A consistent theme, and ultimately direction at Michigan Street Music in 1978 and Mass Street Music since 1983, has been a curiosity and a passion for great acoustic guitars. In the early 1970’s our owner, Jim Baggett, traded his Guild D25, Gibson A mandolin, 1970’s Martin New Yorker and $200 cash for a vintage 1928 Martin 000-18. Jim's musician friends thought he had lost his mind, but the hook was firmly set for the world of exploring fine traditional guitars, whether they were Golden-Era Martins and Gibsons or from the up and coming new builders such as Bill Collings. Jim’s/Mass Street's relationship with Bill Collings started with serial number 140 or so and the personal and business relationship has grown with new serial numbers today numbering in the 35,000s. Similarly, Jim's meeting of Willi Henkes and Rudy Blazer resulted in Mass Street being the first Blazer & Henkes dealer in the USA and fostered a life long friendship and appreciation for their passion of fine traditional acoustic guitars.
Jim's, along with the Mass Street team's, life long focus has resulted in a new relationship with a talented builder named John Baxendale of the Colorado Guitar Co. in Durango, Colorado. After seeing and playing several of John’s guitars and many discussions with John we are so pleased to be representing JC Baxendale Guitars here in the shop. John is a sole builder. Our first order of 9 guitars took over a year to arrive and we've elected to put them in a group so we could show more than one at a time. We are very pleased to have a variety of traditional styles, shapes and finishes now in our store.
The Baxendale guitars along with other fine guitars from Collings, Leo Posch, Micah Bruce, Dale Fairbanks, C.F. Martin, Dana Bourgeois, and vintage acoustics from Martin and Gibson, continue to be a large part of who we are as people, and as a store, and we're excited to continue to represent such brands, builders and people.
