Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs

Going once, going twice...

Kearny Mesa guitar mecca Guitar Trader seeking an investor or buyer.
Kearny Mesa guitar mecca Guitar Trader seeking an investor or buyer.

“Is that the actual key?” Eric Denton says with obvious delight. “And it still works?” It does. “We should raise the price,” he says, only half joking about the $99 price tagged onto an old white car door. “That’s off the tour van from when I was in the band Peter Rabbit. Some drunk totaled it.” Meanwhile, all around Denton, customers walk sale-priced merchandise out the front door of his Guitar Trader. The once-thriving music store is being gutted. It all began Monday, December 8, when Denton posted notice on Craigslist and Facebook that he was selling off the Kearny Mesa music shop he’s owned for 35 years.

Or, looking for an investor: “$500,000 would get me back on track,” he says. “I’d like another $500,000 to buy new inventory.”

Place

Guitar Trader San Diego

7120 Clairemont Mesa Boulevard, San Diego

Considered by many to be the center of rock-guitar gravity in San Diego, for years Guitar Trader was managed by ex-Child guitarist Thom Beebe. He remembers regular customers like Craig Goldy of Dio and Warren DeMartini and Robbin Crosby of Ratt. “And the Beat Farmers and Mojo Nixon? All those guys used to come in and play guitar and hang out. And Jennifer Batten, Michael Jackson’s guitarist, used to teach guitar lessons there.”

Sponsored
Sponsored

Denton says in better days the shop grossed $2.6 million per year. He thinks the first big downturn in Guitar Trader’s trajectory came after he sold off the store’s domain name. Per terms of the deal, Guitar Trader could still be used at the retail store but online, Denton had to switch to MusicPower.com. The rest of the problems he chalks up to what he calls irreconcilable differences between himself and his business partner Jeff Baumgart.

In 1982 Eric Denton played keyboards in the Monroes, a local band with a hit song. After “What Do All the People Know” peaked, he bought a guitar shop near the Tower Bar called Music Power, and not with band royalties but with a loan from his grandfather. “People don’t believe how little money I made from the Monroes.” In 1987, he bought Guitar Trader, a modest business that had outgrown founder Ed Chwekun’s garage. In time, Guitar Trader’s success would spawn its own competition: Beebe left to start Guitar and Bass Land and Skin City Drums in El Cajon in 2008, and ex-Trader employees Andy Greenberg and Mark Augustin likewise opened popular guitar shops.

“The bad thing,” Beebe says, “is that the resource of Guitar Trader will be gone. My heart goes out to all the people I hired there who now won’t have jobs.” But Denton’s still hopeful an investor will take the deal and keep Guitar Trader open. “I got an email this morning from a guy that went to Clairemont High School. He’s living in Texas now, says he inherited millions, and that he’s always wanted to own a guitar store...”

The latest copy of the Reader

Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

"Christmas Berry" is decorating our landscape, Longest meteor shower of the year

Full "cold moon," extremely high tides
Next Article

National City to junk permissive land-use code

Airbnb regs would be like Chula Vista's
Kearny Mesa guitar mecca Guitar Trader seeking an investor or buyer.
Kearny Mesa guitar mecca Guitar Trader seeking an investor or buyer.

“Is that the actual key?” Eric Denton says with obvious delight. “And it still works?” It does. “We should raise the price,” he says, only half joking about the $99 price tagged onto an old white car door. “That’s off the tour van from when I was in the band Peter Rabbit. Some drunk totaled it.” Meanwhile, all around Denton, customers walk sale-priced merchandise out the front door of his Guitar Trader. The once-thriving music store is being gutted. It all began Monday, December 8, when Denton posted notice on Craigslist and Facebook that he was selling off the Kearny Mesa music shop he’s owned for 35 years.

Or, looking for an investor: “$500,000 would get me back on track,” he says. “I’d like another $500,000 to buy new inventory.”

Place

Guitar Trader San Diego

7120 Clairemont Mesa Boulevard, San Diego

Considered by many to be the center of rock-guitar gravity in San Diego, for years Guitar Trader was managed by ex-Child guitarist Thom Beebe. He remembers regular customers like Craig Goldy of Dio and Warren DeMartini and Robbin Crosby of Ratt. “And the Beat Farmers and Mojo Nixon? All those guys used to come in and play guitar and hang out. And Jennifer Batten, Michael Jackson’s guitarist, used to teach guitar lessons there.”

Sponsored
Sponsored

Denton says in better days the shop grossed $2.6 million per year. He thinks the first big downturn in Guitar Trader’s trajectory came after he sold off the store’s domain name. Per terms of the deal, Guitar Trader could still be used at the retail store but online, Denton had to switch to MusicPower.com. The rest of the problems he chalks up to what he calls irreconcilable differences between himself and his business partner Jeff Baumgart.

In 1982 Eric Denton played keyboards in the Monroes, a local band with a hit song. After “What Do All the People Know” peaked, he bought a guitar shop near the Tower Bar called Music Power, and not with band royalties but with a loan from his grandfather. “People don’t believe how little money I made from the Monroes.” In 1987, he bought Guitar Trader, a modest business that had outgrown founder Ed Chwekun’s garage. In time, Guitar Trader’s success would spawn its own competition: Beebe left to start Guitar and Bass Land and Skin City Drums in El Cajon in 2008, and ex-Trader employees Andy Greenberg and Mark Augustin likewise opened popular guitar shops.

“The bad thing,” Beebe says, “is that the resource of Guitar Trader will be gone. My heart goes out to all the people I hired there who now won’t have jobs.” But Denton’s still hopeful an investor will take the deal and keep Guitar Trader open. “I got an email this morning from a guy that went to Clairemont High School. He’s living in Texas now, says he inherited millions, and that he’s always wanted to own a guitar store...”

Comments
Sponsored

The latest copy of the Reader

Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

The greatest symphonist of them all

Havergal Brian wrote over 30 of them
Next Article

How Much Time Do I Get With My BetterHelp Therapist?

Comments
Ask a Hipster — Advice you didn't know you needed Big Screen — Movie commentary Blurt — Music's inside track Booze News — San Diego spirits Classical Music — Immortal beauty Classifieds — Free and easy Cover Stories — Front-page features Drinks All Around — Bartenders' drink recipes Excerpts — Literary and spiritual excerpts Feast! — Food & drink reviews Feature Stories — Local news & stories Fishing Report — What’s getting hooked from ship and shore From the Archives — Spotlight on the past Golden Dreams — Talk of the town The Gonzo Report — Making the musical scene, or at least reporting from it Letters — Our inbox Movies@Home — Local movie buffs share favorites Movie Reviews — Our critics' picks and pans Musician Interviews — Up close with local artists Neighborhood News from Stringers — Hyperlocal news News Ticker — News & politics Obermeyer — San Diego politics illustrated Outdoors — Weekly changes in flora and fauna Overheard in San Diego — Eavesdropping illustrated Poetry — The old and the new Reader Travel — Travel section built by travelers Reading — The hunt for intellectuals Roam-O-Rama — SoCal's best hiking/biking trails San Diego Beer — Inside San Diego suds SD on the QT — Almost factual news Sheep and Goats — Places of worship Special Issues — The best of Street Style — San Diego streets have style Surf Diego — Real stories from those braving the waves Theater — On stage in San Diego this week Tin Fork — Silver spoon alternative Under the Radar — Matt Potter's undercover work Unforgettable — Long-ago San Diego Unreal Estate — San Diego's priciest pads Your Week — Daily event picks
4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs
Close

Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

This Week’s Reader This Week’s Reader