The Steel Guitar Forum

Sometime in around 1971-1972 I was hanging out at Manny's Music on W.48th St.N.Y.C.one of my usual haunts,I had met a salesman for a steel guitar company"I think he worked for Fender"we b.s.'d a bit,We introduced each other,Never saw him again but would occasionally read stuff about him...fast forward to this morning I made arrangements with a guy on Facebook"marketplace"to buy a case for my bass guitar,I drove to a farm in the Hudson Valley,The guy came out I looked the case over and decided that I would buy it...The guy noticed my "Justice Steel Guitar"hat and asked if I played to which I admitted guilt,Then he told me that he has a good friend who used to live across the street from him in Queens,I asked him what the guy's name was?"Jody Carver"I flipped,That's the guy I met in Manny's Music when I was a kid.A small world!!

Yes; I believe I met him in Manny's once too.

Stu, that is an amazing story.
See, had you not been wearing that"Justice" cap, there may not have been a story.
You make me proud Son.

Fred love my Justice hat!!

Ah, Manny's . . . Stuart and . . Sherwin? Sherman?

I had some dough in 1971, saw a pedal steel in each window. I bought the one on the right, don't know why. An Emmons. Took it home and wrestled with it.

50 years later, I am sure glad I did.

Chris

Chris,Henry,and Stuart Goldrich,Best music store ever.

Headed down to Manny's when I used to live in Red Hook across the river from Kingston, NY. Manny's discounted name brand gear and was the place to go to get something in stock and walk home with it often at 40% off list price.

Bought my first real guitar - a blonde Sho-Bud Pro-III Custom - sight unseen at Manny's in 1979. Sam Ash was right across the street, I believe.

Maybe they were BS-ing me, but the salesman said he wouldn't retrieve it from the basement for me unless I committed to buy it.

"Heck yeah, bring it on!"

Too cool, Stu. I'd have loved to meet the Tweed Knight.

I bought my first steel guitar at Many’s. They were kind enough to keep it in the the store until 8pm when I lugged on the train to Philly.

Thanks, Stu: Henry it was!

Frank Freniere wrote:Bought my first real guitar - a blonde Sho-Bud Pro-III Custom - sight unseen at Manny's in 1979. Sam Ash was right across the street, I believe.

Maybe they were BS-ing me, but the salesman said he wouldn't retrieve it from the basement for me unless I committed to buy it.

"Heck yeah, bring it on!"

Probably not BS. I was there a few times. The last time I was there (80s), I came with a big wad of cash and I wanted to try a guitar. They told me it was "Buy it or get the $#%@ out day." I told them to $#%@ off and took the train back to New Haven and got a better deal from Brian (Brian Guitars over on Amity Ave, now Sam Ash.) He laughed his ass off, said the same thing happened to him years earlier.

NY is a much poorer place for losing 48th St. as a musician's wonderland. I bought countless things at Manny's and lots more stuff at several other shops down the street. Unfortunately what may originate as "irascible grumpy charm", a well-loved trait of a deli waiter or such (which, frankly, may amuse me but does not impress me as charming) may be misunderstood and misapplied by younger cats as license to just be rude. In which case screw'm. Someone will eventually teach them a much needed lesson. Or they will just grow up to be jerks.
I don't believe that this is why Manny's is gone, though. Real estate and the worship of the big $$ has transformed the landscape and the culture. How I miss Canal St. and so many other unique places and districts that have been replaced by soul-less, generic development and chain stores. It's a universal plague, as I read of the devastation of the souls of Nashville and Austin. Oh well.

48th street should have been deemed "historical district "

Personally I was visiting the 48th street MUSIC BLOCk from probably age 14 to 50 or 55, when it all started to crumble. It was not uncommon to run across incredibly famous and well known players at any given moment. I ran into many over the years. Especially at Manny's . I recall seeing many in the old UPSTAIRS guitar room before the store expanded.

There were massive amounts of players and bands playing in the Village and they would frequent Manny's on any given Sat. Our little local band, we would take the train from Westport Ct to Grand Central on Sat mornings, hike over to 48th street and literally hang out on the block until 5 or 6 pm and catch the train back home. This was a life..not an activity !

On one of my final visits to Manny's in the mid 90's I brought my wife and daughter. They spent lord knows how much time just looking at all of the historic photos on the walls. Those photos should be in a Museum, if they're not already.

Oh yeah,at the time I was playing Bass, I saw this Fender 62RI Stack knob J Bass hanging on the wall. I asked about it, the clerk said, don't take it down, I said why not ? He said trust me , don't take it down. I took it down. He said - I warned you. $900 later on my CC and I walked out of the store with it and all we did was go in to look at the pictures ! He did warn me !

Manny's, those of us who spent time there over decades, it wasn't an activity, it was part of our life's journey.

Heres the Bass, still have it, its still friggin awesome. It was the very last purchase I ever made at Manny's. Everyone who picks it ups says. "Holy Moly"

Oh yeah Henry Goldrich was iconic, a legend.

Stu, that’s truly amazing. How do people end up at the exact right time and place like that. Reminds me of this.... small world indeed:

https://bb.steelguitarforum.com/viewtopic.php?t=343055

Tony Prior wrote:
Oh yeah,at the time I was playing Bass, I saw this Fender 62RI Stack knob J Bass hanging on the wall. I asked about it, the clerk said, don't take it down, I said why not ? He said trust me , don't take it down. I took it down. He said - I warned you. $900 later on my CC and I walked out of the store with it and all we did was go in to look at the pictures ! He did warn me !

Tony, I have to ask for clarification. You walked out with it because once you tried it, it was so good you had to have it? Or because they tried to say the act of taking it down constituted a purchase? The first I could certainly understand. The second would not have gone over well if it had been me.

In 1969 I went to Manny’s to buy a guitar. I saw a SG that I had my eye on. They gave the same are you doing to buy it? After paying $245, I walked out with it.

Jon - this was definitely not "irascible grumpy charm". I had shlepped from New Haven after calling a bunch of places and they had what I was looking for. When I got there, I reminded them of the conversation, and then the guy at the counter said he would only take the guitar down (a new $900 Les Paul Standard in back of the counter) if I was buying it, not to try out. He said I could try it out after I bought it. I argued a bit but they weren't budging. It was only after their epithet-filled retort that I retorted in-kind and left.

Look, I understand irascible and grumpy. I grew up in Boston and every guitar store was filled with irascible, grumpy people. Boston itself was filled to the brim with irascible and grumpy people. I can be irascible and grumpy. Guitar stores pretty much everywhere are jaded, from years of idiots coming in and wasting their time and messing up their guitars. This was different, and I got the same story from many people I knew who came in from out of town. No way I'm buying an expensive guitar in-person, after shlepping the train into NYC, without trying it out. They were just being jerks.

There were some classic restaurants in Boston that made a name of irascible, grumpy charm. Durgin Park, No Name, Jack and Marion's in Brookline, and bunches of delis all over. But the food was great - they just didn't have time for messing around. I get that. But in many cases, they got too full of themselves, the food declined, and people got less and less charmed by the overt rudeness and lack of care. And they're all gone - Durgin Park and No Name just closed Jan 2019 and Jan 2020 respectively. They just were not anything like the places that made their reputation. I think the same could be said of Manny's. There are still a bunch of people running guitar stores in NYC, I know some of them. Sorry, but I will not miss Manny's.

Don R Brown wrote:
Tony, I have to ask for clarification. You walked out with it because once you tried it, it was so good you had to have it? Or because they tried to say the act of taking it down constituted a purchase? The first I could certainly understand. The second would not have gone over well if it had been me.

This is too easy ! They knew I would not put it back once I played it, Thats why they they warned me in advance ! And they were right. It had nothing to do the act of a purchase . I don't think I have ever been in any Music store in my journey that did that, Certainly not Manny's !

I can't recall all the major purchases I made at Manys, but here's a few

Ampeg ET-2 amp
Gretsch Tennessean
Standel Artist amp
Fender Twin Reverb
( finally should have bought that from the get go)

multiple MICS
69 Telecaster, my first came from Rudy's

Plus my bandmates all bought stuff, Drums , amps.

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One of the former employees of Mandolin Bros. has a shop in my town of Westfield, NJ, its called Golden Age Guitars

https://www.goldenageguitars.com/pages/ ... nstruments

Check them out, nice guy!

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I agree - Golden Age is a good shop, I've also done business with John. He was the vintage instrument manager at Mandolin Bros. during the 90s, he knows his stuff. Even his utility-grade stuff is a cut above what I see in most shops.

I think the guitar biz went through a massive transformation during the 90s and early 2000s. I think it takes more than large discounts on new gear to really be a first-class guitar shop now. And even back as far as the 70s and 80s, there were plenty of places that offered that. At this point, the internet has all but wiped out the importance of the big "Saturday morning madness" places. Sure, I frequented them back when too. In some ways, they were interesting and fun. But in other ways, going in on Saturday morning was a bit like getting a root canal.