Gibson, the Nashville guitar maker beloved by Jimmy Page to Ray Davies, is opening its first big store outside the US just off London’s Oxford Street, where VIP visitors will be ushered into a secret bar accessed via a door hidden in a red phone box.
Opening to the public on Saturday, the 4,500 sq ft (420 sq metres) of space on Eastcastle Street is within stumbling distance of the 100 Club, the music venue where bands such as the Rolling Stones, the Clash and Blur have played. It is also close to Denmark Street, once home to recording studios and music publishers and still home to London’s biggest cluster of instrument stores.
Page, whose solo on Led Zeppelin’s Since I’ve Been Loving You was played on a Gibson Les Paul electric guitar, joined fellow rock legends Brian May of Queen and Tony Iommi of Black Sabbath to cut the ribbon of the Gibson Garage on Thursday – the brand’s second shop globally.
After 130 years of guitar making, Gibson is venturing into retail. The company opened its first store in its home town of Nashville, in 2021, in a former railway station within walking distance of the neon lights of Music City and the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum. Here too, the designers incorporated a secret room. The Vault, whose entrance is hidden behind a bookcase, is an invitation-only space that contains a collection of some of Gibson’s rarest guitars.
Cesar Gueikian, the chief executive of the guitar brand, said he wanted the London Gibson Garage to become the centre of a musical network, which might include the Jack White’s Third Man Records near Carnaby Street and HMV’s newly reopened Oxford Street store, both of which also host gigs. In Nashville, the group created a map of local music sites – a “guitar safari” – for its shoppers and hopes to do something similar in London.
“In Nashville as a consequence of our opening other like-minded brands started opening around us. It creates a kind of flow and we all get more traffic,” Gueikian said.
“The Garage in Nashville has become a destination and we wanted to recreate that here in London. London is synonymous with music. Genres were created here and it has a whole music ecosystem. It was a very natural second location for us.”
The US store has helped local Gibson dealers and other music-based businesses, rather than bypassing them, said Gueikian, as it has drawn more guitar fans to the area because of “an allure that you never know who you are going to run into” with well-known bands would popping by when playing in the area.
To entice rock VIPs in, there is the secret bar that is accessed via a replica of a traditional red phone box. The bar is equipped with a giant sofa, a piano and numerous guitars on which players can perform their own versions of classics like the solo on Sympathy for the Devil, which Keith Richards played on a Gibson Les Paul black beauty.
“If Gibson players are performing in London we expect them to be here,” Gueikian said.
The store has a stage in the basement for hosting gigs and talks with well-known musicians as well as a regular buskers’ spot. It will also be possible for anyone to plug into an amp to try out one of hundreds of electric guitars on sale or sit down to strum one of many acoustic instruments.
Gueikian said the brand was planning to open more Garage outlets around the world, but no more than one every 12 to 18 months in large cities with a vibrant music scene.
It will also be possible to get repairs carried out or to choose the wood and metalwork for a custom-made Les Paul, which can be pre-aged so it looks similar to a guitar used by a favourite musician.
The most expensive item on sale will be a £20,000 replica of “Greeny”, the 1959 Les Paul standard first owned by Fleetwood Mac’s Peter Green that is now worth millions of pounds. The cheapest guitar on sale in London is a £200 Epiphone instrument, while shoppers can pick up a basic Gibson for about £1,500. For those with less cash to splash there are Gibson T-shirts and other branded paraphernalia.
For the opening, there will also be 20 custom replicas of former Noel Gallagher’s 1978 Les Paul, which was given to the former Oasis guitarist by The Smiths’ Johnny Marr. Profits from the sale of those guitars will go to the Teenage Cancer Trust.
The store will also stock other brands owned by Gibson including the largest display of Kramer electric guitars in the UK, in a retro 1980s-themed room, and its cheaper Epiphone range, which is made in China.
