Longtime downtown Santa Rosa, California music dealer, Stanroy Music Center, nearly closed up shop for good before veteran employee Steve Shirrell and friend Dustin Heald decided to step in.
“Tupper & Reed Music in Berkeley had purchased Stanroy Music Center from Stan Goldman around 1980 and presided over its best years,” explains Shirrell. “However, they were not responsive to changes in the market, and presided over its decline until the last senior partner decided to close the store at the end of August 2013. Examining their taxes and P&Ls for the previous half decade, it was easy to see that if the debt service were taken out of the equation, Stanroy in its worst year with its least inventory was still in the black! Our obvious conclusion was that with no debt and plenty of product, we could only be better off. And allowing a 66-year hometown institution that was also the hub of private music instruction and well as instrument repair needlessly go out of business was not an option! So Dustin and I bought Stanroy, returning it to local ownership.”
Changes for the operation include an upcoming move to a new location, also on 4th Street in Santa Rosa. “Our retail space will be about the same – 1,800 sq ft. with the advantage of 16' walls instead of having wall displays stopped at 7' soffet that runs around our current store,” Shirrell says. “But all of our individual teaching studios and our repair shop will larger, and we'll have the space for a rock ensemble classroom. Customers are already looking forward to our free, off-street parking.
“We have just become the only Sonor drum dealer in the Northbay. After our move, we will be adding one of the Canadian guitar lines and we are in discussion with the Kawai rep about once again carrying their pianos. We'll also be flooring Crucial Audio's boutique vacuum tube analog pedals (Echo Nugget, Time Warp, and the new Apollo 18). Other additions include making our own mic, instrument, and speaker cables as well as less common DIY projects like theremins and our own line of propriety effect pedals.
“Stanroy has a long tradition of supporting not only the local musicians and their families who frequent our store but also the local schools, individual teachers, and music venues. As its new owners, we have the opportunity to up the ante of that support (as we are currently donating a new sound system for the Arlene Francis Center) and remind us all that our community is the synergistic sum of its members, and its health is our faithfulness to those relationships… If we continue to listen to the needs of our community and respond faithfully, we will celebrate our centennial in 2047 and be blessed with the problems of piloting Stanroy Music Center into the 22nd century. Good work if you can get it!”
