together to sell later.

In about 2002 I went to buy a red Epi 335 from Tom at Mr. Music. He looked at the credit card, and it had a woman's name on it- mine must have been swapped the night before while running a bar tab. I wanted to crawl out of Mr. Music since I looked like a thief, it sucked super big time, and clearly I'm still traumatized haha. Great store though!

moving, specially the last one, with the dog, as we have a private shelter, i can identify. nice work with some hilarious events

Thank you for this video we really appreciate the support !!!

Everyone who had lame stories has now changed their stories to the time when "Music is Win" came in and did a video.

Wonderful!!! Please do more!!!

This was to date one of your best videos ever I would love to see more of those kind of things even though your other videos are good too!

Id be willing to bet the rock star mentioned at 5:02 was Ted Nugent

Wow

The last shop deserves more 👍 👍 👍

I absolutely love this video. I'm currently rocking my baby daughter asleep and watching this video. For some reason this video brings back some nostalgia listening to these stories great stories! Great Idea in doing this.