Instrument ‘repair hub’ takes the place of State College’s Alley Cat music store
The Centre County scene just got a whole lot more accommodating to musicians who need expert repairs on their beloved instruments.
Longtime Centre County music stalwarts Shannon Huss and Gary Owen have joined forces after taking over the former Alley Cat music store location to open State College Guitar and Amplifier Repair and Sales, as well as Black Lab Audio. The collaboration includes a soup to nuts musical instrument repair hub specializing in guitars, mandolins, banjos, ukuleles and electronic gear, as well as Huss’s near iconic custom guitar construction.
State College has qualified instrument repair professionals, such as Mark Chaplin, but players often access the services via a provider, such as a music store, so there is a bit of distance between the player and who is actually doing the repairs.
“We’re trying to concentrate a lot more on the repair aspect of it,” Huss said. “We noticed there was a definitely lack of a place to actually take your instrument in and have it fixed right there.”
Along with focusing on musical instrument and electronics repairs, Owen is spearheading the instrument sales component of the collaboration, which is in the works but includes instruments from Huss Electric Luthiery (HEL Guitars) — the home of Huss’s Penn Tone Guitars.
“We have a custom line of guitars we are hoping to show in here, as we have time to do them,” Owen said.
Huss is a steady builder with a nearly savant-like knowledge of guitars, amplification, tone woods, fret chemistry and other materials, even creating his own custom tools to accomplish repair and construction tasks with already well-established best practices. In the past, Huss has produced a handful of spec guitars a year — like a spec home, created for general sale —including the Penn Tone brand created in collaboration with former Alley Cat owner Mark Ross. He is now looking to spend more of his time on custom orders, building guitars from scratch in what both Huss and Owen described as wish or dream fulfillment, with an emphasis on classic, workhorse guitars.
“Now that we have a store where we can show them off, we’ll probably do more of the spec builds,” Huss said. “The Penn Tones are going to stay on and (Mark Ross) will still have a part in that, because it’s his design.”
Huss is a longtime builder who moved to the area in 2012, at which time he met Owen when Huss walked into Rainbow Music to potentially sell one of his guitar builds. Owen, who worked at the store, said would-be luthiers would frequently stop in to Rainbow, but what Huss had was special.
“People brought in guitars all the time,” Owen said. “When (Huss) walked in, I’m sure one of my eyes rolled into the back of my head, but he brought it in and I had seen it on Craigslist, and I was like, ‘Oh, that guitar.’”
The connection was quickly apparent, and once Owen played it, both he and Huss were intrigued.
“I played it for a while,” Owen said. “We had that weird moment where I was like, ‘Wow, you built a great guitar,’ and he was like he was like, ‘Oh, you play it pretty good.’ Then, a little bit of time went by, and I ended buying a guitar from him.”
Owen was born and raised in State College and has played in a number of bands, including Winterlong, a metal band that toured the East Coast and still has a following in Poland, as well as stints with SCAB when the need arises. Owen realized his passion for music after hearing Iron Maiden’s “Somwhere in Time” album, and now he’s taking his extensive knowledge and skills to electronics repair.
“Not just amps,” Owen said. “Really anything electronic music related. I specialize in tube amps.”
Huss and Owen can be reached on Facebook State College Guitar and Amplifier Repair and Sales. The shop is located at 150 Kelley Alley and open noon-6 p.m. Tuesday-Friday and 2-6 p.m. Saturday.