Guitar shops worth the trip in Daytona Beach

Randy Pepper has dealt vintage since 1976, first as The Guitar Exchange in Ormond Beach and out of Holly Hill since 2002, and he sells as a Reverb Preferred Seller. The shop’s own site carries a blunt warning that scammers impersonate it on Shopify, which is its own kind of endorsement — nobody bothers counterfeiting a bad reputation. Mondays are by appointment.

Thirty-five years as an authorized independent Gibson dealer is unusual longevity anywhere and genuinely rare in a market this small. More than 2,300 items list on Reverb, and the factory-authorized repair covers guitars, amps and pro audio, so a broken thing does not have to make the trip to Orlando. Sitting on International Speedway Boulevard makes it the easiest stop in the metro to fold into a drive.

The one genuine small-batch luthier in the area: Erik Ulven builds original models with aesthetics drawn from Florida wildlife. Directory hours contradict each other, so confirm by phone rather than trusting a listing. The address is a numbered suite in South Daytona, not a street-front window.