If you are looking for renovation inspiration, head on over to our awesome neighbors at Black Book Guitars. The five-year-old music shop specializes in vintage and rare guitars and is now expanding into Chloe Eudaly’s old shop, the Reading Frenzy, in order to house more gems for music lovers. You can often find the curly-haired treasure-hunter at the ReBuilding Center, rifling through the lumberyard finding materials to help house his renovated instruments.
Finding the beauty and value in reclaimed materials must come naturally to the Black Book Guitars owner, Nathan Fasold. I got a tour of the renovation project from Nathan and along the way learned a great deal about craftsmanship. This isn't just any music shop; with a walk around the store, you might see guitars from Modest Mouse, Elliot Smith, Kurt Cobain, R.E.M., and memorabilia from Willie Nelson. Nathan's father was a treasure-hunter in Key West before the family moved to Oregon, and perhaps Nathan was destined to be a source of recovering and reinventing works of art.
“The wear marks of its former owner that show how they played the instrument, it reveals the habits and preferences of the musician, the type of wood, the smell.”
Nathan loves to go exploring across the street at ReBuilding Center and has an impressive collection of repurposed materials in his store. An extra tall former kitchen dish cabinet is now a display holder for his vintage amps. A bar counter from an old brewery is a workbench for their amp technician. Old PDX airport signs will become part of the display in the new space. A shelf for holding guitar cases utilizes old doors to make levels.
I got to hold some of these vintage guitars, hear about their stories, travels, and feel the colorful lives that have moved through these instruments. Much like the folks at Black Book Guitars, at the ReBuilding Center, we believe in reuse as a way of life and in supporting sustainability, creativity, and of course community. Congratulations to Black Book Guitars on their amazing new space! Its opening this week, so go and check it out.