
New Palz, New York’s Imperial Guitar & Soundworks will soon be shuttering its doors for good. The longtime MI retail mainstay has served the Hudson Valley area for nearly half a century, but founder Bill Imperial has decided that now’s the time to step away from the business… but not completely.
“The brick and mortar is humming along just fine and I still enjoy it,” he shares. “Customers come in almost every day thanking me for the service we provide to the music community in the Hudson Valley of NY. The reason I’m winding down is because I simply want less responsibility; less of the nuts and bolts of running the biz — making sure the humidifiers are working, the rubbish is picked up, there is coverage for employee vacations/gigs/illness, damage control when vendors’ ETA’s are wildly inaccurate, et cetera.
“All the remaining inventory will be at Jake’s Main Street Music in Beacon https://jakesmainstreetmusic.com/, as well as online at ImperialGuitar.com , eBay, Reverb. As long as I can continue to acquire interesting instruments I will continue to offer them at the aforementioned places. I will also continue to design and install professional audio/video/lighting systems in churches, clubs, summer camps, theaters, and other public places with my strategic partner, Mike Lynn of Lynn Sound Systems, Newburgh NY.”