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Celebrating Nashville Music: Jason Gano Discusses 8th Avenue Guitar Works and Its Role in the Music Community · Takin’ A Walk Nashville

• 0:01
  Speaker 1: Taking a Walk Nashville. Hey everyone, it's Sarah Harrelson.
• 0:04
  Speaker 2: You're host of the Taking a Walk Nashville podcast and listeners.
• 0:07
  Speaker 2: Today we have a special episode for you coming straight
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  Speaker 2: from Eighth Avenue South and Nashville. We are at Eighth
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  Speaker 2: Avenue Guitar Works. It's a new creative and collaborative hub
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  Speaker 2: from Mark LLC, which is musical instrument reclamation company. They
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  Speaker 2: just opened a few years ago and I'm sitting here
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  Speaker 2: in the shop with a CEO and owner, Jason Gano. Jason,
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  Speaker 2: thank you for being here today.
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  Speaker 3: Thanks for having me.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, it's so fun being here.
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  Speaker 2: I was at the grand opening and there's people here
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  Speaker 2: testing out the instruments.
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  Speaker 1: And I know eighth Avenue South very well.
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  Speaker 2: My alma maters Belmont University, which is right down the road,
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  Speaker 2: and we're right across the street even seeing the video.
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  Speaker 1: Z Amy's Comedy Club is behind us.
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  Speaker 2: But this particular building that Eighth Avenue Guitar Works is
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  Speaker 2: in now, it used to be a Dollar General store.
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  Speaker 1: Correct.
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  Speaker 3: It was a Dollar General for forty years.
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  Speaker 1: Wow.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, and it was as Dollar General as it could be.
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  Speaker 3: When we got the property, we walked in and they
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  Speaker 3: had cleared out, but they left a lot of the
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  Speaker 3: old fixtures and things, so you could still tell it
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  Speaker 3: was a dollar general and our general contractor was like,
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  Speaker 3: how are we going to do this? And I'm like, well,
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  Speaker 3: that's what we pay you for it, and we ended
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  Speaker 3: up with this beautiful space.
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  Speaker 1: That's so cool.
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  Speaker 2: And talking about Nashville history, Natalie was telling me, when
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  Speaker 2: you guys were cleaning out and renovating the place, you
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  Speaker 2: found some very historic artifacts, didn't you.
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  Speaker 3: And yeah, yeah, we had a license to sell tobacco
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  Speaker 3: that was from I think it was the twenties or thirties.
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  Speaker 1: Wow.
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  Speaker 3: We found in the rafters.
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  Speaker 1: That's really cool.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah. And we managed to expose the brick here on
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  Speaker 3: the side of the building and the original owner of
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  Speaker 3: the building came by and told us that those bricks
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  Speaker 3: were actually made downtown Nashville. Wow, and brought here to
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  Speaker 3: build the building in the eighteen hundreds.
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  Speaker 1: Wow. That's amazing. Such awesome history and this building.
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  Speaker 2: So let's talk more about this space and how it
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  Speaker 2: is used now. So for those who don't know Mark LLC,
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  Speaker 2: it's the guitar manufacturing industry's leading partner.
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  Speaker 1: You guys keep over thirty thousand.
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  Speaker 2: Instruments out of landfills every year, which is awesome. And
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  Speaker 2: Franklin Guitar Works, that's Mark's national online storefront offering a
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  Speaker 2: refurbished guitars and parts Banal eighth Avenue Guitar Works.
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  Speaker 1: They offer this on more of a hands on and
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  Speaker 1: store space.
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  Speaker 2: So and the shop musicians can see, feel and you're
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  Speaker 2: the instruments and what a thoughtfully refurbished.
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  Speaker 1: Instrument is like?
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  Speaker 2: So, Jason, what makes refurbished and instruments different from newly
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  Speaker 2: made instruments?
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, Well, first let me start by saying, so mIRC
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  Speaker 3: has been the leader in our industry for taking back
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  Speaker 3: all of a company's instruments that got returned or instruments
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  Speaker 3: that didn't pass their quality standards to start with. And
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  Speaker 3: they don't really want to spend any more time or
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  Speaker 3: money on those instruments. They're concentrating on getting new instruments
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  Speaker 3: out the door. So we buy all those, we bring
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  Speaker 3: those to our facility that's here in Laverne, and then
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  Speaker 3: we have sixty people that work on those instruments. And
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  Speaker 3: the biggest difference between a refurbished instrument and a new
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  Speaker 3: instrument is one of our techs has worked on it
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  Speaker 3: who is a guitarist is a wonderful technician and loves
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  Speaker 3: the guitar. So there's a lot of love that has
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  Speaker 3: gone into every instrument that's here. It's been set up,
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  Speaker 3: it's been played, it's been cared for by someone who
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  Speaker 3: really wants to make that the best that they possibly can.
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  Speaker 1: That's so cool.
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  Speaker 2: So if someone has a guitar or a part that
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  Speaker 2: they think needs to go in the trash, should they
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  Speaker 2: bring it to your kind.
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  Speaker 1: Of facility first to see if it can be refurbished.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, some people will do that. Actually, we've had people
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  Speaker 3: come in here and donate guitars to us. They went, hey,
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  Speaker 3: you know, we want to see this go to a
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  Speaker 3: good home. Can you take care of that for us?
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  Speaker 3: And we're like, absolutely, we would love to do that.
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  Speaker 3: We will do anything we can to keep everything out
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  Speaker 3: of a landfill. So when we get to a point
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  Speaker 3: where a guitar can't be refurbished anymore, then we may
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  Speaker 3: do something else with it, like we'll make ukulele birdhouses
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  Speaker 3: out of ukuleles that can't be refurbished anymore.
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  Speaker 1: Cool. That's so cool. I love that.
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  Speaker 2: And then it's cool because when you walk in like
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  Speaker 2: you mentioned. You can see the technicians here on site
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  Speaker 2: actually refurbishing guitars and basses and ukuleles, and you also
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  Speaker 2: have a cafe in here to grab a coffee and couches.
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  Speaker 1: People can just plug in and play and hang out.
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  Speaker 2: Tell us what led you to creating this type of
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  Speaker 2: space and retail shop for people to enjoy.
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  Speaker 3: The biggest question we get is what goes into a
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  Speaker 3: refurbished guitar And a lot of the retail that I've
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  Speaker 3: enjoyed myself over the past few years has an experience
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  Speaker 3: involved in it. And so Natalie and I talked a
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  Speaker 3: lot about how can we make not just a guitar
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  Speaker 3: shop but an experience, and so we kind of wanted
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  Speaker 3: to make the technicians the stars of this. You can
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  Speaker 3: see they're up on a platform. They have big TVs
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  Speaker 3: where you can watch what they're doing to the instrument,
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  Speaker 3: and a cafe where you can grab a coffee and
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  Speaker 3: you can sit and you can watch them refurbish the instruments.
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  Speaker 3: And it takes some of the mystery out of what
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  Speaker 3: goes on in making this a refurbished instrument.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, it's super cool, and you know, sometimes.
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  Speaker 2: When you go in a music store like you know,
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  Speaker 2: Guitar Center something like that. They want you to just
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  Speaker 2: come in and buy something, But here it's all about
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  Speaker 2: hanging out, connecting, playing the refervershed instruments.
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  Speaker 3: It's definitely about the hang We got a comment from
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  Speaker 3: somebody last week about this is how it used to
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  Speaker 3: be in the seventies and eighties, where you would have
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  Speaker 3: a place you could come and people could meet and
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  Speaker 3: they could trade ideas, they could learn licks from each other,
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  Speaker 3: they could just hang out. And we have kids that
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  Speaker 3: come in after school and then we'll sit down and
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  Speaker 3: play here each other without their phones around, which is
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  Speaker 3: absolutely amazing. And a lot of the Belmont kids have
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  Speaker 3: been coming in which is awesome to see that as well.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, when I came in there was a young kid
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  Speaker 2: just jamming on the guitar.
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  Speaker 1: It was amazing.
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  Speaker 3: It's so wonderful to see and how good they are
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  Speaker 3: now at such a young age.
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  Speaker 1: It's crazy. So tell us about everything you have in here.
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  Speaker 2: Do you specifically get specific guitar are in base brands
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  Speaker 2: that are refurbished or do you collect from pretty much everywhere?
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  Speaker 3: So we have instruments from over one hundred different brands.
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  Speaker 3: So some of those like Fender owns several different brands,
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  Speaker 3: so they have Fender, they have Gretch, they have evh,
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  Speaker 3: they have a lot of brands under their umbrella. But
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  Speaker 3: we take all of their returns. But we take them
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  Speaker 3: from all over the world, So we'll get instruments that
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  Speaker 3: come from Germany, Japan, Australia, and it'll be specific models
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  Speaker 3: that are only available in some of those countries, but
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  Speaker 3: all the returns end up here, so we're kind of
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  Speaker 3: the only place that you can come see some of
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  Speaker 3: these instruments.
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  Speaker 1: That's so cool.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, definitely check it out if you are in Nashville
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  Speaker 2: hanging out.
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  Speaker 1: So, Jason, you've been in the industry for a long time.
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  Speaker 2: You've worked with companies such as Marshall Amps and Korg,
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  Speaker 2: and you're an active base say is performing with jazz
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  Speaker 2: artists like Mike Stern, Mark Pender from The Conan O'Brien show,
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  Speaker 2: Jimmy Dorsey Orchestra, to name a few.
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  Speaker 1: And you must have a degree in music education. So
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  Speaker 1: clearly you love.
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  Speaker 2: Playing instruments, but what led you to being on the
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  Speaker 2: stage to now working in music retail. Were you doing
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  Speaker 2: both at the same time or did one come before
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  Speaker 2: the other?
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  Speaker 3: Kind of well, both kind of at the same time.
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  Speaker 3: I have a picture of me at three years old
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  Speaker 3: with a guitar in my hands. So it's been a
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  Speaker 3: lifelong love for me. As I like to tell people,
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  Speaker 3: I've never done anything else. I managed to make an
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  Speaker 3: entire career out of playing with guitars.
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  Speaker 1: Nice.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, So you know, I was fortunate the town that
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  Speaker 3: I grew up in, West Virginia, our middle school had
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  Speaker 3: a guitar program, and I was so ate up with
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  Speaker 3: guitar that I would practice all the time and I
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  Speaker 3: got ahead of everyone else that was in the class,
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  Speaker 3: and so the teacher said, hey, why don't you grab
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  Speaker 3: this bass, and why don't you learn all the bass
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  Speaker 3: parts to all the things that we're doing, so you're
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  Speaker 3: not bored while everybody else is trying to catch up
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  Speaker 3: with you. And I got that bass, and once I
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  Speaker 3: picked up a bass, I never wanted to go back
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  Speaker 3: to a six string guitar. Again. I'm a very poor
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  Speaker 3: six string guitar player, but bass was always my love.
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  Speaker 3: And then I ended up getting a degree in classical
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  Speaker 3: double bass, so the big string bass, and that's what
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  Speaker 3: I play mostly now, and that's what I've toured with
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  Speaker 3: that and I love being a musician, I love talking
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  Speaker 3: to musicians, I love being around musicians, and this was
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  Speaker 3: just the obvious next step in everything that I had
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  Speaker 3: done in my career. I get to every company that
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  Speaker 3: I worked for, I still interface with I just do
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  Speaker 3: it from a different side of that now. But it
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  Speaker 3: was kind of like all the roads everything I had
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  Speaker 3: done in my entire career led me to this, and
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  Speaker 3: I use a part of everything I learned in the
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  Speaker 3: last thirty five years to get to this.
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  Speaker 1: That's so cool.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, you get to hang out and with instruments and
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  Speaker 2: musicians every day during this process in your career. What
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  Speaker 2: made you have the mindset of wanting to work more
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  Speaker 2: closely with refurbished instruments. Did you just find that a
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  Speaker 2: lot of instruments were ending up in the landfill?
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  Speaker 3: It was a need that you could see. There's a
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  Speaker 3: lot of musicians that, you know, we're we don't get
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  Speaker 3: paid a lot of money as musicians. You know, there's
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  Speaker 3: always the financial aspect of everything, and you'll see it
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  Speaker 3: a lot of times. The best players can't afford the
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  Speaker 3: best gear all of the time. So being able to
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  Speaker 3: offer some great players gear at prices that they can
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  Speaker 3: afford that are also set up well and have been
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  Speaker 3: made refurbished by someone else who loves them and understands
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  Speaker 3: exactly what they're trying to do, you know, just helps
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  Speaker 3: the entire community.
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  Speaker 1: That's so cool.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, and you can definitely get guitars in the shop
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  Speaker 2: and refurbished guitars and instruments at a great price. Like
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  Speaker 2: you said, you don't have to be performing with your
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  Speaker 2: guitar held up with duct tape.
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  Speaker 1: You can.
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  Speaker 2: You know, you can get something refurbished at a good cost.
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  Speaker 3: It's amazing. We've all as musicians because you're trying to
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  Speaker 3: save as much money as you can. We've all reused strings.
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  Speaker 3: Bass players, we on our electric basis have all had
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  Speaker 3: to boil our strings before, which sounds kind of gross,
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  Speaker 3: but actually we'll get you through another gig or two
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  Speaker 3: and let your strings sound like they're brand new.
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  Speaker 1: Wow, that's so cool. All right. So what's your face
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  Speaker 1: favorite base that you currently have for sale in the shop.
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  Speaker 3: Oh gosh, I was just playing it. There's a Getty
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  Speaker 3: Lee by Fender Getty Lee Jazz Bass, which I think
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  Speaker 3: is just an amazing playing bass. Awesome. Yeah, And even
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  Speaker 3: though I'm a jazz guy, I've been a Rush fan
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  Speaker 3: my entire life. Getty Lee was like my hero growing up.
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  Speaker 2: That's so cool, and I'm sure you always have new
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  Speaker 2: inventory coming in the shop as well.
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  Speaker 3: I say it a lot. Every day is Christmas because
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  Speaker 3: we get between seventy five and one hundred returns to
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  Speaker 3: our facility in Laverne every day, and we don't always
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  Speaker 3: necessarily know exactly what's coming until we open the box,
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  Speaker 3: so it's literally Christmas every day.
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  Speaker 1: That's awesome.
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  Speaker 2: And yeah, like you said, probably a lot of unexpected
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  Speaker 2: surprises that show up too.
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  Speaker 3: It is. Yeah, And the technicians all know they'll when
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  Speaker 3: a really cool bass comes in, they'll refurbish it and
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  Speaker 3: I'll walk in my office in all be sitting in
• 13:00
  Speaker 3: my chair.
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  Speaker 1: That's awesome. Do you have any favorite guitars on the
• 13:04
  Speaker 1: flip side?
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  Speaker 3: Oh, you know, I like a lot of these gretch
• 13:11
  Speaker 3: hollowbody and semi hollow body guitar. Being a jazz player,
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  Speaker 3: I just like the sound of them, and I think
• 13:19
  Speaker 3: the cool colors that they're doing these days, Yeah, are
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  Speaker 3: just amazing.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, those are beautiful guitars I love though I see
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  Speaker 2: a lot of them in here.
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  Speaker 1: Jason.
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  Speaker 2: My last question for you we are on taking a
• 13:31
  Speaker 2: walk Nashville. So who is the most memorable guest so
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  Speaker 2: far that has walked into Eighth Avenue Guitar Works.
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  Speaker 3: So a couple of weeks ago, I was sitting in
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  Speaker 3: the back and one of my guys ran over to me,
• 13:46
  Speaker 3: and he younger guys, and he's like, I think that's
• 13:50
  Speaker 3: Billy Gibbons that just walked through the door. And so
• 13:53
  Speaker 3: I look up and I'm like, do you think anybody
• 13:56
  Speaker 3: else looks like that? So I got up and walked out,
• 14:00
  Speaker 3: and he and I had met a few times when
• 14:03
  Speaker 3: I worked at Saint Louis Music, which owned Create amplifiers,
• 14:06
  Speaker 3: and he was an endorser for that, and so I
• 14:10
  Speaker 3: walked over and said hi and reintroduced myself and we
• 14:16
  Speaker 3: immediately had a bond over that. And he came in
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  Speaker 3: and he sat down and he talked with all of
• 14:22
  Speaker 3: our people and told stories for twenty minutes. And the
• 14:26
  Speaker 3: awesome part was how he found out we were here
• 14:28
  Speaker 3: is he was driving by and he saw the sign
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  Speaker 3: and went, there's a guitar shop that I haven't been into,
• 14:35
  Speaker 3: so I'm going to stop and go in. So again
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  Speaker 3: he's just as ate up with guitars as all the
• 14:41
  Speaker 3: rest of us.
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  Speaker 1: That's amazing. Did he walk away with a guitar or
• 14:44
  Speaker 1: was he just jamming?
• 14:45
  Speaker 3: He did not, He did not, but he said he'd
• 14:47
  Speaker 3: be back.
• 14:48
  Speaker 1: So yeah, he's got to make room. I'm sure I'm
• 14:51
  Speaker 1: all that he currently owned.
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  Speaker 3: He's got plenty.
• 14:53
  Speaker 1: Yeah, that's so cool. Yeah, this is a beautiful store.
• 14:58
  Speaker 2: Anyone who's coming in town or even going to a
• 15:01
  Speaker 2: show at Zany's Comedy Club across the street, definitely check
• 15:04
  Speaker 2: out Eighth Avenue Guitar Works. You know, people of all,
• 15:09
  Speaker 2: if you are just learning guitar, you want to learn guitar,
• 15:12
  Speaker 2: you always play guitar. Come on in, there's guitars, basses, ukuleles, right, yes, absolutely, yeah,
• 15:19
  Speaker 2: please come by and visit us and hang out. Yeah,
• 15:22
  Speaker 2: come check it out and you can also find more
• 15:25
  Speaker 2: store information on eighth Avenue Guitarworks dot com. Jason, thank
• 15:29
  Speaker 2: you so much for being on Taking a Walk in
• 15:31
  Speaker 2: Nashville today.
• 15:32
  Speaker 3: Thanks for having me. Yeah, thanks for listening to Taking
• 15:37
  Speaker 3: a Walk Nashville with Sarah Harrelson. Please check out our
• 15:40
  Speaker 3: other shows produced by Buzznight Media Productions, Comedy Save Me
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