Above ...the ORIGINAL storefront at 140 North Ninth Street in Reading PA.
RIGHT - The "guitar wall" circa 1984 ..same store / North 9th St.
Fred's Music Shop was established in September of 1972. Fred himself was 20 years old and had just finished a 2 year stint with the Uproar band, playing on the road etc. etc. etc
I rented the storefront for $35.00 / month. Showed it to my dad proudly and he proclaimed " $35 dollars ...you got ripped off" .. but lickily I had no idea what I was doing and proceeded to make a successful business for the next 44 years. The front sign was painted and put up on the storefront by my lifelong friend Mike Anderson.
The new logo, designed by Mike Anderson was used from 1975 to 2017!
In 1985 a sales rep that I knew, Joe Blacker showed up with this guy who was starting a guitar company. He looked like a kid! It was Paul Reed Smith who would go on to be one of the leading guitar builders in the world ... He had an amazing guitar that was one of Paul's prototypes and on the basis of that one guitar, I gave Paul a large order. We were one of the first, if not THE first dealer to get a guitar ... serial # 000002 ..If I had only known to keep that instrument . ....
I was a faithful dealer for Paul for many decades ..here in 2000 I was one of the top 10 volume PRS Dealers in the world .. # 6 !!!
Starting in 1977 I had a series of annual Birthday Parties for my store. I tied them in with "new product clinic" which was a good way to showcase my new lines / products etc. My lifelong friend and graphic artist extroadinaire, Mike Anderson did these flyers. I have a bunch of them around my workshop featuring his characatures of local notorious musicians that would frequent these events and my store. (Pic .. rear row Cori Kissinger, back row, "the Wizard" Jim Hodgekins, Craig Foresto, Vince Condrath, Butch Spencer, John Lyons, Keith Vanetton, Front Row , Spyro Sbilis and Dewey Wahl.
The local newspapers would often write articles etc. featuring my store.
This is one of most well-lnown customers ...can you guess who she is ?? (The guitar is a give-a-way as she plays it on TV frequently.