Guitar shops worth the trip in Dallas–Fort Worth

Stevie Ray Vaughan bought a 1962 sunburst Stratocaster here in late 1983, and founder Charley Wirz built him the white hardtail Stratocaster-style guitar known as “Charley” — its neck plate engraved “To Stevie Ray Vaughan, more in ‘84”. A testimonial the shop reprints puts Dimebag Darrell, Jimmie Vaughan, Bugs Henderson and Lance Lopez through the door too; that one is a customer’s word rather than the shop’s. Wirz opened the place in 1976 and died in 1985; it has traded since it opened and is still a working bench rather than a museum. Repair prices are published — setups at $75, bone saddle work at $35, hand-cut pickguards — appraisals run $25 an instrument, and they buy and consign as readily as they sell. Tuesday to Saturday, closed Sunday and Monday.

An appointment-only room off the west side that hides what it is badly — the front page reads like a pedal shop until you get into the catalogue and find a Fender Custom Shop Stratocaster, three Custom Shop Telecasters, a Bourgeois OM in Italian cocobolo and a 1991 StingRay 5. The pedal wall is the larger half and the reason to plan around it: Analog Man, Benson, Browne, 1981 Inventions, a hundred-odd boxes deep. Amps run to Two-Rock, Magnatone and Benson’s own. Studio gear, backline rental, a repair bench and consignment fill out the rest. Appointment only, Tuesday to Saturday — the door does not open to walk-ins, so ring first.

The Dallas arm of a St. Louis shop, trading here since 2016. Owner Dave Hinson bills himself a guitarcheologist and has been dealing since 1970, which shows in what hangs on the wall. The shop splits its own stock two ways: high-end vintage on one side, and authorized-dealer lines — Collings, Nash, K-Line, Guild, Magnatone amps and Strymon pedals — on the other. Appraisals are $75 an instrument, waived if you let them buy or consign it. They ship insured. Their site publishes two conflicting sets of opening hours, so ring before you drive.

Calls itself “Your Shelter from the Retail Storm” and stocks accordingly: PRS well past a hundred instruments, Suhr around a hundred, Bourgeois and Collings flat-tops, amps from Two-Rock and Carr, plus Bare Knuckle and Fishman Fluence pickups. A pre-owned and vintage room runs alongside it. Pedaltrain boards and Musicom Lab switching suggest rigs get built here rather than just carried out. The bench posts its rates — setups from $85 — and is an authorized warranty centre for Martin, Maton and Cole Clark — but a standing notice has it declining major repairs until further notice, fretwork among them, while minor work such as setups and restrings is still accepted. Ring about anything specific. Far enough north to be its own trip: McKinney is well past the top of the Dallas sprawl. Tuesday to Saturday.

Started in Addison in 2015 and now runs three rooms, with Southlake and Fort Worth added since. Addison is the original and the one to drive to: the Plek machine lives there, though you can drop off at any of the three. New, used and vintage across Fender, Gibson, Martin, Taylor and Collings, plus an amp and pedal wall. Bench work covers refrets, fret leveling, nut and saddle fabrication and custom electronics. All three keep the same hours — Monday to Saturday, closed Sunday — and no appointment is needed.

Upstairs in an antique mall on Northwest Highway, and part of the Guitarasaur operation, which keeps a second room north of Fort Worth — 5605 Denton Hwy in Haltom City, inside Lone Star Mall. The shared catalogue runs to roughly seventy acoustics and fifty-odd electrics alongside ukuleles, basses and a handful of amps — how much of it hangs in the loft on any given day is not published, so treat the number as the group’s rather than the room’s. Layaway and consignment both offered, and the group publishes its repair terms: pay within thirty days of completion or storage starts accruing. Open seven days, which none of the other rooms here manage. The website has not been touched in years and is served without HTTPS; the shop is the part that is current.

A neighbourhood shop in Denton since 1999, where instruments can be bought, consigned, repaired or built — the shop’s own four verbs. The standing offer is setup and repair of virtually anything with strings, and Gregory Lange takes commissions to build under his own name as well. There is real stock alongside the bench: guitars, basses, banjos, amplifiers, strings and accessories. Because it is one person, availability moves with the workload, and the front page carries a dated notice saying what is currently being taken in — at last check appointment-only afternoons with intake narrowed to lighter work. Read that notice before you drive; its day range and the footer’s disagree.