Mom and Pop's, run amuck

David Mason · Post by **David Mason** » 1 Mar 2006 2:30 am

This is a really cool place, if you don't mind total cacophony... http://www.washingtonpost.com... [This message was edited by b0b on 02 March 2006 at 11:06 AM.]

Dave Van Allen · Post by **Dave Van Allen** » 1 Mar 2006 5:59 am

Chuck Levin's- my teenage musician wannabe haven... I lived 5 minutes from the store. I ordered my first Emmons student model thru them. They had never as far as I know, orderd steel guitar related anything before that... somebody tell me I'm wrong.

The "deli" analogy is apt...

Sherman Willden · Post by **Sherman Willden** » 1 Mar 2006 6:14 am

Thank you for sharing

Sherman

Bill Hatcher · Post by **Bill Hatcher** » 1 Mar 2006 7:44 am

"girlfriends look around vacantly"---THAT is a great line. How many times have I seen that in a music store!

Post by **Dave Mudgett** » 1 Mar 2006 2:01 pm

Chuck Levin's really is a cool store, old school. Many working musicians up here take once- or twice- per year trips down there to "do business". Over the years, I've known plenty of music dealers who called them up for price quotes to find out the real bottom line for what stuff goes for, in the days before ebay.

Pete Finney · Post by **Pete Finney** » 1 Mar 2006 3:21 pm

Hey Dave... I bought my first steel, a used Sho-bud Maverick, at Chuck Levins in summer of '73, a few months after buying a brand new Martin D-18 there for 300 and some bucks. (they're both long gone unfortunately...) When did you get your Emmons? I know Tommy Hannum got stuff there in the old days, he grew up right around the corner...

Bunky Markert · Post by **Bunky Markert** » 1 Mar 2006 6:46 pm

There is nothing like the feeling that you have arrived after making a major purchase in that store. After I joined my first working band, I HAD to get the same amp that the guy I was replacing had - a Vox Super Beatle. What a terrible amplifier, but what did I know in 1969 (and I sold a blackface Fender Vibroverb and my high school class ring to get it). But it was a heady experience to go there and to another great store in the DC area, Venemanns, which later converted to a Guitar Center.

even today it is worth the trip, and if you do, check out the Peruvian chicken place in the strip mall behind it.

Bob Hoffnar · Post by **Bob Hoffnar** » 1 Mar 2006 7:37 pm

I lived down the road in Four Corners and washed alot of dishes to get the money to buy my first real bass at Chuck's. It was a Guild Starfire. I must have been in that store at least 4 days a week hanging around checking stuff out from age 13 to 16. I can only remember them being nice to me even though I rarely had enough money to buy anything. It was a regular thing with my juvenile delinquent/musician crew to head over to Chuck's and look at guitars.

------------------
Bob
upcoming gigs
My Website

[This message was edited by Bob Hoffnar on 01 March 2006 at 09:06 PM.]

Gary Lee Gimble · Post by **Gary Lee Gimble** » 2 Mar 2006 9:58 am

I bought my first guitar from Chuck when his store was downtown DC around 14 st. That area has changed dramatically since then, row houses are selling for 600k+

Chris Forbes · Post by **Chris Forbes** » 2 Mar 2006 10:28 am

Ah, I was just there last night talking to one of the employee's who happens to be a friend who happens to work gigs with me on a regular basis who happens to fill me in on all the good deals who happens........ etc etc etc

Curry Coster · Post by **Curry Coster** » 2 Mar 2006 11:02 am

Reckon I'll jump in here, too...bought my Strat from that store in 1967 and my first Emmons D-10 there in 1972. As much time as I spent in there in the late 60's and early 70's I probably saw a lot of y'all in there and didn't know it...

Curry

Chris Forbes · Post by **Chris Forbes** » 3 Mar 2006 10:39 am

Hey Curry, when you went there, did you wear the fox hat?

Curry Coster · Post by **Curry Coster** » 3 Mar 2006 10:44 am

Fido-
ROTFLMAO!!!!

Gary Lee Gimble · Post by **Gary Lee Gimble** » 4 Mar 2006 7:05 am

did you wear the fox hat?

Only when he shopped at Chuck's first store in DC.

Jeff Agnew · Post by **Jeff Agnew** » 4 Mar 2006 8:08 am

Only when he shopped at Chuck's first store in DC.

Ah, yes. 1221 H Street, if my memory serves me correctly. Or maybe 1227. Where Chuck himself sold me a new '65 ES-335, which I still have, along with his hand-written receipt. It was an interesting place, even before the riots.

Chris Forbes · Post by **Chris Forbes** » 6 Mar 2006 3:22 am

Gary, the visual you gave me in my head right now is just about killing me.