My annual trip to Nashville includes a stop at Gruhn Guitars. George Gruhn founded Gruhn guitars way back in 1970. This place is more than just a guitar shop. It is full of classic instruments that each have a fascinating history.
Musicians from all genres of music buy, sell and have their prized possessions repaired at Gruhn Guitars. Artists such as Eric Clapton, Paul McCartney, Lyle Lovett, Johnny Cash, George Harrison and Vince Gill come to Gruhn. Collections from Earl Scruggs, Eric Clapton and Vince Gill have been sold here. We were able to inspect the remaining guitars from the Vince GIll collection.
My family and I were lucky to take a tour of his private collection and talk with George about his life and his love of guitars and animals. George is originally from the Chicago area. He told us about his snakes and exotic cats that are his passion aside from guitars.
His private collection was amazing and priceless. The wall in his collections were lined with rare and unusual string instruments. There were several prototype guitars that never made it into production and many production instruments with six figure valuations.
George picked out a couple of guitars for me to play. I didn’t buy a guitar on this day but I do have my eye on that pre-war Martin acoustic guitar that was selling for $30,000.
Another great day in Nashville. Many thanks to George Gruhn and his staff at Gruhn Guitars. Pay Gruhn Guitars a visit at http://guitars.com
~ Mark “Duke” Nikolich
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