Thought Lot closure information

You may have heard The Thought Lot is closing and slated for demolition.
This is true.

As of March 17, we have received our formal notice by the company acquiring the property to vacate no later than
July 1, 2022

We do not have a timeline for our vacancy, but are operating mostly as normal for the time being.

Current and expected changes:

• We will not be ceasing operations, but instead will be transitioning to an online-only sales format after we vacate our current space. We will be utilizing our existing Reverb store to its fullest potential.
• New layaways will not be initiated.
• New consignment intake will only be considered under particular circumstances. New agreements will include terms that consignors are willing and able to pick up consignments in the chance that the items do not sell in the months we have remaining.
• Purchases and trades will be considered on a case by case basis. We will need to be conscious of what items can and cannot reasonably be shipped, and many of our large existing items are flexible in price to ease the vacancy process.
• Retail fixtures will be sold.
• Consignors will be contacted to discuss options in the coming weeks.

 

December Update

Hey guys, happy December and all that. Just some info for you as we approach the end of 2020:

 

~ Our tech/teacher will not be available from December 8th to December 16th. If you are in need of repair work, or a quote for an extensive job, please reach out this week. Current students will be contacted about scheduling over the course of this week. 

 

~ Consignments (or trades)! We are currently looking for low to mid-range electric guitars and 4-string basses - Squier, Epiphone, Ibanez, Schecter, LTD, etc. We are also in great need of small practice amps, and can consider some purchase of these.

 

~ Lessons and store gift certificates are always available, and with some continuing supplier concerns, likely through the holiday season (still have some backorders out...), this could be a great gift option for your musically-inclined loved ones. This might also alleviate some stress of not knowing what they want or need!

 

We also have a eGift card link - https://squareup.com/gift/RY56838RCM2V7/order

 

That's about it for now. We can be reached at our website with any questions: http://valentineguitars.com/contact.html

 

 

Reverb Roundup - 10/11-10/17

 Another week, another couple additions to our Reverb Store!

Please note that these blog posts are typically scheduled in advance as items are added, and occasionally there may be posts featuring items that recently sold.

 

 

Seymour Duncan SHPR-1 P-Rail Set in Cream

---

 

 

Seymour Duncan SCR1N Cool Rail Neck Pickup in Cream 

 

---

 

 

 

Seymour Duncan SH-4 JB Pickup in Black 

---

ICYMI - PRICE REDUCTION

2016 Fender Custom Shop Postmodern Stratocaster w/ Klein loaded Sigler Music CS Pickguard

 

We've been featured!

We've been featured on the Franklin County Tourism blog for their Tourism Partner Spotlight!

Big thanks to Evan Crider for the write-up, excerpt below:

"Check out Valentine Guitars, a great music store between Hagerstown and Carlisle!

Now located inside the doors of Thought Lot at 37 E Garfield St, Shippensburg, PA 17257, Valentine Guitars got its start in 2010 out of Newville, PA and with the mind of Sara Valentine. Soon after her husband Nick Valentine would come to join her side in running the business. With their love of music and quest for knowledge on the subject directed them to the common goal of maintaining the business for the sake musical individuals within the community. Sara Valentine stated, “We want to exist more as a service center than a retail store”. This commitment is supported by their business statement, “Love what you play”.

Show some love and read the rest on Explore Franklin County here!

 

An old photo... but it checks out

 

Reverb Roundup: 9/27-10/3

 Been a little while to get some new items up on Reverb - bigger items are bound by packaging material limitations, and that's much of what we've received (see our Facebook for photo uploads of new inventory!) Here's what we've added this week for your consideration:

 

MXR Super Comp

----

 

 MXR Ten Band EQ

 

----

 

Vintage Ace Multicolored Strap - NOT A REISSUE

 

New Customer PSA: GPS Issues

First of all, we would like to thank any of the new customers we've received recently for stopping by and checking us out over the past few months. With COVID-19 still affecting many, we
braced a much larger impact to our business, but instead experienced a mostly standard "summer slow down." So thank you for your continued or new business, and we look forward to continue serving all of you.

But enough about that. It has come to our attention that once again, people are having unnecessary difficulties locating us as a result of GPS issues, and we would like to address it. To the best of our abilities, we've attempted to double and triple check all listings and common sources for directions to our location, and for some reason, we've gotten reports of multiple different incorrect destinations. Hopefully this clarification may help.

We are located inside the Thought Lot at 37 E Garfield St, in Shippensburg, PA behind the Gandy Manor townhouses along Earl St. If you are directed by a GPS and ended up near Katie's Place on S Penn St, please continue down the hill via Garfield St and we will be on your right. If you see a large gray warehouse with a yellow stripe in the middle or a painted brick mural adjacent to Garfield St, you are in the right place. (This is a message on our phone system as well, so if you need this information while on the way, you can call our number and press 2.)

If, for some reason you, end up by the beer distributor or Country Corner Rental Center, you are close but not quite there. Proceed to the Earl/Orange 4 way stop, and turn onto S Earl St (toward the train overpass by the baseball fields.) Right before the overpass, there is a left turn onto Garfield St, and you can see the building from there. See the description above to be sure.

If you have experienced issues with directions getting to us, please submit a contact form at http://valentineguitars.com/contact.html with details of where you received the directions (Google, Apple Maps, etc.) and we will look into the issue. Thank you!

Popular on VG Academy - August 2020

Coming to you a little late this month - only a couple popular items this month on VG Academy, but here's what people are checking out right now:

Dan Crary's Flatpick Guitar Workshop 

(link goes to product page for more info)

"This in-depth lesson by one of the most dynamic and accomplished players on the acoustic scene contains classic tunes and a wealth of knowledge, inspiration and powerful ideas."

---

Learn the Art of Bluegrass Rhythm Guitar

"Learn the style, fanciness, smoothness, comfort, finess, power, dynamics & subtle details that will make you sound slick!" 

---

 If you're a beginner looking for more basic materials to supplement your learning process,  these types of instruction may not be for you. In those cases, check out our Youtube channel, where we feature videos detailing the ins and outs of both beginning technique, as well as more complicated material made easier. And best of all - it's free!

Introducing: This is a Riff

For the past month, videos have unfortunately had to take a bit of a back seat to day-to-day shop business - shooting and editing take a lot longer than probably most people realize!

But we're back today introducing a new series: This is a Riff. Each video covers a single personal favorite riff (that's not always well-known) back to front from an instructional perspective. The first episode, which you will see embedded at the bottom of this post, covers the intro to Dancers to a Discordant System by Meshuggah. While this one does have some limitations due to strings, you might still be able to learn something! For links to the original song, the Ultimate Guitar tab used in the video, and recommended tab software, see the video description for more info.

As always, we appreciate you checking it out. Subscribe if you haven't - we are still a little ways off for the 100 sub minimum for an actually useful channel URL, so each one actually does help.

Also - this is in addition to Average Guitar for Average People, so if you've been enjoying those, there's still more on the way.

So without further ado... this is a riff: 

 

PSA: Reverb Sale

Starting today, Reverb is facilitating a 15% off site sale on seller selected items under the Long Weekend Sale heading. We will be offering several items on this sale, including but not limited to:

 

Early 80s MXR Phase 45 

----

 

 

Zildjian 20" A Custom Projection Ride - 

a leftover from before our name change and transition to near-exclusively fretted stringed instruments

----

 

 

Antelope Audio Zen Tour Interface 

 

----

We expect there to be less "retail seller" participation during this and future site sale events- this could be attributed to the fee increase taking place on August 4th of this year (see this post for more info) among other situational concerns. In our case, we are only able to include items with a little extra price flexibility, but we will continue to participate in whatever capacity we are able to.

 

 The sale concludes on September 8th at 11am CDT (noon our time), so check it out before it's gone!

Links:

Our Shop

Site Sale

Refer-a-friend (use this link if you're not already on Reverb, you'll get $10 in site credit)

PSA: Supplier Shortages

 

Toward the middle of lockdown, which took place (for us) between mid March and the third week of May, we received correspondence from our largest supplier that dealers should expect issues with high demand item stock. This was solely due to non-essential business shutdowns in their factory locations, and this notification, in turn, likely caused a rapid depletion of popular items in their warehouse.

We were notified that upon reopening, they would be fulfilling backorders with priority given to top selling items, causing a further wait for more specialty products, and additional backorders would be generated. This is still currently taking place, affecting many stores in our industry - us included. 

 We currently have our best selling pick gauges, regular tension student classical strings, 15' Classic Series Cables, and 80/20 Custom Light acoustic strings backordered - their respective orders were placed when stock was available, but backordered by the time it was processed. Other affected items, out of stock at the time of our last order, include standard non-coated D'addario acoustic 12s, all D'addario banjo variants except for Irish tenor, and Classic series XLR cables of all lengths except 50ft. Initially we had difficulty acquiring clip on tuners and capos as well - we have since sourced comparable products elsewhere for the time being. 

We ask that you continue to be patient regarding these issues, as many shops are affected. We are currently keeping a close eye on the situation, balancing well-timed orders with financial obligations. This is a challenge for everyone involved, and we appreciate your understanding.

ICYMI: Average Guitar for Average People Part 4 - Strumming

Our whole channel can be found at this link.

Please considering liking, commenting, and subscribing. With 100 subscribers, we will be eligible for a custom Youtube URL for easier sharing. Every little bit helps!

Reverb Roundup: 8/10-8/15

 Got a new batch of small items up this past week. See the links below for more information:

MXR Block Logo Phase 45 - early 80s, no LED/9v

-------------

MXR 6 Band Graphic EQ

ICYMI - Average Guitar for Average People Part 3 - Barre Chords

Our whole channel can be found at this link.

Please considering liking, commenting, and subscribing. With 100 subscribers, we will be eligible for a custom Youtube URL for easier sharing. Every little bit helps!

ICYMI - Average Guitar for Average People Part 2 - Open 7th Chords

Our whole channel can be found at this link.

Please considering liking, commenting, and subscribing. With 100 subscribers, we will be eligible for a custom Youtube URL for easier sharing. Every little bit helps!

ICYMI - Average Guitar for Average People Part 1 - Open Chords

Our whole channel can be found at this link.

Please considering liking, commenting, and subscribing. With 100 subscribers, we will be eligible for a custom Youtube URL for easier sharing. Every little bit helps!

Continuing the Fight Against COVID-19

Thank you to everyone who continues supporting us through this unprecedented times. This is intended to increase awareness of the changes we have made and new offerings to ensure continued convenience and safety against this stupid thing:

In Store/Sales

In-person sales have resumed since May 22nd as before with regular business hours. Curbside pickup for phone/online orders and contactless payment are now offered. Online sales via Reverb are fulfilled normally with no change in process. We have not yet had to address a max number of customer limit as of this writing.

To initiate a curbside pickup order, please call our shop number during business hours and choose extension 1 for instructions. Text based orders are preferred, as contactless payment links can be provided immediately and speed up the process.

Repairs

Tech availability is dependent on lessons schedule, with Thursdays being drop off only.

Contactless pickup and payment are offered by request, and preferred.

Lessons

At the beginning of the local business shutdown, we made significant upgrades to our technological capabilities to continue our lessons program as uninterrupted as possible for those students willing and/or capable to pursue a digital platform for their instruction. And while we have resumed in-person lessons, continuing to utilize these new upgrades to expand our online program is our next goal, independent of pandemic-related factors.

The Average Guitar for Average People Youtube series is an extension of this goal, as it provides an example of content and teaching style, while not undermining the more individually focused program we offer. If you like what you see, and would like to learn more in a more personalized and direct fashion, we encourage you to consider submitting an inquiry here for more information.

About Masks

Your mask protects us from more than just COVID-19.

As of July 1, 2020, the PA Department of Health has mandated mask wearing in public spaces, with few exemptions. Enforcement of order compliance has been placed on businesses, even at the risk of lost customers and revenue.

If you don’t wear a mask, and are capable of doing so, we could get fined, as per the PA Administrative Code of 1929, and the Disease Prevention and Control law of 1955.

With this in mind, we are now requiring masks for all store visits as well as in-person lessons. We will be making them available for purchase shortly. If you are unwilling or unable to wear one, we are happy to shop for you or arrange curbside purchases - detailed above.

PSA: Reverb Fees - Info for Buyers

As of this Tuesday at 11AM our time, Reverb will be increasing their fees from 3.5% to 5%. This is in addition to their existing transaction fees. This is in efforts to "invest more in growth."

From the email sent to site users:

We are modifying our selling fee to help us invest more to sustain our community’s continued growth. This year alone, we plan to increase our investment from 2019 by: 

• Investing over 30% more in marketing initiatives—including SEO, online video advertising, and other digital advertising—to get your inventory in front of more buyers from around the world.
• Expanding by more than 25% the capacity of our global customer support team focused on assisting you and your buyers as we grow.
• Increasing by more than 40% the capacity of our product team focused on creating and enhancing seller tools and services to increase the visibility of your shop and inventory.

Coincidentally, or maybe not, this also comes almost exactly a year after their acquisition by Etsy. With this new change, many sellers already considering alternatives might jump ship and make their way back to eBay, as the fees on guitars and basses will officially be lower there.

While it may not seem like a huge jump, we expect to see a bit of an increase in site prices across the board while those sellers who continue to use the site attempt to recoup these fees. Accordingly, sold prices will likely gradually make an increase over time, and as we use the site as a estimation tool on a regular basis for our consignments needing evaluation, trade in values, and purchase values, this change may be reflected in store as well as online.

But please consider this: They have chosen to increase these fees at a time when small businesses are shuttering at a record pace due to financial impacts from COVID-19 closures when their parent company's shares have been on a steady increase since mid March.

To be clear, for a shop as small as ours, Reverb is extremely valuable, and we are grateful for the platform. We would not be able to maintain a comparable eCommerce presence on our own, especially not one with the foundation we've established over the years, so we will be maintaining our Reverb store as we have been and adjusting accordingly. With that said, we have been extremely lucky with our bounce back from a 2ish month closure during what is normally the most lucrative time of the year, but not all businesses have been so lucky, and many still struggle.

We encourage you to seek out shops that use the site the way we do (as a promotional tool as well as a selling tool) and make purchases directly via website or phone, in an effort to further support small business during these unprecedented times.

Thanks for reading!

Popular on VG Academy - July 2020

This post is covering a little more ground than the older posts as it features popular items purchased since January. Feel free to check out these items and many more, on VG Academy On Demand.

------

Efrain Toro - All of Rhythm

--

Randy Howard - Hot Fiddlin'

--

ICYMI - Average Guitar for Average People Part 0.5 - The Basics

Our whole channel can be found at this link.

Please considering liking, commenting, and subscribing. With 100 subscribers, we will be eligible for a custom Youtube URL for easier sharing. Every little bit helps!

PSA: (Almost) Daily Guitar Streams

Alongside our channel, our tech/teacher is doing near-daily live streams on Youtube as well, featuring practice sessions and songwriting sessions/challenges. All streams are intended to be interactive content with live q&a if you're inclined to participate. Due to availability, streams will not be occurring on Thursdays at this time, but they will be taking place most other days around 8pm.

See below for the most recent video stream at the time of this writing: