Things are shaping up for a local music store on the cusp of celebrating its one-year anniversary.
“It was a work in progress,” said Gary Fox, owner of Foxter Music at 141 S. Frontage Road, which sits across the street from the Albertsons grocery store.
Fox said he started in August 2016 with some guitars and amps on one wall.
“I started to add more stuff—more counters,” Fox said. “I kind of just went 360 around the whole place and then added more guitar lines, getting in more products.”
Fox’s store is now filled with accessories, starter guitars and a new, high-end guitar brand, B.C. Rich.
Fox has a 30-year history in the music business and has played in live bands and offered private instruction during that period.
“… I was playing in some bands and had some extra time, and I ran into some friends and they started talking about maybe doing a little, small teaching area,” Fox said. “Then I came over here, and the rest is history, as they say.”
Learning to play
Private lessons are a large part of the store’s business model.
“It pretty much keeps the store going, the lessons part,” Fox said. “The retail is such a fine line between shipping costs and competing with online stuff.”
Fox has a monthly rate for lessons: $85 for guitar and $90 for drums, vocal, keyboards and violin.
Some of Fox’s students appreciate his expertise and the way he teaches.
“Certainly, with Gary, he makes sure you learn the fundamentals, but he does enough jamming with you to make it fun to come in,” said Glenn Ferry, a long-time student of Fox. “You go away wanting to practice because you got kind of a little buzz going and feeling good that you’ve made some progress.”
Ferry’s significant other, Sharry Starbuck, is also taking lessons after he bought her a new guitar known as the Warlock from the B.C. Rich guitar brand.
“He’s (Fox) so patient,” Starbuck said. “He’s a wonderful teacher.”
Fox carries a variety of gear and instruments for musicians just starting out, to the pros.
He carries brands such as Teton guitars.
“And we have Tanaro guitars, which are really good—good for low entry,” Fox said. “You can come in and not spend a lot of money.”
Tanaro brand guitars start out at $179.
Fox said when the guitars come in, he sets them up.
“We set them up here, tweak them out and stuff, make sure they’re all ready to go and stuff,” he said. “Especially out here with low humidity, you got to get these guitars out here and set them up and everything.”
Other musical instruments
Foxter Music also carries violins and clarinets, along with other instruments, such as mandolins. Fox said he has plans to add saxophones down the line.
“I like to have a lot of different stuff,” he said. “I don’t just want to be just one dimensional.”
Fox also carries higher-end products, which the shop recently started offering this summer.
Fox said he just started carrying the B.C. Rich line—with prices starting at $299, working up to about $700, for the lines he carries in the shop. These lines include the Flying V and guitars from the Warlock series by B.C. Rich, which sit on his walls now.
Foxter gets a variety of customers coming in to buy instruments.
“We get hundreds of different people coming in—touring bands, just starting out,” Fox said. “There’s really no specific market for this.”
Fox’s clientele also includes some of the local bands coming in such as the Reeves Brothers and Jimmy D &The Howling Dog Band.
Fox is no stranger to the road himself, traveling back and forth between Florida and Las Vegas for live shows. He’s also performed live in Pahrump many times.
Fox is performing live at the Hubb on Aug. 12 with his band Incognito.
Contact reporter Jeffrey Meehan at jmeehan@pvtimes.com. On Twitter: @pvtimes