St. Louis area JCF'ers unite

[1trussell]

Jut moved into the St. Louis area (Maryland Hts. - west suburb o be exact) and I'm currently looking for a good guitar store. I found a place yesterday, Fazio's Frets and Friends. They had some cool stuff (Peavey, Fender, McInturff, Ibanez) but I didn't get a chance to play. The wife limited me to 15 minutes (although we spent over an hour at the mall while she tried on swimsuits [img]graemlins/evilimages/icons/tongue.gif[/img] ). I did see that they are pricing DR and Blue Steel strings at $11. [img]images/icons/shocked.gif[/img] That's more than double the price of what I paid back in central IL. Anyway, I've been to the Guitar Center in Bridgeton as well.

Anyone in the area know of some good places? There have to be some around.

[LesPaulCustom]

Re: St. Louis area JCF\'ers unite

Dude...I can't speak for St Louis, as I haven't been there since 1995 as a student at Ft Leonard Wood and went there on weekends.

As for strings, check out E-Bay and a website called www.juststrings.com. I recently bought a 10 pack of D'Addario EXL120's from E-Bay for like $3.20/set including shipping, but with juststrings, I got 12 sets, custom guage, for a little bit less [img]images/icons/shocked.gif[/img] [img]graemlins/notworthy.gif[/img] .

After the D'Addarios run out, that is where I'll go from now on [img]images/icons/shocked.gif[/img] [img]graemlins/headbang.gif[/img]

[1trussell]

Re: St. Louis area JCF\'ers unite

Thanks, man. I figured that is probably what I would have to do, order them online. I've heard good things about www.juststrings.com here.

[Snatch]

Re: St. Louis area JCF\'ers unite

Welcome to town. not a whole lot of great smusic stores left here in town since guitar center moved in and ran alot of them out. St. Charles guitar Exchange is pretty cool. just over the 70 bridge on First capital Dr. (hwy 94). if you are into vintage stuff J. Gravity Strings is way cool, Downtown on south Broadway. check those places out. Scott

[1trussell]

Re: St. Louis area JCF\'ers unite

Thanks, man. Will do.

[~K~]

Re: St. Louis area JCF\'ers unite

Haha ..That Juststrings.com is only about 15 minutes from my house in Nashua NH..

[tmdiamond]

Re: St. Louis area JCF\'ers unite

Yeah, not a very good guitar store selection here. J Gravity is legendary and does great custom work but not much of a selection. St Charles Guitar Exchange has some nice guitars and they're a Jackson dealer but Dan can be difficult, I've heard, but he's always been decent to me. He has a killer, KILLER, vintage memorabilia collection. There's Mozingo's Music (spelling????) which is supposed to be decent. Of course GC and while I buy a lot of gear from them, rarely do I buy a guitar from them. Shakey is a great guy to deal with at the Crestwood GC. He helped me diagnose an amp problem the other day and spent at least an hour with me and he dropped everything to help me out. Plus, I learned he's a friend of Strangletooth's and also a JCF'er.
MacMurray Music on Page is a fair store. They have clinics from players like Petrucci and others of his ilk. Their guitar selection does not include Jacksons, unless something has changed. They have a decent pro audio and recording department. The Illinois side has Swing City in Collinsville and I've known the people there since I was in jr. high. I get really good prices from them on rack gear, amp stuff, strings, used stuff, but they are notoriously slow with services like repairs and you have to know the manager or owner to get a decent deal. B&G Music in Belleville, where I used to teach at when I was 19, has gone downhill over the last 10 years. They carry very low-end versions of nice brands and the manager who apparently runs it now acts like a used car salesman who thinks he knows everything. They have a lot of small parts like tuners, neckplates, trems, input jacks, strap buttons, etc. If you need things like that, they are who to go to.
I rarely see any C/J guitars in shops unless they're imports. GC usually has one or two USAs but that's about it.
Tom