Guitar shops worth the trip in Austin

Calls itself a boutique guitar shop and then earns it with the stock: Collings in both electric and acoustic, plus Atkin, Bartlett, CP Thornton, Forshage, Larrivee, McPherson, Nash, Novo, Paoletti and Suhr — small builders alongside the ones everybody knows. Depth varies a lot by builder, so call ahead if you are driving for a particular one. Amps and pedals too, with a Divided by 13 head and matching cab in stock. East 12th Street.

Trading since 1998. The buying side is as broad as the selling side — guitars, amps, pedals, mandolins, banjos and whatever else walks in — which is the reason the wall keeps turning over rather than becoming a museum. Two service departments behind it, one for instruments and one for amps, so a set-up or a re-fret does not have to leave the building. Red River Street, north of campus.

On South Lamar since 1986, which in a city that has rebuilt itself twice over in that span is the whole recommendation. A general shop rather than a specialist — guitars, basses, amps, pedals and keys, with lessons and a repair bench — and it films SAM Sessions in the store, an artist video series that has run to dozens of episodes. South Lamar runs a long way, so pin the block before you go — the shop publishes no ZIP anywhere on its site.