Inside Retrofret, the Best Shop for Guitar Grails | GQ Style
New York is not a hospitable environment for guitars. The brutal, endless winters here are made bearable by radiators on full blast, which means temperatures drastically fluctuate, and the air is drier than Joshua Tree. Even the sturdiest instruments are left to warp and crack if they’re not properly tended to, so it’s hard to imagine a vast collection of decades-old, ultra-rare guitars existing in a place like this. But if you travel into the heart of Brooklyn, just north of the murky Gowanus Canal, that’s exactly what you’ll find.
Retrofret was founded in 1983 by Steve Uhrik, a Brooklyn native who started out as an apprentice in the violin restoration business. The modest rooftop store and repair shop is bursting with vintage Martins, Gibsons, Fenders, banjos, mandolins, and just about every stringed instrument imaginable (Need a lute? Steve’s got you covered). There are about 500 pieces in the showroom alone, with relics from the golden age of rock ‘n’ roll trickling in on a regular basis. The day we stopped by, Steve was enamored with a recently acquired ’51 Fender Esquire, the predecessor of the iconic Telecaster canonized by the likes of Bruce Springsteen and Jeff Buckley.