GUITAR SHOPPING IN LA
Travelling can be daunting, to say the least. All of the planning that goes into it, from flight and hotel reservations, where to eat, to figuring out what to do with your days, it seems that vacations can often feel like anything but. And on top of all of that, musicians will naturally want to know where to see the coolest stuff and the best deals. If this is the case, you’re in luck! If you’re traveling to sunny Los Angeles, we’ve done some of the legwork for you. Once you’ve visited the bright lights of Guitar Center Hollywood on Sunset Boulevard, here are four other must-see shops in the area…
NORMAN’S RARE GUITARS
TARZANA
Over the last 32 years, Norman’s Rare Guitars has become something of a worldwide phenomenon thanks to its appearance in t-shirt form in This Is Spinal Tap and being name-checked in plenty of other films. Not limited to cinema, the shop has kept up with the changing trends of social media with its Guitar Of The Day posts on Instagram and YouTube, and continues to serve as a place of pilgrimage for movie stars, up-and-coming rockers, and guitar-minded folk across the globe.
Owner, proprietor, and namesake Norm Harris started buying up old guitars in the 1960s, long before the idea of the vintage market as we know it had solidified. An expert in all things guitar – you name it, he knows it – Norm put his extensive knowledge to use and stockpiled truckloads of instruments and banked on a boom down the road. Chances are you know his name, or at least the name of the shop, so it’s safe to say his foresight paid off.
The shop offers all manner of instruments, from ultra-rare one-offs, tried and true vintage favourites, and even modern affairs.
