Pickin' the right moves

Beck Hall, the creator of Avondale Guitar & Music, said when 6 p.m. rolls around Monday through Saturday, he doesn’t rush to get home anymore. It’s quite the opposite — he usually takes his time, locks the door, turns the music up loud and plays bass for a while. Sometimes he even invites a couple of friends to come in and play an acoustic trio.

“Every other job I’ve had, right when it is time to go, I’m ready to go. Not this one,” Hall said. 

Avondale Guitar & Music, which opened June 19 at 4021 First Ave. N., is a partnership between longtime musician Hall and Tom Howle of Tomssound, a used and new pro audio gear business a few doors down. Hall’s new store sells instruments — primarily guitars — and music accessories such as strings, amps, drumsticks, cables and several additional parts. The new store also offers neck adjustments and various repair services, as well as guitar and bass setups. 

If there’s something someone needs that Hall doesn’t have, he most likely can just send them down the street to check out Tomssound. 

“It’s funny how it worked out. [Howle] will bring people over six or seven times a day. He will introduce me to them, then walk back over to his store,” Hall said. “That’s great for me, for both of us. I’ve been playing [music] around Birmingham since I was 14, so that’s been helpful with bringing in local talent.”

When Howle first showed Hall the space and talked about how he was thinking of turning it into a recording studio, Hall immediately pitched it as a guitar shop. Howle said he had too much going on to run another store. When Hall said he could do it, he remembers Howle laughing for a second, thinking he was joking.

“Then I told him I was serious. He knew that, before this, I had run several businesses and worked a long time in the restaurant industry, so then he knew I was being serious. Plus, he knew I knew my gear,” Hall said. “It really worked out nice, a symbiotic relationship.”

Even though Hall said he has definitely romanticized the idea of having a music or guitar shop of his own before, it took having a partner with the expertise like Howle to make it happen. Hall had just quit his 17-year career as a chef after deciding that, although he loved the food industry, he didn’t love it enough to open his own restaurant, which was the natural next step. Music was something he loved even more.

“When I saw the space, it made sense,” and the store opening snowballed from there, Hall said. “The timing was impeccable, [Howle] said the same thing.”

Hall said he’s since been putting in more than a 100 hours per week, but he said the response back has been amazing. He said as the Avondale area gets bigger and bigger, and as the music scene and number of musicians downtown continues to grow, a need has opened up. Since the Bailey Brothers Music location in Avondale moved everything to their 280 store a few years ago, it only left Highlands Music to cater to musicians performing downtown. He said this way, they don’t have to fight the traffic for parts.

“People sort of got word of the store now, and I’ve just had to hustle,” he laughed.

After he and Howle decided to open the shop, Hall said the first six weeks of work consisted of intense internet scouring and “chasing the inventory” by searching through Facebook, Craigslist and other used guitar websites to try to talk down prices and buy used guitars he could fix up. Then he would drive all over the Southeast to buy them or, on the worst days, drive really far and not come back with anything because there was some sort of flaw the seller failed to mention.

“But I really enjoy the process, getting the guitar, fixing it up and making it look brand new,” Hall said. “The ones we sell, most people think they are all new. I’ll spend hours on them.” 

Now that the store has been open for a while, people have started bringing in used guitars to the shop to sell them. Hall also said he has always wanted to customize equipment, but he never had the materials, space or somewhere to sell it. But now, Howle’s workshop is perfect for that. 

He’s been working on customizing gear for local bands, especially if they are putting out new albums, and also selling the gear through his store. He also sells some merchandise from local bands. 

The most important aspect that sets his new store apart from others, Hall said, is the atmosphere. He wants Avondale Guitar & Music to be somewhere musicians feel comfortable coming to hang out when they aren’t playing, a place where possible new bands or tunes are formed. 

Hall said he encourages people who wander in to try out any instruments and hang out for a while. “If you end up buying something, that’s cool. If you don’t end up buying something, that’s fine too,” he said.

He wants the place to feel like more of a “think tank” for local musicians, a place where improvisation can happen. 

“At every turn [Howle] has trusted my decision-making on it, the end product,” Hall said. “I’m proud of the way it feels to walk in here. It is a very comfortable place and cozy and the guitars we have are really nice.”

To learn more about its current inventory, custom shop and services, go to avondale.guitars or search Avondale Guitar & Music on Facebook.