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The brand Well Strung Guitars may sound new to you, but our roots run deep, going back more than 50 years to our former store “We Buy Guitars”. Just like our predecessor, Well Strung Guitars continues to be at the forefront of bringing our customers the best quality and most original vintage guitars and basses.

Starting back in 1968, We Buy Guitars was an institution on Manhattan’s 48th Street alongside some of the greatest shops in the industry. After closing their 48th Street doors in 1995, Richard Friedman, the son of the original owners of We Buy Guitars, went on to work at Sam Ash Music alongside our very own David Davidson. They founded and grew the “Vintage Shoppe” at Sam Ash, right as the collectibility of these instruments hit their first stride. After nearly a decade together at Sam Ash, they decided to venture out on their own and reopen the iconic We Buy Guitars. In 2004, the new “We Buy” opened up in Bellmore, NY. The shop stayed there until the Spring of 2018, at which point Richard retired.

Meanwhile, Paige Davidson had been around the industry for as long as she could remember, tripping over vintage cases in the living room that David would bring home. After working alongside her father at the Songbirds Guitar Museum in Chattanooga, TN, together they decided to rebrand and open up a new shop in Farmingdale, NY.

Together David and Paige have authenticated, purchased, and sold thousands of vintage guitars for our company, our clients, and high-end auction houses. Our first retail store opened in August 2019. We quickly outgrew that location, needing much more room for our ever-growing inventory. In October 2021, we moved just down the street to a bigger space that allows us to display 500+ exceptional vintage guitars and basses!

Our passion for music, guitars, and the history of our companies are the driving forces behind our success, and our commitment to bringing you the very best is what makes us different. Trust us when we say, you’ll sound better on a “Well Strung Guitar”!

Over the last 20+ years, Well Strung Guitars (formerly We Buy Guitars) has been curating the world’s largest vintage guitar collection.

This well-rounded collection was housed on the beautiful Chattanooga Choo Choo Campus in Chattanooga, Tennessee. The vast collection includes over 1,800 instruments from pre-1950 to the mid-1970s, exclusively purchased by our team.

Unfortunately, the museum closed in 2020. At that time, we were able to bring a large part of the collection back to our store for sale. This includes incredible examples of every vintage staple, and some of the rarest vintage one-offs and prototypes to ever exist.