The Grateful Dead sang the words “what a long, strange trip its been” in 1970, and those words surely apply now in 2022! Fear, isolation, hope, and then more fear and deflated hopes. Repeated several times. All interspersed with legitimate suffering. Now, finally, some legitimate (but cautious) optimism. Resilience has been a valuable trait these past couple of years!
The idea for Organic Sounds began late in 2019, just a couple of months before Covid made its way to our shores. The plan was to open a small neighborhood guitar shop with the best acoustic instruments available. The pandemic curtailed the brick and mortar part of those plans, but we decided to move forward as an online only shop, at least until everything settled down and returned to “normal”.
Well, “normal” hasn’t quite arrived yet, and who knows if it ever really will. But the online version of our business has been so much fun! Getting to know other guitar aficionados and musicians, and being able to place them with wonderful instruments in which they can make their best music, has been such a pleasure for us. We’ve already met many wonderful people in this industry.
And now, finally (!), we are ready to move forward with our brick and mortar presence. We have a signed lease, plans have been submitted to the city, and we are awaiting permits in order to build out our store. If everything goes smoothly, we will open before the end of April. We have a wonderful space in the city of Santa Ana, in central Orange County, California, with very easy access to freeways and just a short 10 or 15 minute drive from the Anaheim Convention Center, home of the yearly winter NAMM show.
Obtaining inventory is a challenge - everyone is struggling with supply issues, but it is all coming together. The walls of the store will fill over coming months - we have many wonderful guitars on order, and are accepting more and more top notch consignment instruments.
A fun feature of our store will be the stage - yes! We will have a stage in the store, with a great quality P.A. system and room for live performances. This was Debbie’s idea, and it is a wonderful idea! We cannot wait to host musicians and small audiences for live shows!
I will post updated pictures once construction starts. Attached is a teaser pic of the empty space - the transformation will be fun to see and to document.
We feel so very fortunate to be healthy at a time when many have struggled and lost loved ones. We look forward to welcoming you, our customers, into the new home of Organic Sounds Select Guitars!
- Larry (2/17/2022)