#guitarbar

Japan photo dump! Jet lag bested, dozens of guitars procured, and many adventures had. Snuck a few in here from the Tokai factory, where we had unrestricted access. We interviewed numerous key players from Tokai’s history (including Masahiro Matsui, sole designer of Tokai’s first electric guitar, the Humming Bird), and got more than a peek at old photo albums and R&D reference libraries for their Springy Sound and Love Rock models. We’ll be rolling out these stories in print soon! #guitarbar #japan #tokai https://www.instagram.com/p/Cq_l00VvlXv/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

In the Good News Only column, the Guitar Bar is about to celebrate a big ‘ol birthday. Next Saturday, July 16th, we’ll be ringing in 10 years of this thing @puisheen and I started in my duplex garage. It’s an open house-style event, and it’d mean so much to us if you swung by, said hi, and had yourself a meal on our dime via @nowmakemeasandwich ‘s food truck. #guitarbar #youreinvited (at Mike & Mike's Guitar Bar) https://www.instagram.com/p/CfvBU8qL3x_/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

Guitar Bar photo dump! So many irons in the proverbial fire, candles being burned at multiple ends, etc. Here are number of choice nuggets: 1. 1962 slab board Jazzmaster with the ol’ hangtag 2. A pair of yellowed out SG Customs 3. 1963 Epiphone Casino in Royal Tan (it’s so clean!) 4. Equally clean 1966 Gibson Trini Lopez 5. Wall o’ Paul 6. Mega @theartistshag BTTF print guiding you to all the fun on the 2nd floor 7. Outfitting the new Guitar Bar lounge in our second building (a new fun thing, more on that soon) with our Adrian Pearsall Craft Associates 2006-S sofa, restored with so much live by @jacobwillardhome 8. YouToobering with @puisheen with our Epiphone Frontier #GuitarBar #allthingsallthetime (at Mike & Mike's Guitar Bar) https://www.instagram.com/p/CbTpGNlJQa-/?utm_medium=tumblr

Something new is coming very soon, and you’re all invited #GuitarBar (at Mike & Mike's Guitar Bar) https://www.instagram.com/p/CeuSrRTv5Pd/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

One week away from the 10th Anniversary bash, and here’s the primary venue: Our new building! We added this space (next door to Guitar Bar OG) last year, mainly to greatly expand our Service Dept, and we wanted to push indoor/outdoor theming in a guitar-centric space in a way we hadn’t seen before. Supremely grateful that when I suggested we slice a 14ft trailer in half and mount it to the front of our Service Dept, that this was met with enthusiasm and a can-do spirit by our Service Dept maestro and my partner in Guitar Bar-related crime, Ben Bryan. What we ended up with was a scratch-built Shasta-style trailer complete with all genuine vintage appointments and lighting, with a large window into our Service Dept, open kitchen-style. And when we had to find a way to mask a wall of 100+ guitars in our restoration queue, the staff organically (pun intended) came up with the concept of adding a living wall. No artificial anything around here, especially our plants! Add a wall of guitars, a small mountain of vintage furnishings and ephemera, one supremely fun vintage point of sale counter salvaged with style by @stilllamps , and presto-chango, a new Guitar Bar space that we’re truly excited for you to inhabit. See you at the anniversary party! #Guitarbar #itsnew #shastatrailer (at Mike & Mike's Guitar Bar) https://www.instagram.com/p/CfzriaOPb3I/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

Having a bit of fun with @premierguitar , who unknowingly posted my guitar collection circa 2012 to their page today. We shot this as a promo image a few months before the Guitar Bar officially opened back in July, 2012, with my buddy Jake supplying the “good” camera and adding in his ES-355 and ‘66 Jazzmaster to fill out the shot. A couple of these went on to most excellent homes, with the Electric XII in the hands of @bill.frisell and the 1964 ES-355 with @lollarpickups . Still have quite a few of these (👉 for a quick snap from today with my 1968 SG and 1963 Jazz Bass), and I always get a kick out of this image resurfacing on the interweb. #guitarbar (at Mike & Mike's Guitar Bar) https://www.instagram.com/p/CZSq6yFv_5B/?utm_medium=tumblr

Sparkle-saurus strikes again 🦖✨ This Mustang was in the hopper for a loooong time, and with the help of the usual suspects it finally made it over the finish line. This one came to us as a routed/stripped 1966 Mustang husk + vibrato, and we patched and rerouted for this triple pickup combo before Marty Bell went wild with the sparkles (as he does). @curtis_novak_pickups DeArmond-style foil pickups and central Dano-style “lipstick”, with four-way B/B+N/N/B+N (in series) switching, and a push/pull Tone pot to engage the lipstick coil, which can also be run independently with the Volume rolled down. Other deserved accolades to our in-house maestros @riley_guitars and @bradclifford for a full refret, custom cut Tele-style one-ply guard and some trick wiring, and @masterybridge for making the most solid kit. #Fender #GuitarBar #FenderMustang #Sparkles (at Mike & Mike's Guitar Bar) https://www.instagram.com/p/CXpjsuWrCCi/?utm_medium=tumblr

It’s a Guitar Bar birfday post. 9yrs ago @puisheen and I had just been unceremoniously dropped from our previous gig, and sitting on the floor of an empty duplex with our significant others and a bottle of wine, we began this most wild of rides. #sappymike #twomikesoneshop #guitarbar (at Mike & Mike's Guitar Bar) https://www.instagram.com/p/CRcwne7AamH/?utm_medium=tumblr