The Gibson Garage London opens its doors to the public for the first time this coming Saturday (24 February) with Jimmy Page cutting the ribbon (alongside Tony Iommi and Brian May no less!). This is officially a big deal for the Nashville guitar giant and its family of brands.
It is officially a big deal for the music industry, too, the first flagship retail store of its kind in the UK, taking the model that worked so well for Gibson on its Nashville home turf and placing it in the heart of the capital’s retail district.
The Gibson Garage London is where you will find everything from Gibson, Epiphone, Kramer, Mesa/Boogie, and Maestro Electronics, all of their electric guitars, acoustic guitars, basses, amps, guitar effects pedals, all of it, all under one roof.
But as the president and CEO of Gibson Brands, Cesar Gueikian explains, joining MusicRadar just days before they open the doors to the public, this is going to be more than just a retail space. The Gibson Garage London is also a gallery, too, with its debut exhibition featuring the rock ’n’ roll photography of Gered Mankowitz, and it is also a venue, hosting live music.
“The Garage is designed to be part of the London music community,” says Gueikian. “We have a live stage at the Garage, where we are going to be featuring performances and events, not only from icons, Gibson icons from around the world, but also from local artists.”
The opening of the Gibson Garage London will also bring some good news for those who have been saving their green for a high-end guitar amp. After a long absence, Mesa/Boogies are returning to the UK. They will be there when the Garage opens and within weeks they will be available from dealers, too.
“The challenge there was the manufacturer of our transformers went out of business during Covid, and so we had to find a replacement,” says Gueikian, “and there is a very long process of recertification, particularly for the UK and European markets. That’s a pretty lengthy process.
“It wasn’t a decision from us to pull away from the market. It was the need to change the transformer and test it, and then recertify it, that took so long. They have to determine that everything is safe, and that took a bit of time.”
This past week has seen the release of the Epiphone Adam Jones 1979 Les Paul Custom, the product of a new partnership between the Gibson Custom Shop and Epiphone, allowing the latter to furnish its top-line instruments with Gibson USA specs, such as CustomBucker pickups, long-tenon neck joints and Gibson-style headstocks. So far we’ve got the Tool guitarist’s Les Paul Custom and Kirk Hammett’s Greeny replica. Gueikian promises more to come from the collaboration.
“Yes, we are going to continue with Epiphone Inspired By Gibson Custom,” he says. “It is the first time, with Kirk Hammett’s Greeny and with Adam Jones’s Les Paul, where we decided a while ago that we were going to incorporate the Gibson headstock on these particular models. There are a lot of US features. We put in US Custom Shop pickups, electronics are all upgraded, materials… We are going to continue on that journey with Epiphone.”
As Gueikian explains here, you will find them – plus some exclusives you won’t find anywhere else – at the Gibson Garage London, a venue that he hopes will be both a hangout spot and destination where players of any ability or none can immerse themselves in guitar culture. And also spec up their own Les Paul and have the Custom Shop build it for you back in Nashville. Read on for how that works and what you can expect to see at the Gibson Garage.
When we were looking at, ‘Where do we go next? Where do we go after Nashville?’ London was at the top of the list
Why choose London? What makes this a special location?
“Well I think that London has one of the most vibrant and influential music communities. The history of music in London goes all the way back to the ‘50s and ‘60s, and even before that. A lot of the genre-defining moments happened in London.
“The music community in London today is just amazing, so when we were looking at, ‘Where do we go next? Where do we go after Nashville?’ London was at the top of the list. We have a history in London. We have a presence there. And so I think when you put it all together it just became an obvious destination.”
We live so much of our lives online that it is easy to forget just how important these physical spaces are, how important venues are for creating experiences for people that are meaningful for people, and for playing a part in an artist’s future.
“And that’s the thing. Just the vast number of incredible musicians and bands that happen because of that music ecosystem in London is something we want to bring out and we are going to do it regularly. In fact, it’s going to be part of our weekly programming in London, with what we are going to call ‘Busk In London’, which is a showcase of talent, local talent from London.
“I hope it becomes a thing where music fans in London, people in London, get to say, ‘I want to go to that weekly Busk In London at the Garage – you never know what kind of new talent you are going to be exposed to.’”
What have you learned from the Nashville venue that you will be taking to London?
“That’s a good question. Taking a step back to the actual Garage, I was thinking about this question and I think one of the most distinct features of the actual physical place, the Garage, is the conveyor belt, and initially the conveyor belt, where we had 200 guitars going around the Garage, was a result of the conveyor belt we have in the factories, and it was drawing inspiration from that
“Mark Agnesi and I [were] talking about that, and the idea that if we could incorporate that moment in the factory when people look at the conveyor belt and are just wowed by it, and if we could bring that into the Garage we thought that would become a thing. We thought it would become one of the most relevant and distinct features of the Garage, and so we did that in Nashville.
“When we started working on the design of the London Garage we initially didn’t have it in there but we realised with the Nashville Garage it has basically become the most photographed feature of the Garage that we now have to have it everywhere we go, so we incorporated that feature, and it will be part of the London Garage as well.”
That’s interesting, because when you are designing a space like this, whether in Nashville or London, part of it is working out how to tell the story of the brand through the space itself, of Gibson past and present.
“You are absolutely right, and the objective – and what we consider a good start, some form of success but definitely a good start – is if someone walks into the Garage in London, or walks into the Garage at Nashville, and says, ‘This is Gibson. Nobody needs to explain it to me. This is what Gibson should have always been.’
“We get that at Nashville, people walking in and saying, ‘Wow! This is Gibson. This is how I imagined Gibson to be in this space – you don’t need to explain anything.”
Will you have a Vault in the London Garage, and if so, what will be in it?
“Right, the Vault has also become a really cool part of Nashville, but it is not in the Garage – the Vault is in a separate space, that’s private. And in Nashville it’s in what we call the Green Room, the artists lounge, and we are going to have really cool instruments [in London].
“Again, in a separate space, not connected to the Garage in London but in that building we are going to have our artist’s lounge and our offices, and in the artists lounge we are going to have some really cool historic guitars, vintage guitars and stuff like that, similar to what we have in Nashville.
“There won’t be a Vault necessarily in the London Garage but one thing the London Garage has – and you’ll see when we open – that we don’t have in Nashville is a gallery where we can showcase music photography, and it will start with a collection of rock ’n’ roll photography from Gered Mankowitz, and it will be really cool. That will be a feature of the London Garage that we won’t have in Nashville.”
Can you tell us how the Made To Measure service works? Is it offering a similar service to individual customers that some of your blue-chip retailers get, letting them pick a top, and get the guitar built to their specs?
“Yeah, I guess the Savile Row of guitars! That’s worked really well here. In Nashville we have a library of tops and you get a chance to go in and pick your top, then pick from every finish. We have so many finish options in our display, physically, in live stock guitar tops so you can actually see what it would look like, and then every single thing, from the different neck profiles to the hardware, pickups, etc.
I enjoy doing dropping little Easter eggs on a regular basis. It keeps people engaged. It keeps people watching – and sometimes they catch them immediately, sometimes it takes a little longer
“We are bringing that feature to London. London will have it, with a wood library. People will be able to go in and pick absolutely everything. We’ll bring it to the Custom Shop in Nashville and we’ll make it. Exactly what you pick, we’ll send it back here with the documentation, the hardware, what kind of neck you like, what kind of pickups, and all of that will go into making your guitar. The top you selected will come back to Nashville and that will be the one we will use.”
This is also a retail endeavour, and guitar stores can still be quite intimidating. How do you think the Gibson Garage will do things differently to be give people the sort of experience that makes players of all abilities and backgrounds feel welcome?
“Yeah, that is something that we have been very conscious of. For us, as guitarists, we have had that experience growing up where it was intimidating. You didn’t know necessarily how to play well enough in the standards of the shop. You would feel intimidated. And they would look down on you.
We are most definitely focused on providing the best experience any guitar player can have walking in, being welcomed, being able to play absolutely anything. You want to play a Greeny replica? Here it is. Go at it.
“I think that’s changed quite a bit. We are most definitely focused on providing the best experience any guitar player can have walking in, being welcomed, being able to play absolutely anything. You want to play a Greeny replica? Here it is. Go at it. And everything is set up. You can play at your own pace. You can put headphones on and play it with a Mesa/Boogie with the CabClone to the headphones so that you are in your own space.
“And our team is friendly, welcoming, and making you feel really, really comfortable. So that you have a great experience, but also so that you always want to come back. That’s the thing. We see in Nashville, what we have had is people come on a very regular basis, and it is just to try new things and talk to our guitar pros, and see who’s performing live. You never know who you are going to run into, who is going to be visiting the Garage. It is all part of creating that community, a music community that is welcoming at any level.”
Yeah, it has be both a destination and a hangout spot…
“It’s a hangout spot! People come out and it is a destination but you know what? We were not really expecting that. The last two-and-a-half years that we have been open in Nashville, it just happens on a more regular basis, almost daily. It used to be once a month, then weekly, now we find the daily [visitors].
Even if you are not a player, you are going to have a great experience at the Garage, because there are going to be live performances. You never know who you are going to run into
“I am in Nashville, so when I go down to the Garage I talk to people. ‘Where have you come from?’ I ask questions? ‘Are you local?’ And a lot of people tell me now, ‘We came to Nashville to visit the Garage.’ And in the beginning I thought was it connected to see a show, and obviously the Garage is here and they came to the Garage? ‘No, we came to the Garage and we planned other things in music around our trip.’
“So it has become a destination and I have high expectations of that happening in London, and that is the whole thing of how we are going to treat everybody [well]. No matter what level, even if you are not a player, you are going to have a great experience at the Garage, because there are going to be live performances. You never know who you are going to run into and it is going to become a hangout place, a destination, and I truly want to make it the most welcoming place in music in London.”
And we should say that retailers have also made huge efforts to make the guitar shop experience as welcoming as possible. The industry is a lot better than it used to be. Is that something you see?
“I think there is. I think there is a lot of great examples of guitar shops and dealers that are doing it. I see it. Go to Peach Guitars. Go to Andertons. GuitarGuitar. I think they are doing a great job. These are welcoming places. I know that they think about it, and they train their people, and they hire accordingly to make sure that you are welcomed. At any level, you are welcomed.
The Garage will have everything. That’s one thing you can count on. You go to the Garage in London and you are going to be able to see everything, try everything
“It is really encouraging to see that change. I see it also in the US, and I think that is going to get more people excited. Because, yes, you have all different ways of buying a guitar, whether it is online through our dealers, online through us, but I think that physical touch and that physical experience of looking at your guitar, plugging it in.
“Even if you are a beginner and you just want to start playing guitar, and you venture to the Garage and you ask one of the guitar pros to play it for you, that experience of looking at the instrument and hearing the sound is very unique.
“We do all kinds of content on GibsonTV, on the Gibson Gear channel, to make it engaging, rewarding, entertaining. A lot of dealers do a lot of great content as well, and that certainly helps. I think that moment, when you hear the instrument, when you hear it live is where you get really hooked. It happened to me.”
Same, and we wouldn’t be speaking today if we hadn’t had that experience in a guitar store. Speaking of trying things in the store, you’ve got a lot of guitar amps to show off now with Gibson back in the game and Mesa/Boogie – will there be spaces for trying these out at volume?
“Yeah, we are going to have setups all around the Garage, isolated areas where you can play live guitars without necessarily having to hear what others are playing. It’s going to be an immersive experience with all kinds of opportunities to do that.”
Will the Garage get all the new models first before everywhere else?
“Well the Garage will have everything. That’s one thing you can count on. You go to the Garage in London and you are going to be able to see everything, try everything, and so that’s the one thing that you get from going to the Garage.
“The other thing is that sometimes we are going to be doing things that are dedicated exclusively to to the Garages, or maybe they are going to be dedicated exclusively to the London Garage, and there will be things there – available in London – that won’t be available anywhere else.”
Do you have any plans to showcase an artist’s collection? Might the Garage host a sort of in-person exhibit like what you are doing on GibsonTV with The Collection, where say Jimmy Page’s guitars are on display?
“We do that in Nashville but it is not open to the public when we do that, depending on the instrument. I was actually talking to Paul Stanley about that in Nashville, showcasing one of his Flying Vs, one of his custom Vs that we made for the last tour. I actually need to follow up with him on that, but that is an idea that we are in the process of implementing here [in Nashville] that I think in the future we will bring to London.”
The Collection is a great series. The very prospect of that being something we could experience at first hand is incredible.
“Yeah, particularly with artist guitars that are recognisable and you immediately associate that guitar or recognise it with going to see the artist live. I think that is the right formula. That’s what we’ve learned from Nashville, that when we have had that, and done showcases of, for example, Elvis’s guitars, and things like that, they have really resonated. That would be the way to go.”
We love how loose with the company secrets you are on social media feed. Is this something you planned from the beginning, sharing these Easter eggs and teasing releases?
“It’s something that I enjoy doing, obviously with the help of my team, the social media team. But I enjoy doing that and dropping little Easter eggs on a regular basis. It keeps people engaged. It keeps people watching – and sometimes they catch them immediately, sometimes it takes a little longer.
Ultimately, I love guitars. I love music. And I love Gibson
“It’s fun to watch and just builds excitement. Everybody gets excited to see what we are working on. They know that if we are working on something, they know they can expect it in the future. It’s a little bit of, personally, having fun with it, being a little bit more relaxed from my day-to-day with 2,500 people around the world, and working 16-hour days. It gives me a little bit of relief as well with what I truly love. Ultimately, I love guitars. I love music. And I love Gibson.”
- The Gibson Garage London opens on Saturday 24 February. It is open daily, Mon-Sat 10am-7pm, Sun 12-6pm. For more details, head over to Gibson.
