YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio – It was a pleasant September afternoon in 2017, and Tom Diggins was minding his small storefront at 14 N. Phelps St. downtown when a passerby stopped in.
The man was on another errand but was so intrigued by the marquee above the doorway that he purposely made a detour into the shop.
Diggins recalled the man as being impressed that such an interesting store could be found in such a small town, as he perused several rows of electric and acoustic guitars hanging along an inside wall. Stores such as these are most likely found in Manhattan or West Hollywood.
“Then he said he’d be in trouble if he didn’t get back soon – he was the guitar tech for Stevie Nicks and was picking up food for the band,” he said, chuckling. Nicks, the former singer for the rock band Fleetwood Mac, was in town performing her solo act at the Covelli Centre that evening.
Diggins has maintained his shop – Hootenanny Vintage Guitars – for 10 years at the downtown location. Since he was a teenager in Buffalo, N.Y., Diggins, now a professor of biology at Youngstown State University, has been fascinated with guitars.
“In Buffalo, we were trying to be an eclectic rock cover band,” Diggins recalled.
Then, while in graduate school, he joined high school friends who had emerged as some of the best session musicians in the Buffalo area as a rhythm guitarist. “We got to be part of the house band at the Lafayette Tavern in downtown Buffalo, which was the top blues room in the whole city and one of the top blues rooms in the whole country,” he said.
At the same time, Diggins took an interest in refurbishing and restoring vintage guitars and soon found that this work paid much better than the live gigs he performed. Moreover, his graduate studies were occupying more of his time, which limited his availability as a rhythm section guitar player.
But his love for guitars never stopped. Twenty-five years after he accepted a position at YSU, Diggins is busier than ever with his hobby-turned-sideline business.
“It’s a pretty ramified market in terms of vintage instruments,” he said. “You’ve got to find your niche and be good at it.”
Diggins does most of his work at his house on the North Side and resells the instruments online. “It’s really 100% online,” he said. Nevertheless, he keeps a retail storefront downtown where he displays and sells the vintage guitars.
The shop usually shuts down over the winter months, Diggins said, but plans to reopen sometime in March. The hours will be limited to Friday and Saturdays, usually between 5 and 8 p.m., he said. He’s looking to add Thursdays this year.
“Fridays and Saturdays are the open nights,” Diggins said. “I think I’m going to add Thursdays. Just the nights that people are out.”
He gets most of his foot traffic during city events such as Federal Frenzy, an all-day music festival downtown.
Over the years, Diggins has reconditioned guitars dating from the early 1900s to more recent models. He’s cautious not to take on those with high-end collector’s value to remain competitive in the resale market.
“I’m largely in what could be considered the player price ranges, low-end collector,” he said. “Millionaires are not buying my guitars and putting them in their man caves.”
On average, prices range from $100 to $1,600, depending on the style and make of the instrument.
“My ideal is to find something that someone is selling because it needs work,” he said. Often, these sellers believe it’s cost prohibitive to repair guitars or other stringed instruments and not worth the investment. Diggins buys, reconditions and sells them.
“I’ve had some of the pre-war Gibsons, which pre-date jazz guitar designs,” he said. Those, he said, are kept at home, as are other models such as small-bodied “parlor” guitars from the early 20th century. Their popularity was revived when blues players during the 1930s began using them because of their “punchy tone,” he added.
Among the more interesting pieces in his shop is a hollow body, 1947 Gretsch synchromatic arch top jazz guitar.
“Guitars are just such a cool part of the culture,” he said. “A lot of these instruments could’ve ended up in the junk pile if they don’t get into the hands of someone who’s going to refurbish them,” he said. He has also refurbished banjos, mandolins and bass guitars at his home.
Folk instruments such as banjos and mandolins are flying off the shelf right now, Diggins said. “Part of the reason I don’t have any folk instruments in here is because they sell so fast,” he noted. “There’s a neat little niche out there.”
Overall, guitar sales in the United States have climbed precipitously since the Great Recession, according to data provided on ToneIsland.com. Much of the demand was precipitated by the Covid-19 pandemic, which sent demand soaring, especially for instruments for sale online.
Fender, for example, reported that 16 million people have tried to play a guitar over the past two years, while 72% of all new guitar players range between ages 13 and 34.
Moreover, the used guitar market is especially robust, data show. According to PianoDreamers.com, the global used guitar market in North America was valued at $1.4 billion in 2020 and is expected to reach $2.1 billion in 2025.
Diggins said he often reevaluates whether it’s worth having a presence downtown, since the money he makes at the storefront isn’t enough to cover the lease. “I spend money to have the storefront,” he said.
Yet Diggins is a champion for downtown. Despite the setbacks over the past five years – ranging from road construction delays to the pandemic and the Realty Tower tragedy – the professor is confident that the central business district will rebound.
“I want to make sure that the folks running the restaurants down here know how much empathy I have and how much admiration I have for them,” Diggins said. “There’s a part of me that doesn’t want to bow out too early.”
Pictured at top: Tom Diggins, owner of Hootenanny Vintage Guitars.