New York City Guitar Shops

For vintage guitar enthusiasts, a shopping trip to the US is surely a fixture on the bucket list.

- Nitty Gritty

Nashville, LA and Chicago may seem like the obvious destinations, but don’t discount New York – you’ll be pleasantly surprised.

I recently travelled there to make a record with a Brooklyn-based singersongwriter called Orly Bendavid and her band, The Mona Dahls. With the studio sessions complete, the remaining time was spent recording overdubs in Orly’s home studio in the mornings and going guitar shopping during the afternoons. Orly, who also happens to be my niece, didn’t need any persuading; she’s an accomplished guitarist and the owner of a deep cutawaybodied 1965 ES-125. She did all the phoning ahead to make appointments and took care of the travel arrangements.

Time was tight so, sadly, we were unable to travel out to Long Island to visit Well Strung Guitars this time. Even so, the sheer variety and quantity of guitars on offer was better than we had imagined.

We started closest to home on the Brooklyn side of the East River, not far from Williamsburg Bridge. To the left of the entrance, Southside’s display wall of vintage guitars included a Gretsch Electromatic, Guild Starfire, Epiphone Coronet, Kay Thin Twin, Martin F-65 and a pre-CBS Candy Apple Red Strat.

Further along we saw a selection of Gibson ES-330s and ES-125s, a few Epiphone Casinos, a Magnatone, Danelectros, some Airlines and several quirky but fantastic-looking electrics that we couldn’t even identify. Deeper inside we found a couple of 50s Goldtops, one of which had undergone a ’burst conversion, and a brace of gold non-reverse Firebirds. There were countless basses, too, and a fine selection of vintage amps.