Meet the Dealer: Truetone Music, Santa Monica, CA
During our visit to California for the NAMM Show 2018, we had time to stop in Santa Monica - not just to enjoy some sunshine, but also to check out the awesome Truetone Music shop!
Ahead of NAMM Show, we paid a visit to "the" guitar shop to visit in Santa Monica - Truetone Music, bang on Santa Monica boulevard.
This was an unplanned and unannounced visit, so we were very pleased to see that Mike, Truetone's purchase manager, was by total chance wearing one of our Airline t-shirts!
We had a great time checking out the store, meeting the staff and chatting to Mike, who told us some really interesting stories - from playing with Love's Arthur Lee to the time they got a vintage, 1956 Blonde Telecaster just put for sale in the shop: apparently, within minutes someone come in and said they were interested in buying - but then the guy had a change of heart and said he'd go for lunch with his wife to think things over first, since no one else would be buying that expensive guitar so soon.
Well, the guy came one hour later only to find out it HAD been sold in the meantime! It just so happens that Bryan Adams was in town, and his guitar tech came to the shop to pick up a repaired guitar, saw that Telecaster and bought it straight away. A hard lesson to learn, right there...
Stories aside, we were very pleased with the Eastwood stock the shop carries, and we were pleased to be told our tenor models were quite popular. Besides the tenors, they had lots of Sidejacks and Airline models, too.
Of course, Truetone also had tons of other great stuff, such as Victoria amps, great selection of effects and some really tasty second-hand gear such as a Micro-Frets bass!
Even though it was a beautiful day outside (typical Californian winter!) we felt tempted to stay even longer at Truetone, exploring all it had to offer. But duty calls and we had to depart for Anaheim.
We'll be back, that's for sure. With its great selection of gear and a friendly and knowledgeable staff, visiting Truetone left us wishing we could spend hours there. And if you ever pay them a visit while in Santa Monica, you'll feel the same.
Truetone Music info:
Address: 714 Santa Monica Blvd, Santa Monica, CA 90401, USA
Hours:
Thursday11am–9pm
Friday11am–7pm
Saturday11am–7pm
SundayClosed
Monday11am–9pm
Tuesday11am–9pm
Wednesday11am–9pm
Phone: +1 310-393-8232
Links:
Follow @truetone_music on Instagram