I remember thinking, first instinct, This will affect piano sales,” Brian Whiton said the other day, describing the moment, this winter, when he heard about the coronavirus. Whiton, the owner of Brooklyn Fine Guitars and Big Wrench Piano Care, is a piano technician by training. He started stocking guitars in his Carroll Gardens shop only because people kept wandering in asking for them.
As the outbreak reached the city, Whiton began disinfecting his merchandise. “People seemed so relieved when I would wipe a guitar down right in front of them,” he said. Initially, he didn’t think it was necessary to restrict the number of customers inside the store, crowds being a rarity. But he eventually began having customers e-mail or text him their orders, and he carried guitars out to the sidewalk for them to try. Payment was via Venmo, or Zelle. Whiton even offered to put guitars into Ubers or Lyfts and send them off to their new owners, although no one took him up on it.
When, on Friday, March 20th, Governor Andrew Cuomo ordered all “non-essential businesses” to close by Sunday, the news prompted a run on guitars. On a normal weekend, Whiton sells between one and four of the instruments. That weekend, he sold sixteen. “Most of the people who were buying were beginners,” he said. Customers would say, “I’m looking for something entry-level to get through this.” Carmen Tellez, a twenty-seven-year-old who recently graduated from law school, was one of them. She faced the prospect of being cooped up with her boyfriend in their one-bedroom near Barclays Center. “I thought about whether I could just be content watching YouTube videos all day, which often I am,” she said. “Or what kind of crafting skills I have.” She’d played a little guitar as a teen-ager. “I was, like, Oh, maybe that’s something I could do.”
Tellez e-mailed Whiton. “I had my eye on the Yamaha JR1 3/4-size,” she wrote, and asked for curbside pickup. “I am healthy, social-distancing, and avoiding public transportation!” When she arrived, he was on the corner, handling a ukulele sale. “I Venmoed him the money, and he brought out the guitar, and he said he had sanitized it,” she recalled. Tellez consecrated her new axe by plucking out a little “Smoke on the Water.” She has been watching YouTube video tutorials, and during FaceTime calls with her mother she looks over notebooks from the lessons she took as a kid. She’s nearly finished learning the beginning of Led Zeppelin’s “Stairway to Heaven.” Next up: “Wish You Were Here,” by Pink Floyd. Tellez’s boyfriend has pronounced the new hobby “less annoying” than he expected.
[ed. See also: YouTube Guitar Teachers You Might Want to Check Out (Duck Soup).]
As the outbreak reached the city, Whiton began disinfecting his merchandise. “People seemed so relieved when I would wipe a guitar down right in front of them,” he said. Initially, he didn’t think it was necessary to restrict the number of customers inside the store, crowds being a rarity. But he eventually began having customers e-mail or text him their orders, and he carried guitars out to the sidewalk for them to try. Payment was via Venmo, or Zelle. Whiton even offered to put guitars into Ubers or Lyfts and send them off to their new owners, although no one took him up on it.
When, on Friday, March 20th, Governor Andrew Cuomo ordered all “non-essential businesses” to close by Sunday, the news prompted a run on guitars. On a normal weekend, Whiton sells between one and four of the instruments. That weekend, he sold sixteen. “Most of the people who were buying were beginners,” he said. Customers would say, “I’m looking for something entry-level to get through this.” Carmen Tellez, a twenty-seven-year-old who recently graduated from law school, was one of them. She faced the prospect of being cooped up with her boyfriend in their one-bedroom near Barclays Center. “I thought about whether I could just be content watching YouTube videos all day, which often I am,” she said. “Or what kind of crafting skills I have.” She’d played a little guitar as a teen-ager. “I was, like, Oh, maybe that’s something I could do.”Tellez e-mailed Whiton. “I had my eye on the Yamaha JR1 3/4-size,” she wrote, and asked for curbside pickup. “I am healthy, social-distancing, and avoiding public transportation!” When she arrived, he was on the corner, handling a ukulele sale. “I Venmoed him the money, and he brought out the guitar, and he said he had sanitized it,” she recalled. Tellez consecrated her new axe by plucking out a little “Smoke on the Water.” She has been watching YouTube video tutorials, and during FaceTime calls with her mother she looks over notebooks from the lessons she took as a kid. She’s nearly finished learning the beginning of Led Zeppelin’s “Stairway to Heaven.” Next up: “Wish You Were Here,” by Pink Floyd. Tellez’s boyfriend has pronounced the new hobby “less annoying” than he expected.
by Eric Lacsh, New Yorker | Read more:
Image: João Fazenda[ed. See also: YouTube Guitar Teachers You Might Want to Check Out (Duck Soup).]
