What lines do you carry and which ones feel worth it?

[Bryan Parris Parris Guitars]

I have agreements with all of those, but I only stock D’addario and Baggs. I do really, really well with LR Baggs. They do great marketing and they allow me to sell online (unlike K&K). Fishman, I took on because of their Fluence pickups, which are hugely popular right now. I don’t stock them yet, but might. Right now, I order on demand. D’addario are the only strings I keep in stock. I really don’t like retail, but I try to keep stuff I use. I also have merchant accounts for small electronic parts. CE Distribution and WD music are two great companies to link up with. I’m sure there are more great ones, but those are ones I like and have had great experience with.

[Joseph DiTucci Guitar Repair & Learning Center]

@parrisguitars just reached out to CE and WD thanks for the info on them.

[Corey Williams Noank Guitar Repair]

Thanks for the info Bryan! What LR Baggs stuff do you do best with? Their pickup offerings are a little overwhelming. I started off with two Anthems and two Elements but hope to have more in stock if my shop is busy enough.

[Bryan Parris Parris Guitars]

My main offerings are the Anthem, Anthem SL, Element VTC, and M1 Active. But the Anthem outsells them all by far. There are others that sound great, though: The HiFi duet is new and sound great, the Session VTC is really interesting and I’ve seen Gibson using it. I’m not a fan of the Lyric, but some swear by it.

[Corey Williams Noank Guitar Repair]

That is awesome info! I installed a hi fi but did not have a lot of time to play around with it. Do you find customers are attracted to it because it’s low modification or does is it the sound that attracts them?

[Joseph DiTucci Guitar Repair & Learning Center]

Im an authorized dealer of D’Addario for strings, I include their strings with a setup so its convenient…great pricing on luthier packs and having individual packs helps for small sales I get a lot of kids coming in looking for strings. Allparts for pots, switches and hardware. i keep a solid inventory or components for use on repairs and for retail. Hipshot because they are a local company for me and make great stuff, their customer service team is great. Dunlop, for polish and other cleaning products sometimes frets…this also opened me to sell pedals like WayHuge, crybaby and mxr… i don’t stock pedals but can order one offs when i need it.

i have contacts for all of the companies i deal with if you need them.

im definitely going to look into LR Baggs

[Corey Williams Noank Guitar Repair]

Oooooh, I will reach out to all parts, I did not think of that one! Do you do repair work exclusively or is it in a retail/lessons space to? I never thought about selling pedals. Thanks for the info!

[Joseph DiTucci Guitar Repair & Learning Center]

I’m a brick and mortar storefront…Primarily, I am a repair shop. I do light retail of items I use everyday for repairs and consumables that most players use to try and bring new people through the doors. I do lessons as well but primarily make my money on repairs.

[Al Pachter Al’s Guitar Workshop]

Corey! That’s great news! I’m a dealer for D’Addario, Fishman, K&K, Hipshot, Fralin pickups and Aguilar. When Korg bought Aguilar I became a Korg dealer too. Korg is the US distributor for several other companies too. I find that most customers have already bought what they want so I’ve not found the need to become a dealer for other companies. I’m also an Allparts dealer but I don’t use them all that much. Slow shipping, world’s least helpful website and prices aren’t that much better than Stewmac. I have a Stewmac builder agreement which they will do for most shops even if you don’t build (like me.) their StewMAX program is fantastic so sign up for that too!

[Corey Williams Noank Guitar Repair]

Hey Al! Thanks for the info! I ordered a handful of acoustic pickups. I feel like a lot of customer seek advice when choosing a pickup for their acoustic so I have a chance to sell them one before they order it online. Electric pickups are the opposite, seems like people have them in hand before they even reach out to me!

[Joseph DiTucci Guitar Repair & Learning Center]

I’m a wholesale partner with stewmac that gives me 20% off, is the builder partner something different I should look into ?

[Al Pachter Al’s Guitar Workshop]

Wholesale is what I was talking about. I forgot the terminology they use there. But yeah, same program. You should sign up for their Stewmax program. Free shipping and free return shipping on all purchases.

[Corey Williams Noank Guitar Repair]

I did not realize until today that there was anything beyond stewmaxx. I applied for the wholesale, 20 percent off would be huge for a lot of the supplies that I go through quickly like tape, micro mesh etc etc. I hope they accept me!