Shine a Light

from Music & Sound Retailer July 2021, Vol 38 No 7 - Special Summer NAMM Issue

Veddatorial

SHINING STAR

By Michelle Loeb

L to r: Johnpaul Simonet, Jeremie Murfin and Geoff Metts Five Star Guitars 17305 NW Corridor Ct #100 Beaverton, OR 97006 (503) 439-9500 www.fivestarguitars.com Mon.–Sun. 11a.m.–7 p.m. Geoff Metts, CMO Jeremie Murfin, CFO Johnpaul Simonet, COO

It was just about a decade ago, on February 1, 2012, when Ken Potter retired from Five Star Guitars, the Beaverton, Ore.-based music store he founded in May 1998 out of a 2,500-square-foot residential ranch style house converted to retail. The opportunity to purchase the store wasn’t lost on three longtime employees, Geoff Metts, Jeremie Murfin and Johnpaul Simonet. Metts had a business degree from University of Idaho; Murfin was a former fifth-grade teacher with an interest in finance and degrees in media arts and teaching; and Simonet had a background in customer service, technical training and support. All three were also musicians who had been involved with the Portland music scene for decades. Together, they decided to combine their backgrounds in music, their knowledge of the local community and their various business expertise to purchase the store and take Five Star Guitars to the next level.

“The biggest challenges included spreading awareness throughout the Portland metro area, modernizing our website to include a shopping cart, and scaling up our inventory on a relatively modest budget,” said Metts, who was one of nine employees at the time he and his fellow co-owners purchased the store. “We learned that if we take care of our customers, employees and vendors, they would take care of us.”

Under the new ownership, Five Star Guitars expanded its retail sales, lessons program and repair department in ways that capitalized on what Metts calls a symbiotic relationship. “We designed this offering of goods and services so that we could be a hub of musical activity for our community,” he explained. “Customers can buy instruments, learn to play them and have them maintained all in one convenient location.”

The team curated a unique mix of products to fill its 7,500-squarefoot store, with offerings running the gamut from major brands like Gibson, Mesa Boogie, PRS and Tom Anderson to innovative local manufacturers like Benson Amplification, Ear Trumpet Labs, Breedlove, Mr. Black Pedals, Spaceman Effects, Divine Noise Cables and AMR Drumsticks.

The showroom is decorated with strands of Edison lights that Metts says drape from the 12-foot-high ceilings “in a way that mimics local vineyards,” as well as a color palette that distinguishes departments “while simultaneously drawing your eye across the room.” The space includes customized retail experiences carved out within the store to spotlight manufacturers such as Breedlove, Taylor and Fender, the latter of which Metts, Murfin and Simonet worked closely with to create the first ever “Fender Shop-In-Shop” experience — a 450-square-foot area featuring custom fixtures and product offerings from the iconic brand.

An additional 350 square feet is set aside for Five Star Guitar’s highly regarded repair facility, which inspects, evaluates and performs a custom setup on each instrument a customer may find on the sales floor or on the store’s website. “Whether you buy in our showroom or on our website, we have made sure it is a good example and optimized for playability at no extra costs to the customer,” said Metts. The goal, he continued, is to ensure that “instruments purchased from Five Star Guitars play better, sound better and have fewer problems down the road than instruments bought elsewhere.” The repair shop “has become not only a good source of revenue, but also a way to bring new customers into Five Star Guitars,” Metts explained. As a warranty repair facility for many of the brands they carry, as well as some they don’t, “we get referrals from manufacturers and other stores alike,” Metts added.

The final piece of the puzzle is the store’s lesson program, which teaches hundreds of students out of six lesson rooms each year. Students range in age from 6 to 76 and encompass all skill levels, “all having a great time making music,” said Metts. Each year, Five Star Guitars holds a series of student concerts at

The Five Star Guitars' staff

established music venues and city-sponsored events. “The student concerts, which are open to the public, have become an effective way to market our lesson program as well as our retail and repair business,” said Metts. “We’ve branded Five Star Guitars as a community-minded musical hub, and these concerts are a fantastic way of demonstrating to our customers and potential (continued on page 52)