House of Guitars

[M]

...my dad just sent me this article with the note "Your buddies would love this place!!!"

Take a read if you're interested.

As well, has anyone been there?

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Guitars Inc. - The House of Guitars mushroomed from the cellar into a veritable fantasyland of string, a Ground-Zero for performers -- and one of the Top 10 music attractions in the United States

Don Butler - The Ottawa Citizen

Sunday, October 12, 2003

IRONDEQUOIT, New York - When Rogers Cable severed its decades-long link with Rochester television stations in mid-September, more was lost than just our window on mayhem and layoffs in Kodakland.

Cable viewers were also forcibly disconnected from the House of Guitars, a Rochester-area institution that seeped subversively into the consciousness of Ottawans through its cheesy, home-made, late-night commercials on stations like WHEC and WROC.

The commercials were raucous and garish, with minimal production values and an off-the-wall sensibility. As generations of Ottawa insomniacs watched with horrified fascination, the House of Guitars slowly acquired cult status.

But it would be wrong to dismiss the House of Guitars as merely a cultural curiosity. This is, like, one amazing place, dude.

The store carries an astonishing array of instruments of every vintage, as well as a mammoth selection of recorded music, much of it unavailable anywhere else.

Walls, pillars and even ceilings are plastered with autographed pictures of the hundreds of rock 'n' roll stars who have visited, purchased equipment or played at the store -- "everyone from Weird Al to Frampton," says Nithin Cherian, who has worked at the store for five years while attending college.

The store even displays musical artifacts and oddities, like stage pants worn by Elvis and Jimi Hendrix. "This essentially is a museum," says Nithin, "except we let you play with the cool stuff."

In its July issue, Esquire magazine listed the House of Guitars as one of the Top 10 music attractions in the United States.

"They called us an attraction," giggles Bruce Schaubroeck, who operates the store with brothers Armand and Blaine. "I kinda like that."

The store is at 645 Titus Ave. in the Roch-ester suburb of Irondequoit, the sort of leafy refuge that has signs admonishing motorists to watch for bounding deer.

From the street, the House of Guitars (known to fans simply as "the Hog") looks unexceptional. It occupies a two-storey, grey brick building (a former Grange Hall) and shares the block with a nondescript strip mall.

Step through the front door, though, and it quickly becomes clear that this is no ordinary music store.

The walls of the entrance lobby are plastered with memorabilia, including guitars autographed by the likes of Chet Atkins, Les Paul, Dave Matthews, Eddie Van Halen, B.B. King, Jimmy Page and John Entwhistle.

Inside the store itself, a huge circular glass case filled with guitars of all description greets visitors. "These are guitars that any guitar player would drool for," says store manager Andy Babiuk.

Like many store employees, Babiuk, whose blond hair cascades past shoulder length, is also a musician -- a member of the Rochester group the Chesterfield Kings. He's also the author of a coffee-table book called Beatles Gear, which meticulously chronicles the musical equipment used by the Fab Four.

The rest of the room is literally crammed to the rafters with guitars, ranging from the latest models to a wide selection of used and vintage instruments. Nobody seems to know for sure how many guitars the store has in stock, but estimates begin at 8,000 and rise from there.

"We have an insane amount of guitars," summarizes Nithin Cherian, and it's hard to argue.

Among the rare instruments on display is what Bruce Schaubroeck calls "the Stradivarius of guitars" -- a 1947 acoustic hand-made by master guitar builder John D'Angelico, worth an estimated $100,000.

There's also a 1913 Harp guitar personally built by Orville Gibson, and a glittering gold model that store owner Armand Schaubroeck designed for the Gibson guitar company. It allows players to shift from a dirty heavy-metal sound to the clean, sterile tones of Dire Straits with the flick of a switch.

But there's much more to the House of Guitars than guitars. Since moving to its present location in 1972, the store has expanded to fill five adjacent buildings, all connected by a labyrinthine series of passageways.

The warren of rooms in the complex comprise a rare archive of rock 'n' roll history. The second floor holds a huge selection of keyboards and drums, including a collection of vintage drum kits. Another room holds amplifiers from the 1950s, '60s and '70s. Still another is crammed with vintage Mellotron and Wurlitzer organs, all in working order.

One large building is a madhouse jumble of CDs, videos and posters, crammed willy-nilly into racks or piled on the floor. An adjacent room contains tens of thousands of vinyl records, all now out of print and still in their original wrappers.

There's even a studio in the basement, where bands like Got Rats and the Chesterfield Kings have recorded albums released on the store's own label, Mirror Records.

Armand Schaubroeck founded the House of Guitars in his mother's basement with his brothers in 1964, when he was still in his teens (his brothers were even younger).

He'd just served 18 months in reformatory for burglary, and was out on parole. He remembers his mother giving his parole officer a tour of the cellar inventory. "I thought, 'Oh no, he's going to think everything's hot,'" Armand recalls with a thin smile.

Now nearing 60, Armand is a rumpled, laid-back man with an unruly mop of thinning grey hair. Even though it is late morning, he looks as if he had just gotten out of bed after a hard day's night -- sockless in loafers, and wearing an untucked shirt with sleeves rolled to the elbows.

In 1964, Armand says, music stores in Rochester "were run like jewelry stores -- look but don't touch." Teenagers who dared to enter were told to return with their parents. Even then, they weren't allowed to test the instruments.

The brothers decided the House of Guitars would be different. "We were young people selling directly to young people," says Armand. Not only were customers allowed to play the guitars, they were encouraged to do so.

When the store opened, the Beatles were the hottest thing in music.

"We were hip to that," says Armand. The store quickly stocked equipment used by John, Paul, George and Ringo, and was the first outlet in North America to import Vox amplifiers, the brand favoured by the Beatles. Young people, sensing kindred spirits, flocked to the store.

Then there were those homemade commercials. In the 1960s and '70s, few retailers produced their own TV spots. Fewer still concocted the sort of hallucinogenic messages that flowed from the warped imaginations of those running the House of Guitars.

Sales staff at Rochester TV stations used to closely vet the store's commercials, recalls Armand, fearful they might contain secret subversive messages aimed at the youth of America.

"Actually," he says with a laugh, "we were just doing rock 'n' roll. There were no messages in it."

The early years were tough but exhilarating. "We were totally content and happy," Armand remembers. "We were enjoying the struggle even though we weren't making money."

Most revenues were reinvested in stock for the store, leaving little for basics like rent and food. "We had girlfriends and mom for meals," says Armand, smiling.

To raise its profile, the store has staged stunts over the years, like its contest to uncover the world's worst guitarist. The store flew the winner in from Scotland to showcase his awfulness in a commercial.

"He was terrible," says Armand, with a shudder. "He slaughtered Smoke on the Water -- that's pretty hard to do."

Another time, the store invited television viewers to pass judgment on its commercials by submitting fan mail or hate mail. The person writing the best fan mail got to appear in a House of Guitars commercial; the author of the best hate mail received a cheap guitar. ("A piece of junk," smirks Armand.)

In the end, the store declared the contest a gigantic tie, and invited all entrants to a late-night party at a Rochester club. About 1,000 showed up, flummoxing the club's managers, who weren't in on the joke.

Over the years, many well-known musicians have performed free shows from the store's small indoor stage, including Aerosmith, Motley Crue, Cheap Trick and Ozzy Osbourne, who has performed four times. Lineups stretch out the door and far down Titus Avenue whenever there's a show.

The Ramones and Ozzy Osbourne even accepted impromptu invitations to appear in House of Guitars commercials. "Ozzy was, oh yeah, sure, bring it on mate," says Bruce.

When members of Aerosmith asked if they could do a photo shoot for Rolling Stone magazine at the store, the owners kept the news quiet. "We were working and they were working," explains Bruce. "We respected their space."

The House of Guitars has become a favourite of rock bands who know they can count on the store to stock whatever they need to recreate any sound. "You can't stump us on anything," says Bruce Schaubroeck. "That's why bands love us."

A while back, Marilyn Manson called up to see if anyone could figure out how to achieve a certain effect he liked on an old recording. Store staff considered the matter and concluded that a particular pedal was responsible for the effect.

"They asked us if we had one," says Bruce, "and of course we did."

The downside of this encyclopedic approach is the massive inventory the store must carry. "We're an accountant's nightmare," Bruce admits. But he adds: "We're proud of what we do. Sales are sometimes almost secondary."

Secondary or not, the House of Guitars rakes in annual revenues of about $6 million a year. Many professional musicians have been customers, including Peter Gabriel, Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails, Matthew Sweet, REO Speedwagon, Foreigner and Emerson, Lake and Palmer.

En route to their performance with the Rolling Stones in Toronto this summer, Montreal's Sam Roberts band stopped by to stock up on amplifiers -- "stuff to get their sound larger," says Armand.

Business remains brisk, he says, though "in general I feel we have to work harder than ever to make the same money."

The store still advertises widely. But its presence on Rochester TV has diminished as the multi-channel TV universe has forced it to spread its message to more outlets.

"We're advertising as much as ever," says Bruce, "but it's hard to cover all the bases."

[bradm]

quote:

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Originally posted by M:

Don Butler - The Ottawa Citizen

Sunday, October 12, 2003

IRONDEQUOIT, New York - When Rogers Cable severed its decades-long link with Rochester television stations in mid-September, more was lost than just our window on mayhem and layoffs in Kodakland.

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Thank you! That one paragraph explains why Rogers here in Ottawa dropped all the Buffalo stations it was carrying (ABC, CBS, Fox, and NBC) and replaced them with Detroit stations.

And yes, I used to love watching the HoG ads on WUTV when I lived in Toronto. I haven't made it down there (yet), but it's on the list of stuff to do one day.

Aloha,

Brad

[gentlemonkey]

been there a few times!! met armand jr! its like a rocknroll dump that you'll allowed to sift through- theres a wall with autographs from aerosmith to ween to mike gordon, cool stuff coming at your from every direction. just wash your hand after you leave.

[bradm]

quote:

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Originally posted by gentlemonkey:

just wash your hand after you leave.

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Why? Is it frequented by SCI fans?

Aloha,

Brad

[hamilton]

quote:

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Originally posted by M:

He's also the author of a coffee-table book called Beatles Gear, which meticulously chronicles the musical equipment used by the Fab Four.

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This is a particularly interesting book for anyone who is into The Beatles, or into guitars. Pretty much everything they ever used is pictured, and there are a lot of really good shots of the band in action, both studio and live.

Nice.