California Trippin' Part 6 : Norman's Rare Guitars

Norman's Rare Guitars store front

Our California Road Trip was one of the highlights of the year. If you live in, or ever visit California I encourage you to set aside a few days to visit the Carvin, Taylor & Fender factories. The final stop on our trip was to visit Norman's Rare Guitars, in Tarzana. I first learned of Norman's through the 1984 documentary-- rather, rockumentary of England's loudest rock & roll band, Spinal Tap; guitarist, Nigel Tufnel wore the shirt that quickly became a classic. Since then, Norman's has continued to grow a reputation as the place in Southern California to find rare & vintage guitars. 

Classic Norman's T-Shirt

Walking into this large shop, the initial impression is that they could use even more room! Not only is each wall covered with guitars hanging from their headstocks, even the floor space is covered with guitars. Walking through Norman's is much like observing farmland from above; large squared crops of vintage & used Fenders comprise one large section neighbored by an equally impressive crop of Gibsons. Rows of amplifiers separate the electrics from the acoustics... 

Joe Bonamassa & Joe Walsh visit

Despite its comparable size, Norman's is nothing like a chain store such as Guitar Center. Here the sales people know what they have in stock, and the guitars are in tune. You wont find text-distracted simpletons manning the store, or skinny-jeans wearing 

teens playing out of tune licks through cranked amplifiers. Instead, chances are more likely you'll run into musicians such as Joe Bonamassa, or Joe Walsh, and employees who routinely play and service the finest in vintage guitars and amplifiers. 

Norman's is a guitar shop where it's even possible for a guys wife can find a guitar that she wants to adopt. Our visit to Norman's happened within a week of our visit to Carvin where we got a preview of Kat's custom made blue sparkle single cutaway guitar. It was also within a few days of our visit to the Fender factory, where we got to see each step of the build process. So it should come as no surprise that when my wife set eyes on a blue sparkle Telecaster Deluxe, she would have to take it for a spin. 

My wife's blue sparkle, limited run Telecaster Deluxe

After walking through the entire selection of Norman's collection of classic guitars, we took our time and compared the Tele to classic Gibsons, new and vintage Fenders alike. This Tele had something very special. Even with old factory strings this guitar resonated like crazy with each chord strummed. It was one of those rare times where you know this is the one to go out of your way to bring home. Which we were lucky enough to do. The folks at Norman's treated us like we were celebrities, even though we were buying one of their far less expensive guitars. They obviously understand that for a guitar to be special, it doesn't necessarily need to be built in the 1960s, or built by an old reclusive luthier who wrote the Manual Of Tone. 

The Tele was waiting to the left of the Rickenbacker collection

The 1400 mile return trip to Washington was much more fun having the Tele with us. It gave me a chance to work out song ideas during longer roadside breaks, and in hotel rooms. The guitars gig bag-- which was from the lower end of the breed-- did a great job protecting the guitar, and provided a much more convenient way of carrying it around during our trip than a hardshell case would have been. 

While California has many wonderful independent guitar shops, Norman's is one that should be at the top of anyones must-do list. After seeing first hand the different approaches used by Carvin, Taylor, and Fender to building guitars-- including the pride each take in building their instruments-- it was fitting that we should also follow the newly built guitars to the retailer and ultimately to the customer-- us! We also placed a custom order through Carvin, but thats a story for another time...

Stay tuned, and in-tune!