By JEFFREY SMITH Leader staff writer
The first annual Central Arkansas Guitar Show will be held from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday, April 9 at the Jacksonville Community Center.
Admission is $7, or $5 for people who bring a guitar other string instrument.
Guitar show promoter Roger Brooks of Conway said he is expecting to have 50 dealers buying, selling and trading new, used and vintage collector acoustic and electric guitars, amplifiers, banjos, dojos, mandolins and other stringed instruments.
Brooks estimates there will be 1,200 to 1,500 instruments brought to the show by dealers in Arkansas, Texas, Arizona, Missouri, Oklahoma and Illinois.
“Vintage guitar shows date back to the 1970s, when collecting guitars started, and continued to boom to the 2008 when the recession hit. Vintage pieces continue to hold their value,” Brooks said.
He also said the guitar show would be like an “Antiques Roadshow” for musical instruments. “It is exciting to see what people bring in. There is more variety. Visitors can learn about their guitar, get some appraisals and maybe some offers,” Brooks said.
Brooks is hoping 700 to 1,200 people come through the doors of the community center for the show. He said there will some acoustic bands performing during the day, too.
“Most music stores don’t have used guitars. You can’t see a guitar, pick it up and play it on eBay before you buy it,” he noted.
Vintage guitar collecting has been one of Brooks’ hobbies for years. “It is a passion. Some people fall in love with a music instrument,” he said.
Brooks said he’s being doing vintage guitar shows since the late 1970s in Dallas, Texas, and other surrounding states.
He said this would be the first vintage guitar show held in Arkansas and that it should be a great show. There are a lot of vintage acoustic instruments around, with the popularity of bluegrass and country music in the state, Brooks said.
For more information about the event, email ARguitarshow@gmail.com.
The show is being put on by Brooks Custom Guitars, Recycled Sound and Guido’s Hot Springs Music Company.
