gatzkART: To begin with I want to thank you for this interview. I recognize that you are busy with Elderly Instruments and I really appreciate your time.
Stan:
Glad to do it. Thanks for your interest.
gatzkART: I know that Elderly has a long history in serving the music community. When did you actually begin the store?
Stan:
We actually opened the store on July 5, 1972. For about a year before that my ex-partner and I were buying / selling /trading vintage instruments. We wound up with more instruments than we could sell, so figured we needed a storefront and moved from Ann Arbor to Lansing to do so!
gatzkART: In those early days what was your focus and goals for Elderly?
Stan:
One day at a time. We were remarkably unfocussed except that we knew we wanted to keep the doors open and try to do so in a manner that we were comfortable with. We wanted to provide instruments and related merchandise at fair prices and in such a way that it was a win-win situation for all involved.
gatzkART: I can remember your early involvement in the local community of musicians and how you supported us and welcomed all of us with open arms so to speak. What motivated you to join that community of diverse people?
Stan:
Nobody said we couldn't so we did! Actually we were lucky that the local community seemed to appreciate what we were doing, and we were new in town. I am a musician so who better to hang out with? We shared a lot in common, and we were generally motivated to encourage both music making and the promotion of live music in general.
gatzkART: What were the greatest challenges you had as a budding business?
Stan:
That's a tough one. Starting a new business, with no background in any business of any kind, and particularly with no business background in your chosen field meant to us that everything was a challenge. But the good thing is that it was all do-able and not really that hard. A little luck, a lot of sweat, the right sets of skills (math and general communications skills, plus some knowledge of the instruments and an appreciation of a wide variety of music) were all helpful.
gatzkART: I still have my 12-string Seagull that my family purchased as a gift for me 22 years ago from Elderly. It is still quite playable and I use it almost everyday. What are some of your personal favorite brands of instruments, including guitars and favorite kinds of music and why?
Stan:
Holy cow, where do I start? I love a lot of the new instruments being made today, almost as much as the great vintage instruments made before 1970. It's easy to say Martin, Fender, National, Vega/Fairbanks, Rickenbacker and Gibson. For vintage I guess those have to be my favorites. For me, they were the best sounding and coolest looking, although as time has gone on I appreciate more and more a lot of the other brands - everything from Washburn to Kay, Harmony, Slingerland, Oahu, Bacon, Buckbee, Dobro, Epiphone, Weissenborn, Kamaka and other Hawaiian-made ukes, minstrel-era banjos, and a ton more. As far as new instruments there's no way to come up with real favorites - there are so many! There are huge numbers of great guitar, banjos, mandolins, basses, ukuleles and more being made today - and lots of them are truly stunning instruments. Of the makers who sell through dealers, generally speaking the ones we carry at Elderly are among my very favorites. But there are a lot of "individual makers" who do not sell through stores, and a surprising number of them are very fine indeed!
Favorite kinds of music? Also, where to start: old-time country, bluegrass, swing, blues, jug band music, cajun and zydeco, many kinds of rock, and dare I say folk? I'm partial to music with words, particularly music with a message, but can be really taken with instrumental virtuosity as well. I've seem some great balalaika players on YouTube! After the '60's I was never too partial to what was on the radio (missed much of the '70's through the '90's) but can usually appreciate it, especially if I can understand the words. Kind of like older Broadway musicals and stuff like that too, when I have the opportunity to see them. Of all these genres, there's good and not as good. I prefer what I consider good.
gatzkART: I recently opened an issue of "Fretboard" magazine and I saw a full page ad for Elderly Instruments. So from your small start, how is it you see the scope of your involvement in serving musicians today?
Stan:
We're pretty lucky because we got into mail order pretty early on. This enabled us to carry a wider variety of merchandise than a lot of other fretted instrument stores, and it also gave us incentive to be as good as we could be. Customer service skills, repair skills, prices, ability to ship quickly, available stock and many other things - all these have to be as good or better than most other stores or we will not survive. As to the scope of our involvement in serving musicians today, we hope it is pretty widespread. In many ways our biggest competitors are places that sell almost strictly via the internet. I think if we put more effort into promoting Elderly Instruments rather than being sure that we provide all the aforementioned services, we might sell a lot more than we do. It would be more profitable and in many ways easier. But it would not be satisfying in the ways that really count for me.
gatzkART: How is it that the "Elderly Instruments experience" is so special that your impact is now international in scope?
Stan:
Well, you tell me. But if it so then it is because of all the things we try to do really right (mentioned above), many of which are ignored by a lot of other stores and internet sites. The guiding principle has always been to have a music store (or nowadays, a web site) that is equivalent to visiting somebody's living room. With lot more instruments though. And CDs. And accessories, strings, instruction books and videos and more. Come on in, sit a spell, try out some instruments, if there's something you want to take home with you then we can work that out.
gatzkART: What is it you love about Elderly Instruments, it's customers, staff and the business of serving the music community?
Stan:
It's gratifying to be able to provide good quality instruments to aspiring musicians, better instruments for people ready to "step up" and the very finest in new and vintage instruments for true aficionados and those who simply want the best. Our staff consists of about 75 or 80 very hard-working people who all have a similar interest. They love music and they find it satisfying to fit the right instruments (or accessories or CDs, etc.) to the right people.
gatzkART: Thank you again for your time and this interview. If you had anything you wanted to add we will conclude with that.
Stan:
Thanks for asking. It's nice that people may be interested!
gatzkART: I am certain that our readers appreciate your doing this with us.
Elderly Instruments provided all photographs (© 2010 Elderly Instruments) for the above posted collage made in Picasa 3 and resized and adjusted in PhotoPaint.
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