deal with my customers face to face. Through the
coaxing of my son and daughter, as well as the
younger people working at my store, I finally gave
in. Currently we have over 50 million hits on our
social media.
In the old days, I had to rely on print ads to buy or
sell guitars. Everything from being the first to get
all of the daily newspapers hot off the presses, to
all the other “buy/ sell” publications.
In Los Angeles, we had a paper called the
Recycler. It was tremendously successful at
first. Prior to the Recycler, the Sunday edition of
all major newspapers was a main source. The
Recycler would come out on Thursday mornings
CG: Your vintage guitar store is well known
“Streets of Fire.” Other Chris Guest films such as,
at 7:00am. I was always the first in line. After a few
across the nation. Being in the Los Angeles area
“A Mighty Wind” and “For Your Consideration”,
years there was a line around the block. People
you also have developed relationships with movie
“Why Do Fools Fall in Love”, “The Temptations
were making a living buying and selling from
companies. Your book goes deeper in this area
Story” and so many others. In the book there are
the Recycler. Everything from cars, electronics,
but tell us about a few of those?
a few amusing stories about the films. We have
furniture and antiques… almost every category
also supplied guitars to countless rock videos for
had dealers trying to be the first to get at the
NORM: Well the first film we were included with
good deals.
was “Bound for Glory,” the Woody Guthrie story
As far as buying, I am not crazy about the Internet.
MTV.
starring David Carradine. David and his brothers
CG: From your vast years of experience now
were some of my very earliest customers.
what advice do you have for novice vintage
Not everyone is forthcoming as to issues with
guitar collectors?
their instruments. When we sell on the Internet,
David told me he wanted the guitars throughout
I try to be as honest and detail conscious as we
the film to be age correct. This was probably
NORM: I recently spoke at the Musician’s
can be. There is no point in misrepresenting our
the very first film to be conscious of age correct
Institute in Hollywood to one of the graduation
products because we will only get returns. We get
instruments. Most directors felt nobody was really
classes. The subject was basically, “What advice
very, very few returns.
paying attention.
would you give to up and coming young people
who want to be in the music business?”
On occasion we will buy, if we see something that
We have supplied instruments to so many classic
is unusual and looks correct and is coming from a
movies it’s hard to remember them all. Just
My number one piece of advice is to do something
reputable source. I think I have developed a pretty
to name a few there was, “This is Spinal Tap”
that you really love! If you are in sales… selling
good eye over the years, but I always like to see
(another cult film), “Back to the Future” Parts
products that you love and really believe in. If you
the instruments I purchased first hand.
1 and 2, “For the Boys” with Bette Midler and
have a great product, the instruments basically
sell themselves. It takes very little salesmanship to
sell something good. It takes a great salesman to
sell something that is bad. It is nice to be able to
sleep at night knowing you gave your customer
something cool at a fair price.
I know that I am not the most expensive or the
least expensive, but we always try to be the best.
Sometimes I have to pinch myself and say, “Is
this really work?” I have had a very lucky and
blessed life!
Dave Grohl & Norm, & the Crew
28
Sep Oct 2016
CollectibleGuitar.com