Elite Guitars

Welcome. I have been a professional retail Vintage Instrument vendor since 1984. My previous business was known as Guitars R Us, which was a well-established and well-known brick and mortar vintage guitar store that I owned and operated in Los Angeles, CA. During the time I was open in Hollywood, I had a thriving local business, as well as many International customers, guests and visitors, many of whom I established long-term relationships with, which continue today. At the tail end of 2001, I decided to close my retail store. Since that time, I have worked privately inside the music industry, primarily as a much-needed expert vintage musical instrument vendor, appraiser, and consultant for many artists and friends. The launch of a new online business and name marks my re-entry into the public retail domain. A perusal of my website will help familiarize you with my professional background and multi-decade experience as a collector, retail vendor, author, player and vintage instrument resource for many professional recording and performing artists worldwide. My approach to online selling utilizes my professional photography skills to display my items. I feel an instrument’s photographs are an essential and vital part of the description, as such, you will always see many large, clear and detailed, high-resolution pictures accompanied by thorough, intelligent and informative descriptions with full disclosures, including any known repairs. Additionally, I will never represent that I "think" something is original, or declare "I do not know" regarding an instruments' originality. I DO KNOW and pride myself on being an expert, which is one of the reasons I am relied upon. I am very passionate about Vintage musical instruments and am a serious, long-term collector myself. I have authored as well as participated in more than 2-dozen popular guitar-specialty books, which you can view on the ABOUT ME page of my website. Many of my instrument offerings have been in my possession for 25-30 years, and because I care about all of my instruments, I strive to display them in an accurate, honest, documentary yet artistic style. I hope that my pictures might be enjoyed as well as provide useful and needed details, which as online buyers, we all crave. Additionally, before the photography and editing sessions, each of my instruments is thoroughly vetted by me. During the process, they are carefully cleaned and detailed, thoroughly checked, adjusted and set-up. This always includes brand new name-brand strings and final testing before anything leaves my hands. There is a substantial difference in my approach to running a professional online instrument business, which is the result of many years of my own disappointing online “buying” experiences. My selling approach caters to the customer and to the continued preservation of my instruments, as such, I go to great lengths and great expense to protect, insure and ship everything as safely as is possible. Please review my “safety” shipping processes as well as my “CUSTOMER-FRIENDLY” shipping/return process and store policies below.