Sweet Sounds on South 10th St. Sweet Sounds on South 10th St.

By Ann Craig-Cinnamon

he next time you’re driving on 10th Street in Noblesville, keep an eye out for famous musicians. You just never know who might be stopping by Center Stage Vintage Guitars located on the corner of 10th and Plum.

Owner Kevin Heffernan and his shop have become well known on numerous fronts including to musicians who are in town for a concert either to come check out his vintage collection of guitars or to have a repair made to one of their own instruments. Either way he’s had his share of brushes with fame.

Famous Clientele

Like many businesses, Center Stage Vintage Guitars got started out of a need. Heffernan, who is a self-taught guitarist and comes from a family of musicians, learned to repair his own instruments and it grew from there. “Necessity is the mother of invention. I couldn’t afford to have anyone work on my stuff when I was younger so I’d just do it myself.

Then I’m doing my friend’s guitars and building guitars. I’ve built over 600 guitars and I just never stopped,” he says, adding that he picks things up pretty quickly. “I have a million hobbies and this is one of them that I made an occupation out of.”

He worked out of his basement for 10 years and then got so busy that he moved into his shop on 10th Street in 2013. He recently purchased the building and is working now on expansion.

When asked to name some of his famous clientele, Heffernan rattles off a list of people from Carrie Underwood, Santana, and Johnny Cash to Saturday Night Live. Brad Paisley has stopped by himself as have members of Phish to name a few. And what draws them to a small shop in Noblesville?

“They found me online and they realize they’re only 20 minutes from the shop. ‘Hey let’s go see this guitar store’. They don’t have anything to do until their show,” he says adding, “it’s just vintage guitars that attracts them to the place. I sort of specialize in that and I’m a master luthier. I do all kinds of repair and restoration along with custom built stuff so that keeps me busy.”

As a master luthier (defined as a person making or repairing string musical instruments), Heffernan has built instruments for some of these famous musicians and has built amplifiers for others. He’s also sold vintage guitars to some of them. “So it’s a combination of those ingredients when they stop by the store.” And there are perks to his business. “I’ve gotten a lot of sweet tickets to great shows,” he says.

Prize Instruments

But most people who do business with Heffernan are just average folks who like music and most find him online where he has had a presence for 20 years. In fact, he says probably 90% of his business is online. “If you type in vintage guitars Indiana I’m the first thing that pops up,” he says.

Heffernan says he pays more than anybody else for vintage instruments because he specializes in them and he has no trouble finding pieces to repair and sell because of the reputation he has built. “Someone might find something at a garage sale and say ‘let’s go see what the guitar guy will give me for this.’ “

He currently has some 120 guitars in his shop, not to mention other stringed instruments like banjoes, mandolins and even zithers, all of which he also repairs. And he has had some classic pieces. “Probably the most unique thing I’ve sold was a 1960 Les Paul Custom and that went for $40,000. Just needed to put on new strings. I bought the Les Paul and a 1959 Stratocaster off the same guy and I still have the ‘59 Stratocaster which is probably the most valuable instrument I have in the store at the moment,” says Heffernan. He also counts a guitar once belonging to Eddie Vedder of Pearl Jam as one of his prize pieces that he had and sold.

He doesn’t stop at custom building, repairing, buying and selling vintage guitars either, he practices what he preaches by offering free live instore music every Saturday at 3pm. “I’ve got a stage in here and a PA and a set of drums and keyboards and amplifiers; everything so people just come in and plug in and do a one-hour set.” People come from all over to jam he says and he streams it on Facebook and Instagram and has several thousand followers including people from all over the world that now watch the Saturday jam session.

Porch Jam Sessions

Having bought his building about 6 months ago, Heffernan has committed himself even further to the Noblesville business community. “Noblesville is changing; trying to make it more friendly to younger people. For one thing, they’re building a beer brewery just down the road and that’s going to really impact my business,” he says, adding that he loves Noblesville and wouldn’t go anywhere else. “I could take this to Nashville, Austin or wherever. I have people come in all the time that say ‘I just came in from Portland and we don’t have anything like this’”.

And, indeed, there’s nothing else like it in Indiana, he says. “I do offer the best selection of vintage guitars in the state and I also offer expert repair service.” His eclectic hobbies extend beyond stringed instruments. You might also find his robot creations in his store and in keeping with the theme, they all have built-in amplifiers. Another passion of his is classic cars and on any given day his classic 1958 Triumph TR3 may be parked outside his shop.

On a summer Saturday, if you’re in the neighborhood, you might hear his shop from blocks away when he takes his jam sessions out on the front porch. “When the band stops playing a lot of people stick around in the summertime. We just go sit on the porch and play music. It’s all acoustic; might be a banjo and a bass, electric guitar player. It’s just fun. It’s kind of a social club on Saturdays. We don’t get a lot of work done. There are people that come up just to hang out and check out the scene and it’s a lot of fun.”

This kind of spontaneous musical celebration likely couldn’t happen just anywhere, but it does happen just a few blocks south of Noblesville’s iconic town square. Heffernan and his guitar store have become a destination for people from all over. “Weekly I get people that don’t live in Indiana that stop in because they found me online or their brother or sister lives here or something. If you play music you got to see it because it’s just really unique.” HCBM popular events, the annual up! We will be set up at surrounded by a wide assortment of bidder. In addition, guests performance from the Hamilton asking members to giftwrap a donate, this could be your something disguised to as a bottle of salad your imagination). Collections auction are currently underway. All auction will be allocated to our would like to donate a bottle jesy.ide@nhccoc.org.

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