Nothing bizarre about worldwide sales

If there's anything bizarre about Bizarre Guitar, it's that it enjoys an international reputation with professional rock, blues and country musicians yet can be found in Reno on the border with Sparks.

Bizarre Guitar may have more guitars under one roof than any other retailer, but its genesis was the frustration of a young lead guitarist in a 1970s bar band in finding decent, affordable equipment on the road.

Greg Golden was that ax-man.

While intermittently pursuing an accounting degree at the University of Nevada, Reno, he plied the bar and club circuit in Arizona, California, Utah, Montana and Washington.

His band, Mourning Sun, played cover tunes and originals and tried to land a recording contract.

After Golden and band-mate Scott Bergstrom returned from a tour in spring 1974, they opened two little businesses Golden's Bizarre Guitar and Bergstrom's Starsound Audio in a 500-square-foot space in the Sun Valley Shopping Center, which Golden's father owned.

Rent was $250 a month.

"We started with used guitars, and Scott had some used PA systems," Golden says.

The philosophy was to offer reliable service by knowledgeable musicians, and discounts.

Volume would be key.

Fliers attracted pro musicians in what then was a thriving northern Nevada scene.

Casinos, clubs and bars regularly featured live entertainment.

"We did a lot of repairs, a lot of refinishing, re-threading that first year," Golden says.

He and Bergstrom began selling new equipment from major lines.

The two expanded their retail space to 750, 1,000, then 2,000 square feet in the next two years, and in 1978 moved into separate facilities newly built off Oddie and Silverada Boulevards, on land Golden eventually purchased from his father.

Bizarre Guitar occupies 18,000 square feet, with the lower 9,000 accessible to employees or special customers.

Humidifiers keep the moisture level at 40 percent to prevent wood from cracking in the dry clime.

The store can outfit individuals or bands with new or used guitars and drums, speakers and accessories.

The staff also repairs equipment.

The list of clientele over the years includes a Who's Who list of big-name concert and recording acts.

Bergstrom's store, in 5,000 square feet, specializes in PA systems, keyboards and recording gear.

The 49-year-old Golden earned an accounting degree from UNR in 1975 and gave up his rock-star dream in 1982.

He channels his high energy into hunting and bodybuilding, and in 1997 spun off sales of guns (yet another hobby) from Bizarre Guitar into a separate store, Bizarre Guns, which stocks some 3,000 legal firearms, from pistols to machine guns.

Primary clientele are lawenforcement personnel, people getting concealed- weapon's permits, and hunters.

Separating weapons from musical instruments seemed a logical step, Golden says.

An interview with Golden: What's in stock? We handle just about every major line of guitars, basses, drums and amplifiers, including Gibson, Fender, Peavey, Martin, Marshall,Tama, Ibanez and ESP.Guitars make up 40 percent of inventory.

Half of that's electric, half acoustic.

Drums, amplifiers and accessories [such as drumsticks, guitar strings and harmonicas] are 20 percent each.

We have about 5,000 guitars in stock.

I would say it's the largest stock of guitars in the country in one store.

Today, the inventory is 85 percent new instruments, 15 percent used.

I do a lot of trading and swapping, but concentrate more on the new stuff.

They're price-reasonable and very well made, unlike years ago.

Who are your customers? We can outfit anybody from a stone-cold beginner to the very advanced classical player to the full-blown rock 'n' roll player.

Some of the stars who've been in my store, who've played in town, are Eddie Van Halen, Rick Nielsen of Cheap Trick, Steve Vai, Joe Satriani, Billy Gibbons from ZZ Top.

[Carlos] Santana has bought about 50 guitars from me.

Doug Clifford [drummer from Creedence Clearwater Revival and an area resident] has bought drums, constantly, for years.

The bass player, guitarist and drummer from Pearl Jam came in when they were in town.

Buddy Miles bought a snare drum.

I sold a bunch of my guitars to the Rolling Stones.

Their general manager came in three years ago when the band was playing in the Bay area.

Today our clientele, instead of being just professional, is diversified.

It's 60 percent local, 40 percent out of the area.

Fifteen percent is international.

We do a lot with Japan, Germany, Austria, England.

We get e-mails from around the world.

If you want to order a new Fender guitar, you'd be hard-pressed with the hundreds of models and colors, to find what you want, but we're almost sure to have it in stock.

Your musician's background helped develop your initial clientele.

How do your employees maintain that connection? Everybody here knows about musical stuff.

They're all players.We do hire some younger guys looking for jobs, and a couple guys who do mostly cleanup and shipping, but they're players, too.

We service everything we sell.We have a full-time repair staff for guitars and amplifiers, and turn them around usually in two to three days.We can build a guitar from scratch.

I have bodies, necks, pickups, screws, bolts, everything.

Your competition? Our main competition is the mail-order houses that send out catalogs.We beat their prices.We'll beat or match a price in any catalog.

Plans to expand? We're doing about what we want to do.

Reno's population growth helps, new faces come in, but our whole thing has been word of mouth.Our location is a blessing.

There's easy access from Oddie right here, and the north-south freeway is a block way, and the I-80 interchange is only a mile away.We have plenty of parking.

Best season for business? December.

But we're strong every month.

Nine-11 was bad, except for the gun shop.

It sold out of ammunition within six hours after the word came.