Meet The Dealer - Brian's Guitars!

Our dealer network is important to us here at PRS Guitars! After all, they’re the folks taking care of our guitars after we make them and before they get into our customers hands! We started “Meet the Dealer” so you can get an inside peek at some of the shops that sell PRS Guitars. Check out our interview with Brian’s Guitars below!

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Q&A with Brian Giampietro // Owner of Brian’s Guitars
3000 Whitney Avenue Hamden, CT 06518

How many years have you been in business? Why did you get started in this business?

November 1, 2015 will mark five years in business at Brian’s Guitars! My parents bought me a beat up Custom 24 when I was maybe 12 years old. Since then, I have not only loved playing guitar, but also appreciated the craftsmanship and design of the instrument. The colors, the wood grain, design, and playability of these instruments drives my inventory selection and it has always interested me to bring that to the masses.

Outside of just selling guitars, what else should people know about you? Do you offer lessons, repairs, etc..?

Outside of selling guitars, we do some in-house guitar repair. I also visit the PRS factory 6-8 times a year to hand-pick woods for Wood Library run guitars as well as Private Stock instruments. One of my favorite things about our business is being able to interact with a customer and hand pick the woods for their Private Stock build. We also spend a lot of our time calling up the folks at PRS to see what kind of crazy idea we can swindle them in to next!

What’s your favorite piece of PRS gear at your store?

What a tough choice! I think I would have to say the Private Stock Doubleneck that we picked all the woods and specs for.

Also, this Wood Library 408 Semi-Hollow in Honey finish.

If you could make a PRS Private Stock Built-to-Order guitar - what would the specs be?

I cant lie, I have a few already…and more coming! Here is my Private Stock McCarty Signature in Zombie Fade finish. It has a Quilt Maple top, Makore body, East Indian Rosewood neck and Honduran Rosewood fretboard. I love this guitar and working on this finish with the folks in the Private Stock department was and still is a blast!

Most heard song when a customer is demoing a guitar?

Blues Riffs on electric and Blackbird on acoustic. I have to say, a lot of our customers happen to be great players and its typically a joy to listen to.

Favorite customer interaction?

Okay, I have two stories for you. One is sappy, one is outrageous.

Let me start the first by saying Connecticut has the best pizza in the world…particularly from Sally’s Apizza. Some years back I was having one of the worst days - I had lost a great friend the day before. A customer I had never seen before came in the shop and spent around an hour in there just looking around and checking out pedals and such. We chatted for a bit and he left without buying anything. He comes back in about 20 minutes later with a cheese pizza from Sally’s and hands it to me and thanks me for spending time with him and allowing him to check out some great gear. This one little act forever made me realize how much customers appreciate a good shop and good service as much as we appreciate gaining their business…it’s amazing what one small moment can do for you.

The second story is funny - a good customer of mine was at one of our PRS events. He was on the fence about buying an absolutely beautiful Private Stock PRS. I walked over to Paul Smith and said Paul, this guy here is on the fence, what can I tell him to get him to buy this guitar? Paul told me to walk about 10 feet away from him. Then, to my surprise, he picked up the Private Stock and threw it to me as the customer looked on in horror. So, we threw it back and forth for 5 minutes until be bought the guitar!

Why buy a PRS from Brian’s Guitars?

Here at Brian’s, we try to hand-pick every PRS that comes in here. We go to the factory to select premium woods for Wood Library and Private Stock builds and we keep our eyes out for any unique piece that comes out of the PRS factory. If you see a PRS in here, there is a special reason that we grabbed it! We stock SE models, S2s, acoustics, amps, core and Private Stock and we try to always have a great selection.

CONNECT WITH BRIAN’S GUITARS

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See more photos of Brian’s Guitars below!