Nashville's Paseo South Gulch development gets newest tenant with Carter Vintage Guitars

Ben Montague, owner of Carter Vintage Guitars, never knows who might darken the doorway to the Nashville company's massive new showroom.

One day it's Post Malone and another it's Keith Urban or Marcus King, looking to peruse the massive selection of new and vintage guitars.

Carter, which recently merged with The North American Guitar and Cotten Music Center under the leadership of Montague, has relocated across Eighth Avenue from its original location to take up a 12,500-square-foot space in the old Antiques Building that is now part of the Paseo South Gulch development.

"The moment we walked in here, we realized it was the perfect home for a vintage guitar store," Montague told The Tennessean. "This is one of the oldest buildings in Nashville, the location is great and the fact that it's still here felt like this serendipitous move."

Montague wasn't the only one who felt that the new space was right.

"When I walked around with (Walter Carter, founder of Carter Vintage Guitars), he said, 'This feels like where it should be,' and that was really all I needed to move forward," Montague said.

While Carter founders Walter and Christie Carter are not directly involved in the day-to-day operations, they will always be family, Montague said.

"Christie and Walter will always be embedded in the DNA of the company as founder and ambassadors of the incredible brand they created," Montague said. "We speak on a regular basis about instruments, and I consider them dear friends."

Sense of place inviting to 'locals and visitors alike'

Jonathon Reeser, partner at Paseo South Gulch developer SomeraRoad, said he had approached the Carters about moving to the new development more than two years ago.

"We always want to create a sense of place at our projects," Reeser said. "So in looking at those buildings, we wanted to create something for Nashvillians with a Nashville flavor that was interesting to locals and visitors alike. We felt like the space was perfect for something with a music or creative flavor. We have a million square feet of additional product there, and the tone and vibe is set by those retail tenants and become the lifeblood of the site."

Because the Carters were in the process of selling the business, they introduced Reeser to Montague and the conversations continued from there.

With the new square footage came the ability to keep what longtime customers loved about the old space while improving some of the back-end logistical issues that come when a business outgrows its current building. Montague saw the move as both a necessity and an opportunity.

"We had the luxury of saying, 'What are all the great things that we love about this space? And what are the things that if we could improve on, we would improve on?'" he said. "I think we process about 350 guitars a month. We sell between 275 and 300 guitars a month, and we have consignments coming in all the time, as well as new guitars. So the efficiency for us is so critical."

Moving 2,000 guitars — across the street

After a four-month buildout of the new space came the arduous task of getting all the guitars across the street to their new home.

"I was knocking out 30,000 steps a day," Montague said. "At one point I said to the team that we might have to move the guitars ourselves, and everyone was like, 'We'll take them two at a time.'"

Thankfully, a moving company was enlisted to move the goods in crates, but not before each guitar was matched with its case.

"We had to very carefully put in 10 guitars at a time. It was a full six days of moving."

More guitars: How did Slash get Chris Stapleton on his new track? 'I actually had to cold-call him'

Project backstory: Paseo South Gulch, an emerging mixed-use neighborhood, blends Nashville's historic and new

What remains is a state-of-the-art store complete with soundproof rooms for test-driving the guitars, digital suites designed for online demos for out-of-town customers, Carter Studio, the business' new event space, and a massive sales floor. The owners even recreated the murals from the original space on the inside and outside of the new Carter location, spreading their creative vibe all over Paseo's retail center.

"Whether you are a dad and a son coming to buy your first guitar, or whether you're Post Malone coming to buy a guitar, we want it to be the same, great experience," Montague said. "My job is to continue this incredible legacy the Carters built in this new space."

Melonee Hurt covers music and music business at The Tennessean, part of the USA TODAY NETWORK — Tennessee. Reach her at [email protected], on X @HurtMelonee or Instagram at @MelHurtWrites.

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Carter Vintage Guitars moves into massive Gulch location in Nashville