Last week Carter Vintage Guitars announced that they were purchased by The North American Guitar.
Carter Vintage Guitars will become part of The North American Guitar and together they will pursue a shared mission to bring the world’s finest guitars and instruments to players, collectors, and enthusiasts worldwide. CVG co-founders Walter and Christie Carter will remain at the helm of the vintage instrument operations from their iconic location in Music City, Tennessee.
This is somewhat disappointing to me because Carter Vintage is a local store to me and I think it’s important that independent music stores remain viable. I don’t know anything about the North American Guitar other than they are owned by a British family with private-equity funding. Hence, I find the “North American” part of their name a little misleading, though they are already local here in Nashville after purchasing another local music store, Cotten Music Center, several years ago.
Carter Vintage has long been one of my favorite local stores, so I’m glad to see that Walter and Christie will remain on board. In the short term it doesn’t sound like much will change with Carter, except for the fact that their inventory will now be available to purchase online. Obviously this is a necessity in the modern world and was a glaring omission from their website.
Hopefully, this will end up being good for all involved. Congratulations to Mr. and Mrs. Carter on their success. I can’t think of a time I was in the store where both of them weren’t in there greeting customers or handling guitars.