{"id":1319532,"date":"2020-04-19T19:25:00","date_gmt":"2020-04-20T01:25:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.postindependent.com\/?p=995746"},"modified":"2020-04-20T07:47:24","modified_gmt":"2020-04-20T13:47:24","slug":"monday-profile-wally-bacon-motivated-by-love-of-vintage-instruments","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/local-news\/monday-profile-wally-bacon-motivated-by-love-of-vintage-instruments\/","title":{"rendered":"Monday Profile: Wally Bacon motivated by love of vintage instruments"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure class=\"wp-block-image p402_hide\">\n<div class=\"caption-container\"> <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"652\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.postindependent.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2020\/04\/ProfileBacon-gpi-042020-2-1024x652.jpg\" class=\"attachment-large size-large wp-post-image\" alt srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.postindependent.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2020\/04\/ProfileBacon-gpi-042020-2-1024x652.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/cdn.postindependent.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2020\/04\/ProfileBacon-gpi-042020-2-300x191.jpg 300w, https:\/\/cdn.postindependent.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2020\/04\/ProfileBacon-gpi-042020-2-768x489.jpg 768w, https:\/\/cdn.postindependent.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2020\/04\/ProfileBacon-gpi-042020-2-1536x977.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/cdn.postindependent.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2020\/04\/ProfileBacon-gpi-042020-2-2048x1303.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\"><figcaption><strong>Wally Bacon behind the counter in his shop The Guitar Cellar in downtown Glenwood.<\/strong><br \/><em>Chelsea Self \/ Post Independent<\/em><\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<div class=\"p402_hide\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\">\n<div class=\"caption-container\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.postindependent.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2020\/04\/ProfileBacon-gpi-042020-1-1024x745.jpg\" alt class=\"wp-image-995748\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.postindependent.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2020\/04\/ProfileBacon-gpi-042020-1-1024x745.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/cdn.postindependent.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2020\/04\/ProfileBacon-gpi-042020-1-300x218.jpg 300w, https:\/\/cdn.postindependent.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2020\/04\/ProfileBacon-gpi-042020-1-768x559.jpg 768w, https:\/\/cdn.postindependent.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2020\/04\/ProfileBacon-gpi-042020-1-1536x1117.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/cdn.postindependent.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2020\/04\/ProfileBacon-gpi-042020-1-2048x1489.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\"><figcaption><strong>Wally Bacon tunes a guitar in his shop The Guitar Cellar in downtown Glenwood.<\/strong><br \/><em>Chelsea Self \/ Post Independent<\/em><\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<p>The story of luthier Wally Bacon\u2019s early career in the Roaring Fork Valley reads like the story of the 1970s- and \u201980s-era Roaring Fork Valley itself \u2014 guitars, business start-ups, back-room drug deals (not by him), and even years spent living in other places, destined to return.<\/p>\n<p>Like many who came before him, and many who have arrived since, the young Bacon \u2014 now owner of Glenwood\u2019s Guitar Cellar \u2014 had planned on a short visit, but ended up staying.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt was 1973 and I was on my way to California and I stopped to pick up some camping equipment that my brother had left with a mutual friend of ours in El Jebel, and I never left,\u201d Bacon said.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>He ended up renting a trailer from Floyd Crawford, and the following year opened his first guitar store \u2014 Wally\u2019s Pick &amp; Strum \u2014 in a metal building that Crawford had built in El Jebel.<\/p>\n<div class=\"row\">\n<div class=\"col\">\n<div class=\"row gspi-donation gspi-donation-mobile p-0\">\n<div class=\"col-xl-4 p-2\">\n<div data-bg=\"url(https:\/\/cdn.postindependent.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2020\/03\/PI-logo-white.png)\" class=\"p-0 mt-2 mb-2 h-75 text-center rocket-lazyload\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.postindependent.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2020\/03\/PI-logo-white.png\" class=\"logo m-0 p-0 invisible\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div data-bg=\"url(https:\/\/cdn.postindependent.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2020\/03\/pi-banner-paypal.jpg)\" class=\"col-xl-8 p-3 text-center rocket-lazyload\">\n<h3 class=\"d-inline mr-3\">Support Local Journalism<\/h3>\n<p><button class=\"btn d-inline\" type=\"button\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.postindependent.com\/donate\/?utm_source=article&amp;utm_medium=website&amp;utm_campaign=donation&amp;utm_term=&amp;utm_content=mid-article\">Donate<\/a><\/button><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>Motivated by his love of guitars and also by the desire to \u201cnever have a regular job,\u201d Bacon had been inspired to open his own store after visiting a suburban Detroit music store that specialized in vintage instruments.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI fell in love with this guy\u2019s shop \u2014 he had all these old instruments, and I was always into older instruments,\u201d he said. \u201cWhat I wanted to do was not sell new stuff; I wanted to sell used gear.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The midvalley was a very different place in those days, but Bacon soon discovered that he had filled a need.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAll the guys from the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band were coming into my shop,\u201d he said. \u201cI was rockin\u2019 and rollin\u2019 in that El Jebel store because there was nothing else around \u2014 Max\u2019s Music was in Glenwood, and Sandy (Munro) had just bought the Great Divide in Aspen and he was trying to get that store going.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Bacon wasn\u2019t yet proficient at repairing guitars at that time, but he had a deep interest in learning.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI was green as could be, but I loved guitars and was working on my own instruments,\u201d he said. \u201cThat\u2019s when I first started learning to repair guitars. I had a friend who was a guitar repairman and showed me some stuff, but (I learned) mostly from reading books.\u201d<\/p>\n<h4><strong>Hello Carbondale<\/strong><\/h4>\n<p>In 1976, Bacon moved his store into the second floor of Carbondale\u2019s Dinkel Building, where he traded his rent for shoveling coal into the building\u2019s historic coal furnace. He sold that business in 1980, but shortly after opened another music store \u2014 Carbondale Music Company \u2014 in the office of an out-of-business gas station on the corner of Weant Boulevard and Main Street, right next to Peppinos Pizza.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere was not much going on in Carbondale then,\u201d Bacon said. \u201cI kicked a lot of hacky sack with Kurt (Trede) from Peppinos, and he wasn\u2019t very busy either.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Then Bacon said he got \u201can offer I couldn\u2019t refuse,\u201d from a local drug dealer.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe wanted to buy my music store so he could use it for a front to sell drugs,\u201d Bacon said. \u201cHe owned a building in Carbondale that had this basement \u2014 he had a desk down there like a big mafioso \u2014 and the front was my music store. He hired me to run the music store part.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>But, of course, the drug dealer got busted, which put an end to Carbondale Music Company.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>For the next five years, Bacon made ends meet by driving a bus for Aspen Community School, doing maintenance repair, and buying, selling and repairing guitars on the side, including for both The Great Divide and Max\u2019s Music.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI was working on instruments and getting pretty good at it,\u201d he said. \u201cSo I opened up Wally\u2019s Music, which was back upstairs in the Dinkel Building in a different space.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>After five years there, Bacon sold that business, along with about 20 guitars, to Steve Standiford, who changed the name to Steve\u2019s Guitars. He then moved to Paonia where he continued his business as Wally\u2019s Music out of a house he rented.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI had a basement where I did my repair work, and I sold probably 20 more guitars to Steve during that time,\u201d he said. (Bacon says he has sold close to 100 guitars to Standiford over the years.)<\/p>\n<h4><strong>To Mexico and back again<\/strong><\/h4>\n<p>In 1999, Bacon moved to Mazatlan where he worked repairing instruments for a government-run music school.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBy then I was starting to repair classical instruments \u2014 violins, cellos, rehairing bows \u2014 and performing there for the tourists,\u201d he said.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>He stayed for 14 years, but the little town where he and his wife were living and raising their two young children got tangled up in the drug war, so they moved back to the U.S. \u2014 first to Florida for six months, where Bacon hated it, and then to New Castle.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI started doing repairs out of the house I was living in, but I decided I didn\u2019t want people coming into my place, so I opened up the Guitar Cellar,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>Bacon will soon have to vacate that Grand Avenue space that he\u2019s occupied for the past five years, as the building was recently sold.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI would love to stay in Glenwood,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s the best place for me because I get work from Aspen, Grand Junction, Vail and Meeker, but I\u2019ll go wherever I can find a space.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>And like most businesses in the age of coronvirus, Bacon\u2019s business has slowed to a halt in recent weeks.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019ve got 40-some instruments that I\u2019m waiting to repair of my own, that I\u2019ve never really had time to because I\u2019ve always been busy doing other people\u2019s instruments,\u201d he said. \u201cBut this is the first time in 47 years of doing this that I haven\u2019t had a repair job from somebody else.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><em><a href=\"mailto:jbear@postindependent.com\">jbear@postindependent.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.postindependent.com\/news\/monday-profile-wally-bacon-motivated-by-love-of-vintage-instruments\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">via:: Post Independent<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Wally Bacon behind the counter in his shop The Guitar Cellar in downtown Glenwood.Chelsea Self \/ Post Independent Wally Bacon tunes a guitar in his shop The Guitar Cellar in downtown Glenwood.Chelsea Self \/ Post Independent The story of luthier Wally Bacon\u2019s early career in the Roaring Fork Valley reads like the story of the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[160],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1319532","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-local-news"],"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-09-04 01:51:18","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSKE Ski Country","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1319532","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1319532"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1319532\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1319537,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1319532\/revisions\/1319537"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1319532"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1319532"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1319532"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}