Guitar shops worth the trip in Nashville

Walter Carter spent a decade as Gibson’s in-house historian and founded this with Christie Carter in November 2012. The business now sits under The North American Guitar, which acquired Cotten Music in 2019. Consignment is the core of it, with an in-house repair shop and appraisals alongside. Note the address: the shop moved up the block to 606 8th Ave S, upstairs, above Two Hands.

Bursts, Gold Tops and Black Beauties are the house specialties, alongside American-made amps, which narrows the inventory to a particular and expensive corner of the market. Eliot Michael opened the first storefront in Ithaca, New York, in 1992 and in 2016 folded all five locations into this one. It is open Tuesday through Saturday, with Sunday and Monday by appointment.

Beau Hudson spent more than two decades on authentication, appraisal and acquisitions at Gruhn and Carter before opening this in 2023, and that work is a real part of the business rather than a sideline. The shop also takes instruments on consignment. The selection of used and vintage gear is great. It sits near Blackbird Studio, and it is the new Carter’s.

An East Nashville shop on East Trinity Lane with a section of locally made gear alongside guitars, basses, amps, pedals, lap and pedal steel, and lessons. It stocks Taylor, handles repairs and consignment, and hosts guitar pulls and small shows in the room. Hours are weekdays until 6:30, Saturday until 5 and Sunday noon to 4. The shop is super boutique, with a giant stage and a small venue in the back. The sign out front reads “Come in and get an ice cold coke,” with the sub-line “and maybe a guitar.”

George Gruhn co-wrote Gruhn’s Guide to Vintage Guitars with Walter Carter, and the shop he founded has been trading since 1970. Gruhn describes the instruments personally, a written appraisal is available free on request with every instrument it sells, and the shop runs its own repair department. It is scholarly rather than showy: expect to be told exactly what an instrument is, including the parts of the answer you did not want.

Gibson’s own Nashville flagship, with current production on the floor and Custom Shop and Made to Measure ordering in the same room. It sits downtown on 10th Avenue South rather than on Guitar Row. Come for current models and custom ordering rather than vintage stock.

An online pedal dealer, trading under this name since 2004, that keeps a showroom open to the public on the second floor of the Todd Sharp Amps building in the Berry Hill and Woodbine area. The website sells new pedals, pedalboards and power supplies from Strymon, Keeley, JHS, Origin, Tone King, Vemuram and dozens more, and the shop also buys and trades, with used gear listed on Reverb. The showroom is open weekdays and Saturday afternoons, and closed Sundays. It is a great small shop with cool vibes.

Pedals are the draw here, new and used, with boutique builders like Mythos alongside the authorized-dealer lines. Guitars, basses, amps and synths fill out the rest, with a repair bench and consignment. It is open every day of the week. It is a really nice store.

Woman-owned since 2009 and named for the band Fanny, this East Nashville shop stocks player-quality used and vintage guitars and amps, with a repair bench, lessons, and buy, trade and consign. Co-founders Pamela Cole and Leigh Maples announced their retirement in August 2024 and listed the building that September, intending the store to continue alongside a planned nonprofit school, though the store’s future is not settled. It was still trading with posted hours in 2026, but call before you plan a trip around it.

A Maton showroom that bills itself as the largest authorized US dealer for the Australian builder, with Wild Dog percussion stomp boxes alongside the guitars. The guitars are all Maton, so come for Maton or not at all. Visits are by appointment only, weekdays and Saturday mornings.

Owner Gabriel Hernandez moved to Nashville in 2006 as Gibson’s web editor and opened this stand-alone shop on McGavock Pike in early 2016. The stock runs to vintage acoustics and electrics, basses, mandolins, resonators and banjos, and appraisal work sits alongside the sales floor. Weekdays are walk-in; Saturday and Sunday are by appointment, so book ahead rather than turning up on a weekend.

In business since 1976, the shop bills itself as Nashville’s only Five Star Gibson Acoustic dealer. Martin, Gibson and Eastman lead the acoustic stock, with Bourgeois close behind, and repair runs through Jeff Marple, a guitar tech of 35 years. The catalog is broad and full-service rather than vintage-focused, so treat it as a working musician’s store first. It left its longtime 12th Ave S storefront for Dickerson Pike in 2018.

Gallagher, the builder of Doc Watson’s guitars, dates to 1965 in Tennessee and changed hands in 2019. It now keeps a showroom on North Front Street in Murfreesboro. Visits are by appointment, so ask what is in the showroom when you book.

Store #720, on Thompson Lane. The big-box option for new gear in Nashville, covering electric and acoustic guitars, amps and pedals, with lessons, instrument rentals and a repair shop on site.

A boutique electric and bass dealer run by Josh Ingram, a former touring musician, with a walk-in showroom on Little Green Street. The floor runs to small-builder and high-end guitars from Novo, Tuttle, James Tyler, Paoletti, Veritas, Strandberg and Friedman, with a used section, and every guitar sold gets a free setup. Walk-ins are welcome weekdays 9 to 5 and Saturday 10 to 4.

Founded by Zach Broyles of Mythos Pedals, this is a boutique room about 20 minutes north of downtown Nashville, just off Interstate 65. The lines are Two-Rock, Dr. Z, Divided by 13 and PRS amps with Novo, Castedosa, Frank Brothers, Mario Martin and PRS guitars, and you can walk in and play without an appointment. It is open Tuesday through Saturday.

Jack’s specializes in oddball electric and acoustic guitars, vintage to modern, above all vintage dimestore Silvertone, Teisco, Kay, Harmony, Airline and Danelectro models, plus partscasters and vintage acoustics refitted with rubber bridges. It sits on the Lebanon square about 30 miles east of Nashville, stocks amps and effects pedals, and also does repair, consignment and appraisals. Open Wednesday through Sunday.

Owner and head luthier Patrick Boyle came out of the Galloup School of Lutherie and apprenticed under Dan Johnson before opening the shop in 2011, and from 2016 he also toured as John Prine’s guitar tech. He counts more than a thousand repairs, and that bench is the real reason to make the drive out to Madison. Stock is player-grade vintage and boutique gear.